Cafe Hi5

Café Hi5 reopened this year and buzzed the market with a new menu and expanded place. The interiors are quite cool with funky graffiti on walls and ceiling. The cafe has separate space dedicated for private parties, match screenings, DJ and usual diners. Music was excellent. Credit to the DJ who did not stick to the usual Punjabi songs but played kicky foot tapping numbers.

Chicken Lollipop

We started with paneer tikka, chicken lollipop and fish tikka. Paneer was fresh and not greased with oil. The good thing about the whole experience was that management was open to feedback and ready to improvise. The manager sat with us and tasted paneer tikka when I told him about high salt content. Chicken lollipop and fish tikka were well marinated and soft, juicy from inside. The nice smoky flavor was appealing. Papad & Mint chutney accompanied the dishes. The spread had a great presentation.







The manager showed us the whole place. The showstopper was the bar and they claim that to be the only one in India with tap bar! Take a look at the picture!

Tap bar- The only of this kind in India

Italian Smooch

Juicy Jullian

Chef's own innovation -Juicy Jullian came to us when we asked for a non-aerated mocktail. It was a mix of crushed pineapples, orange juice, mint leaves and sweet lime slice. Mind you, there was no added sugar in the drink. It felt extremely good and refreshing. Italian Smooch is another refreshing mocktail to watch out for. Peachy, minty and no sugar, the drink is a perfect summer cooler. I highly recommend the drinks to all mocktail and non-alcohol consumers.

We scanned the whole menu for something interesting and ordered thin crust veg pizza on manager's recommendation. I sipped Nutella Hazelnut Shake in the meanwhile which was filling and good. Loved the perfect crispy thin base of pizza.  Unlike the usual pizza, this was not overloaded with cheese!  Cheese topping on pizza was fresh and it was not high on salt either.

The manager insisted us to try a dish named “Dal chawal beyond imagination”. The dish lives up to its name and gets a standing ovation from us. Now who would have imagined spotting daal chawal in a hip hop café menu? With the first bite of it, our appetite multiplied and our curios minds jumped out again asking about the masala of it. A simple yet delicious arhar daal and steamed rice with crispy fried potato balls and papad was an out of the box experience! So we now know where to find good healthy home cooked food in Hauz Khas.

The concept behind designing such a dish is to provide economical meal for a single person or twin sharing basis, since it is difficult to find home cooked traditional simple food in cafes.

Brownie

With tummy almost full and guilt tugging at health consciousness within ourselves, made us try the ceasar salad which was a mix of assorted veggie leaves, lettuce, olives topped with mayonnaise. It turned out to be a bad choice as we left more than half of it uneaten. It wasn’t good. Anyway, the last thing we tried was brownie. It was no different than a piece of overtly sweet black forest cake. I was a little disappointed since a brownie is light and non creamy that melts in mouth. But the presentation was nice. It was a compensation for the ceasar salad.

Play@30- Review

Its worth it! Its worth it! Its worth it!

Those were my words when I first visited this fab sports bar in Hauz Khas Village one evening. The new cafe cum lounge cum eating joint is worth visiting in Hauz Khas Village, the posh upmarket in the vicinity of Hauz Khas. As fun and refreshing as its name, the cool ambiance, super friendly staff, the stunning aesthetics will make you come back for more!

Football table

 I am thankful to the staff member who suggested us the place seeing a birthday cake in our hand and ushered us to the restaurant located on the first floor of the building. The moment we  visited the place to check on it, the well lighted spacious floor with comfortable seating, instantly grabbed our attention. No sooner than 3 of us were seated than they surprised us with complimentary soup and bowl of popcorn! Call it a marketing strategy (since they are new) or a USP over others, who does not like freebies. 

The second thing that amazed us most was the misty balcony with lush green plants. What we mistook for mist was actually a layer of net separating the balcony from the backyard field. Look at the lovely shots we captured in the backdrop of "mist."

The balcony has a TT Table,  tabletop football, mini version of ice hockey and a super cool green view. Could not resist clicking pictures there.

The bar

Check out the well managed bar and the fantastic aesthetics!

The place has a pool table, indoor table games, dart board where you show your sportsmanship or just pose for pictures, like we did LOL

The staff takes a picture of the first time visitors and pin it to their soft-board. That was our  picture and they will not forget us since we were perhaps the only ones who were indulged in photography like nobody does! Oops!

Apart from our order we were served complimentary cheese cakes too!!! The whole fun and order was priced very reasonably. All against our expectations the bill including tax and charges was less than 1500 INR.. In love with the awesome place PLAY@30!!!

Ambiance- ****  

Food Quality -****

Food variety-***

Staff-*****

Price- ****

Cleanliness- *****

Spacious- ****

The only place where I rated them with 3 stars was the variety in the food menu. Since its not a full fledged dine out place, you would be served with snacks and not full course meals. Rest its a thumbs up!