Karkhana- The Food Factory is one of the closest FPEO listed restaurants from my home but for no specific reason, I’ve never dined or ordered in from here since it opened, until last night. Wife and I were both craving for Indian style meats and this seemed to be the most viable option.

It wasn’t too busy last night so we took seats in the outside section to enjoy the light breeze that was flowing. I had pre-booked the PEO special 3 course meal on the app. I mentioned it to the manager who hadn’t accepted the booking till then however was aware of it (more about that later).

The PEO exclusive 3 course meal offers a choice of soup/salad/small plate + any mains + any dessert/juice/shake. We ordered the Creamy Butter Garlic Prawns along with Chicken Chettinad Tenders for starters.

The Prawns were subtly flavoured without too much marinade to avoid being overly creamy. They’re served with a side of potato wedges, that go well. However, the star of the show was the Chicken Chettinad Tenders. The flame grilled chicken tenders with a dash of aromatic spices, coconut & cream base elevates the flavours of this dish. How this dish has managed to stay away from stardom is a mystery worth solving. I don’t even mind just ordering a few rotis or a bowl of sticky rice to go with this starter. Mind blowing!

Since we were already full, we only ordered 1 mains – Chicken Do Pyaza which didn’t work for us. Bell peppers overpowered the dish which, especially after the Chettinad marinade, was disappointing. They have a good variety of desserts but again we only ordered 1 to avoid wasting food. The Bannoffee Pie was phenomenal with all the elements and textures coming together well. Both of us agreed that this was the best Bannoffee Pie in West Pune (since our other favourite is in East Pune).

Service ranged from poor to good with our waiter looking disinterested all evening. He seemed to be caught up in his own world – maybe he had a bad day! There was some confusion regarding the PEO offer during billing as we were presented with a 20% discount rather than the special menu rates. The manager though, stepped in and resolved the issue in 5 mins. Not just that, he took detailed feedback from us and offered to send over more desserts, which we had to politely decline.

Overall, Karkhana was quite a revelation to us and we’re definitely going back soon. And in all probability, I will end up ordering Chicken Chettinad Tenders home tonight! #KheKeFatGaye