Looking for that perfect pizza place to mark the end of a stressful week? Read on!
Onesta as the Italian name suggests, is a beautiful pizza place with a lot of other dishes of Italian and Western cuisine. On the second floor and with glass walls, Onesta is illuminated by bright sunlight during the day. The beautiful chandeliers and the gleaming light that gets reflected off the glass walls makes it an even more pleasant ambience in the night; *Hint*: this backdrop would be excellent for photoshoot purposes.
The Place
One can comfortably take any of the three or so buses from the Pilayar Kovil bus stop outside Taramani Gate. A cab wouldn’t cost too much either. The place is right in front of the Sathyabhama University entry gate arch, alongside the Old Mahabalipuram Road aka OMR road. It’s admittedly a bit far from insti but considering the food and ambience, I don’t find it a good enough reason to not go there.
Though it is on the main road, the road is seldom hit by heavy traffic and is mostly peaceful. On the other side of the road is a large tract of abandoned land which conveys a mood similar to that of a beach side restaurant in the dark. Onesta has a quirk for serving water in pirate themed glass bottles- which go delightfully with the entirely wooden furniture of the restaurant.
The Food
In my honest opinion the items are a bit overpriced individually. But a popular combo offer in which you get unlimited amount of a selected variety of food with a complimentary drink is the one everyone would mostly be looking for. The common offer would be unlimited pizzas and desserts with one soft drink of your choice and it would cost you around Rs. 380 for vegetarian choice and Rs. 470 for non-vegetarian choice (which I tried out) of the unlimited pizzas.
The pizzas were absolutely delicious, cheesy and they had that perfect thin crust. It is definitely a place to visit for all the pizza lovers like me out there. There were almost around 8-10 different kinds of Pizzas in vegetarian and non-vegetarian each. Non-vegetarian ones included chicken fried, sausage, pepperoni, prawns and these permuted with three to four vegetarian side toppings. I haven’t tried the vegetarian ones, but the menu seemed promising consisting of mushroom, baby corn, pineapple, paneer, corn and cooked in 2-3 ways. The sight of the pizza served on the wooden pan of a tray will leave your mouth watering for sure.
In addition to pizzas , there were a few varieties of pasta and some barbecue dishes, all of which I found perfectly done. One should surely check out the menu online.
Next up is the offer of unlimited desserts, which with all conviction, I can say were some of the best I ever had. There was a beautiful dessert counter and all you need to do is to go grab a plate and take all you want to eat. There was no line or a queue and it was cakewalk (pun intended) eating them. There was a smorgasbord of luscious cakes, tarts and custards. There were chocolate and cheese cakes which I especially liked. The caramel, chocolate and fruit tarts were amazing with a perfect balance of added sweetness and the actual flavor. We couldn’t resist tasting the delectable chocolate and coffee mousses either. They were all almost sinfully good and to think you can eat how many ever you want of everything!
The beverage is the final touch, you can have it anytime you want though. Each of us have ordered one different kind of a drink. While they were fine, they were nowhere close to the pizza or the desserts. The banana milkshake I took was decent at best.
Service
The service was laudable. Provided that I went with my friends as a group of ten, it was understandably a bit slow. But we didn’t have to wait too long. There was one waiter for each of the big tables on an average and hygiene was very well maintained. The staff are pretty friendly too.
Overall, it’s a great place for having those indulgent monthly or fortnightly dinners and you can come back with your tummy filled with food and contentment. Based on the topography and demography it is better visited at night.
