:: Of Great food, Decor, and Oozing Creativity ::. Review on Horn OK Please, F.C. Road, Pune

''Pizza Hut!''

''McDonald's!''

''Smokin' Joe's!''

''Dominoes!''

''Burger King!''

''Er.....Horn OK PLease?''

''Huh?''

''What?''

''Come again?''

We were all out on Pune's famous J. M. Road yesterday evening. Packed to the capacity with tons of eateries, J.M. Road (which, incidently, has even earned a place in the Guiness Book of World Records for having the most number of hotels on one road!) seemed the perfect place for my friend to give us all his birthday treat.

''Er, listen guys, I'm...uh....a little tight on my budget, so unless you all want to cough up an extra Rs. 50 or so each, I don't think we should go to any of these swanky places!'' A collective groan went up. But after all, since nobody wanted to be poorer by 50 Rs. (especially me, I had been saving up for a Michael Jackson CD!), we trooped down to F. C. Road, to the place suggested by my friend: Horn OK Please.

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Strange sounding name? Not at all! OK, What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the words 'Horn OK Please'? Remember that day when you tagged along a narrow road behind that huge truck moving at snail's pace and never budging to a side? Of course you remember all those swear words you said at that time! But what was staring you in the face the whole while??? The words 'Horn OK Please'! They seem an inseperable part of any Indian truck!

As soon as I stepped into the hotel, the first thing that came to my mind was ''Wow! The bloke who designed the interior of this place is a really creative guy!''

When you reach the entrance, the first impression that you get is, ''Oh my God! I've accidently walked into a dirty old dhaba!'' Indeed, the entrance of this place, complete with two large truck tires, a replica of the back of a truck (with the words 'Horn OK Please' on it, of course!) and an extremely well-crafted model of a mile stone announcing: Nagpur: 800 kms, Horn OK Please: 0 kms'', reinforced our belief that the owner was off his chump - the hotel certainly looked out of place in the midst of all the glittering Cafe Coffee Days, Baristas and Burger Kings.

But once inside, it was nothing like a dirty old dhaba! Of course, the decor guy had obviously gone to great lengths to make it look like a dirty old dhaba, but thank goodness, it was much more cleaner!

The ceiling looked like it was stuffed to the last inch with glowing lava-lamps. On every wall, there were wooden boards with comic sayings printed on them (13 mera 7 - Tera mera Saath!) and there was a huge horn (the kind that you see in trucks, which you press to scare other people out of their wits!) on the counter.

We chose a rather nice, rickety old wooden table and were immediately presented with the MOST creative menus I had ever seen in a restaurant. They soon had us in splits:

Soups and Starters - Dhakka Start.

Desserts - 4th Gear.

That was simply superb! It endeared us to the little place at once!

We placed our order for Paneer Makhanwala, Methi Mutter Malai, Veg. Pulao, and Butter Paranthas (slurp!). My friend, who was footing the bill was silently trying to calculate the approximate bill, but he broke off when he caught my eye.

We waited. And waited. And hummed songs. Talked among ourselves. And waited. Checked out the cute chicks(!), blew that horn on the counter so many times that we started attracting severe looks from the other diners. And waited. Killed some flies....and waited.

Just as I was about to get up and give that waiter a bashing he would remember to his grave, our food arrived! (Phew!)

Hot and steaming, as the waiter served it up, I could barely wait to chomp.....and chomp I did! The food was superb! Not to spicy, nor too bland, and the Paneer was exactly as I liked it!

We shifted into the fourth gear and had ice-cream as dessert, and the waiter proudly told us that they made their own ice-cream, the authentic way, with the wooden churner and all!!!

The best part was, that the bill didn't burn my friend's pocket (I was going to put 'didn't burn a hole' but Mouthshut didn't allow me to put the word 'hole' for....erm...obvious reasons!), and fit his budget exactly!

As we walked out of the door, I spied another of those comic signboards by the door that seemed to voice my thoughts at the moment exactly.......Phir Milenge! (We will meet again soon!)

P.S.: DO SPICE UP MY REVIEW WITH YOUR COMMENTS!!!