It had been a while since I heard from the book review program at BlogAdda, and when I saw the Zomato Restaurant Guide up for review I knew I had to go for it :). Been a while since I bought one of these, since so much of information is available online nowadays, so I thought it would be a nice change to hold a book in my hands instead of feverishly trying to find a shaded place to be able to see/view my phone screen and search with 3G ;).
The book arrived a few days back, and the first impression I got was that it's a great size for putting into your handbag and taking out with you. Sorry guys, it won't quite fit into that pocket though ;), but quite handy to leave around in the car and sneak a peek when you need to. On opening, the categories were the first to catch my eye - for some odd reason (probably living in the past) I was still expecting a "Place-wise" listing other than the usual alphabetical one, but the one that this Zomato guide was a nice surprize! Other than the usual cuisine wise listings such as "Asian and Oriental", "North Indian and Mughlai", there are some very interesting and useful ones like
- Dining with Kids - Kid friendly places (I can vouch for a couple of these!)
- Girls' Night Out - Places that are considered safe for women to have a night out - I definitely need to try a couple of these sometime ;).
- Sunday Brunch
- Best Wine List
and so on.. You get the idea.
On to the alphabetical listing: Each restaurant is accompanied by its category, address (multiple if it has branches), cuisine, typical cost and timings. Sometimes an additional heading of "facilities" if there is anything specific. Some interesting additions like "Don't Miss!" and an accompanying user review, help to give a feel of what the place is like. Each entry is also accompanied by a QR code which you can use on your smartphone to view the menu of the restaurant on the Zomato site.
I thought the entries for each restaurant were quite concise and useful, without being too wordy they conveyed the basic points needed by a user to decide where to go. The user reviews also sound quite authentic, with not all of them singing praises of the place, but also providing some grounding comments. The use of icons to provide a quick view of points like Vegetarian/Non-vegetarian, Use of credit card and providing delivery services is also a nice touch. The list of restaurants is quite comprehensive and options from street food, as well as fine dining are offered. The odd miss-out may be there of course, but I suppose the book would turn into a phone directory and lose its compact USP if it tried to include every restaurant in Bangalore.
One cannot expect to find a newly opened restaurant in a book that may already have been in the publishing house by that time, but other than that minor issue, this is a very handy guide to have around, and it can always be supplemented by checking further on the internet when looking for a specific place. For a quick look at finding a place when you want to eat say "Street Food", I would absolutely recommend the Zomato Restaurant Guide 2012 :) !
This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!