Flying Spaghetti Monster
Whenever we decide to have lunch on a Sunday, the first thing that comes to mind is ‘Sunday Brunch‘. But then again, most restaurants that claim to specialize in ‘brunch‘, typically deliver this experience through a quality buffet. Personally, I hold the opinion that a restaurant’s finest and delectable food is best experienced in their à la carte menu. With this firm belief, we decided to find a restaurant which (based on #zomato reviews/ratings) has been consistently delivering quality food experience; irrespective of the genre of cuisine.
We narrowed our search to two popular restaurants and eventually it came down to a choice between two cuisines- Pan-Asian or Italian. On a given day, I would have chosen Pan-Asian because Italian cuisine is distinguished by its simplicity. Typically an Italian dish would comprise only a handful of ingredients but on the other hand utmost emphasis is given to the freshness of each ingredient- this would also be my first rendezvous with Italian food.
Flying Spaghetti Monster or FSM is located at Road No 35, Jubilee Hills– right beside Tabula Rasa- another restaurant that flaunts authentic Italian food. FSM has a simple layout, decent interior decor with spacious indoor and outdoor sections. We chose to be seated in the indoor section which has overhead chandeliers that looked really beautiful.
We were seated at a table for two and a server promptly handed the menu to us- during our time at FSM, we were attended to by different servers which worked well and would like to mention all of them were courteous and spoke pleasantly. Two things you notice in the menu- timely sarcasm in the form of quotes or about certain dishes that feature on the menu and secondly, you’ll need a crash course in Italian pronunciation to read the names of the dishes (lol).
Like I said, it was my first date with Italian food and so, we let our servers recommend what to order except for the drinks and dessert (I’ll come to this later).
For drinks, we ordered Fresh Brewed Ice Tea served over ice with Lemon, Peach or Black Currant. We decided to go with Lemon and Peach-
Both our drinks were supremely refreshing (frankly, its been a while since I tasted a non-alcoholic Ice Tea this good).
For Antipasto (meaning ‘before the meal’ or starters if you will) we had,
Antipasto Del Maiale- fresh mozzarella wrapped with imported smoked bacon, topped with Tabasco sauce (as read in the menu).
I’ve been a mozzarella cheese lover since my childhood days- my mother used to sprinkle loads of mozzarella cheese when she prepared her one-of-a-kind Chicken and Leek Pie. The aroma and flavor of the mozzarella cheese and the fresh smoked-bacon was heavenly. Next we had,
Funghi Ripineni Chicken- mushrooms stuffed with chicken (assorted vegetables, if you prefer vegetarian), mozzarella and baked with parmesan.
Here again the mushrooms were fresh, tender and the chicken component of this dish was lip-smacking. Although from a visual standpoint the portion of food served was less, the cheese component in both ensured the dishes were filling. It was only a matter of time before we start feeling horizontally challenged; but before we did, we decided to order Lasagne.
Lasagne Napoletana- Neapolitan style baked Lasagne with ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, besciamella sauce, napoli sauce WITH Chicken (other options were plain or Spinach and Mushroom). It was the first time I had Lasagne at an authentic Italian restaurant and is now the best I’ve had till date. Frankly, I don’t know how each of the two sauces are supposed to taste individually but with the dish as a whole, the flavor was downright exquisite. Earlier when I checked-in to FSM on FB, a fellow foodie and good friend Arvind commented on my post, suggesting that I should try the ‘Chocolate Bomb’. I took your word for it buddy-
For Dessert, The Bomb- (to me Choco lava cake)- excerpt from the menu, read on,
“We don’t want to bother describing it,if you love chocolate, this dessert will blow you away or your money back.. Not really.. but hey where is your sense of humor?”
Enough said?? Well, I always felt a ‘Choco Lava Cake’ was too heavy and made me feel really lethargic. But this one was light, aptly sweet and infinitely delicious.
What a way to bring the curtains down on a sumptuous meal- my rendezvous with Italian food has been nothing but delightful and a big thanks to FSM for ensuring I thoroughly enjoyed my first tryst with Italian food. There may be other restaurants which serve good Italian food but for me, Flying Spaghetti Master not only introduced me to quality Italian food but also set the benchmark way up high for future restaurants that i’d visit.
Grazie!
