Fine Dining is a delicate experience which depends on many factors such as Location, Ambience, Food options, Food taste, Service, knowledge of the staff about the food they serve, Music being played. So getting this combo correct is a balancing act which the restaurateur need to perform on a daily basis.
Nagpur has its own fine dining restaurants but the numbers are few. More options are always welcomed by the connoisseurs in the city. Zuree is a welcome new addition to the fine dining scene.
Location :
It is located on the food heaven of Nagpur, Mount Road, Sadar, which boasts of many popular food destinations patronised by the foodies in Nagpur year after year. Zuree is located at the same place here V5 was. Though the area has a big problem of parking, thanks to the valet parking service by Zuree, that problem is taken care of. So a good thumbs up for location.
Ambience:
The entry is impressive with tastefully designed Zuree logo atop. A podium for Valet parkting and a security personal is always available at the entry. Once you enter you see a lobby area to the left of which Zuree has its cafe/bakery named “The Bean Box”. Bean Box has its own entry too. The lobby is cosy and impressive.
The interior is classily done and has an upscale feel. The chairs and sofas are comfortable and has luxury cushioning. The tables are neatly setup with table matts and cutlery.
Menu :
Zuree offers a wide range of dishes from cuisines around the world. These are categorised under Food types rather than cuisine names. That means instead of regular Indian, Chinese, Continental categories, it is divided in food type like “from the oven”, “Soups and Salads”, “From the oven”, “Pizaa”, “Pasta”, “Around the world”, “Sides”, etc. Some may find it difficult as the dishes are mixed up.
The dishes are named exotically and many will found the names difficult to read and pronounce. Thankfully, it offers good description below each menu item which can help the customer decide what to eat. I was being attended by the owners itself so they could give me exact details of the dish (in a very tempting way I must say) and its pronunciation too. But I doubt the staff will be as good as them explaining the dishes to customer.
Overall, it is an extensive menu but Zuree will be adding more Veg and Indian items and will be upgrading its menu soon based on customer feedback.
Taste :
I tried “Sopa De Ajo (Veg)” soup which is a part of the ongoing “World Food Festival” at Zuree. It is a garlic broth based spanish soup which can be had in veg or non-veg option. Mine was vegetarian. It had the nice garlicky kick which opens the tastebuds and a great quantity and variety of exotic vegetables. The bread provided on the side is perfect balance of crispiness and softness. So everything about the soup was good.
“Pesto Cilantro Prawns” opened our session of starters. It is basically char grilled Prawns made in Pesto sauce garnished with Coriander. It tastes great and has rich flavours coming from basil and coriander. It is served with Saffron mayonnaise and crunchy salad which compliment the tingling taste of Pesto Prawns.
The second dish “Stuffed Zucchini” was not planned to be served to me but the way the owner, Dhaval Kothari described it to me, I could not stop myself from requesting it to be served. It is a grilled Zucchini stuffed with cottage cheese and exotic nuts. It is served with an indigenous spicy roasted tomato dip. This is really an exotic stuff for vegetarians. The inside stuffing and juicy grilled Zucchini coupled with the spicy tangy dip bursts a fountain of flavours inside the mouth when you take each bite. Highly recommended.
Next was Sliders Espanols (Non Veg) which is written as spanish sandwiches but it is more like mini burgers. Served in quantity of 3 it is a fun dish which kids will definitely like. I had the non veg patty and it tasted good however the buns were little for hard for me. Also could have been juicer. Still it is worth trying.
Morroccan Chermoula seasoning based Chicken Chermoula is kinda kebab which is perfectly grilled and tastes good. Served with Cucumber yogurt dip and salad, this is a good starter dish.
Baked Vegetable Macaroni Pasta with garlic bread can be a great favourite of Pasta lovers with subtle taste. It has mild taste with liquid viscosity which is unlike the thick pastas we are served generally. It was a OK dish for my taste buds.
Polo Limon Pimienta is a complete meal in itself as it is a Grilled Lemon n Pepper Chicken Breast served with herb rice and butter vegetables. The Chicken is topped with pepper jus which is a sauce or gravy made from meat juices. This was my favourite dish from the offerings. A must try.
For the main course, we opted for Indian Cuisine (“Daal Roti ke Bina khana nahi hota”) which included Murg Lababdar (variant of Butter Chicken), Daal and Exotic Vegetable and Nut Pilaf (kind of a Pulao). It was coupled with Sundried Tomato, Olive & Cheese Naan which I quite liked. Most noticeable for me was the Pilaf which was kind of exotic veg pulao and one can even have it directly. It tasted good. I recommend it.
That summed up our Soup, Starters and Main course session and brought us to desserts. We had Tiramisu and Melting Chocolate Pudding. I loved the later and highly recommend it. It has very high quality chocolate and cocoa powder making an heavenly combo. Tiramisu can be improved.
Overall, everything is exotic when comes too food at Zuree and one can not but like it. It is a highly recommended place for people who understand world food or the people who are eager to try out different cuisines. If you are of a kind who looks for same generic tastes in every dinner outing, I request you to please open up your mind and tastebuds to what Zuree is trying to offer and enjoy the sublet and different flavours.
Service :
Service is prompt and waiters are attentive. But I think the management shall train them more about the menu and details of each dish. A dish is served along with its side offering then only it can be tasted properly. The waiters were only serving the main item in the dish forgetting about the dip and salads or other sides. If the passionate owners educate the staff about this and other minute details, there is a scope of betterment.
Price :
It is priced comparably to other fine dine restaurants and certainly it is in that league to claim that price range. Though it can be affordable to its patrons, it is definitely high priced for the middle class who need to plan out to have dinners at such places. And if they choose Zuree for special occasion dinners, they won’t be disappointed.
Overall, Zuree is a very good fine dine alternative which we can blindly recommend to fine dine lovers. Just one suggestion, be open to the subtle flavours and different tastes from around the world.
Rating :
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Owners Block:
The restaurant is run by Dhawal and Achal Kothari. Both of them are not from food industry. Dhawal did his BBA from NMIMS from Mumbai and Achal is studying for CA. But they both love food and innovation in business.
Achal had this idea of the restaurant and Dhawal jumped at the idea and came back to Nagpur. Both of them have a great knowledge of food as they have been to many places in the world and tried to fulfil their quest for world food.
Achal is little introvert but Dhawal opens up quickly. Dhawal amazed me with his knowledge of food which can easily equal to any trained food professional. Nagpur Today wishes all the best to both of them and Zuree.
…. Prashen H Kyawal
