Indu, Cherie and I checked out Vaango a few days back and came away mostly impressed. Quite unlike most other south Indian restaurants in the city, the people at Vaango actually know how to say ‘please’, ‘thank you’ and most incredibly, they smile too! Across the board, from the cashier (usually the most sullen of the lot), the counter staff and service personnel, everyone seemed eager to please and well informed about the restaurant and its food. Full points there.
The interiors at Vaango are laid out like a standard food court with about 65 covers and self service counters including one for the unlimited refills they offer for sambars and chutneys. Clean, bright and cheery, you probably won’t find anything to complain about at Vaango, except perhaps the lady I heard grumbling about the lack of a lift. True, it’s on the 2nd floor, but the stairs have a gentle gradient and most of you won’t even feel the climb. I didn’t.
The food menu is split into individual items and combos, which seemed like good value for money to me. We tried the Jumbo Combo (280), Filter Coffee (40), Butter milk (40), Rasam (40), Neer Dosa (95) and a Masala Dosa (75). The Jumbo combo included two rice idlis, two medu vadas, one rawa kesari, two mini masala dosas and two regular pepsis. The Neer Dosa was slightly undercooked, though still edible. Two types of sambar (with/without onions) were a nice touch. The stew served with the appams lacked flavor. Most of the food otherwise was passably nice but perhaps a little too generic. Our order also seemed to have been served short of an idli and vada, per the menu description, something we realised later.
Sonny Rao, who lives in NOIDA, recently tried and liked Vaango, adding that the stew was too watery for his taste and he would have liked to be able to order more appams. He also observed that the Curd Rice, one of the more expensive items on the menu came in very small portions accompanied by soggy mor mullaga (butter milk soaked and salted fried chilies) that should ideally have been fried a little prior to serving.
To opiniate, I think the menu at Vaango needs a little more innovation to make it a destination of sorts. Also, as most groups who have a difference in opinion on the kind of food they want to eat, will head to Sagar Ratna (Indian Chinese and Indian too) the folks at Vaango may wish to elaborate the menu to make it interesting for people across the board. There’s much more to South Indian food with only the most clichéd items present on the Vaango menu, so it shouldn’t be hard to bring in some more.
All in all, I’d recommend a visit or two.
