The more you know your fellow food bloggers, the more you realize how close knit this community is. As soon as we took a leap into blogging, it was like meeting old friends every time. People look out for you and help you and are are always up for a laugh. 

Us both, we are a nerdy lot. We are one of those Star Wars/ LOTR enthusiasts, lounging at home tinkering away at our laptops and preferring indoor in our pyjamas,  to only head out because we heard someplace serves great chicken. We also have a set of mad friends each and more often than not, they devise great plans to stop us from our ever ongoing job of warming the couch. So it was surprisingly fun making new friends and meeting new people.

Last week would have been a dreary week at work when our fellow-blogger friend, Neha (you guys should check out her great blog, by the way) recommended us for a review of MoMO Cafe in Courtyard by  Marriott, Hinjewadi. After a couple of calls to and fro we settled for a Saturday lunch.

It was a rather sultry day when we landed up at Courtyard by Marriott for our appointment. We were received warmly by the Executive manager, Mr. Pankaj, who gave us an insightful tour of the place and the menu. It was a rather busy day but he made sure he was around to answer our incessant queries.

The spread, aptly befitting to the reputation that MoMo cafe holds. Not to mention that the Hinjewadi one has been a recent recipient to numerous awards. Our attentions, were meanwhile captured by the 'Asian Counter' at one corner of the buffet hall. It had a display of various vegetables, noodles, rice, egss, chicken, sauces and whatnot all around with a pan in the center.


Shankar,  incharge of the counter made sure that your craving for oriental cuisine is looked after. And the best part is, it's customized to how you like it! I spent a good half hour (though Shankar is super quick,  I was feeling a bit more creative than usual) pointing at ingredients, weighing my preference for the different sauces and being a kid in a candy shop. My customized sweet and sour flat noodles with shredded chicken were so sensational, I refused to eat it for a while until Mr. TKD started to eye them. I'd gladly come back just for these provided Shankar remembers the recipe, because I forgot it as soon as I went back to my table. 




The waiting staff made sure we were attended to, welcoming us with refreshing passion fruit drinks to start with and they also brought us DEVILLED MUSHROOMS and BARBECUED PINEAPPLE to try. We were also served our choice of breads whenever we wanted. 




There was great variety of starters and salads with a counter full of veggies and dressings so that you could make your own salad. We also tried the ROASTED CHICKEN salad,  BACON AND CREAMY POTATO salad, crispy chicken and Fish starters which were impeccable. Also,  inspite of all the choices around, we couldn't stop loading on PAPDI CHAAT because it reminding us of home. 





For the mains we hardly had anything much other than CHICKEN STROGANOFF with rice, because as much as we love it, we hardly find places that really get it right. Hand it over to the expert chefs working in the kitchen because the Stroganoff here was deliciousness. The tender chicken coated with creamy mushroom sauces and every flavor on point. 


There were a lot of Indian preparations too to choose from. We also sampled the CHICKEN BIRYANI and MEXICAN SPICY BABYCORN . 


It might sound like a mash of everything, but you can't help it if you are spoilt for choice with the multicuisined fare. Try as you might, it would not be possible to conquer the intimidating spread by the MoMo team and still be up for dessert. So I gave up the daunting task and headed for the inticing dessert table instead. 

There were everything from hot SEVAI KHEER to FRUIT CUSTARD to the rich CHERRY POUND CAKE. I settled in with the KIWI CHEESECAKE, ORANGE PROFITEROLLS and FRUIT FLORIDA pastry. It was a perfect way to end a great meal. 






The amazing meal called for compliments to the chef in command. Chef Bhushan not only posed for our cameras but he also invited us to try out their dessert from the mango festival currently in progress. We were skeptical whether we'd be able to stuff ourselves more after the hogging session we'd just finished but we surprised even ourselves when we cleared out our bowls of freshly made mango ice cream garnished with cubed mangoes. The mangoes were succulent and sweet and the icecream was heavenly. 



We have been since planning to visit and try out their mango platter. If you love mangoes as much as us we suggest you do that too. Thank us later. 


To wrap the perfect visit, we chanced upon Rambo, the security in charge of the main gate. Given his job portfolio, Rambo looked uncharacteristically cute in his doggy shoes and happy demeanor. He set the mood to the typical Momo Cafe experience: satisfied, well taken care of and happy in our shoes.