When I mentioned the move to Pune, a friend[in chennai] mentioned Wadehwar and how it was a popular place for South Indian breakfast. It has now been a little over a year since my move and last week one day while driving down Baner, passing Wadeshwar, I asked P if he’d been there. He replied in negative~
Sometime during that day, I mentioned we should do breakfast with this couple we were friends with, who have been in Pune longer than us & are a fun couple to hang out with. They have an 8yr son who flipped from being “am scared of dogs, I won’t even come towards that room” to “oh Chewy is here, can I get a dog”…. Plan was being made, and what do you know, they picked Wadeshwar for breakfast…
Reached their home around 8 am, picked the duo up [ since it was Saturday, the kid was still asleep] and headed towards Wadeshwar. Surprisingly the place wasn’t jam-packed, but we found it a tad annoying they didn’t have parking and we had to find a spot on the pavement outside. I even saw a few patrons with their travel bags next to them. Looked like a place you can grab a meal before or after a trip, or with friends.
A brief history of the place –
1978 is when the 1st Wadeshwar was opened [ called Sri Wadeshwar Bhuvan] and slowly the business began to grow. They set up an outdoor catering unit and then in 1998, a unique restaurant cum motel “Smile Stone” was launched on Pune-Ahmednagar Highway was launched. It was somewhere around 2002 that the Wadeshwar chain of cafes began sprouting across Pune, but only in 2017 did they open outlets in Malls [ Westend & Pavillion Mall]
They still have the Smile Stone, outdoor catering Kalpak, Wadeshwar Bhuvan, Wadeshwar and Krishna Dining outlets across the town.
Wadeshwar has branches in:
Note: While most outlets open at 7 am, the ones in the Malls open around 11 am only. [They also do delivery via most food delivery apps]
Baner – Purushotham plaza, Baner Road
FC Road
Law College Road
Kalyani Nagar
Bajirao Road
Kothrud
Westend Mall
Pavilion Mall
Coming to the most important part of the story. What we ate… While the menu had South India & North indian {extensive Maharashtrian dishes, we all chose South Indian for the meal] 🙂
1st round: [dishes along with rating]
Hot coffee [served in glass tumblers] – could have been hotter & better, but hey that’s just me~ ♥♥
Butter Onion Oothappam ♥♥♥♥♥
Pesarettu ♥ [was sweet, like it had sugar, and covered in coriander chutney which I cant stand… but it was served with rasam which was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥]
Podi Idli ♥♥♥♥ [Idli was soft and podi was delicious]
Chilli cheese dosai ♥♥♥ [I didn’t try it, but was told it was delicious]
Rasam Vadai ♥♥♥♥♥
Rasam♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ [I had a 2nd helping of it]
2nd Round:[dishes along with rating]
Appe ♥♥♥
Plain Mysore Dosa ♥♥♥
Service- Super quick and polite. We were also not rushed to eat & leave.. ♥♥♥♥♥
Ambience – simple, no frills, but very clean ♥♥♥♥
Price – the entire thing + a parcel of Cheese onion oothappam worked out to Rs1200, which I thought was quite reasonable. ♥♥♥♥
We left with big smiles and made plans to visit a few other places during our next meets… What’s your favourite breakfast place in Pune?
