Cafe Amore Italia

Critic´s Review

• Food: 3 / 5
• Service: 2.5 / 5
• Decor: 3 / 5

-By Karen Anand

Decor

A tiny little eatery in the Kalyani Nagar area, which caters to mainly young office goers and students. The outdoor tables are a welcome addition but you can obviously only sit when the weather is fine. Indoors, you have two or three tables in the intimate size mezzanine and one table in the kitchen assembly area on the ground floor.

Food

Today the Pune consumer is spoilt for choice where Italian food is concerned with several good options in the city. It is inevitable when you attempt anything Italian that people are going to compare. This is a very modest place serving cafe like food, at very modest cafe like prices. Don't expect the same level of high quality ingredients that you find in some of the fancier Italian establishments in town. Having said that, the food is tasty, basic 'Indo-Italian' using all local ingredients. You will undoubtedly notice the difference between the bruschetta and crostini here and elsewhere. The toppings are fresh enough but the cheese is local 'GO' (pizza cheese) and not top rate mozzarella. The small pizzas make a nice snack and the pastas are a very good lunch option. However, the Puttanesca which should be a tomato based sauce with olives and capers is a 'pink' sauce here (white and red mixed!) with topping options and the Marinara which should be a tomato based sauce with seafood, is obviously vegetarian here. It may have been less confusing to invent new names, rather than producing wrong recipes for well known dishes. If you treat this as a simple cafe producing quick Italianish snacky food, (they are soon to start home delivery in the area too), then this is quite a nice home-style option.

Plus and Minus

Cheap and cheerful and a good selection of hot and cold beverages. Don't go expecting authentic Italian food.

Pics: Nilesh Kulkarni