Nandhini Deluxe

This is the one on ESI Hospital Road and not the one next to the Domlur Flyover.

For starters, the restaurant has shifted to the next building and the building in which this restaurant was located now strangely has Bhagini (another multi cuisine Andhra restaurant).

Food - I had a full meals and some guntur chicken.  The rice was hot and there was ghee on offer.  You have 'gonkura chutney', 'avvakai mango pickle', salt and the lentil mix at the table.  There was a chutney (onion based) which was very sour.  The sambar was sour and did not stand out.  There was yellow dal - which was also slightly sour.  I did not risk trying the rasam as I felt that would be an explosion of sourness too. 

The vegetable sides was a potato dish that had some onion and was pepper based.  It was actually a nothing dish.

The meals also had the usual curds and butter milk.  Fried salted dry chili (Mor Molaga in Tamil) was served at the table - which was good.

The guntur chicken was a semi dry preparation that was wonderfully spicy and aromatic - not too hot, the sad part was the chicken was under cooked.

The carrot 65 was a batter fried sliced carrot - also sour - was again a nothing dish.

Service - very poor...had to wait for the rice, they almost forgot the carrot 65....had to ask at least thrice before the second rounds of the lentils, the chutney and the vegetables.

Ambiance - basic, air conditioned - but was probably switched off as I felt it was warmer inside the restaurant than outside.

Damages - Full Meals - Rs.96/-, Guntur Chicken - Rs.135/-, Mutton Biriyani - Rs.130/-, Veg Biriyani - Rs.95/-, Carrot 65 - Rs.90/-. (I have commented on only those items that I tasted).

Summary - Food - Ordinary, Service - Poor, Ambiance - Nothing, Cost - Reasonable (matches quality of food / service / ambiance).

Reco - I will not go there again in the near future!!

Terminology - Yellow Dal (lentil - Tur dal - pigeon pea)

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

Fusion Express, The Mark Boulevard

Last time I was here, I thought it was worth a visit, given the limited options around this area in Whitefield.

It is a multi cuisine restaurant with a lunch buffet. The portion of the restaurant that was open could seat around 70 pax and is air conditioned.

Going For

+ Live pasta and chat (Indian fast food) counters - made to order and fresh!

+ Hot and good gulab jamun (a soft, fried dish dipped in syrup)

+ Quite a number of dishes.

+ Parking is never a problem, although the entry is a tight squeeze!

Not Going For

- None of the items, save a dal (yellow lentils gravy) and a vegetarian gravy, were warm (let alone hot).

- The fruit salad was not the freshest.

- The mutton biriyani was special with some 'hair'. Thank God for small mercies, I noticed the hair before I could put in a spoonful into my mouth!

- The captain did not even apologize when I mentioned the hair, and offered to give me biriyani in a different plate. Wow!

- None of the dishes stood out among the starters or the main course items.

Costs INR 350/- per pax.

Reco - AVOID - @ INR 350/- per plate post discount (which you can get if you are a group of 4 or more) it is certainly not worth it. Better to travel a bit more than get stuck here!

I should mention that I was quite surprised that the place was more than half full for a Monday afternoon, with the poor quality of food they dish out!

Hard Rock Café, St Marks Road

I had been there for the event they had organized on a Thursday evening – the Rolling Stones Tribute to the Dire Straits. The show was to start @ 9pm. The area around the bar was set aside for this and the stage was above the bar. Quite a portion of the hall was cordoned off for what ever reason – at least 30-40 folks could have occupied this area – this certainly could have been better arranged. The sound system @ the portion (of HRC) that hosted the event was not bad.
There was a cover of INR 250/- per head which could be exchanged inside for food and beverages.
Going for
+ Electric Iced Tea – a lime and white spirits based cocktail with blue Curacao.
+ Caipirojka – a vodka, lime, mint leaves and sugar based cocktail – refreshing
+ Food – The spicy calamari – light batter fried and the cobb salad (with egg whites, cheese, corn, chicken, beacon and vegetables) were both good.
Not Going For
- The speakers at the food section were not switched on until the concert was well on its way.
- The arrangements around the stage for those viewing the show could have been arranged a lot better.
3 Caipirojkas, half a plate of salad, 1 electric iced tea, 1 30 ml portion of teachers highland cream and 1 calamari cost around INR 2400/-. The caipirojka cost INR 285/-, certainly worth it.
Reco – Try the caipirojka. During events, the arrangements ought to be better.

Hong Kong Hustle, Church Street

We went to Church Street to try out any new restaurant that had come up. We found the name board of Saigon (sandwiched between Ruby Tuesday and Oye Amritsar) lit up and found a few customers seated inside. We had liked the food @ Saigon before they were closed for renovation. Having ventured to Saigon, we did not find the name reflecting in the lift – of course there was this Asian restaurant named Hong Kong Hustle and we ventured to that place.
Place is air conditioned and can seat around 50 pax. There are a number of seats overlooking Church Street. Place serves Hong Kong street food as they call it and serves liquor too.
Going for
+ New and different concept – It is a combination of a buffet and a set menu. There are 5 veg (veg dimsum, grilled mixed veggies, cauliflower pan fried, potato pan fried and a fried veg wanton) and 5 non veg starters (fried prawn triangles, chicken dimsum, fish skewers, mutton skewers and chicken wings). The starters are served at the table. This is followed by a main course of rice or noodles, the varieties are plain, chicken, vegetable or egg. This is served in a gravy for which you decide the ingredients. There is a choice of around a dozen vegetables including bamboo shoots, button mushrooms, sweet corn and baby corn. After choosing the vegetables, you can choose your meat from chicken, prawns or fish. There is a choice of three sauces to choose from ranging from bland to very spicy. The rice or noodles and the gravy made with ingredients of your choice is served at the table. This is followed by 5 desserts + ice cream being served at the table.
+ Very good Indianized Chinese food – the chicken wings, the gravy that came with the main course, the fish and mutton skewers and the fried potatoes and the grilled mixed vegetables stood out. So too did the dry fruit fried wanton served with the desserts.
+ Courteous and prompt service.
+ Price - @ INR 375/- per person it was worth it,even if not cheap. You can have as many helpings as required.
Not Going For
- The dimsums were very bland.
- The mango jelly was not the best of desserts.
Per person the cost is around INR 375/-. Carlsberg – 650 ml beer comes at INR 190/- and is the costliest beer on the menu.
Reco – Definitely deserves a visit.

Daily Brew, Forum Value Mall

As is suggestive of the name, this is a coffee shop. Located at one corner of the atrium of the mall. The area is open and can seat around 20 pax - there are a couple of couches thrown in along with the chairs and tables. On display are a number of bakes including pastries, puffs, muffins and bread varieties. It is part of the 'Daily Bread' chain. The different varieties of bread baked by Daily Bread is also available at the counter.

Going for

+ Nice place to sit and sip coffee with a muffin - with the mall bustling all around.

+ Nice variety of bakes.

Not going for

- The coffee is not served hot! That too an espresso.

- Understaffed - typical of many coffee shops, only 2 staff man the counter and hence when more than a handful of items are to be served, there is a delay.

A pastry comes at around INR 50/- and a shot of espresso costs around INR 30/-.

Reco - If you have time and don't want hot beverages, it might be worth a visit. If you want hot coffee - avoid, unless its empty.

Namma Sagar, Food Court, Forum Value Mall

Namma Sagar specializes in South Indian tiffin items, while also serving North Indian tiffin items and juices - all vegetarian. Namma Sagar has two outlets adjoining each other and is (in line with most other food courts in Bangalore that have veg-South Indian tiffin outlets) the most popular counter in the food court. It is a typical outlet at a food court - with moderate to poor service and slow to deliver the food.

Going for

+ Variety of dosais (thin crusted rice flour batter pancakes) and other tiffin items.

Not Going for

- Nothing exceptional about the food. At times the sambar (Souht Indian lentil and vegetable based light gravy) is not served hot.

- North Indain items, especially parathas (milled wheat Indian flat bread) need to be improved.

A Masala Dosai costs around INR 45/-. Onion dosai costs around INR 40/- and a plain dosai comes to around INR 35/-. Parathas come for INR 50+.

Reco - Not bad. Stick to the traditional South Indian fare.

Rakabdar, opposite Forum Mall-dairy circle exit

This place opposite Forum Mall boasts of Awadhi or Lucknowi cuisine.
The interiors are dimly lit and the place can seat around 70 pax. The interiors seem to be confusing in that there is an attempt at being ‘flashy and royal’ while at the same time attempting to be ‘modern and simple’. The place is air-conditioned and serves liquor.
The restaurant is on the first floor of the building, while the second floor houses a lounge bar and there is a roof top bar on top of that.
Going for
+ Soups. I tasted two of the 3 or 4 soups on the menu and they were awesome. One was the Shorba Yakhani Badami – a chicken soup with minced chicken balls and flavoured with almonds. The other, the Shorba Imtiazi, was spiced with lemon leaves, celery and coriander and had a few pieces of Indian salmon, a few rings of squid and a tiger prawn. The latter was a bit sweet and the presentation of the dish was good too. Both the soups were light, clear and flavourful. The latter was a recommended dish on the menu.
+ Service. Service is with a smile. You are recommended the right quantity to order – we were told a couple of soups and a biriyani would be sufficient for the two of us if we were not very hungry and the recommendation was spot on.
Not going for
- Very bad biriyani (aromatic rice dish made with ghee, basmati rice, mutton, garlic, onions and a host of Indian spices. The dum biriyani is slow cooked in a sealed vessel to preserve the aroma and the flavour of the spices). The Dum Gosht Lucknowi Biriyani, another recommended dish on the menu was not good. The rice was under cooked. The meat was not well done. The meat was hard and had an odd flavour. I doubt it was mutton at all. Maybe the meat used was lamb (sheep). There was hardly any flavour and absolutely no aroma.
The biriyani + the 2 soups cost around INR 700/-
Reco – Not recommended. The soups were great. Maybe some of the other items are good. Don’t go anywhere near the biriyani.

Kahwa, The Zuri Whitefield

Kahwa is a 24 hour coffee shop serving multi cuisine food and boasting of a live pizza oven. I had infact wanted to go to the Pan Asian restaurant in the hotel but was told that the same was open only for dinner / supper. The place is quite large, spacious and well lit and can easily seat over 100 pax. It is located just beyond the lobby of the hotel.

The restaurant serves both ala carte and buffet and they have separate menus for lunch and dinner. I thought I would go in for the buffet so that I taste a wider variety of dishes. The multi cuisine buffet had North and South Indian dishes, Chinese and Continental dishes.

Typical of a business hotel in a business district, the restaurant was quite empty on the Saturday afternoon.

Going for

+ Fairly large spread with 5 non veg dishes, 5 veg side dishes a few rice and noodle varieties and a few salads and desserts. Indian bread is served fresh on the table and so are a few starters.

+ Pleasantly welcomed and seated.

+ The veg Hakka noodles, the fried brinjal in soya sauce and the fresh veg and chicken dimsums served as starters. The cream of pumpkin soup was also very tasty.

+ Fresh hot tandoori (char grilled) Indian bread (this is standard in India in any multi cuisine buffet)

+ Karamani Thoran - A Kerala dry fry made with spices, long beans and grated coconut with coconut oil.

+ Indian desserts. The gulab jamun (fried flour balls in syrup) was fresh, tasty, soft and not too sweet and so were the gajar ka halwa (sweet made with grated carrots) and the rosogolla (a Bengali sweet made with paneer or Indian cottage cheese and syrup).

No going for

- The North Indian mutton gravy dish was as bland as could have been, although the mutton was juicy and well cooked.

- The salad section was nothing special and although there were half a dozen vegetarian and non vegetarian salads on offer, it was not appealing.

- The vegetables with mixed mushrooms was boiled vegetables and the mushrooms were nothing but soggy water filled mushrooms. Not that the mushroom flavour had permeated or complimented the vegetables either.

- Only one vegetarian and one non vegetarian starter is served on the table - the vegetarian one was a kind of fried cheese and was not bad. However, the chicken tikka was disappointing in that one expects it to be boneless.

- The vendakai kara kozhumbu - meant to be a Tamil Nadu dish - a spicy light gravy with okra - was bland and tasteless.

- There were no fruits either as part of the desserts or as part of the salad counter.

- The bread varieties - except for the shape tasted just the same.

- The western desserts - nothing worth a mention.

- There was iced tea on display but we were told that it was not part of the buffet.

- Service - was very lax with respect to removing the plates from the table, attending to the table or in handling the billing.

- Not value for money.

Cost - @ INR 550/- per person and a pint of Bud costing INR 200/- certainly very expensive.

Reco - Avoid the buffet. The Chinese dishes showed promise, probably the Pan Asian restaurant is good?

Chili's, HAL Airport Road

More of a lounge bar serving Tex Mex cuisine. Located near Total mall in a very congested portion of HAL Airport road.

Going for

+ Ambience - has a couple of large LCDs if you land there on match days. Music being played is not too loud and retro and current pop + rock. Not too brightly lit and can seat around 100 pax, maybe a bit more.
+ Presidente’ Margarita - it is their signature drink
+ Mushroom Fajitas - tastes better when ordered with extra mushrooms
+ Other Margaritas - El Nino Margarita and the Classic Margarita (Have purposely left out the composition of the drinks. Just try them out, all margaritas are tequila based as they should be.)
+ Buy one get one free on drinks till 8pm on all days
+ Other food items such as chips with spinach mushroom dip, veg quesadilla and veg pasta
+ Valet Parking
Going against

- Service - pretty slow, on match days concentrate on the TV rather than on guests, take orders wrongly and bill wrongly too (all in the same day!)
- Service Charges @ 12% on your bill!
- The crowd or rather the lack of it.

2 Presidente', 2 Kingfisher Pint, 1 classic martini, 1 el nino margarita, 1 classic margarita, 1 30ml Bacardi, 2 30ml shots of silver tequila (all the above were during happy hours = +1), 2 Budweiser pints + 2 pints of draught beer came close to INR7000/-

Reco - go with a large group and enjoy the drinks during happy hours. Don’t mind the poor service.

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.

Rotikaa, Whitefield, Bangalore

This one of three restaurants in the Sathya Sai Hospital, Vydehi Hospital belt. The place is air-conditioned and can seat around 100 pax. Some of the seating is quite uncomfortable in that there short plastic cubes for seats with short tables to match. The other two are Beijing Bites and the canteen of Vydehi Hospital.

The Wednesday afternoon when we went, there was a lunch buffet for INR 150/-. However, we decided to order ala' carte. While the restaurant started off as a North Indian non-vegetarian restaurant, they have now started serving Chinese fare after Beijing Bites set shop above Rotikaa.

The two Chinese dishes we ordered - Crispy fried vegetables and hot and sour veg soup were quite bad. The veggies were not crispy fried and comprised mainly of cabbage. The soup was not very spicy - more like hot and thick tamarind water - and again had a few strands of thinly chopped cabbage and carrots.

The rotis and naan (Indian flat bread made with unrefined and refined wheat flour, respectively) were good, but the rotis were pretty small (approx - 6 inch diameter). The mushroom masala, the dal makani (black gram slow cooked with spices and butter) and the cauliflower masala were not bad and went well with the bread that we had ordered.

Special mention about the quality of service - do not expect much. It is slow and tardy.

In all, the bill for the four of us came to around INR 540/- (we had 2 soups, 3 naan and 5 rotis).

Reco - Not bad - stick to the North Indian fare