I will be honest, as i sat in my car to reach Ambience Lawns i was skeptical about how Grub Fest 2.0 would be like. I had been to the first edition of the food festival, then organized at JLN lawns and was disheartened to see how a smartly organized experience had suffered as a result of administrative issues and bad weather.
No doubts the first edition of the The Grub Fest was a descent enjoyable experience but with major performers advertised and taken off from the card at the last minute, the overall ethos of 'celebrating the love for food' was dampened.
However, this time around the organizers of the gastronomic fest were prepared to deliver a thundering experience to its attendees and to be honest they surpassed all expectations.
To start off, the exact location of the fest was neatly marked out and as soon as one entered the venue they could not help but submit themselves to the festivity and joyousness in the ambiance. The attendees were indeed having a good time and that reflected in the overall vibe of the event. With light jazzy music, stunning art installations by Varun Behl, photo booths and a plethora of eateries to choose from, The Grub Fest was undoubtedly one of the best places a family could be at during the festival season.
Even crucial details like security for women, parking facilities and layout of the festival were taken care of. The toilets which usually are a massive let down at such crowded events too were a pleasure to be in. The food exhibitors this edition included names of Punjab Grill, Olive Bistro, SodaBottleOpenerWala, Social, Indigo Deli, Flyp by MTV, Fio, Smokeys, À Ta Maison & PCO, Urban Pind, Dao Dimcha, Koyla Kebab, Holy Smoke, The Backyard, Zerzura, Imperfecto, Karim’s, Mamagoto, Hybrid, Fat Lulu’s, Koyla Kebab, Fork You Too, Asian Haus, Sugarama and others
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Though a few attendees wished that some of the restaurants would not charge such fairly steep prices for their services so that they could try more diverse cuisines however since the festival was strategically organized to get the best out of the Dussehra festive season, restaurants did not mind demanding a bit extra.
Speaking about it an attendee, Maitri Sharma (23) said, "I am loving every bit of the festival and it is great fun. Really love the food outlets but i wish some of them serve something in student budgets too."
An interesting fact about the Grub Fest 2.0 was the Grub Market that featured fresh produce from vegetables to salads homemade jams, namkeen, wine ice-creams, waffles, cupcakes, honey and even aam papads. Clearly this was a section that grabbed most attention from the women members of a family. Also the luxury zone curated by Leela Ambience, although had restricted entry but was a unique concept which served dishes prepared by reputed chefs like Ramon Salto and Pablo Moralis.
However what truly made The Grub Fest stand out among everything else was its entertainment quotient. With artists like Nikhil Chinapa and Vir Das combining the fun & frolic of scrumptious food and gala entertainment, life seemed pretty good at that moment to everyone present and people could not stop themselves from joining the fun. Also Grub Stories - the one of its kind multi storey travelling restaurant provided the 360* live action of the entire festival took the attendees breath away.
Speaking about the entertainment, Roopanki Kalra (22) said, "Well i got to dance to the tunes of Nikhil Chinnapa today and it was amazing. I have been to a lot of such food and entertainment festivals but this one is truly amazing. My friends and i are having a gala time."
To conclude i entered The Grub Fest with a lot of assumptions about it and halfway into the festival i became an indispensable part of its experience. Yes, i ended up spending a lot more than i should have because of steep prices at stalls in spite of me paying the entry fees however the festival delivered on what it promised. Entertainment, Food, Music, Art all at one place, The Grub Fest 2.0 was simply the place to be at last weekend.
