Growing Younger @ TILT Gastro Lounge

Landed up here after a lot of afterthought for my birthday celebrations as well as a long pending friends get together!

The gentleman I met while making our reservation was nice enough to inform me that there is a cover charge of Rs.1000/- for men after 9.00 pm on Saturday night. Hence we made a reservation for 8.30 pm. However when we entered ( at 8.30 pm) they mentioned the cover charge is now applicable for 8.00 pm onwards and the rate is Rs.1400/-. This sudden change in timing as well cost is acceptable if informed in advance as we were there by 8.00 pm but were waiting outside for our friends to arrive.

Anyways my hubby did not want to spoil the evening since we would anyways use this cover charge coupons, hence we paid and proceeded to our tables. Again here, we were stopped at the entrance to the lounge area in the first floor mentioning they have given us another table. Since I had specifically made a point to visit them earlier and confirm the first floor (so called VIP seating), the gentleman ( Mr.Ashley) managed to get us the same reserved area.

The area of the lounge can be described in 2 parts – one is the outside seating which is airy and pleasant and the other is an inside area which houses 2 first floor areas on either side of the DJ console and a bar in front of which is a small dance floor. The inside area is bit dark but suits the discotheque effect they are trying to portray. The only grouch I have about the first floor area we sat in was that the AC was definitely not enough for the area it was covering.

Moving onto the drinks, I knew about their cocktail menu and we landed up ordering the below :

COCKTAILS: ( Totally ordered 6 nos. not mentioning few ordered by friends when I was out on the dance floor!)
1. Fruits of the Forest – This was my drink and it was very fresh with the perfect blend of berries and vodka.
2. Mojito – Simple and good.
3. Tilted LIIT – This came in a huge Mason jar and it was quite an effort to finish it. But it was a good long island iced tea.
4. Coral Reef – This drink was a friends and was also very good.

SHOOTERS:
1. Austins Fat Bum – Simple but not spicy as mentioned in the menu.
2. Mexican Itch – This is basically tequila with triple sec and lime – a combination which is a sure fire hit.
3. Cement Mixer  – I was looking for a Baileys shot when our server suggested this. Turned out to be a good shooter.

MOCKTAILS: ( Tried all the mocktails though they were not my drinks)
1. Paradise – Good drinks, bit fruity.
2. Ginger Minjer – I personally hate ginger. But my friend liked the drink.
3. Bambolaeo – If you like coconut flavour then this is your kind of drink.
4. Summery Melon – Good drink, if you like your drink very sweet.
5. Ping Pong – Fruity drink. Well liked.

Budweiser beers – The usual nothing different to mention about.

APPETIZERS: ( 2 plates each)
1. Cycle Jacksons Onion rings – This dish was too batter fried. We could not finish even one plate.
2. Garithes ma Harisssa  – This is a prawns dish suggested by our server. The prawns were very rubbery  ( either over cooked or old). A thumbs down for this dish!
3. Oh Fish – This is nothing but Fish fingers. This dish was well done and well liked by the group.
4. Smoked garlic and cheese fries – You cannot go wrong with fries unless of course you overfry them. That is what happened to our first plate of the fries. Since we mentioned this they ensured the second plate was prepared right.
5. Calling it Maari – Again a new name for Calamari rings. By now, I should have realized not to order anything batter fried here but since my hubby likes this dish, I landed up ordering it. The calamari luckily was fresh but the batter was too much and calamari too less hence a disappointment.
6. Murgh Rakabdar tikka – This was the best dish of the night. Succulent,well prepared and well presented. But there were exactly 6 pieces which in my opinion is too less for a dish costing Rs.260 per plate.
7. Old time machas favorites – Baby corn manchurian – This dish was good and went well with the drinks.

DESSERT:
1. Shake well before use – This is a new twist to Tiramisu but in my opinion it was the worst twist to Tiramisu I have tasted.
2. 007 &  1/2 – Ordered 3 nos. of this. – This was liked a lot by the group hence ordered 3 nos. Its called 007 coz they serve chocolate rolls which look like a cigar.

In addition to the above, my hubby mentioned to our server that it was my birthday hence requested for a small cake. This was obviously a surprise. The cake was a mixture of sponge cake with 2 layers of ice cream. Not being a cake person, it was a pleasant change.

Coming to the music, I was aware that DJ Ayesha was slotted to play ( she came in at 10.30- 11.00 pm)  but we had a good time on the dance floor with the in-house DJ belting out some good English and occasional Punjabi music.

So at the end of all that, the total damage was 18k!!! Of this, 4k was taxes ( Gulp!) And they charged Rs.850 for the cake 😱 .

Needless to say, all the negatives do outway the overall experience but there is a lot of room for improvement which I hope to see in the near future.