June 2016 76 LIFESTYLE | food or mushroom pasta next, mainly because I was intrigued to sample a combination of mushrooms with truffle oil. In the past, I have tried various dishes with truffle and have found them to overpower and take away from the rest of the dish. But this result didn’t disappoint, and the amount of truffle oil was just right. I could savour and delicately differentiate the flavour of truffle from the mushroom. As per the suggestion of Mr Arnold, we opted for the Caterina Pizza, which came as a crispy, thin-crust goodness topped with pepperoni sausage, turkey ham, olives, mushrooms and onion. A definite winner! Although I’m a massive fan of risotto, I typically shy away from ordering it because of how filling it is. The description of the Risotti Ai Salmone or salmon risotto was tempting enough to bend the rules just this one time. The Arborio rice cooked in a light pink sauce with succulent pieces of smoked salmon had a rich, creamy consistency and was surprisingly light. My dining companion especially enjoyed this because she is a seafood lover. Although our clothes felt a bit tighter than when we arrived, nothing could dampen our urge to try Italian desserts. As we waited, conversation flowed between me and my dining companion and I noticed how conducive the venue is to long chats and banter due to the spacing between each table. The tiramisu, hands down, was the best part of the meal. The mascarpone cheese was exquisite, with an almost fluffy consistency, and worth keeping some space for after the meal. The staff her are attentive and informative, never intruding on the dining experience. Dishes are priced affordably, and a delivery service is available if you want to order in. For more information, call: 17 100-018. If there is anything I would give an eye for, it’s probably authentic Italian fare. The love affair with this delectable cuisine is such that my stringent carb-free diet goes right out the window if I catch as much as a whiff of tossed pasta. Hence my excitement was on the rise as my dining companion and I headed for lunch to Oregano at the Atiram Premier Hotel. If there's a checklist for design elements that indicate a certain echelon of quality and modernity in a restaurant, Oregano’s designers ticked every box: sombre walls, stellar lighting, high ceilings and patterned carpets. On a corner behind glass walls is a wooden bar, where I witnessed a bartender busily experimenting for his next creation. The restaurant manager, Mr Arnold, explained that the clientele ranges from those on business dinners, to those on more intimate rendezvous. Traditional Italian dishes populate the menu: pizza, pasta, antipasti, grilled meats and risotto, to name a few. Unable to wait much longer, we placed the order for our entire meal all at once. The first dish, a prettily presented Caprese salad, came with a surprise twist of balsamic vinegar strewn on the buffalo mozzarella and tomato. Having always enjoyed anything with mushrooms, I ordered the Tagliatelle ai Funghi Puja Tiwari experiences a culinary journey of quintessential Italian delights in a trendy venue ATIRAM PREMIER HOTEL An Authentic Italian Experience
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