Via Milano | Restaurant Review

Place: Via Milano 
Location: Road No. 36, Jubilee Hills 
Cuisine: Italian 
Meal: Lunch (with family)

I last visited this place on my birthday, and loved their food (review). The ambience was perfect, and I thought their concept of Executive Lunch was very thoughtful. So when I saw a Snapdeal offering their buffet at half the price, I took the deal right away and dropped in at the restaurant for lunch with my family. The place was crowded, maybe because of the snapdeal, but we were lucky enough to find a table for four in a corner. The general atmosphere in the restaurant this time around was messy, and everything seemed out of sorts.

Their Executive Lunch concept is now replaced with a Buffet with a fixed main course menu. The salads and starters are part of the buffet spread, while the drinks and the main course are served from the kitchen. They also have a live pasta counter. The buffet menu is fixed, and the same everyday.

For drinks, I asked for a Virgin Mojito while the rest of my family ordered cocktails. We asked for some bread and headed off to get some starters from the spread. To our surprise, the entire spread, except for the desserts, was exhausted. We stood there for the food to arrive, and a couple of Veg. Starters were refilled. We filled our plated with the Potato Croquettes and Panzirottis and returned to our table. The Croquettes were a little too oily for my taste, but the Panzirottis were awesome. They melt in my mouth, and thanks to lack of other food, I must have had atleast a dozen of them. Yum!!

We waited and waited for food to arrive at the spread. A couple of Non Veg Starters were added, but everything else was still empty. Finally, we got a taste of the Brochette. They tasted alright. Twenty minutes down the lane, the bread was served on the table after constant reminders, followed by our drinks. The bread was very good, and the dips were equally good. My Virgin Mojito was perfect.

We ordered for a portion each of the three Veg main course items they served: Lasagna, Potato Cake and Eggplant Roll. I then headed off to the Live Pasta counter. Since the place was packed, and also since most of the food on the spread was exhausted, almost everyone thronged to this counter, where a couple of Chefs were struggling to keep up with the crowd. After waiting for almost 20 minutes, I got a chance to get my pasta made. I had creamy Farfalle pasta with loads of cheese and vegetables.

Though made in a hurry, the pasta was very good. It was creamy and cheesy, just the way I wanted it to be.

It had been more than an hour since we walked into the place, and about 40 minutes since we asked for the main course, and that’s when the food was finally served. It was probably because of me getting worked up that I realized that the place was really hot. When I pointed this out, the air-conditioning in the part of the restaurant we were sitting in was turned on. It was a packed house, and they were trying to save on their power bill!! 😀

The Potato Cake looked very colorful, but he smashed potato underneath the vegetables was bland, and too much carrot gave it a sweet taste. It was alright.

The Lasagna was cheesy and decent. My family liked it, but I’ve had better lasagna.

The Eggplant Rolls were the best of the lot. They were very well cooked and stuffed with broccoli. Delicious!

Now that I’d got the Managers attention, desserts were served at the table. They had Chocolate Mousse Cake, Lemon Cake and Strawberry Cheese Cake. All of them were excellent and I loved the Mousse cake the most. We also had Cashew and Raisin, and Chocolate Gelato, both of which were equally good.

Overall, a so so experience. The food was great, but the service and the general ambience were a total letdown. This place felt exquisite the last time I was here, but this time was like a fish market. The change from the Executive Lunch to the Buffet was a welcome, for it added more value to money, but I believe doing it without having proper resources caused them a letdown. With the Snapdeal, they just asked for more trouble. The exclusivity of the restaurant was lost, and it turned out to be like any other buffet place in town. Thankfully, the on-floor Manager took a note of our grievances, and promised to work on them.

If you haven’t yet, visit this place for their awesome Italian fare, but don’t hope for the best of service or ambience (for the moment atleast!!).

Food: 9/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 6/10
Buffet for 1: Rs. 578/- (Rs. 299 via Snapdeal)

Verdict: 7.5/10