ITP Indian Travel Places: Food, Travel, Tourism Business Events and Trade Shows
Phone: 020 71967217
Address: 261, Inside Oyo Townhouse, Opposite TBZ Showroom, Bund Garden Road, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Time: 12 Noon – 11 PM
Meals for two: Rs. 1,200
Cuisines: Chinese, Thai, Asian
Facilities: Home Delivery, No Alcohol Available, Table booking recommended
The Laughing B is a chain of restaurants serving Chinese and South East Asian cuisine. After Jaipur and Jodhpur, The Laughing B has launched their Pune restaurant in the OYO Townhouse Hotel on Bund Garden Road.
The Laughing B, Bund Garden Road, Pune: Decor
The decor is simple with comfortable seating. Looking at the quirky menu and table mat design, I would have expected some interesting embellishments on the walls. Barring an origami inspired wall-art with lights; there are no other elements which help creating a contemporary vibe.
The Laughing B, Bund Garden Road, Pune: Food
The menu at The Laughing B is simple but very interesting and features recipes from across South East Asia. We started with the currently in trend dish, lotus stem honey chilli. The lotus stem was crispy and glossed well with the sweet honey chilli sauce. Easily the best lotus stem preparation I’ve had in a while. We followed this with another current favorite, crispy konjee lamb. The lamb was lightly batter coated and fried to make it crispy. With the spices and shredded peppers, this one packed a real punch.
Their dim sum menu is quirkily named ‘Win Sum Lose Sum Dim Sum’ and we were intrigued by the prawns and mustard hargau (har gow) which is a Cantonese dumpling. The thin rolled out wrappers were stuffed with a light and tasty prawns mince which was flavored with mustard. The hargau was fresh and the wrapper was perfectly thin. A soy based dipping sauce would have definitely elevated the taste. I have always felt that tofu is an under utilized ingredient in South East Asia restaurants in India. It was refreshing to see tofu on the The Laughing B menu. In the wow baos menu, we tried the five spice and tofu baos. The soft steamed baos were filled with tender tofu cubes in a sweet and spicy sauce.
In the mains, we chose the Kung Pao baby potatoes and paired it with the moon fan rice. Fried baby potatoes were served in a spicy sauce with peanuts and dried red chillis. The sauce hit the right notes and the crushed peanuts made for a great addition to the dish. The moon fan rice is a Chinese rice dish from Mauritius. The vegetarian version with generous amounts of diced broccoli, mushrooms and water chestnuts was a great accompaniment to the Kung Pao potatoes. To satiate our non-vegetarian appetites, we tried the Thai steamed fish with lemon and garlic. This is a dry preparation without any sauce and the marinade of the garlic and lemon provides the taste. Though the fish was cooked well, the taste was strictly average. Probably a more distinctive tasting fish than basa would have done the trick. We paired the fish with chicken chilli garlic noodles. The noodles were delicious and would make for a great one-pot dish.
The dessert menu is short and the obvious choice was the coconut and jaggery ice-cream. The ice-cream was delicious and I would have asked for more scoops. The ice-cream was bizarrely topped with strawberry crush which overpowered the ice cream taste. Make sure you ask for the ice cream without the toppings!
The Laughing B, Bund Garden Road, Pune: Plus & Minus
The staff was polite but the hospitality and service at The Laughing B left a lot needs to be desired. There were long intervals between the courses. But, I am a firm believer of ‘Taste Trumps Everything’. The food served was delicious and I would definitely recommend this place if you are in for a Pan-Asian meal.
