On the way to great food. Review on On The Way, Alwal, Secunderabad

As the name suggests, On The Way is literally on the way home from work for me. It was one of the first joints that I noticed when I moved to Hyderabad. At the time, On The Way was not a restaurant, it was only a delivery and take away place that I never bothered about because most places were insisting on a minimum order of Rs. 200 for home delivery. So I would just walk by after picking up my groceries from Trinethra (this was before FoodWorld opened in the area).

Then the restaurant opened. And it proudly announced a nice menu of soups, salads, steaks and sizzlers. I was thrilled because at the time there were no restaurants in the area that offered continental food. And this one was merely two streets away.

I went there for the first time almost as soon as the restaurant had opened. I was pleasantly surprised by the place. It seemed like the perfect place for casual dining. Neither was it too flashy, nor did it have the feel of a fastfood joint...just a cosy comfortable ambience.

We had lemon coriander soup with chilli mushroom and vegetable croquettes. The soup was fabulous and the chilli mushroom was very good. The vegetable croquettes were average at best. My friends had pepper steak and chicken fried rice and told me that the stuff was very good.

I have tried almost all their vegetarian items so far. I love their cottage cheese steak and Italian sizzler. The cottage cheese bake was rather disappointing as all it had was a few pieces of fried paneer in a bowl of white sauce, while the spaghetti neapolitan and vegetable au gratin are absolutely yummy. My meat eating friends have told me that their Fish & Chips and Southern Fried Chicken are excellent too. I have also liked most of the Chinese dishes that I have had there. Fried rice and noodles, vegetables in hot garlic sauce...the list is really endless. Their portions are reasonable. Some of the Chinese dishes can easily be shared by two people, while the continental dishes and sizzlers are just right for one. The price is not very expensive and I would rate On The Way as a ''once a week'' kind of place.

In the desserts section, I found that brownie with ice cream is almost never available. In all my visits to the restaurant, I have been told that the item is out of stock. My friend has also tried ordering this on several occasions and has been given the same answer. I have, however, tried their date pancakes with ice cream and found them to be very good.

I have not had a problem with reservations so far and in fact I've noticed that other people seem to enter only after we do. My friend and I have been there pretty often and we like to sit at a different table each time. More often than not, the staff accommodates our whims...even if it means seating just the two of us at a six-seater.

The music at this restaurant is nice. They have a WorldSpace radio playing country music most of the time. The music is not too loud. The service could do with a lot of speed. Sometimes we just sit around waiting for our food and have to remind the waiters. But when the food arrives at the table, it makes you forget for how long you waited before it got there.