It has been quite a while since I have been hearing about the Apollo Dimora hotel and especially about the vegetarian restaurant called Vega Dimora which my parents have made as their regular spot for lunch whenever they got during weekends… I haven’t had the chance to visit the place cause of being busy with work and also cause of how well I can afford to visit a 5 star hotel these days… 🙂 This time however, since I was free/jobless, my parents had me be their body guard for the day and hence I was with them for lunch 🙂
The place indeed looked very clean and elegant like how most 5 star places are… There are two restaurants at the ground floor, which is the Vega Dimora, the vegetarian multicuisine restaurant and also the Cafe Hive which is the multicuisine restaurant that serve non-vegetarian food as well… On my vegetarian mom’s insistence, we went to the Vega Dimora restaurant this time 🙂 The pic below shows the interior of the same…
The menu is clearly a multi-cuisine one spanning across South Indian, North Indian and Chinese/Asian cuisines… What surprised me was the pricing, which is nowhere nearly as expensive as how a 5 star place usually tends to be (no wonder my parents made this their regular spot… lol… 😀 😛 😛 )… Among them, we went for the Cream of Vegetable Soup, Afghani Paneer starter and for mains, I went for their Singapore Noodles and Veg Ball Manchurian… They were all served as shown in the pics below…
First up is the Cream of Vegetable Soup which as the name suggests is a cream based thick vegetable soup topped with some fresh cream and served with a garlic bun to the side as shown in the pics below…
I felt this to be a rich soup as most creamy soups tend to me… I don’t think any starch was used to thicken the soup but rather the thickness came from the use of cream only… It was indeed very flavourful with the flavours of the used vegetables like Carrots, Beans, Onions, Ginger, Garlic and felt to be seasoned with Pepper, Oregano, Thyme and also some Coriander leaves as well… The accompanying Garlic Bun was stuffed with Cheese, Oregano, Thyme and Chillies… The bun felt freshly baked…
Next up is the Afghani Paneer starter, which was served as shown in the pics below… The Afghani variant of the Indian Mughlai cuisine is well known for the use of Cream, Saffron/Cardamom, Cashew/Ginger/Garlic paste and Melon Seeds with minimal seasoning… This starter turned out to be a Paneer Tikka variant made using the Afghani masala… It was served along with a green salad and Mint Chutney as shown in the pics below…
To be frank, this reminded me of my old favourite aka the Paneer Shashlik that I used to get back when I used to live in Mumbai… It’s a mildly seasoned Paneer Tikka variant, where, the dominant taste is that of fresh cream, cashews and ginger-garlic paste and a very very mild taste of salt, chillies and peppers… You can see a very thin layer of caramelized cream on it that’s awesome to taste… This is not something meant for people who are after spicy foods… As can be seen in the pics above, I saw the same having been served to me and it tasted exactly the same… So, even though not exactly Afghani, I really loved this and it indeed did take me back to memory lane… It’s a must try… 🙂 As for the accompanying salad and the mint chutney, personally, I don’t feel that it needs either of them but for those like my parents who need some spicy and sour taste, using the chutney might give some relief 🙂 To me personally however, I think it just ruins the taste of the paneer, but that’s just me 🙂
Once starter was done, they brought in the main course, which in my case was the Singapore Veg Noodles along with the Veg Ball Manchurian as shown in the pics below…
I have had this Veg Manchurian before as my parents have brought it as takeaway before and it is my favourite Veg Manchurian… So, I just had to try it fresh from the kitchen 🙂 The Singapore Noodles there however was new… So, regarding the noodles, this was not your typical madras curry powder based noodle dish but rather a Hakka Noodles loaded with Pineapple and flavoured with Cinnamon and a little bit of Soy and topped with a handful of Spring Onions… Pineapple was indeed fresh and sweet and the noodles was seasoned well… It was ok for me as in nothing special but no complaints either… The Veg Manchurian was good… But compared to the takeout that I have had before, it felt much more spicy… The Manchurian balls are same as your typical Carrot, Peas, Cabbage, Mashed Potato rolled and dipped in Cornstarch, fried balls; but the gravy was dominated by the taste of Schezwan Chillies and Garlic and there was a sweetness to it as well, which if I am not mistaken came from both Garlic and Palm sugar… The whole dish was flavoured and topped with fresh coriander leaves as can be see in the pic above… Overall even though a bit too spicy, loved the “schezwan” Manchurian and Noodles, well, as I said before, it felt just ok…
So, that’s it… That was the lunch I got to have when I spent a day being the bodyguard of my parents… Hopefully will get to visit the place especially their other restaurant and the upcoming Turkish restaurant (there was a flex sign at the gate saying “opening soon”) soon… 🙂
