We had completed a long delayed project, and the team was in a mood to party. It was decided that there would be bowling and then dinner; the Great India Place Mall next to sector 18 in Noida was ruled out since we had been there a few time before - it was decided that it was better to go to the Shoprix Mall in Sector 61, Noida; after all, that place also has a bowling alley and has some restaurants and a food court, seemingly enough choice that we could go there.
SO off we went, and had a good time in the bowling alley on the top floor of the Shoprix Mall, and then it came to take time for dinner. Well, there is a restaurant cum bar called Strings right next to the bowling alley, and after some internal discussion we all agreed that we could eat here. The place had a low level of lighting as suits a bar, and there was the usual 2-3 groups of middle aged men sitting at different tables and drinking.
Now comes the interesting part; we asked for the drinks menu and it seemed to have some variety; there were different types of vodkas, cocktails, rums, and so on. It seemed a nice place to enjoy, so after some thought, many of us ordered cocktails. And then the fun starts, there were actually no cocktails available (and the waiter refused to tell us why); out of the 4-5 different types of vodka, only 1 was available and the same was true for the rum.
When the waiter was asked as to why all these things were listed, he said a trifle rudely that it is not fair to expect everything written over there to be available; and by this time we were getting angry (since we wanted to have a drink and food, and it looked like a drink was doubtful). On asking him more questions, he got even more rude.
At this point of time, we were worried that this party should not end up as a disaster, so we decided to leave the place. And this was the most interesting part, given that there were 10 of us, nobody bothered to ask us as to why we were leaving, what the problem was, and so on. In fact, it seemed the on-duty supervisor was smiling too much, with a slightly sweaty face, a good chance that he was drunk. If this kind of behaviour puts you off, then avoid this place.
It was time for a treat, and we were all looking forward to a good lunch. So off we headed (all 12 of us) to the largest mall in Noida - The Great India Mall in Noida. It has a good top floor full of eating options. You get a Food court (food is so-so), a once good vegetarian restaurant (Yatra - all you can eat, but the quality level has gone down), another great Indian restaurant Rajdhani (too much crowd trying to get in), a TGIF without liquor (not worth it without drinks), a great and value-for-money place Pind Balluchi (30 minutes waiting, there were 4 ladies kitties going on), and sundry other places such as KFC, other fast food places, a fine dining place, coffee and tea places, and so on.
Eventually after not getting a place at Pind Balluchi and walking out of TGIf after being told that drinks were not available, we went to Nirula, it is the safe place after all and we thought that this would be an acceptable alternative (big mistake). The menu does not have many options, but this was just the start. In this hot environment, their cold drink machine was out of order and we had lesser alternatives.
We settled ourselves into 2 tables and ordered the veg and non-veg starters. Service seemed to be a bit slow, but we were in a nice mood and decided to wait. Then we got some of the non-veg dishes, and they were not exactly the best. The chicken chop was over-burnt and not having much of a taste, the veg platter was rejected because one of the kebabs was smelling bad (bad quality control and bad over-sight); when we returned the order and canceled the order, still another waiter got us a replacement dish - by then people were starting to get disgusted.
How can you advertise something and give something else ? The hot chocolate fudge was shown in a great glass and looked a decent quantity, but when we got it, it was in a paper cup and did not look anything like what the photo was. And then we started to get the main courses - the pizzaz were not appetising, only the burger and footlong was okay. People who had ordered a separate piece of chicken (a leg piece) actually rejected the stuff after a bite, it was totally bland. Same was the case with people who had ordered the chicken platters, since the dishes were bland. People were incredulous as to how you could spoil something like a tandoori chicken.
We were laughing at this horrible party, and decided that this just did not cut it. the treat needs to be repeated at a better place, and Nirulas was now on the blacklist (including other people in our company who would ask us). They even did not have material for feedback and we had to ask for it.