Florence is a beautiful city by day and very spectacular at night . . we love it. My wife and I flew into Rome on Thursday, March 20th to begin our 2 week vacation in Italy. We arrived in Florence by Bullet Train from Rome on Sunday, March 23rd. A well appointed king suite on the 5th floor of the luxurious Hotel Berchielli would be HOME for the next 4 days. Hard to beat that view of the picturesque River Arno ! We had a couple of day tours planned while in Florence and had engaged the services of our fav limo tour driver Martin who knew the ropes around here better than most. Martin had become our good friend since we first used his services 18 months before when he drove us from Florence to Bologna via the scenic route.
On Wednesday, March 26th . . our last day in Florence we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at our hotel, a fabulous lunch at a nearby cafe and then visited the incredible Palazzo Pitti / Boboli Gardens. During our walk back to Hotel Berchielli we agreed that our evening meal would be Indian. Enjoyin’ a nice Italian beer in our hotel suite while looking up Google Maps I found a surprisingly large number of Indian eateries but for some reason was attracted to Indian Palace – 2,663 reviews at 4.9 would be very hard to beat anywhere in the world. NO RESERVATION ! We left the hotel at around 6.20pm for the walk over here and arrived at the front door at 6.40pm.
It’s always a worry when entering a completely empty restaurant at this time of the evening however we remembered that people dine out late in Italy . . we were the early birds. BEAUTIFUL INTERIOR ! We said hi to a couple of guys at the cashier desk and soon after a female server named Jessi showed us to a table inside the long elegant dining room. AND THEN ! A well attired guy introduced himself as Kiran the manager and then proceeded to spoil us rotten for our entire dinner visit. FIRST UP ! As usual we requested glasses of cold water and I enquired about their craft beer selection. I was offered a Kingfisher . . a popular Indian premium lager – 4.5% abv.
Within a couple of minutes an ice cold bottle of Kingfisher and a matching tall glass arrived in front of me. For what I would term a mild beer it tasted quite good ! A Mixed Veggie Appetizer and a serve of Paper Dosa came out in quick succession . . the Dosa tasted heavenly. We noticed diners starting to trickle in around 7pm and they were mostly Indians . . a very good sign. ENTREES ! My wife loves Butter Chicken and I can’t resist Biryani so that was what we ordered . . I added Shrimp to my Biryani plus a serve of Cheese Naan. VERY FAST SERVICE ! My wife’s Butter Chicken with bowl of Basmati White Rice and my Malabar Prawn Biryani were delivered courtesy of server Rohit.
Everything tasted extraordinary ! I asked for another Kingfisher premium lager. In the meantime my wife enjoyed a glass of Sweet Lassi thanks to Kiran the manager who beckoned me to try a shot of Paan Liqueur – 25% abv . . it had a good kick ! Finally we were given a bowl of Kesari Kheer . . a creamy Indian rice pudding. The restaurant was pretty packed out by the time we finished up at around 8.30pm. We couldn’t have been happier with our delicious dinner and the attentive service of our servers Rohit & Jessi. Not forgetting Kiran the charismatic manager who made us feel like royalty. We settled up with Wasi the cashier and headed back to our hotel. DINNER HERE IS A MUST !
