Kamat Upachar, Kamanadoddi, NH-7

I happened to go here on day when it had rained earlier.  I was at the restaurant at around 6.30ish in the evening.  The restaurant was infested with flying ants in sizes varying from half a centimeter to a bit larger than an inch - probably out to mate.  There were a few people who were eating despite this annoyance.

I, though, made a quick getaway.  It may be noted that the people working there were not making any attempt to clear the tables or the floors of these insects.

On a later occasion, on a sunny day, I had been there for a quick bite.  I ordered a plate of idli and vadai.  Both were not hot and barely warm.  With such poor quality and trying to capitalize on their otherwise good brand name in Bangalore, I doubt this restaurant with last long.

Reco-I will certainly not go there in the near future, rain or no rain!! Avoidable!!

Nova Kitchen, MBK

In a recent visit to Bangkok, while shopping @ MBK, stopped at a small eatery that could seat around 40 pax for a quick lunch.  The eatery serves traditional Thai and South East Asian cuisine.

The fish porridge was excellent, hot, mildly flavored, chunks of fresh salt water fish and in a rice broth.  The Mamuang which my partner ordered was also quite tasty and served with rice.  It is a spicy, garlic based semi dry chicken preparation.

The quantity of the food served, especially the porridge was substantial.

The above dishes with iced lemon tea and a pint of Singha beer cost us THB 430/- Worth it.

Reco - I'll probably go there again when I shop @ MBK.

Eatery@Star Bazaar, Koramangala

The eatery is tucked in a small area under the escalators and serves a number of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes, a salad bar and a host of bakes.

There is no place to sit and portions are weighed.  A little more than a dozen pax can stand and eat around this place.  The place is pretty warm as the open / live kitchen is also present there - not an inconvenience if you are doing a take-away.

For

+ Good food – the Methi chicken – a gravy dish is simply awesome.  Not very spicy (hot) and very flavorful.  The veg biriyani was also extremely flavorful and tasty.  Food is prepared fresh and is served / packed hot.

+ Convenience – The place is apt as a takeaway after you are done with your shopping to pack stuff for lunch or supper if you have not yet cooked at home.

+ Portions – as I had mentioned earlier, you are charged by weight and there are sufficient pieces of meat in non-veg dishes.

+ Reasonable pricing.

Against

- Slow billing – the staff are pretty slow, seem untrained and there is only one operational cash counter.

- Food can be better – the mushroom / peas curry – a red, spicy gravy was not tasty, although it was not bad.  The vegetables are not finely chopped in most cases – in order to save time and concentrate on volumes.

Quarter kg of the mushroom and the chicken dish and around 400 gms of veg biriyani cost around INR 190/-

Reco – Definitely a convenient place to pack tasty food if you have not prepared much @ home.

Rajdhani, Forum Value Mall, Whitefield

It is located in an air-conditioned and exclusive area within Transit that can seat around 100 pax.  Place serves vegetarian Rajasthani cuisine and no liquor.

For

+ Good / uncomplicated Rajasthani Thali – Almost all the items on offer are tasty.  The stand out item was the bitter gourd dry side dish and the rice dokla.

+ Good variety – You get

>3 chaat items, including rice doklas, served with mint and tamarind sauces and a veg salad

>3 varieties of bread (rotis)

>3 types of lentil (dal) including kadi

>3 other side dishes (2 gravies and 1 dry)

>butter and jaggery

>butter milk

>plain rice, ghee, kichidi and curd rice

>pickles, fried chili and onions

>a choice of 3 sweets – srikand, a milk sweet - basundi types and a halwa - moong dal halwa – of which one can be taken.

+ Good quantity – but for the sweets that is limited, all other items are served in unlimited quantities.  (1 ltr bottle of bisleri water is given free for each table)

+ Reasonable Pricing - @ INR 200 per plate, the pricing is reasonable

+ Excellent Service – You have a senior waiter attending to around 6 guests.  You just have to ask and any item reaches your table in an instant.  In many cases the items are refilled even without your asking for it.  When you are seated and finished, you can wash your hands in warm flowing water brought to you by a waiter in a jug and a container to collect the dirty water.

Against (nothing much)

- The kichdi had some sago in it making it a touch jelly like – not the best I’ve had.

- The food is predominantly bland – but that is how this type of food should be – actually not complaints on this front.

- The moong dal halwa was a bit dry.

Cost per plate is INR 200/-

Reco – If you like vegetarian fare, this place is a must visit.  The food is way better than most thalis (meal plates) and buffets available in town.  

Eden Park Restaurant, 1, Cunningham Road

This place is tucked beside the Indian Express and Hindu offices in the Cantonment Area - off Infantry road and not on the 'main' part of Cunningham Road.  This is a part garden restaurant and part indoors.  The place can seat easily seat around 200 pax between the indoor and outdoor areas.  There are both air conditioned and non air conditioned sections that can easily accommodate around 50 pax each. 

There is a play area for kids with some computer games.  They serve alcohol.  They serve Andhra cuisine.

For

+ Good Food – the meals was really tasty and so was the fish fry (seer fish slice marinated in chili, salt, ginger and garlic and fried).  There is lentil powder (parupu podi) and ghee (clarified butter) at the table which go very well with hot rice.

+ Pleasant service

Against

- Painful parking – you need to park in the busy infantry road, queens road area.

- More variety of curries and gravies could have been included in the meals.

- Expensive - @ INR 80/- per meals it is pretty expensive.

- The ghee was not of the best quality.

2 meals + 1 fish fry cost close to INR 300/-

Reco – I do not mind going there again.  Not the best of places for Andhra cuisine, but certainly a good place.

Kamat Upachar, Kamanadoddi, NH-7

This is a relatively new restaurant from the Bangalore based Kamat group. It is attached to a Reliance Petroleum outlet. Since Reliance Petroleum outlets do not have as much business as normal ones and this eatery is yet to install its signage on the highway, the crowd was sparse.

I’m sure, given the shortage of restaurants in this stretch and the brand name of the group would ensure more footfalls.

It is not air-conditioned, has ample parking and can seat around 100 + pax. Liquor is not served.

Going For

 + Tasty Masala Dosa – It is the typical Bangalore Masala dosa which has a smattering of chili powder on one side (This is a powder made with red chili, some pulses and at times spiced with a touch of coriander seeds and / or garlic).

 + Ample Parking

 + Adequate seating

 + Prompt service (It had better be, considering only a handful of customers were present.)

Not Going For

 - Limited menu – I would blame this on the fact that this unit is only starting out now.

 - Specialties of the group, being based out of Karnataka, such as Kadubu are missing in the menu.

 - Cold Vada – This could certainly have been avoided.

2 Masala Dosas + 1 Idli Vada + 1 coffee came to around INR 110/-.

Reco – I sure do expect all the negatives, such as the cold vada, the limited menu and the lack of specialty dishes to improve. I’ll definitely visit this place again.

Gloria Jean's Coffee, St. Mark's Road

This is a popular coffee shop chain to which I had been in Australia. There is an outlet on St.Mark’s Road, opposite Bishop Cotton school. The outlet can seat around 40 -50 pax, is air-conditioned and overlooks the road.

The menu is a typical list of different cold and hot coffees, some teas and other hot and cold beverages, sweet and other bakes and some Indian short eats such as samosas.

Going For

 + The coffee – the espresso was quite good – much better than what you get at Coffee Day, as good as what you get at Barista. The cappuccino was good too.

 + The large espresso costs as much as a small shot – which is never the case in either CCD or Barista.

 + Pleasant service

 + Comfortable seating (quite a bit of sofas and couches), although a bit cramped.

 + Credit Cards are accepted – I am specifically mentioning this as a factor going for, since recently I had a tight squeeze at some CCD outlets and McDonald’s.

Not Going For

 - No Wi-fi connectivity

 - Parking may be a problem – if you have a four wheeler since the building may not have adequate parking on weekdays, being a commercial complex. The parking on the road too is not very adequate during peak hours.

 - Apple Pie – Taste was not bad. Had too much of dried grapes (kishmish). The sad part was the stem of the grapes was not removed in some of them. There was too much of powdered sugar on top and the pie just did not come off well onto the fork. The portion was quite good, I should add.

The two coffees and the pie came to around INR 170/-, pretty much in line with Barista.

Reco – Go there for the coffee.

Pelita Nasi Kandar, Thyagaraya Road, T Nagar

PNK serves Malaysian cuisine – which has influences of Malay, Indian and Chinese cuisines. The restaurant can seat in excess of 125 pax, is air-conditioned and seating is across two levels – ground and mezzanine. Liquor is not served as is the case with most stand alone restaurants in Tamil Nadu.

Parking is not available at the restaurant, but sufficient parking facility is available on the road outside.

Going For

 + Excellent Food – The Sotong Goering (Fried squid), and the two meal combos that we ordered – the Fish and the Quail – were both tasty. The meals come with a portion of rice (may not be sufficient if you are very hungry), a gravy of the selected meat, 2 vegetarian dry dishes and a papad. Both the gravy dishes were Tamil Nadu (Chettinad) cuisine influenced.

 + Live Kitchen – while the seating is not any different from any other restaurant, one side of the restaurant is a live kitchen - it is always nice to watch the food being prepared fresh.

 + Menu – The menu is quite exhaustive with a number of dishes of the three main types of cuisine available in Malaysia – right from starters to desserts.

Not Going For

 - Service – Service is a bit slow. Although there are a number of waiters and persons taking orders, the service is quite slow.

 - Noisy – The restaurant is very noisy – like some of the large coffee shops found near colleges.

The three dishes mentioned above cost around INR 350/-. The Fresh lime soda was expensive @ INR 35/- and bottled water is sold at double the list price.

Reco – Must visit. I will certainly go back and try another set of dishes.

McDonald's, India Grage Petrol Bunk, Kasturba Road

No I am not reviewing the food @ Mac's.  This is a 'fast' post for this fast food joint!

-It is the service - I had ordered 2 burgers - a Fillet o Fish and a Chicken Maha Mac.  The time was around 5.45 in the evening on a Friday.  There was not much of a crowd either at the counter or seated, ahving palced orders.  It took at least 5 minutes for the burgers to get delivered at the counter - pretty trady given their reputation of serving up in a minute or so!!

-The other thing is if you are not carrying cash, do not go to McD.  They do not accept cards.

The burgers that cost around INR 130/- were good!

Bananaa Leaf, TTK Road

Yes, the name of the place is spelt bananaa with 2 ‘a’s. The place is air conditioned and serves Chettinad cuisine. The restaurant is located in a house and hence the seating is quite unlike other restaurants and is split across a number of rooms. The place probably seats around 75 pax. I think beer is available in the sly, not sure.

Going For

+Parking – One may park around 4-5 cars outside the restaurant, else you can leave it with the valet.

+ Timings – It opens at 7am and remains open through the day. There is a different menu for breakfast, lunch, post lunch and dinner. I happened to go there for lunch.

+ The meals was a typical South Indian spread and both vegetarian and non vegetarian thalis cost INR 125/-. There are gravies of chicken, mutton and fish with the chicken and fish gravies having a small piece of meat in them. The entire spread with the veg dry curries, the sambar, the rasam and the works is quite filling and quite tasty.

+ Karuveppilai Kozhi – this dry chicken fry is spiced with red chili and fried with curry leaves leaving a wonderful flavor of the curry leaves on the meat.

Not Going For
- Lax / slow service
- The rice was not served piping hot as was expected.
2 meals + 1 portion of the chicken dish cost around INR 430/-.
Reco – Worth a visit.

The Spirit Lounge, HAL Airport Road

This joint is diagonally opposite Total Kemp Fort on HAL Airport Road.  Although, the place claims to be a multi cuisine restaurant, it is essentially a bar and the cuisine is predominently Andhra cuisine.

There are air conditioned and non air conditioned sections.  I happened to go to the air conditioned portion.  The air conditioning, though on, was not very effective.  The place can seat around 70 pax, is dimly lit and probably doubles as a dance bar on special occasions (but then again, maybe not).

Going For

+ Nellore Chilly Chicken - spicy chili chicken - similar to chicken 65 - chili coated fried chicken.

+ Mushroom 2009 - green chili and mushroom fried.

Not Going For

- Service - the hapless waiter was conversant with Telugu only (I hope), he did not know either Kannada or English or Hindi.

- EggChilly - batter fried boiled eggs - quite a mess.

- Ambience - a dark and dingy booze joint!  I should mention that even @ 6.15pm, when I was there there were some guests in the table next to mine who were served a portion of biriyani!

30 ml Teacher's 50 costs INR 210 and 30 ml of Bacardi INR 110.  A beer costs INR 110/- for a bottle. Non - veg dishes (dry or starters) cost around INR 110 and vegetarian ones cost around INR 70/-.  A masala peanut cost INR 35/-.

Reco - Not recommended for ladies - either by themselves or escorted by gents.  Given the price, there are other shady joints one can go to for a quick gulp of hard liquor or for a quick swig of beer!

Serengeti, Total Mall, Madiwala

This restaurant is located on the top floor of Total Mall along with a pubm(Zanzibar), belonging to the same group.  There was sufficient parking when I went, but doubt if place would be availabe during weekends when there is more footfalls in the mall.

This is a theme restaurant, as the name suggests, sports an African theme.  The false ceiling is covered with dense plastic leaves, the pillars are covered by tree trunks and there are birds, monkeys, squirrels and other animals all over the place.  There is also an artificial rain fall in the middle of the restaurant, and the waiters are dressed up like forest officers - in khaki.

The place can seat around 100 pax and serves 'Awadhi' cuisine - cuisine of the Moguls where food is more often than not slow cooked over a light flame and in 'Dum' style - by encapsulating the smell and flavour of the meat and the spices.

Going For

+ The Theme - very refreshing and different, worth a visit.

+ The welcome - you are welcomed pleasantly and seated without having to wait for too long.

Not Going For

- The music - this forest themed restaurant plays old Hindi film songs.

- The music system - the Hindi film songs are not well heard, and on top of it you keep hearing the loud beats emanating from Zanzibar.

- The service - very laid back

- The food - the Raan - E - Sikandari - was a leg of mutton which was supposed to be slow cooked.  But was smeared in Tandoori Chicken masala and was not done very well - the meat was not very soft.  The Awadhi Ghost - a spicy (flavourful with Awadhi masala) gravy - was very ordinary.

A pitcher of draught costs INR 475/- and a mug INR 150/-.  Cocktails cost around INR 350/-.  The Rann, the Awadhi Ghost, 5 Tandoori Rotis and a Dal cost around INR1100/-.

Reco - Can go to experience the new ambience and theme, that's about it!

Prego, Taj Coromandel, Nungambakkam

Prego is an Italian restaurant in the 5 star hotel. It is located at the basement level, can seat around 60 pax. The interiors are not too bright, nor too dark, the ambiance is quite good as would be expected of a restaurant in a star hotel.

Going For

+ Tasty food - Veg Broth (Minestrone soup) - served hot and as good as a minestrone soup gets. The spaghetti scampi (with some squid ink spaghetti along with the normal white spaghetti and scallops), the risotto scampi (prawn risotto) and the tenderloin tartare were all tasty.

+ Pleasant service

+ Good ambiance - as mentioned earlier.

+ The passion fruit cocktail (with white liquor) was quite good.

Not Going For

- Very few prawns in the risotto - 4 nos. - considering the dish costs INR 700/-.

- The tartare, while tasty could have been a bit more acidic / lemony. It was a bit too bland.

- Lazy service - certainly could have been better for a star hotel!

- Limited menu - The menu is very limited and I do not remember seeing any Pizzas in an Italian restaurant.

- Badly arranged menu - The menu is not very well arranged either by way of meats or by way of types of dishes or by way of starters and main courses.

The aforementioned 4 dishes cost around INR 2600/- fair for a 5 star hotel. The cocktail came to around INR 375/-. Scotch was costly as expected with a 30ml of Teachers highland cream costing around INR 400/-.

Reco - Not bad. May not be worth it!

Spicy Spoon, Shoolagiri, NH-7

This restaurant is in the same HP petrol bunk complex that houses the veg restaurant - Sri Krishna Inn and a Cafe Coffee Day.

This place serves non-veg cuisine, is not air conditioned and can seat around 60 pax.

Going for

+ Location - ample parking, availability of relatively clean toilets.

+ The chicken masala was tasty.

Not going for

(pretty much everything else)

- The chapatti and parotta (kerala parotta) were not served hot (it was mildly warm - probably kept in a hot case).

- The service is quite poor - untrained / lack direction and a couple of the servers kept sneezing and coughing even as they were serving - God help!

- Expensive - a plate of two parottas or chappathis and a portion of chicken masala costs INR 60/-.

- The menu is limited and what is available is less than 50% of what is there in the limited menu.

Reco - AVOID

La Boulangerie - The French Bakery, Kotturpuram

Another one on this bakery...since it is quite close to home.

It is essentially a takeaway with a variety of bakes, pastries and breads.

Going For

+ Pleasant service

+ Some tasty bakes - The veg puff and the chicken puff are very good. The filling is well done and the crust is soft and flaky. The almond croissant was good too, though a bit rich.

+ Parking is never going to be a problem outside this shop. (On the road, of course)

Not going for

- The walnut brownie - was a bit dry. Had a strong dessicated coconut taste - why add coconut to the brownie?

- Chocolate muffin - not the best muffin I've tasted. A bit dry and a bit too buttery...leaves a thick buttery feeling on your palate.

- A bit on the costly side

Veg puff costs INR 25/-. Chicken puff costs INR 40/-. Chocolate muffin is INR 35/- and the brownie costs INR 50/-. The almond croissant costs INR 60/- (while the size of the puffs and the croissant are a bit above par, the brownie is certainly small).

Reco - I would still say it is worth a try....just don't buy the chocolate muffin or the walnut brownie.

Au Bon Pain Cafe, MG Road

This cafe is located at the entrance of 'Spencer's' on MG Road. Its got a small outdoor seating area which can seat around 30 pax and overlooking MG road.

Going For

+ Different Menu - It is slightly different compared to either a cafe' or a salad bar or a bakery. There is a bit of everything here. Breads, sandwiches, soups, salads and of course coffee and pastries.

+ Walnut Brownie - Was very tasty and not too sweet!

+ Location - It is always nice to have a hot cup of coffee and a brownie or a sandwich looking at the bustling crowd on MG road.

Not Going For

- The staff need to be a bit more trained to guide the customer through the ordering / billing.

- Since it is on MG road, expect no parking unless you are in luck!

A walnut brownie comes to INR 50/-, a espresso INR 25 for a single shot and a cup of hot chocolate INR 50/- (+ taxes).

Reco - certainly worth it! I will certainly go back to try out more of the bakes and the sandwiches.