At the bustling ‘Gole Market’ cross-section, Ritz is a landmark, a hard to miss restaurant; but right beneath it breathes a different world. A world filled with great music, rustic vibes, for right beneath Ritz is a restaurant named ‘The Cellar’.
When I first heard about ‘The Cellar’ I immediately thought of a winery and the cellars they have, bare brick walls lined with barrels and barrels of wine, aging slowly, gracefully.

I being a fan of anything and everything Italian, was intrigued instantly. The first time I went there, I was nothing short of mesmerised, for the place was everything I had imagined and more. See, when I opened the doors of that restaurant for the first time, I did not know that it would be a place I’ll fall in love with instantly and never fall out of it ever again.

The walls are bare brick and red, wood panelling runs all along the restaurant, the lighting is demure, soft, and the music calming. The place is a perfect mix of mystery and rustic-ness. Yet, a restaurant’s ambience can do nothing, nothing at all, without some good food.

The Cellar is famous for its Italian, though the restaurant does not boast by offering you a 28 page Italian menu, what it does offer is a great selection of world cuisine.  Coming to the hero of our story, the food, well the last time that we went to the restaurant we ordered many things, a Margarita Pizza, Lasagne, and Basil Pesto Pasta in veg, a Chicken tikka Pizza, Chicken Taco triangles and Khao-Suey in non-veg. For drinks we went with the classics, a simple espresso, a cold-coffee with ice-cream and a virgin mint-mojito.

Starting with the Italian, the restaurant does justice to its fame, the pizzas are all fresh made with a good sauce to cheese ratio. The cheese used is of good quality and it is used abundantly so; the sauce is garlicy, it is tomato-ey, it is herby, making the pizza gooey in all the right ways. Though, the bread can be worked upon, it isn’t over-powering, dry or doughy, yet, it is just plain good-old pizza bread, good, yet lack-lustre.

The pasta, thank the Gods, isn’t too mushy, it is cooked to a perfect al-dente, the sauce is absolutely divine, the basil and cheese come together to make the most beautiful symphony of flavours. The lasagne was good too, for anybody who loves cheese that lasagne would appear to be salvation, a cheese overload.

Moving on to the world cuisine, the Khao-Suey was like a breath of fresh air, it is not just a treat for your mouth but also for your eyes, the dish is so fresh and vibrant with its yellow coconut curry and assortment of garnishes that it instantly reminds you of summer. Though the taco triangles were good they could not hold a candle up to, the now discontinued ‘Fajitas’, they were the absolute best form of comfort food and I miss them dearly.

The drinks were good, the coffee was strong and the mojito fresh. All-in-all the entire experience was great.
We would recommend ‘The Cellar’ if what you want to do is chill out for a few hours and have some absolutely good quality, lip-smacking food.