I got a tasting session invite with other food bloggers for the first time in my life. This happened a while ago but I wanted to share my thoughts with all of you…
I would like to give you a little background first.
1. Almost a year ago, a guy reached out to me on Instagram talking about this tasting session. He found my zomato profile interesting and thought of including me in the tasting session. Being the naive and ignorant I am, I asked him few questions about it. I did not have any intention to be rude but the guy got offended by my genuine interest and told me not to bother.
Later I found out that he was a renowned food blogger, he was featured in local newspaper too. The fact that I didn’t recognize him would have hurt his ego.
2. One day I was scrolling through my FaceBook inbox and found out another food blogger asked me to join him for a tasting session. The day the event was held on was already over I was feeling so bad for missing it out.
3. Another day another guy found me on FaceBook, he was manager of a restaurant. He invited me for the same but he was talking in a flirtatious way and it seemed I was the only one to go, so I backed off.
Tasting session is basically an invitation from the restaurant management to taste their dishes. Still I was not completely aware of the procedure until one fine day I received a message from a manager of a fast-food restaurant chain in Hyderabad.
Mr. Laxman approached me on my FaceBook handle. Our conversation was precise, he asked my e-mail address. Laxman sent me a mail explaining the procedure and there were a number of restaurants to review. There were other food bloggers who were also in the mail chain.
The mail specified the criteria to participate and provided a form per each restaurant. In the form I had to give my name, phone number and address, date and time I would prefer to receive the foods and select the items to be tasted. They didn’t offer the entire menu, rather a selected portion of the menu to choose from. The maximum number of items that could be ordered from a restaurant was fixed, also one could submit the form only once. They also mentioned to submit the forms at least 4 hours prior to the time of delivery if it was to be delivered on the same day.
There were 5 restaurants to order from…
Faasos,
Sweet Truth,
Behrouz Biriyani,
Firangi Bake,
Ovenstory Pizza.
I have already shared my reviews on the restaurants which the point of the whole thing. Here I wanna share my overall experience of this process.
Faasos- I am a regular customer Faasos from before. Usually on a lazy weekend when I don’t feel like making breakfast or evening snack I order the all-day-breakfasts combos from there.
Aloo paratha-egg omelette-museli combo,
Bread and omelette combo are ones I always love. They are super cheap and enough for one person. Apart from that I had tried chhole (chick peas) wrap and paneer (cottage cheese) wrap. I didn’t find them suitable for breakfast, the wraps were pretty good.
For the tasting session I got the chicken wrap and cheesy potato wrap. I have to admit, they had the same quality food for normal orders, I was happy with the quality of the food.
Sweet Truth- I have a sweet tooth and I always love to explore new outlets. I have tried thier cheese cake, chocolate decedance, chocolava cake, pancake when I found them on zomato.
It is probably a take-away store with a short menu and pocket friendly as well. You are not required to burn a hole in your pocket every time you crave to have some decent cheese cakes.
Cheese cake and chocolate decedance are best things to try from here. The pancake is not up to the mark and choco lava was fine except you cannot buy less than pack of 5 on Swiggy/Zomato.
Behrouz Biriyani- It’s a take-away store. I don’t know how I missed to try from this place before. The tasting experience was too good. The biriyani was not spicy(a bliss for a spice intolerant person like me) and rich in aroma and flavor. It also came with a mini gulab jamun(dessert) and raita(yogurt). I didn’t expect anything apart from the biriyani. We Indians love free stuffs no matter how minor it is. So the dessert worked like a charm!
After tasting session I ordered once more time from the place. The quality was as good as before. So I got a new biriyani option now.
Firangi Bake– I wouldn’t say much as I already have this covered…(Firangi Bake Restaurant Review)
For the tasting session, I ordered quesadilla and kukkad pot rice.
I like their concept of playing around different cuisine and giving them a delightful twist.
The kukkad pot rice was flavored chicken rice topped with baked cheese. I never tried anything like this before- it’s worth a try.
Price-wise and quantity-wise I felt it was little less for a person. There was a flavored naan with that, it was too good.
Ovenstory pizza– I would have tried their pizza before if the price was a little less. I ordered keema and chicken sausage pizza. There were generous amount of chicken on the pizza. I’ll definitely recommend to try it.
After all the food was tasted, we all got a mail describing the places to review.
As a food lover, it is always in my mind to find out new places and good food. I am not in search of the cheapest food in the town but while I eat similar food items (say, pizza) I would compare the price range and conclude who has got the best according to the price. It’s like cheaper version of “Worth It” videos produced by Buzzfeed.
I ordered from 4 out of the 5 restaurant both by myself and by invitation. The best thing is they successfully maintain their quality of service through out time and different orders.
Final note: This is same kind of review I would have given even if I had to buy it by myself. Also I checked price of all the foods that were delivered to me in order to understand the value for money aspect of it. The best take away from the review program is Behrouz Biriyani for the excellent packaging, the mildly spicy Hyderabadi biriyani and the dessert of course!
That’s all folks! Thanks for reading…
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