The sizzler affair

It was our 6 month anniversary and an advertisement caught both of ours attention in the morning. It was a sizzler fest at La Paz Gardens in Vasco.

This is what their website has to say,

"In the heart of Goa’s Port city, Vasco da Gama, is a cherished landmark, Hotel La Paz Gardens. A 3-star property, conveniently located at an easy distance from Dabolim Airport, Harbour as well as the Vasco Railway station and well connected to the rest of Goa by road, it is indeed an ideal place for a comfortable stay, to unwind, catch up on business, have meetings and presentations and warm-up assignments all under one roof. It’s close proximity to numerous commercial and business enterprises and the Bogmalo Beach to make it a perfect gateway for business or for pleasure, for a combination of both or simply for leisure.

With 72 well appointed, fully air-conditioned rooms and suites and a range of restaurants to choose from besides conference and banquet amenities, the hotel is poised to provide comprehensive facilities and personalized services spelling comfort and convenience all the way."

About Dining;
They have four places to suit your needs.

REGENCY: For Continental, Indian and Goan cuisine.

SWEET-N-SOUR: For Chinese.

GOODYLAND: For fastfood and snacks.

HARBOUR BAR : A pool-side bar.

Among the four I have had the pleasure of visiting two: Regency and Sweet & Sour.

Well the sizzler affair as you might have guessed it by now was at Regency.

Here's what the ad claimed,
"Sizzler with complimentary drink of your choice among a Pepsi, Wine, Whiskey, Antiquity."

The pictures of the sizzlers were very tempting and reminded me of my good times in Pune. At Yana's and The place. Also, if you are a sizzler fan and happen to visit Ahmedabad do visit Upper Crust.

So we go there, all happy, dressed up for the day. Prepared to let nothing bother us. We walk in and there's already a bunch of people enjoying hteir meals, so we quickly take a seat and are offered our menu cards. One look at the menu and you say not bad! Sizzlers and quite decently priced, INR 250-300. Quite reasonable. The downfall began when he asked us for our drinks and since we both decided on Pepsi, we thought it was a no brainer. In a few minutes the waiter walks in with two half filled glasses of Pepsi. Now my husband likes a good quantity of somthing to drink with his meals, and this meagre half glass wasn't going to help. So we ask the waiter is this the complimentary one glass of drink, and he's like more of a complimentary bottle sir! And we both look at each other the 5 buck Chota Pepsi! Ok we can deal with this, we asked him to get us more and that he can charge us for that. Soon our eyes went to the stars under the menu! Extra taxes! We are like ok, how much can it be. Fine, we are ready to order, and off we go, we ordered a fish in garlic sauce and a chicken in mushroom sauce. As the waiter was about to leave, I was like wait a second you never asked me if I'd like rice or noodles with my sizzler. He's like Ma'm read the menu in the star section, only fries and boiled vegetables with your sizzler. No rice or noodles. Am like what! I don't know if this is the case everywhere, but so far I have had my sizzlers with some base so that it makes a complete meal. Anyways too disappointed by now we were like ok get us some veg fried rice with the sizzlers. Off he goes... We were too busy talking and enjoying Olympics on the TV to actually wonder how long it took for the sizzlers to arrive. Finally when they did, while the fish in garlic sauce was quite good, the chicken one failed to impress my husband. It was too dry, the chicken was a bit overcooked.

Smoking hot!

Chicken Sizzler with the one glass Pepsi in corner!

Now you see me once the smoke is clear!

Attacking my fish with garlic sauce!

Ready to attack on the chicken with mushroom sauce!

Hmmmm...

The lobby

Us! Don't blame me, blame the guy who took the pic...

The entrance...

That's me!

So, overall an ok experience till we saw the bill, which given the price of sizzler and the additional taxes as described by the stars was expected around INR 700, but turned out to be INR 850 something. That was too much of tax! For just a meal! Bah!

Well I have been to regency earlier and I do remember the heavy taxes but I guess it didn't pinch that much last time cos I had a Goan thali and it wasn't much of a disappointment. Also, my experience at Sweet n Sour has been quite good. Guess it just wasn't our day. We did make up for it with a quick trip to Naturals. And this time I tool pictures. Check the post for Naturals here.