Aromas of China, Eva Mall, Bangalore

I was quite a fan of Aromas of China, a restaurant belonging to the BJN group.  I've liked the service, ambiance and the food in this outlet and the one in Richmond Circle.

I'd ordered a thick duck meat soup.  It was quite good and had a distinct flavour of green chillies.  The duck meat was hard but that is how duck meat is.  The chicken in sichuan sauce was also nice and spicy and went well with the bamboo fried rice ( veg fried rice served in a hollowed out bamboo stalk - meant to be cooked in it too, but I doubt it was considering that the bamboo was quite dry on the outside).  The items I ordered along with a starter or a dessert would be sufficient for two.

The bill for the aforementioned came to INR 830/- including service charges @ 10%.

And once I had paid the bill, a nice and big cockroach ran across the couch on which I was seated.  I had enjoyed the meal and did not want to take this up with the management.

I certainly will not visit this place in the near future.

Reco - at these rates, if you are keen on cleanliness, please avoid.

World Cuisine Network- La Vigna, Indiranagar, Bangalore

This was supposed to be a place that served various varieties of world cuisine in specialty restaurants under one roof.  I later discovered that it is part of a chain of restaurants based out of Dubai.

We went to the Italian Restaurant - La Vigna.  The place was extremely cold and nothing was being done to increase the temperature despite our requests.  Thankfully we managed to find ourselves a seat beside a pillar that shielded us from the air-conditioner's blast.

The restaurant was quite full as was expected on a Friday night.  We decided to go for a Pizza and since 'Diavola' seemed quite interesting decided to go for that.  Diavola was meant to be a spicy pizza with mozzarella, tomato sauce, beef salami and dried chilly.  It was quite large, if I am right, at least a 10 inch diameter one.  Although it was not the best pizza I have had, the taste was very strange.  It tasted of saffron.  There was a strong saffron flavour in the pizza which was quite unnerving.  I quite did not enjoy the pairing of saffron with tomato, chilly and beef salami.

The Tiramisu was superb.

Service was horrible.  You had to repeat your order to at least one other bearer other than the one who took your order before you are served.

The aforementioned dishes + 2 pints of beer and a large Smirnoff came to INR 1300/-

Reco - Probably can give it a shot to try some unimaginable (may not be tasty) culinary twists.  However, mind the service.

Cream Center - RA Puram, Chennai

This was another one of those places that had got rave reviews in the media. It is a branch of a Mumbai based outfit and dishes out vegetarian cuisine - North Indian and international.

I had a stuffed paratha of onion, mint and garlic - it was nothing but a roomali roti stuffed with onions and deep fried. It was not a paratha where the veggies that needed to be stuffed are stuffed into the dough. A big disappointment.

Veg pakoras were nothing but mixed vegetable bajji and instead of using the bajji chilly for one of the bajjis, they had used regular green chilly. The difference between a bajji and a pakora is while both use similar batter of gram flour and red chilly powder, in the case of a bajji the vegetable is dipped in a slightly light batter and fried in oil, while in the case of pakora, the vegetables / cashew is mixed in a slightly thicker batter and handfulls of the batter are then fried in oil.

The aloo paratha was quite good though. I understand the place specialises in Chole puri - I have not tried that out. Portions are not too big. The ambience and decor are great.  The place is air conditioned.

Although espresso and other coffees are on the menu, they are nothing but those from a Georgia vending machine. Disappointing, given that it is meant to be an upmarket eatery.

Meal for 2 would come to around INR 500.

reco - avoidable

Hotel Dravida, Veilankanni

This is a restaurant located on junction of the 'bus stand' road and the road leading to the main shrine / church.  

We'd been there for lunch.  You are served a number of combos of meals.  Plain vegetarian meals (not recommended as the sambar - a South Indian gravy made with pulses, vegetables, tamarind and a variety of spices - is quite insipid. ) The rasam - another typical South Indian gravy, more like a clear soup, literally means 'essence', made with a host of spices including coriander seeds and cumin seeds, with pulses and either tomato, tamarind or lime to give it the sour punch - is tasty with a garlic flavour.  There is a pulse dish mixed with vegetables (dal / kootu), papad / appalam (a crispy fried snack made with black lentils - urud dal) and a dry vegetarian preparation that are served as accompaniments.  There is also generous servings of very light butter milk (neer mor) but curds are served @ additional cost.

The other meals that are available are fish curry meals, mutton curry meals and chicken curry meals - the veg meals + a spicy gravy of the selected meat.  There are a number of typical non-vegetarian chettinad dishes that are available - such as fish fry (seer fish fry), brain masala (made with goat / cattle brain), mutton chukka ( a dry mutton preperation), sora puttu (a dry flaky dish made with sharks), nandu masala (a semi gravy crab dish) and the list goes on.  

We had ordered all three varieties of non-veg meals and I had a bit of all - the fish gravy meals was the best, although the other two were not bad either.  The fish fry was a bit too well done and a bit dry.  The sora puttu was good and so too was the mutton chukka.

The bill for 6 meals + 3 omelets + 1 mutton chukka + 1 sora puttu + 1 fish fry came to a bit less than INR 400/-.  The interiors are very basic.  The place is quite popular and at times one may have to wait to be seated.  There is no air - conditioning and a place that could comfortably seat around 40 pax seats around 60+pax.

Reco - Must try - especially for lunch- and don't miss the fish curry meals.

Xtreme Sports Bar, 100 Ft Rd, Indira Nagar, Bangalore

The bar is situated just off 12th Main on 100Ft.Road.  It is on the 4th Floor and the entrance is via the back of the building and one has to negotiate their way around the various crates of liquor that is stacked for the bar.  There are no sign boards directing you to this entrance and you will have to ask your way to the entrance.

The bar counter is in the center of the room.  There are a number of bean bags strewn around to make yourself comfortable.  It is air-conditioned and there are a couple of closed rooms wherein a group of 10-15 can have fun in private.  It is dimly lit and one may have a problem in verifying the bill.  There are a number of LCD TVs all around the place and a projector screen showing sports channels.

The acoustics suck.  Fridays are karaoke nights - a nice thing to have and there are a number of crooners who try and belt out love songs.  In the absence of the crooners, a DJ plays music (mostly retro pop and rock and some contemporary popular numbers) and unmindful of the smoking ban in restaurants and bars smokes continuously.  The management also turns a blind eye to this.

The snacks that go with the drinks cost between INR 130 and INR 250.  You can not get the usual 'masala peanuts' or chips.  We ordered what was supposed to be nachos (served with melted cheese and vegetables) - these certainly were not corn chips! & cost INR 200/-.  the menu also included biryanis (including a jack fruit biryani) a number of Indian and continental main courses and a number of kebabs - both veg and non veg.

We went for a 3.5 lit draught beer that comes in a dispenser - more because it was quite unique.  This 3.5 lit of draught costs INR 850/-.  1 litre of draught is available for INR 250/-.

It takes some time before you are able to catch the eye of the waiters who are busy chatting among themselves.  After multiple attempts we had to complain to the manager who then dispersed the waiters to all corners of the bar and the service improved since.

I'll go there again to taste the jack fruit biryani. 

Reco - there is nothing special about this place - you can probably go as a large group - watch IPL matches - guzzle on the 3.5lit draught beer for the experience - try to overlook the bad service and the smoking DJ.

Sangeetha, GandhiNagar, Adyar, Chennai

Staying in Kotturpuram, I have to go to Adyar, T Nagar or Mylapore to get to a decent restaurant with air-conditioning to have breakfast.  I decided to go to Sangeetha in Adyar the other day.  I have trashed a couple of other Sangeetha outlets in this blog and I knew I was taking a big risk.  This is a vegetarian restaurant.

There is a non air-conditioned section that can seat around 50 but ends up seating around 75.  There is also a self service section with around 6-8 tables where seating is not available.  The air-conditioned section seats around 75 pax - it was dimly lit but the interiors were typically gaudy, quite old with wet patches and peeling paint in some corners.

We ordered idly(steamed wet rice flour), pongal (a rice preparation), rava masala dosai (thin pancakes made with semolina batter and served with spicy mashed potato) and aapam (rice pancake made with fermented wet rice flour). 

All the dishes, save the aapam, were served with at least two different chutnies (sauces) and sambar (a typical South Indian preparation made with pulses and vegetables) and were tasty.  This is one of the few restaurants that serves hoppers (aapam) with sweetened coconut milk - an awesome combination.

The service was quite good and I was quite pleased that I found a Sangeetha that lived upto its reputation.  Only on receiving the bill did I realize that this outlet was a franchisee of Sangeetha - no wonder it was striving to maintain some standards.

This chain does not serve liquor and the bill came to INR 285/- (2 plates each of idly& pongal and 2 orange juices thrown in).

Reco - certainly not a bad choice for South Indian tiffin varieties.

Kattumaram, St.Mary's Road, Chennai

I'd been here to parcel something for supper.  It was supposed to be a new specialty seafood restaurant and had been reviewed highly in the local papers.  There is an air-conditioned area which can seat around 30 pax and a roof top area which can also seat around 30 pax.  I noticed that there was only one waiter for each of these areas - probably the service would be a bit slow.

I ordered for some hoppers (aapam - pancake made with fermented rice flour batter), fish kothu paratha - supposed to be paratha (fried Indian bread made with refined wheat flour) that is mixed with fried fish and onions and some green chillies and is minced on the pan. A plain paratha and a dish called 'yeral thoku masala' - Prawns in a gravy of mashed pickle.

The appam was nice - although I always prefer to have aapam served fresh on my plate rather than having it packed.  The paratha was quite large (around 8 inch diameter) - nothing to complain about.  The fish kothu paratha was a disappointment.  It had a 3 cubes of fried fish mixed with plain kothu paratha.  The fish itself was not minced with the paratha and this is just not the way it has to be made and served.

The gravy of the yeral thoku masala was good.  It was a fresh tomato thoku (mashed tomato pickle).  However, there were only 6 pieces of very small prawns.  @ INR 150, it certainly was not worth it.

The bill came to INR 365/-.  I may not be keen to visit this place again.

Reco - Nothing special about it - go without any expectations & you may come back a bit satisfied.

Olive Beach, Ashok Nagar, Bangalore

This place was highly recommended.  Located in a converted house on Wood Street, off Richmond road - it is in a blink and you miss kind of place. Seating is available indoors - air-conditioned) and outside in the garden.  I chose to sit in the garden as the weather was pleasant.

The bar which is indoors looks out into the garden too.  Nothing great about the ambiance but it is pleasing.

The wild mushroom soup was a creamy soup and was good.  A bread basket with various varieties of bread is served 'on the house' along with a cream dip - nothing special about either the bread or the dip - you do not even get the aroma of fresh bake when this is served.

The sea food salad was awesome.  Had quite a few pieces of salmon, jumbo prawns, fish and some crab meat tossed with a light vinaigrette dressing and with some lettuce thrown in.  The 8 hour lamb is something that should not be missed if you happen to eat here.  The meat was just falling off from the bones, waiting to be eaten and was served with mashed potato.

The smoked chicken and pesto pizza, while being flavourful was a disappointment.  The crust was thin - no issues with that, however it was not soft as a pizza crust ought to be.  It was crisp and biscuity.  And the 'Lavazza' espresso was more of an Americano - very light.

Service was not bad - nothing special.

The bill for the above amounted to INR 2100.  They charge service charges @ 10% on top of this.  A pint of beer would cost around INR 160/- and a small of domestic whiskey would cost as much too.

And there is a mandatory donation of INR10 towards some Charity - I did not bother to ask about it as it was getting late by the time we were done with the food - but they ought to inform guests that such collections are being billed and what they are for. 

I went with very high expectations.  While some of the dishes lived upto the expectations, I was not fully satisfied.

Reco - give it a shot - not a must visit type of a place