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.  

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!

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.

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?

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

Mirch Restaurant, Whitefield, Bangalore

Located close to ITPL, it may be quite a popular joint - especially during lunch - as Whitefield is bereft of a choice of restaurants to go to. It is a typical lower end multi cuisine restaurant serving Chinese and North Indian cuisine.

It is primarily a garden restaurant that can seat around 100 pax in a covered section and another 100 odd pax in an open section. There is not much of a garden - just a drying up lawn and the seating is not on this either. The menus are food stained and the seating comprised primarily of plastic chairs around a 'quickly' assembled wooden table.

Service was not bad, but the waiters clothes too matched the menu in that they were pretty stained.

My companion did the mistake of requesting the waiter to make the mushroom pepper fry extra spicy - one could hardly taste the mushroom. It was pepper, more pepper and some chili. The hot and sour veg and chicken soups too were more 'hot' than sour and were not particularly flavourful.

The stuffed kulcha (milled wheat pan fried bread stuffed with vegetables - we had gobi kulcha or one stuffed with cauliflower) was dipping with oil that we had to dab some out using paper napkins. The mushroom masala was a green chili based mushroom semi gravy dish. We necessarily needed to down the food with sweetened fresh lime juice, lest we have burning back sides the next day. In fact one of my companions also needed to have a lassi (sweetened yogurt shake) in addition to the fresh lime.

The aforementioned dishes (3 portions of fresh lime and kulcha, 1 veg and 1 chicken soup)+ a dal (lentils) cost us INR 635/ -. Quite expensive for this place.

Reco - Avoidable

Chill, Radha Hometel, Whitefield

One of the few hotels in Whitefield wherein one can catch a drink after work. Being on a prime road (Opp SAP Labs) in Whitefield, it was expected to be one of the better ones, especially considering it is part of the Hometel group.

However, I was quite disappointed.

The music being played was some retro English songs - probably some CD bought off the rack. There were only 2 bearers for a place that seats close to 100 on a Friday evening. (This was probably because most of the other guests already knew how bad this place was.)

You have some potato wafers served at the table and that is about the only snacks they have (at least till 7pm when the kitchen opens). We left after our first drink.

With a bottle of Kingfisher beer costing INR 225/- and a large RC whiskey costing INR 400/-, I am sure the other hotels in the area would be a better bet for a drink or two.

Reco - Avoid

Fusion Express, The Mark Boulevard, Whitefield

Fusion Express is the restaurant in The Mark Boulevard, a business class hotel in Whitefield. For lunch there is a buffet spread.

The buffet spread consists of a nice salad bar with different vegetarian and non vegetarian salads, a chat counter where one can order for fresh chat of their choice (chat is North Indian cuisine which includes a number of snacks and fast foods wherein multiple Indian spices and sauces are mixed with processed Indian food to create a tasty concoction).

There is a pasta counter where one can choose the base sauce, the type of pasta and the veggies / meat that needs to go into it.

Of course, there is the usual biriyani, plain rice, gravies - both veg and non-veg, different types rotis (Indian breads), papads, fresh juices, curd rice and dessert. The dessert includes two Indian desserts, two choices of ice-cream, some baked items and fresh fruit salad.

The spread was sumptuous and although there is no dish that stands out, was quite tasty. The service too was quite good. The fresh juices were not good, though.

The restaurant is air conditioned and seats around 50 pax. There is a partition that leads to another seating area and can seat another 50 pax. Cost of the buffet @ INR 350 per plate may be a tad expensive.

Reco - In a place like Whitefield, where there are not too many restaurants to choose from, Fusion Express is certainly worth a visit.