Chili's, HAL Airport Road, Bangalore

This is a franchise of a US based chain that serves TexMex cuisine. The place seats around 200 pax, is air-conditioned and has Indianised Tex Mex food also in the menu.

Happy hours are upto 8 pm and it is buy 1 get 1 free during happy hours. The Chicken Nachos were quite tasty - Nachos topped with chicken and melted cheddar. The fried mushrooms were whole button mushrooms, batter fried - not bad but not worth it @ INR 195/-. The presidente' margarita and the classic margarita were good cocktails @ INR 600/- a piece, worth it during happy hours where you can get 2 for the price of 1.

The plate of nachos that we ordered came with a salsa dip. The nachos were pretty bland and lacked salt. Hence we requested for some pickled jalapenos. The waiter initially told us that jalapenos are not spicy (for what ever reason) and then told us that he would get us a 'rammigan' of jalapenos. I got the jalapenos in a small cup and it cost us INR 20/-. I am still to figure as to which language 'rammigan' is from. The cheesecake was a genuine cheesecake and was quite tasty. It was unlike most of the cheesecakes you get in India which are nothing more than biscuit topped with some mousse.

But for the above, the service was quite good. The lighting was pretty bright and the music was more of pop. There are a couple of large LCD TVs beaming sports channels.

The aforementioned items + 3x30 ml servings of Gordon's Dry Gin (+3 during happy hours) + a tonic water cost us INR 3500/- including a 12% service charge of INR 360/-.

Reco - worth it during happy hours - a competitor to TGIF / HRC.

Ice&Spice, St. Mark's Road, Bangalore

This old time eatery on St Mark's Road, is situated near the old time Scottish Pub. The place has an air-conditioned area that can seat around 10 pax and a place outside overlooking the road that can seat around 15 pax.

Since the place was famous for its lamburgers, we had one of them. It was quite good. The meat was done well and there was no cheese to spoil the taste of the meat. The bun was fresh and soft - all in all a good burger. The burger is served with chips - probably 5 - 6 pieces of potato chips. They might as well have not served the chips. The potato wedges were served hot, but we found hardly half a dozen pieces. The almond / chocolate biscuit was a bit like a granola bar, but was not sweet, had a good amount of almonds and half of it was dipped in milk chocolate - not bad. The espresso - double shot - was around 90 ml of coffee - again not the best espresso I've had.

A couple of burgers, the other items mentioned above and a diet coke cost us INR 285/-. Not steep, but certainly not cheap. There are a whole lot of other cafe' food such as subs, sandwiches, quiches, cakes and pastries on the menu apart from a variety of coffees and granitas. Finding a place to park would be a problem on any evening or on any weekday during lunch time. Service is a bit laid back, but something that you can put up with.

Reco - Do try the lamb burgers.

Indigo Cafe, Andheri-West, Mumbai

This place was highly recommended by my host in Mumbai. We did not find any seating when we reached the place @ 8 pm and had to wait till around 9 pm to be seated.

We caught the chef who was outside and requested him to recommend some main courses. He recommended a special lamb and a special fish dish.

The lamb dish was lamb braised with red wine and served with garlic bread - some of the best lamb I have had in the recent past. The fish was a pan fried salt water locally available white meat fish served with mashed potato. The fish was juicy and fresh but paled in comparison with the braised lamb.

The beef sandwich was quite large and we immediately requested them to cut it and pack half as a take away. The fried beef in the sandwich was done to perfection, browned outside and pink inside - nice and juicy with other vegetables, mayonnaise and quite filling.

The roast pumpkin soup was very flavourful and thick and was a good starter.

The best part was the cocktail that we had called brandy toddy - brandy mixed with a couple of table spoons of cloves and cinnamon sticks, some orange peel and granny smith apple to garnish and mixed with honey and hot water and served in a brandy glass. Simply superb and cleared our blocked nostrils and our congested throats (on account of a lot of beer over the last couple of days) in a jiffy.

However, the second round of the same drink that we ordered had far less spices than the first round - a shame.

The three main courses mentioned above, 7 brandy toddies, a 'Due of Melon' - vodka with chunks of various melons (nice sweet drink without the taste of alcohol), a veg pasta, a dry martini and an espresso cost us INR 5300/- quite steep.

The place is air-conditioned and seats around 100 pax. The service is quite good - but they did not give us the sandwich takeaway when we left - a shame.

Reco - go there for the brandy toddy and for some good continental food. Mind the prices.

Misha's Restaurant, Varca, Goa

This is a small shack that can seat around 50 pax. There is no air conditioning, liquor is available like it is in any eatery in Goa. The place is located around 50 meters from the Club Mahindra Resort.

We ordered some side eats initially to go with the fresh toddy that we managed to get close to the resort. The Crab Masala was simply awesome - crabs cooked with the shell on and in a onion and garlic based gravy. The Kalamari fry was not good - a bit too rubbery - probably because it was a bit deep fried - and the spices used were also not too fragrant - only turmeric and chili.

The prawn fry was simply finger licking good - around 10 pieces of fresh king prawns in a gravy of pepper, onions, garlic and garam masala and shallow fried.

The Crab Masala had 3 medium sized (4 inches across) crabs. The calamari fry probably was made with two 5 inch long squids.

This package cost us INR 600/- a bit steep.

Reco - Good for starters (especially if you are staying at Club Mahindra where the food sucks!)