Pincuk, Airoli

Pincuk, a Pan Asian restaurant at Airoli!

Hello Foodies!

Interesting Decor!

Happy Weekend! It’s that time of the week where all you want to do is relax and unwind. Oh and gorge on comfort food! That’s what we did too! We got an invite from the owners of Pincuk, a Pan Asian restaurant situated in Airoli, we looked it up on Zomato and we were intrigued by their interiors! We accepted their warm invite and here we are reviewing this beautiful place for you all!

The Bicycle wall

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The place is small and cozy and each wall has its story. You’ll see the pictures and you’ll come to know. Enter through the door and you see a lovely mishmash of grunge and colours. There are tables with colourful chairs that add a pop of colour and then there’s this rustic edge to the place with the walls. We fell in love with the décor, it’s just so unique!

By the way, how did you pronounce ‘Pincuk’? We pronounced it as ‘pin-kook’ earlier, but Siddhi, co-owner of the place told us it is pronounced as ‘pin-suk’. Okay, now let’s get started with the food review!

Soup-

1.   Suan La Tang (Hot & Sour Soup): This soup arrived in a black serving bowl along with black spoon. Full marks on the presentation! The soup was runny and had boiled chicken pieces. It was mildly spicy and a little tangy. Perfect combination, we loved it!

Suan La Tang/ Hot & Sour Soup

Starters- They have so much variety of starters in each category (Veg, Chicken, Fish & Lamb) that we were confused, so we asked our Host to bring us a few dishes-

2.   Shanghai Chicken: This was a surprise because we hadn’t called for it. But it was a sweet gesture. This dish has boneless chicken pieces with a delicious sauce. The chicken is cooked perfectly and is tender and juicy. This was the first starter and we were impressed!

Shanghai Chicken

3.   Kung Pao Chicken: We’ve heard a lot of people raving about Kung Pao Chicken or Kung Pao Potatoes and so we ordered this. Even this is a boneless chicken starter with a lovely sauce. It looks like you regular Manchurian but wait until you first bite. It has flavours that you never expected. It even has peanuts along with spring onion and red chillies. The taste is very different, but a good different!

Kung Pao Chicken

4.   Winglet Chicken: Who doesn’t love chicken wings? We sure do! But this isn’t just any fried chicken, it is the best chicken starter ever! If you like sweet and spicy flavours, this will tease your taste buds like no other dish! The sauce was just too delicious guys! You have to order this one for sure! Our only complain was the chicken was with bone. Had the chicken been boneless, we’d love it to death!

Winglet Chicken

5.   Pattaya Yu: Now this is a basa fish based starter and is a vibrant green coloured starter. This slightly reminded us of the Green Mayan fried fishwe had at Once Again. But this was completely a different one. This is a starter which had green curry and basil paste. The basil is not at all overpowering here, which we were thankful for. There is a rich creaminess to the dish that took the dish from being a plain fish starter to an excellent one. This dish was just too good, it has the right balance of different flavours and it was a very refreshing change to the usual starters!

Pattaya Yu

6.   Prawns Shanghai: This is a sea food version of the Chicken Shanghai starter. The prawns were big enough and cooked well so they held their shape well. They weren’t too soft of mushy, but on point! This starter did not have a sauce like the other starters, but it never felt dry. This is a good starter if you do not want to experiment.

Prawns Shanghai

7.   Exotic Tofu: We wanted to try tofu to see how different it is from Paneer. The tofu was somehow softer than paneer. This dish has a different taste to it and it was slightly salty. The presentation was too good though. It wasn’t just tofu sautéed with some gravy though, it had a vegetable stuffing along with chilli bean sauce.

Exotic Tofu

Dimsums- We’ve always wanted to try Dimsums, but since we don’t like steamed Momos, we stayed away from it the whole time. But our host encouraged us to try a couple of them so here is what we had.

8.   Spicy Basil Basa: This was yummy! It was mildly spicy but delicious! It wasn’t too soft like momos, the flavor was perfect.

Dimsums

9.   Scallion Prawns: This had a prawn piece inside the dimsum which wasn’t seasoned at all, so we did not quite like it. Apart from that it was all good.

Main Course-

10.                     Nasi Goreng with Sambal Sauce: Now this is a complete meal in a dish. It has everything you can imagine of- Rice, Chicken, Eggs and Prawns. The rice is cooked in Thai Herbs, there some heat to the rice and it has mild shrimp taste coming from the shrimp paste. The dish is accompanied by sambal sauce which has a strong fish taste. There’s chicken satay sticks that are soft and juicy, the egg is sunny side up, just how we like our eggs to be and prawn crackers. The crackers are like usual papads and there’s a mild but recognizable prawns aftertaste to it. The whole concept is too authentic but it is such a wholesome dish!

Nasi Goreng

11.                     Pincuk Ramen: This is a huge bowl of comfort food of the Japanese people. It is basically a soupy noodles concept. The soup is very watery and the flavor of this dish is slightly on the milder side. It has boiled eggs, prawns, chicken and some veggies in it. This dish too, is very authentic and yummy.

Pincuk Ramen

Beverages-

12.                     Yuzu Lemonade: Where ever we go, we have to have a lemonade, that’s just a ritual in the making we guess! This has Yuzu which is a citrus fruit and it is a carbonated drink. This drink tastes like Limca, but so much better! It doesn’t have tons of sugar in it which is great. The drink is sour and tangy and we loved it!

Yuzu Lemonade

13.                     Red Riding Hood: If you live in Airoli, we envy you. Simple. Why? Because this drink is just too delicious and you can have it whenever you want it. But we have to travel 2 hours for this drink! It is just the best drink ever! And we aren’t even kidding! If you like watermelon and strawberry, you’ll be mesmerized with this drink. It has the perfect taste that we can’t even describe it in words! You have to try it out! And it is just so cheap! A tall glass full of this goodness just for 80 bucks, where other places charge well over 100 bucks! Oh, and this doesn’t contain soda; it also has a slightly bit of sour punch because of lime and the cute little chia seeds in the drink. This not only looks good, but also tastes delicious!

Red Riding Hood

14.                     Berry Bubble: This is again a carbonated drink and a very fruity drink. Different berry flavor burst as you sip it. This is drink that is sweet and sour. It looks black in colour, but actually is a violet coloured drink. We loved it. It is just too refreshing!

Berry Bubble

15.                     Passion Ginger Fizz: Just as you take the first sip, you immediately recognize the passion fruit. There’s almost negligible ginger flavor to the drink. This too is sweet and sour to taste but the flavor of passion fruit is intense.

Passion Ginger Fizz

Desserts-

16.                     Khanom Thuai: This is a coconut based pudding and they serve with caramel sauce. This dessert looks very plain, but it is such a lovely dish! We fell in love with it! The pudding is firm and doesn’t fall apart when we cut it. The flavor of coconut isn’t too strong, but just perfect. The dessert was served chilled and it was just too good!

Khanom Thuai

17.                     Fried Banana Pancake: Just as we thought we had the best dessert, our Host served us this one. This one, stole our heart! If you like bananas, this one’s it for you! The pancake has crisp edges and soft interiors. There’s banana pieces cut and stuffed along with vanilla ice cream and more caramel or toffee sauce. We’re lost in Banoffee heaven! (Banana+ Toffee=Banoffee) The favours complement each other so well! And it isn’t heavy at all! Another must order dish!

Fried Banana Pancake

By now, you’d know just how much we enjoyed our dinner here! All we wanted to do after this food fest was take a long nap. But we had 2 hours of travel in front of us. Haha!

What we loved the most about this place apart from the food and interiors was the fact that the owners know each dish so well. The names are pretty difficult to get right on the pronunciation part, but our hosts knew and spoke it like we speak our mother tongue! They knew what goes inside a dish so well. They are ex-hoteliers and we’re so glad they opened up a top class Pan Asian restaurant with such reasonable rates! Their aim is to provide 5 star quality foods at affordable rates and they do it so well. The aim is also to use the best quality ingredients, and we can see it. You can see by the size of the prawns that the quality isn’t compromised! We loved visiting this place and we’ll obviously visit again whenever we are in that area!

Food: 4.5 / 5

Quality: 5 / 5

Service: 5 / 5

Ambiance: 4.5 / 5

2FoodFreaks recommends- Shanghai Chicken, Winglet Chicken, Pattaya Yu, Nasi Goreng (if you love fish), Red Riding Hood, Khanom Thuai and Fried Banana Pancake!

Bon Appetit!

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