The Cosmo Cafe, Manipal

This place used to be fantastic. A great hangout for friends, good (never great) food. But fun nonetheless. I went there this last Saturday and including us there were 4 people. 4. On a Sat night at 9 pm. Not a good sign. As always I went for the pasta bar. 2nd thing that foretold of not so nice things ahead was the fact that the pasta was uncovered. That makes it hard and unpalatable. I ordered my pasta again as always, full of meat (or so I hoped).

It was delivered to me 10 min later. A simple plate with just maybe almost the right amount of pasta with two pieces of bread. The bread was completely dry. Unpalatable. Unlike before where you could pick up the bread from the basket with butter / jam as you pleased. Now I had to ask for it. They provided promptly though. A little piece of Amul butter. Still not palatable. Went for the pasta which had sprinkling’s of cheese on it. It was horrible. I ate a few bites, then left the rest of pasta and just ate the meat and veggies in it. It was over cooked, hard (as expected). Absolutely NO flavor. No salt at all.

Worst part was that this is Cosmos Cafe. Rs 150 a plate. (Double what it used to be (Rs 75) only a year or so ago). They’ve doubled the prices, reduced the quantity AND thrown the quality out of the window. By far the most disappointing restaurant in town. In a setting that it’s in (Inside Fortune, Hotel), the only good hotel in Manipal, and the premium that they charge for everything I would expect better.  I’ve already washed my hands from their breakfast buffet which again used to be fantastic once, now is beyond useless.  Will never go their again.  Not worth it at all.  Far better options in town.