The Pasta Bar Veneto is an Italian Cafe Restaurant that brings Italian cuisines at Indian prices. The glass house restaurant in Burkit Road is an attractive and peaceful destination to feast your taste buds with some Italian cuisine. Started in the year 2009 with a single restaurant in Alsa Mall to standing strong today with 3 restaurants in Chennai (T.Nagar, Anna Nagar, Forum Mall) and 3 restaurants out of Chennai (Pondicherry, Hyderabad, Coimbatore) within a period of 4 years.
Bringing Italy to India
Frilp ONE Dream Dine
Frilp had provided me with a ‘Dream Dine’ voucher for winning a contest at the Frilp ONE Chennai meet, which entitled us to have a meal with the founder of the restaurant. So, one bright Friday afternoon, we went over to The Pasta Bar Veneto to obtain some enlightenment from the man himself (Vinodh Sharma) about the restaurant chain and the food they serve. Anjali, a lover of Italian dishes and a very good friend of mine accompanied me. We were also joined by Swami Nathan and Dinesh from the Frilp team who organized the entire meet up. Vinodh introduced us to Twinkle, who had recently joined The Pasta Bar Veneto’s management team.
Classy? Natural? Scenic? You Decide!
The Story of The Pasta Bar Veneto
The man behind the signature chain of Italian Restaurants is an absolute foodie named Vinodh Sharma. It all started off when a few friends on the way to Bangalore decided to stop by at a Cafe Coffee Day for a plate of Pasta. But CCDs do not serve Pasta (CCD Lounges do, which were started only a year back). That is when they realized, not a lot of places actually provide authentic Pasta and Italian food. This moment resulted in the birth of Pasta Bar Veneto at Alsa Mall in 2009.
Vinodh Sharma, sharing The Pasta Bar journey
The Menu
Vinodh helped us out with the menu to bring the best dishes on our plates. The names were Italian and were difficult to understand. To make it comfortable for the customers, the ingredients were described along with a code number with which ordering would make it extremely simple. People have the perception that Pasta Bar Veneto is extremely expensive and is not suitable for a normal foodie. But the prices in the menu totally changed the thought that was created. I thought the prices were very reasonable for Italian dishes.
A menu that spoils you with choices
The Leader’s Passion
As we were munching on our starters, Vinodh excused himself from us for a while. We had thought he was about to attend some important call or was about to meet someone important. After a while, he came back sweating saying he was preparing one of the exquisite dishes for us as one of the chefs had not turned up for the day. It left all of us in total surprise, as we never expected the owner of a restaurant to pitch in instantly to back up for his employee. To add on, he started off about his passion for cooking which totally put us into a 15-minute fantasy run. I have never seen anyone explaining about food more interesting than him. His narration brought the entire scene live in front of our eyes. I still cannot forget the excitement in his eyes when he was explaining about the preparation process. I have seen many folks running businesses for money rather than their product, but The Pasta Bar Veneto is a place about the passion for Food and not about the money.
The love of a foodie, the passion of an Entrepreneur
The Perfect Late Lunch Destination
As the discussion went on, came the topic of having a late lunch. I expressed my frustration of not being able to find places, which are open at 4 PM when you have missed your lunch and are extremely hungry. Honestly, does it not frustrate you when you have skipped lunch and looking for places to hunt on? That is when I realized, The Pasta Bar Veneto will definitely solve that problem for me as it functions from 11 AM to 11 PM with the entire menu. If you ever skip lunch, and want to relish on some extremely good pasta, The Pasta Bar Veneto is your destination.
Sumptuous food, served all day
The Desserts
As we completed our exquisite main course, the desserts were served. I have heard that the mudpie is extremely delicious and is a must have at Pasta Bar Veneto, but have never personally encountered on one. True that. The moment the mudpie touched my taste buds was extremely magical. For all the chocolate lovers - beware, the mudpie could become an addiction to you ! We also had the awesome opportunity of tasting all the desserts and every one of them was a legend by itself.
Chocolicious!
The Kitchen Tour
As a finale, Vinodh offered to show us around the kitchen. We often go to places and wonder why they charge us so much for such a simple dish but the tour of the kitchen proved me wrong. The machinery, the processes, the operations involved were so deep that the price seemed so minimal. Twinkle handed me over a huge file of approximately 200 pages. Then I realized it was a file stating all the procedures to be followed by the employees on a daily basis. You would be totally awed by the procedures mentioned there. Every recipe listed out in detail. “Wow” was the only reaction that kept appearing page after page. So much of detail and management goes into my Pasta. As a personal lover of Italian food, the couple of hours I spent at The Pasta Bar Veneto were eternal divinity. Anjali, who was super thrilled about the event, was now super happy.
The diligence behind the finest food
We had an amazing day out there and I am going back again, very soon. Thanks once again Frilp for the opportunity and Vinodh, Swami Sir for making it happen. Thanks to Twinkle for the amazing hospitality and Dinesh from the Frilp Team for the beautiful photographs you are visualizing. Before every meal Italians say to each other “I hope you have a good appetite so that you enjoy your meal”, so here goes in Italian - ‘Buon Appetito’.
You could win a Dream Dine too - by becoming a Frilp ONE !
About Nivas Ravichandran
Foodie. A Voyager who loves travelling and exploring new places. Social Media Savvy. A Passionate IEEE Volunteer. A frequent blogger. Good networker and loves speaking at public domains. Works with Lema Labs incubated at IIT Madras Research Park, as the Business Development Executive. Has a passion for startups and entrepreneurship. A regular Frilper who loves to help out people in need of quality services and recommendations, and a Frilp One too !
