ITP Indian Travel Places: Food, Travel, Tourism Business Events and Trade Shows
Phone: 020 41005555
Address: The Ambience Hotel, CTS 1105/2, Lakaki Road, Model Colony, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Time: 11 AM – 3 PM, 7 PM – 11 PM
Meals for two: Rs. 1,200
Cuisines: Italian
Facilities: Vegetarian Only, Indoor Seating
Located on the fourth floor of The Ambience Hotel in Model Colony, Oregano serves vegetarian Italian cuisine.
Oregano: Ambience Hotel, Model Colony, Pune – Decor
The space is well designed and the decor is simple and very pleasant. The space is well lit and walls are adorned with photo frames from different Italian destinations. The seating is comfortable with large wooden upholstered chairs. Even in a limited space, the placement of tables is right and offers privacy and quiet to each table.
Oregano: Ambience Hotel, Model Colony, Pune – Food
The menu at Oregano features an array of Italian dishes along with some select globally inspired dishes which go well with the restaurant’s Italian theme. In addition, they also serve special dishes from Aroma, the Indian restaurant in the same hotel.
We started with the roasted almond and broccoli soup. This hearty soup with a generous amount of crushed almonds was a great start to our meal. The appetizers menu has a lot of options and we started with the scrumptious guacamole bruschetta. A departure from the regular avocado toast, addition of the guacamole was a great idea. The guacamole was fresh, tangy and perfectly spiced and the bruschettas were topped with a slice of fresh avocado. Next we tried the cajun spiced potatoes. The wedges were rightly crispy and were tossed with a tasty mix of roasted garlic, rosemary and cajun spices. After the wedges, we tried another globally inspired dish – honey chilli potatoes. Crispy fried potatoes tossed in a sticky and sweet honey chilli sauce, this was a nobrainer and tasted great. The spinach croquettes were a great choice, but the croquettes were tad bit disappointing. The croquettes were oily and under seasoned and the spinach flavor was quite overpowering. We rounded off our appetizers with some tasty stuffed mushrooms – button mushrooms stuffed with vegetables and cheese and baked with a parmesan crumb.
After a great round of appetizers, we moved on to the other Italian staples – salads, pizza, pasta and risotto. The Italian salad, though generic, tasted great. Different types of lettuce mixed with pieces of apple, pineapple, cucumber and bell peppers were tossed in mild honey Dijon mustard dressing. The masala margarita pizza is the classic margherita pizza with a desi twist of spiced tomato sauce topped with finely chopped onions and chilies. The pizza was mildly spicy and delicious and the crust was perfectly thin and crunchy. It was a pleasure to see the sides of the crust hand rolled into an ornate design. You can make your own pasta as per your choice of pasta, sauce and veggies. We got the pink sauce with penne and exotic vegetables. The pasta was rightly al dente, but sadly, the sauce lacked flavors of oregano and basil. Risotto are always a great way to end your meal and the asparagus risotto at Oregano was just that. The risotto with asparagus puree, butter and parmesan cheese was hearty, creamy and delightfully cheesy.
From the dessert menu, we picked two stellar dishes, the ever dependable sizzling brownie with ice-cream and the panna cotta. The brownie was absolutely decadent and loaded with walnuts. The panna cotta was slightly dense, but tasted good nonetheless.
Plus & Minus:
Oregano serves great vegetarian Italian food, slightly modified to suit the Indian palette. Go here for the range of appetizers and traditional wood fired, hand rolled thin crust pizzas. We would love to see a wider range of pizzas and pastas to include more authentic classic Italian options, which seems lacking right now.
