The Orchid five star ecotel hotel at Pune is unique in its own way; its probably only star hotel where you find – mosquitoes and loud music in coffee bar, cooler instead of AC, and so on.... while missing items are valet parking, coffee menu in menu card of coffee bar and off course hospitality. In one word this place can be best described as “Sarkari”- good infrastructure with pathetic service.
I love late night coffee at 24 hour cafes, mostly in star hotels, and being an entrepreneur, I have to do it frequently and have visited various star hotels and their cafes in almost every major tier I & II cities of India. Common thing in all such cafes is their relaxed ambience (perfect temperature AC, no loud music and well mannered service) and they all serve coffee in coffee jar with ceramic cups – so that one can enjoy hot coffee for quite long time and chit chat.
As I said “The Orchid” is unique in its own way. We (me along with some friends) entered its well decorated coffee bar “Boulevard” and surprised to see that in place of AC there was air-cooler with constant annoying sound. Soon they start playing music – as laud as CCDs. No mention of any coffee related product in menu card, surprised us further – when I enquired about same with service staff – he simply (read rudely) said – what if it is not in menu, you ask, we will serve coffee...
They off course served it – but again in their own unique way – cold coffee was anything but cold. Hot coffee too was served in cup and saucer, no coffee jar to keep it hot, hint was very clear “finish it ASAP”. This time we were not surprised to find that coffee was steamed, the one that usually served in parties for huge gathering – “Fatafat coffee”. A birthday party was going on in conference hall of hotel, so it might be outsourced. And then final nail in coffin, soon some mosquitoes joined us.
You can visit “Boulevard”, but definitely on your own risk and keep expectation as low as possible.
