Trevi (And Why I Walked Out)

Trevi has been a source of great curiosity for me over the last few months. When I first saw the place, I had no idea if it was a restaurant, an art gallery or a fountain shop and the parking lot was always empty. Needless to say, I didn't venture in.

Next, they put up a sign a few weeks later that said "Trevi - Home of the Wishing Fountain". - Again, I had no idea what meant. Are you a restaurant, Trevi? Who knows. Keeping in line with their brilliant marketing strategy, their next piece of signage read "Trevi - The First Concept Restaurant in Town". Aha! So it was indeed a restaurant and not just any restaurant. It was a *concept* restaurant. I let the fact that the concept wasn't really mentioned slip and decided to go check it out anyway.

I was prepared for the worst. I was expecting a blandly decorated Italian place without any hint of good Italian food.. I was wrong on at least one of these thoughts. To say that I was pleasantly surprised would be a huge understatement. The restaurant had been done up amazingly. When I walked in, I saw a mini replica of the Trevi Fountains which looked extremely good and really added to the rest of the decor, which was very visually pleasing.

Before our waiter took us to our table, I noticed a small bakery on the side which I thought was a nice touch. Looking forward to my meal, I took my seat and started browsing through the menu. I went through the list of appetizers and decided on some bruschetta.

On the next page was the soup menu and I was shocked to find a Thai soup (Tom Yum Goong) on the list. What was a Thai soup doing on the menu of an Italian "concept" restaurant? Je ne sais pas. However, the oddity was overshadowed by the eclectic menu that was to follow.

The Italian entrees included some pastas, steaks and pizzas. For some reason, there was a long list of non-Italian entrees that included burgers, Thai food and last but not least, Pakistani food. Yes, this place that would like me to believe that it's entire theme is built around Italy, Italian food and one of the biggest attractions in Italy serves desi barbecue. This was the last straw. I paid for the bottle of water that we had ordered and walked out of the restaurant. I could not bring myself to eat in a restaurant that was so utterly confused about it's identity.

I feel that the owners of Trevi have completely mismanaged the concept and image of the restaurant. They had a very good opportunity which seems to have gone to waste. A nicely decorated restaurant with a clear Italian theme could have done well on M.M.Alam Road (Assuming of course that the food were to be good). I don't know why Trevi had to go down this road but I hope they can alter their strategy and focus purely on fine Italian food and not chicken jalfrezi.