since the time it was under construction, arista was like a lighthouse for navigating towards sunny enclave area, since it shines bright and is visible right across the airport road. when the hotel was in the making, the local residents knew something worthy is about to come! and finally it started operating in the month of february!
a place like arista with its rooftop lounge bar and a casual diningrestaurantin the ground floor, along with its marvellous decor inside out is indeed a mark of exclusivity for the people of sunny enclave, since no such exuberant hotel stands in its close vicinity (at least this is what it appears on the outside).
exotic exteriors, beautiful interiors, judiciously chosen tableware, but only one problem at hand - none of it is maintained properly! less than two months since it started serving its guests, but somehow the floors are filthy, the chairs seem worn out and dirty and the tableware is stained. the place is put up tastefully, but has lost the attention of its caretakers too quick!
my review is particularly for the buffet spread served in theirrestaurantchilli n pepper. the food certainly didn't leave us in a good taste and health, and it was neither value for money, since the quality of food was highly questionable.
to begin with, the starters- we were served paneer tikka, veg manchurian, dahi ke kebab and honey chilli cauliflower. veg manchurian consisted of refried stale dumplings in a tangy sauce, paneer tikka consisted of small stretchy chunks of paneer which were highly salty and the version of dahi ke kebab served here absolutely changed the entire meaning of kebabs. the dahi ke kebab were nothing but half cut bread rolls filled with hung curd and oil was oozing out of the bread!
the starters disappointed us, however the soup was still better. the veg coriander soup was more like a healthy homely vegetable soup. i wouldn't say it conformed with the actual flavors, yet it was the first good thing of our dinner, since the fresh boiled vegetables added to it were pretty soothing.
the main course, consisting of indian and two oriental dishes. a few indian dishes were worth a second serving, however most of the other dishes were once again, highly salty and stale including the corn mushroom masala and some special bansari kofte, which consist of hard corn-flour dumplings. the noodles were greasy and spicy however the biggest disappointment was the green curry served in oriental mains! now when we say green curry, it is assumed by default that it is going to be the thai curry. but the green curry served here was not the regular coconut milk based curry but a spicy curry of greens. although there were traces of peppers in the curry, but all you get is half cut french beans in it!
i would suggest that if your chef doesn't know the exact recipe, then please don't include those dishes in your menu.
moving to desserts, they served gulab jamun, ice cream and lauki halwa in desserts. at first it was a bit shocking, as in, who serves lauki ka halwa in a buffet? but my notion got cleared when i finally savoured the halwa, since this was the best part of my entire meal. it is rare for me to take a third serving of a dessert, but lauki ka halwa was worth eating till stomach hurts. it tasted just like gajar ka halwa, the only difference was that the carrots were replaced by bottlegourd. the gulab jamun was too sweet for my liking, and the ice cream was satisfactory.
so although i had high expectations on this place, owing to the splendour, however it did disappoint me like every other place in this area. since my fellow foodie friends have suggested me to try their rooftop lounge, so i would definitely give it a try for once, but the casual diningrestaurantneeds a long way to go to stand strong with its fellow competitors in this area!