Thursday 12 June 2014

Shree Rathnam - Restaurants

Hello Friends!
Today I am going to review the Restaurant, "Shree Rathnam", a South Indian Cuisine, Pure Vegetarian Food Chain. My review is based on my dining in at their various branches, take aways, and Home deliveries. The selection of food items I have had at their different outlets can also be considered a factor influencing my review (about taste and quality of food), however I have tried a lot of variety.



Shree Rathnam




Shree Rathnam is established by core team which is having a vast experience of 35 year with various restaurant chains in all over India. Sagar Ratna broke off into two, namely, Sagar Ratna, and Shree Rathnam following the family feud.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.shreerathnam.com/index.php

The restaurant is one of the famous South Indian Cuisine Restaurant in North India. The food quality, aroma, the ambience of the dine-in, packaging, are all extremely good.

Food Quality


The quality of food at Shree Rathnam cannot be doubted! You get exactly what you pay for. The prices are of course moderate, as per any reputed chain, and the food quality is totally amazing. My experience suggests they use good quality spices/condiments, cereals, oil, etc. in their food. Though I am not sure if they have some kind of certificate for that. If anyone can pass that info to my readers, it'd be great.

Taste


The food is totally amazing. I just love their South Indian Food. The North Indian Food too tastes good, but I prefer Shree Rathnam for South Indian food only.

Prices


I have attached a menu of Shree Rathnam towards the end of the post. You guys can consider the prices there. I find the prices in an acceptable range considering the food quality, reputation of the food chain, quality of services, cleanliness and ambience of their restaurants, etc.

I have tried a lot of food items at Shree Rathnam. I have pics of few. I'll share my experience, of all the food items I can remember, with you all.

Mysore Masala Dosa




It is a spicy Dosa. The Dosa itself has a layer of spices on the inner side, apart from the regular Potato-sabzi masala that the dosas generally have. The Mysore dosa are crispy and brown/red on the outside with a bit of a sponginess on the inside. Since Shree Rathnam is pure vegetarian, the sponginess is a result of the spices only. Else the real Mysore Masala Dosa have meat to make the inner layer spongy.

Mysore Masala Dosa at Shree Rathnam is one of my favourites after the Rava Masala Dosa. If you ever visit Shree Rathnam do try their Mysore Masala Dosa.

Tomato Uthapam




Uthapam can be considered as South Indian Pizza! Shree Rathnam's Tomato Uthapam tastes good. They have a very good amount of tomato topping. But I guess anyone who is not a tomato fan, would rather skip it. You can go for Onion Uthapam which is totally delicious and un-skippable!

Rava Masala Dosa/Onion Rava Masala Dosa




Shree Rathnam offers both Onion, and Sans Onion (Without Onion) variants of many of the South Indian Food Items, even Sambhar! So those who don't eat Onion, can definitely go for Rava Masala Dosa at Shree Rathnam. Though I love thier Onion Rava Masala Dosa, it's my favourite.

Sambhar


Mouth watering, filled with tonnes of vegetables, and perfectly 'masaledaar' (spicy). If you are trying South Indian Food, of course they serve Sambhar with everything (you don't buy sambhar specifically). Shree Rathnam's Sambhar is really good.

Chutney


They offer green and red chutneys with all the food you'd buy. The green chutney is the Dhania-Pudina (Corainder-Mint) Chutney and is really tasty. Though I love the red chutney more. I don't know what all the red chutney has, but it tastes like onion-garlic chutney and has a khatta-meetha (sour-n-sweet) taste. With South Indian food, apart from the Green and Red Chutney you'll get the Coconut Chutney. I didn't like their Coconut chutney much. I find other restaurants' Coconut Chutney much better.

Ghee Roast Masala Dosa


This is something you should definitely try if you are not diet conscious/low-fat eating kid. The normal Masala Dosa is ghee roasted and has such a wonderful taste and aroma of ghee that you won't be able to resist once it'll be served to you. It is much much more crisp and oily. So diet conscious people, skip it. Others, do try it once!

South Indian Coffee


I didn't find anything special about it. The only thing different was that it was served in a small steel tumbler. I couldn't differentiate it from any normal filter coffee. So I cannot comment further on it. Maybe somebody else could figure out any difference.

Spring Dosa


I had this a long time ago, so it's not quite fresh in my memory. But I remember it was very heavy, I couldn't finish it. I was feeling overloaded after having 3/4th of it. It was very very tasty and could satisfy any sort of appetite :D But I'd suggest, if you don't eat tooooo much, then order it ONLY when you have somebody else with you who could help you finish it :P

Paneer Dosa


Very tasty, filled with lots of paneer (cottage cheese) and tastes very good. I guess it was the costliest Dosa at Shree Rathnam.

Chhole Bhathure


Not really cool. Only go for it if your a Chhole Bhature fan. Else I didn't find them good at Shree Rathnam.

Dal Makhani


When I ordered Dal Makhani, I was confused about my decision of ordering North Indian food in a South Indian Restaurant. But I liked it very much. But be cautious! They use cardamom in Dal Makhani, and you can experience it's taste. So if you don't like the taste of cardamom in your Dal Makhani, skip it. Else, go for it.

Butter Nan


Didn't expect a true Butter Nan at Shree Rathnam, but to my amazement, I found really good, thin, and crisp butter nan there. Too much butter added to the taste and aroma to the already well roasted Nan. If you are going for North Indian food at Shree Rathnam, go for Butter Nan.

Dine In Experience

Ambience


As soon as you will step in, you'll know you are in a South Indian Restaurant. The aroma of the spicy and delicious South Indian Food would leave you mouth watering and escalate your hunger multi fold even before you are seated! :D The restaurants of the Shree Rathnam Food Chain have a very good interior. At the entrance you'll always find the idols of South Indian Hindu deities and a small temple kind of with glowing dias (lamps), and agarabattis (incensed sticks).

Cleanliness


Very clean restaurant (I cannot say about the kitchen though! :P), clean tables, and clean utensils. 5/5 to their cleanliness! :)

Service


I would say the service is good, I cannot say the best service, but Shree Rathnam offers really good service. The waiters would serve you well, you will be treated well, and you won't have to wait for long for your food. Always remember, if the food is freshly prepared, you have to be a little patient.

Rush


The restaurant is generally filled more than 50%. Whenever I have been there, I have seen reserved seats there, suggesting something good only :) In the peak hours and on holidays, there is a lot of crowd, and you may have to wait for a few minutes before you get a seat!

Take Away Experience


You can go to Shree Rathnam, order food, get it packed, and take it home. You are not bound to dine-in!

Packaging


The packing of food at Shree Rathnam was really good, and I wasn't too worried about food spills while I'd carry it to my home. They pack dosas in butter paper, sambhar and chutneys in plastic bags, use good quality rubber bands to pack the polybags, put everything in large cakeboxes, and then everything in a huge polybag and hand it to you.

Service


I didn't have to wait for long to get my order. Though I have never had a chance to go for a takeaway when there is a lot of crowd in the restaurant, so I cannot comment much about it.

Home Delivery Experience


Shree Rathnam offers free and fast home delivery.

Packaging


The packing was really good, and not even a little but of food was spilled when I got he food delivered to my home. They pack dosas in butter paper, sambhar and chutneys in plastic bags, use good quality rubber bands to pack the polybags, put everything in large cakeboxes, and then everything in a huge polybag and bring it to you.

Service


Generally they'd say they'll deliver in 40 minutes on normal days, and 1 hour on busy days. My experience suggests, they deliver well in time, in an acceptable error of <5-10minutes>.

Packed Food




Packed Dosas and Uthapams




White Cakebox: Sambhar, Dosas and Uthapams




Packed Sambhar




Packed Chutneys




Contact




CORPORATE OFFICE:

N-161/A, 5th Floor,
Community Center,
Gautam Nagar,
New Delhi - 110049

[phone] +91-(011)-265-223-11
[fax] +91-(011)-265-223-12
[mail] info@shreerathnam.com

The latest list of outlets (with contact info) can be found here: http://www.shreerathnam.com/outlets.php and http://www.shreerathnam.com/franchise.php

The menu that I had at the time of writing this review, has the following outlets with contact info:



Menu


You can get the latest menu here: http://www.shreerathnam.com/menu-card.php

Though on the time of writing this review, the latest menu is:





For Party?


I threw a party at Shree Rathnam 2 years back. I invited around 12 families and everyone ordered whatever they liked. Including all the tips, etc. I had a total bill of 9750 INR (inclusive of all taxes!). Thus, I consider it a budget friendly option for good parties.

Verdict: 4/5



Shree Rathnam specializes in South Indian Food. But since they offer a variety apart from that, I cannot simply say they are totally amazing. Thus, if I'd review only South Indian food, I'd give them 4.5/5, because their Coconut Chutney ain't that good. But when reviewing overall, I have to consider other food items too. Thus, I give them 4/5. I'll say Shree Rathnam is a very good South Indian Restaurant and totally comparable to Sagar Ratna. One can be confused between which of the two to go to. But they both are good enough. So, the verdict is, Shree Rathnam is a very good Pure Vegetarian Restaurant. If you like South Indian food, SHree Rathnam is a good choice to go for.

Sunday 27 April 2014

WD My Passport Ultra - Memory/Storage Devices

Hello everyone!
Today I am here to share my views about a good External Hard Disk - WD My Passport Ultra. I have used a 1 TB drive to share my views.



WD: Western Digital Corporation




Western Digital Corporation (often abbreviated as WDC or WD) is one of the largest computer hard disk drive manufacturers (along with Seagate Technology) in the world. It has a long history in the electronics industry as an integrated circuit maker and a storage products company. Western Digital was founded on April 23, 1970 by Alvin B. Phillips, a Motorola employee, as General Digital, initially (and briefly) a manufacturer of MOS test equipment. It rapidly became a speciality semiconductor maker, with start-up capital provided by several individual investors and industrial giant Emerson Electric Company. Around July 1971, it adopted its current name and soon introduced its first product, the WD1402A UART.

WD sells many hard drives with warranties of either one, two, three, or five years included in the retail price, but it offers the customer the option of purchasing a longer (two- or three-year) warranty on its web site. Three years is the current industry standard and while Seagate Technology (a competitor) used to offer a 5 years of warranty for all its drives, it recently moved back to a one-year warranty for its bulk (bare/OEM) consumer-level drives. They also have a replacement policy, where you can replace a broken product with a new one up to 30 days after purchase.

High performance Raptor drives as well as the Caviar Black Series and RE Series still come with a five-year warranty.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.wdc.com/

Packaging






The packaging is really good. You can see the images I have uploaded here. The outer box is really good quality cardboard. The inner box is also of very good quality. It is transparent plastic on one side and white opaque on the other side. The compartments are well made to store hard disk, wire, manual, etc.

I still keep the hard disk in that inner box. I really didn't need to buy a case for the hard disk since the inner box is quite sturdy.







What's inside the box?




1WD My Passport Ultra
2Wire (Backward Compatible USB 3.0)
3Manual
4Pouch



Pouch






The WD My Passport Ultra Hard Disk comes with a nice looking pouch. The cloth is of okay quality, but well you are getting something! :P Don't worry it doesn't look as bad as my photography makes it look. The pouch looks quite nice and you would like to carry your WD My Passport Ultra hard disk in that pouch.





Looks










The hard disk looks superb! Really, it is slim, light weight and the design on the body looks pretty cool. Built in an ultra-sleek and stylish design, the WD Passport sports a slim 15.4 mm thick body that makes it extremely convenient to carry it around. The device bears a sturdy body that is designed to last in order to keep your data safe.

Dimensions: 15.4 x 110.5 x 82 mm



Capacity


The WD My Passport Ultra External Hard Disk is labelled 1 TB. Although the computer understands this as 1024 GB (or 1024 x 1024 MB), but the manufacturers give (1000 x 1000 MB) as 1 TB. This is the reason why you get something around 965GB in a 1 TB hard disk. Technically, the drives are labelled using the "decimal definition" of 1000 bytes to the kilobyte, resulting in a perceived capacity shortfall to those used to the "binary definition" of 1024 bytes to the kilobyte, which is how most operating systems report capacity.

While more and more movies, games and shows load your system, this WD Passport Ultra is here with 1 TB of storage space to let you comfortably store all your media and personal data. Just imagine, 1 TB is just too much!

Speed




Experience blazing speeds with the USB 3.0 interface that lets you transfer data at up to 5 Gbps while the USB 2.0 interface transfers data at a maximum of 480 Mbps. But that's the interface speed not the data transfer speeds to be precise. I have taken screenshots of the lowest read speed and maximum write speed I have experienced with WD My Passport Ultra External Hard Disk.

Test Maximum Speed Minimum Speed Average Speed
READ(USB 3.0) 77.8 MBps 33.6 MBps 55.7 MBps
READ(USB 2.0) 40.4 MBps 20 MBps 30.2 MBps
WRITE(USB 3.0) 30.1 MBps 7.8 MBps 18.95 MBps
WRITE(USB 2.0) 15.6 MBps 3.9 MBps 9.75 MBps



Bundled Apps




The portable hard drive features the WD SmartWare Pro backup software that lets you use Dropbox to back up to the cloud or back up to the drive itself directly. The device comes with the WD SmartWare Pro automatic backup software that helps protect your data and keep it all safe by creating instant backups. With the WD Security you can password protect your data and also add hardware encryption for your drive to help keep your data private.

Wire




Integrating both the USB 2.0 as well as the USB 3.0 connectivity options, the hard disk can be connected to all your USB 2.0 devices to transfer data. The USB 3.0 takes you to the next generation and lets you connect and transfer data at ultra high speeds. The WD My Passport Ultra External Hard Disk is USB powered and you don't need external power to make it running.

The wire quality is very good, though the wire is quite short. You can only attach it to your laptop. If you wish to attach it to your computer's back-USB ports, you have to keep your hard disk on the CPU cabinet only since the wire is quite short. But that's the case with every External Hard Disk. The wire is around 45cm in length, and though it is short, it is quite sufficient. Why I made contradictory statements? Well the wire is actually short, but since you should keep you hard disk stable and don't really need to roam around with it while it's connected (I assume), the wire length is sufficient.



Price


The hard disk is mostly sold in a price range of 4000 INR to 5000 INR (~65.964 USD to 82.45 USD). I cracked a deal at 3800 INR. So I'd say if you get a deal in the slab of 3700-4300 INR, the deal is totally worth it. The hard disk is really good, the design is awesome, and WD is a trustworthy company; so, that price range is really a good deal.

Warranty


The WD My Passport Ultra Hard Disk comes with a 3 year limited warranty. You can check the WD support pages for more info.

WD: Service/Support


Check Here: http://support.wdc.com/contact/index.asp?wdc_lang=en for contact info
Check This: http://support.wdc.com/country/index.asp for by-country support

Support (India): 1800-200-5789 & 1800-419-5591 [Monday - Saturday; 9 AM - 6 PM IST; Support is unavailable on India public holidays]

Contact WD India: http://support.wdc.com/country/country.asp?c=india

Verdict: 4.5/5




I have already said, no room for 5/5 for any device! :D So I am giving my maximum 4.5/5 to this hard disk. It looks good, the design is amazing, WD is a trustworthy brand, the speed is really awesome, and the hard disk is a winner with all those bundled apps in all the domains, be it price, or performance! So as I said, if you get it in a range of 3700-4300 INR, don't think twice before buying the WD My Passport Ultra Hard Disk.

Sunday 23 March 2014

Strontium Jet USB 3.0 Flash Drive – Memory/Storage Devices

Hello everyone!
Today I am going to review Strontium Jet USB 3.0 Flash Drive. I am using a 16GB version to review.



Strontium




"Strontium Technology Pte Ltd is a global leader in PC and flash memory manufacturing currently based out of Singapore. As of today, we have a total manufacturing capacity of 500,000 memory modules and 7,000,000 flash products every month.

Founded in 2002, we have since grown from strength to strength. Today, our operations span varied territories; so as to best serve our customers across Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, China, Taiwan, India, Middle East, Africa, US, Canada and Latin America. In total, we maintain a strong market presence in over 30 countries.

Here at Strontium, customers, employees and suppliers alike are viewed with equal importance and significance. This is instrumental in fostering a strong, cohesive and collaborative working culture - one that allows for the forging of strong industrial and customer relations.

Our in-depth understanding of the memory market, coupled with expert product knowledge, gives us a true competitive advantage over our industry peers."

- from the About Us Page of the Company



Packaging


Sorry, but this time I don’t have any pics of the packed Pen Drive since I bought it way back before I started this blog. So I didn’t take any pictures back then. But I remember the packing well. Remember my review about the Moser Baer Swivel Pen Drive? He packing is similar. So the quality of packing is good, if not great and box packed! But I guess, that’s the case with most pen drives though HP Pen Drives are extremely well packed. So I’d say, the packing is good enough, not great.



Looks


Just take a look at the pics of the Pen Drive I have got for you guys. That’d be enough to prove you that the pen drive really looks cool. I bought a blue coloured Strontium Jet Flash Drive as you can see. The small rope kind of at the other end is one that I attached to it from my former HP pen drive. The Strontium Jet Flash is NOT accompanied with that. In all, the cool blue colour looks cool, my pics might be bad! :P Also I have seen the black variant, it too looks totally amazing!



Build Style & Quality


The Strontium Jet USB 3.0 Flash pen drive is a classic cap style pen drive and it looks real cool. The only problem is that you got to take care of its cap at times! Haha! As if it really matters, but it looks good that way.



The build quality is good. I mean it’s been more than a year since I bought this pen drive and I have carried it to college, etc. many times in my bag or pant-pockets. That means the handling has been both good and rough, but the pen drive has survived even when pressed between 3 books, if you know the size of engineering books, you’ll have an idea how much toughness this beauty has survived! :D



Dimensions

Length 59.56 mm
Width 18.5 mm
Height 8.5 mm
Weight 11.3 gm



Technical Specs




I have used the Windows checkdisk utility to get these specs which I have shown above. You can see the Pen Drive is 16GB. I have formatted it in NTFS and I get 14.8 GB in that case. Sorry I cannot share benchmarking specs for this pen drive since I don’t have the utility installed with me for now.



The good thing is that this pen drive is USB 3.0 This means the new version of USB interface, which is quite faster as compared to the earlier one. The USB 3.0 ports are blue in colour, that’s how you recognize a USB 3.0 device. Although this pen drive has a USB 3.0 interface, the speed is not that high. Though, the speed is good enough to not to be troublesome since most of the pen drive available are USB 2.0 and thus we get the slow 4-5 mbps from most pen drives generally. Hence, a 40-50 mbps pen drive is uber cool! :D

Operating Temperature 0°C - 70°C
Humidity 20 % to 90 %
USB USB 1.1, 2.0, 3.0
Power consumption 1.2V
Power Supply DC 4.5V ~ 5.5V from USB port

Speed


As I told you guys this pen drive is a USB 3.0 pen drive, the speed is ought to be good, and so is the case. I have got speeds as high as 40-50mbps constant during data transfers from this pen drive, and around 20mbps when writing to this pen drive. However during the time of testing the pen drive for this review I have got the following results:

Interface Max. Speed Min. Speed Average Speed
USB 2.0 READ 40 mbps 22.8 mbps 31.4 mbps
USB 2.0 WRITE 20 mbps 9.2 mbps 14.6 mbps
USB 3.0 READ 56.7 mbps 27.5 mbps 42.1 mbps
USB 3.0 WRITE 38.2 mbps 10.8 mbps 24.5 mbps













As you all can infer from this data that the minimum speed of this pen drive (viz. write speed at USB 2.0 Interface) is ~9.2 mbps which is more than that of a typical USB 2.0 pen drive on a USB 3.0 port! This is enough to make you all realize that this pen drive performs awesome speed-wise. And in case you have got USB 3.0 ports on your laptop/computer, well! Then you will be able to see real awesome data transfer speeds.



Reliability


I have stored data for as long as 3 months in one go and have seen it being persistent. During that time I have added and removed parts of data (keeping this test data intact) and found no problems of data getting corrupt/lost. Thus, I believe Strontium Jet USB 3.0 Flash Drive is a reliable external storage device.



Price


I bought Strontium Jet USB 3.0 Flash Drive in February last year (2013) at a price of 569 INR (which is currently ~ $9.344 with $1 = 60.89 INR today). I don’t have any recent prices since I haven’t done a price check on this one since a long time, but since I have seen the price of computer equipment rising like anything in last 8 months, I guess it might not be available at a lower price, if not a higher price than this.

So if you get this pen drive at anything around 500-560 INR, it is a steal deal and you must buy it since the USB 3.0 pen drives are not too common as yet, and hence the price of most of them starts from >800 INR.

Warranty


Strontium Jet USB 3.0 Flash Drive comes with a 5 Years Hassle-free Strontium Limited Warranty. Strontium says:

”Strontium brings you free Door-to-Door warranty service in India in association with Blue Dart, India’s leading courier company. The initiative, a first of its kind by a memory company in India, will serve to enhance Strontium’s after-sales service in the country. Under the offer, users of Strontium products can now avail warranty service from the convenience of their home or office without having to physically visit the retailer.” Read more here

But since I don’t have any experience of their warranty service (and I wish I don’t need it too! LOL!) I cannot comment on it.

Strontium Contact Information


Official Website: http://www.strontium.biz/

Monthly Promotions for discounts, etc.: http://www.strontium.biz/products/monthly-promotion

New Delhi
Flat N0-805, Madhuban Building,
Building Number-55,
Nehru Place,
New Delhi-110019
Tel: +91- 11 – 40568675
RMA : techsupport@strontium.biz
Email: indiasales@strontium.biz

More here

Verdict




Strontium Jet USB 3.0 pen drive looks good; the blue colour is totally amazing. With a good speed performance, and reliable data storage, I give this pen drive 4.5/5 because it is well priced. The downside is that, many people don’t trust Strontium and frankly, I myself am not sure how good the company actually is. But honestly, my experience with the micro SD cards and pen drive of Strontium has been good enough to find it moderately trustworthy. It is a good buy, and if you want to buy a good flash drive at a nice price (500-600 INR for 16 GB USB 3.0), grab Strontium Jet USB 3.0 pen drive without much thinking!