Café Mezzuna, Pune: Comfort food with little comfort

After an exhausting morning in the Pune heat, we craved for a cool place to sit in, some tall refreshing drinks and something to munch on. Our car made its way through chaotic Pune traffic, we reached Dhole Patil road. Where else could we go but Café Mezzuna?

As we entered we hoped to be met with a blast of cool air. We were disappointed. For some reason all the air conditioners were not switched on. We requested them to do so as the heat was unbearable. They complied…… for a while. This place is well maintained in terms of air conditioning even in winter so for them to keep some of the ACs turned off during summer made absolutely no sense.

We ordered our drinks (a Tuborg beer; Rs 140/-), Virgin Mojito (Rs 120/-), a club soda with lime juice on the side) and waited for the bread basket. We were staving. After having waited ten minutes we finally reminded our server to bring us the bread and flavored butter. They usually bring it without us having to ask, but this time, even though the restaurant was quite empty, the server had better things to do. Yes, I’m being sarcastic! I tend to get that way when I’m not fed on time. The bread though, was warm and fresh, as always.

We ordered Chicken Wings tossed in Moroccan spice (Rs 250/-), Smoked Scarmoza Gratinated Baby Potatoes (Rs 195/-), Smoked Pimento & Jalapeno Crostini (Rs 195/-) and a Greek salad.

The salad was good. Crisp ice berg, onions, bell peppers, olives and feta cheese. There’s no way one can go wrong with these ingredients. The only disappointment: the olives, weren’t pitted. Totally unacceptable!! The Pimento & Jalapeno Crostini was slightly bitter in between bites. I’m guessing some of the peppers were over-charred.

The chicken wings were superb, as usual. These delectable chicken wings (we chose the ones tossed in Moroccan spices) are served with a delicious Blue Cheese dip. They were also courteous enough to bring us warm wet hand towels after we were done with the wings.

Being a hardcore meat eater, the Smoked Scarmoza Gratinated Baby Potatoes wasn’t a dish I really looking forward to. The baked baby potatoes were tossed a mild onion-tomato base, topped with Scarmoza cheese. As we dug into the dish all I could manage to say was, ‘ummmmm’. It was truly awesome! The smoky flavor of the Scarmoza brought back memories of streaky bacon. Sigh! Life doesn’t get any better than this!

We were quite stuffed hence chose to skip the Mains and instead opted for dessert. Our selection: White Chocolate & Hazelnut Torte and Molten Chocolate, both priced at Rs 195/- each. The White Choc-Hazelnut Torte was creamy and delicious. The Molten Chocolate at Café Mezzuna is the best I’ve ever eaten. They serve it with vanilla ice cream topped with crunchy almond chikki.

It was a good meal but the comfort level took a big beating because of the air conditioning issue. The ratings mentioned below are for starters and desserts only.

Restaurant Ratings (out of 5)

Food: 3.5 | Ambience: 2.5 | Service: 3 | Overall: 3

Meal for two: Rs.1200|

Address: City Point, Ground floor, Dhole Patil Road, Pune.

Telephone: 020 39397755, 020 39397756