SMOKE HOUSE DELI - INDIRANAGAR

Last year 2017’s monthly restaurant reviews saw a range of cuisines and restaurants on my blog and I enjoyed it so much that this year too I decided to do the same, except that I decided to target one area per year.

This year 2018 monthly restaurant reviews will be narrowed down to places only in my area – Indiranagar and trust me, there’s no dearth of food joints here nor a lack of variety.

For January 2018, I decided to go to Smoke House Deli (SHD) for lunch. Now, I rarely review the same place twice and I had already been to their Lavelle road outlet. (reviewed last year February 2017). I had given it a 4 out of 5 rating. I wanted to know what it is like to visit the same restaurant and make comparisons between different outlets.

It was a holiday so quite packed as expected but I was nevertheless directed to a table and let me tell you, they sure need to change their tables. It’s a tiny round thing and all you need is to place a menu card and a bottle of water and there’s hardly any space for anything else! They need to have bigger square tables. My bread basket had to be taken away to make away for other dishes – in other words one cannot keep too many stuff at the same time without crowding.

I ordered more or less the same stuff that I did in Lavelle road which I recall was very pleasant - SHD tomato Bocconcini Salad with queen olives and pesto Vinaigrette. As I chewed through loads of lettuce leaves, roasted tomatoes and olives, the taste was great but I kept feeling something was missing and it wasn’t as good as the one I had at Lavelle road.

After I had finished the salad, washed it down with lime soda and started on my flour less chocolate fudge – (which by the way is simply divine!) THEN it dawned on to me that the cheese was missing…the soft, melt in the mouth cheese that makes the very dish:)

Now comes the best part, a part of me was cheesed off (excuse the PJ), but when it was pointed out, the Manager, Suraj couldn’t have been more apologetic and said that the day’s order was on the house. I refused to let them do that though and while the salad was on the house, I paid up for the rest. Service is the best here.

Back to the cake – chocolovers will surely love this! It is served with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream and there’s something about the combination of hot cake with cold ice cream that makes me swoon. So all in all at least it ended on a sweet note!:)
Ambience wise I somehow liked the Lavelle road outlet better, calm and quiet.

I’ve always maintained that the bench mark of a good restaurant is would it make me want to go back again and would I tell other’s about it?

For this place

Lavelle road: Yes Definitely!
Indiranagar: Not sure…maybe to take away their desserts.

Overall rating: 3/5.

Ratings for reviews:

1 – No! No! No!
2- Just about average.
3 –Good. Can give it a try.
4- Great!!
5 – Yes! Yes! Yes! And I’ll tell all about it.

Details:
Address: Smoke House Deli – 100 feet road, Opposite Starbucks.
Time: 9 AM to 1 AM
Contact: 25200898/ 25200899

BON SOUTH - KORAMANGALA

Last month of 2017 and I sure have enjoyed covering a variety of cuisines and places – Andhra, Continental, South Indian, North Indian, Ice creams, Chinese...This month I had a strong craving for Appams and Stew – I’m crazy about them.

Bon South in Koramangala was the place I zeroed in on. I have had Appams at their restaurant in Mantri Mall (no longer there) and apart from Appams they also serve variety of south Indian starters. I got to know they had a Dhaaba Dhamaka going on so headed here with my friend for lunch. I had the vegetarian buffet and my friend opted for the Non vegetarian buffet.

The Décor was comfy. Staff was friendly and accommodating.

The items offered were too many to write about them all here in detail, but I’ll highlight what worked and what dint.

CAN HAVE AGAIN AND AGAIN: Peanut Chikki ice cream, Mushroom soup, Paddu( paniyaaram – I LOVED THIS!), Pizza Slice, Chole, Sambar and Elaneer Payasam. My friend liked the mutton kabab.

RUN AWAY FROM: The biryani (Cold, tasteless and stale), Mango pickle – though it looks very tempting, the mango pieces are either too ripe or too sour that’ll make you wince! My friend said the non veg items were too dry. Strawberry pannacota – Lots of cream and sickeningly sweet strawberry jam.

PASSABLE: The rest of the starters, salads, Curd rice, curries and desserts..all of which I had a spoon or two for taste sake and it was quite good.

COMPLAINT: The music was deafening and I had to tell them to tone it down twice!

SPECIAL MENTION: Well..i went there mainly to eat Appams and stew. I like Appams to be thin, a perfect combination of crisp and fluffy and shaped like a perfect bowl…in these counts the Appams here fell flat, but no complaints taste wise. The Kai Kari stew that came with it was also great though I preferred it with yummy sambar.

Prices were reasonable for the amount of items served. We had to skip half of the items because we were quite stuffed. They even have a live ice gola counter.

Would I go again? – Definitely just to stuff myself with starters and desserts. Worth it!

Anyone reading this if you can recommend a place that serves the best Appams and stew, please let me know.

Overall rating: 3.5

Ratings for reviews:

1 – No! No! No!
2- Just about average.
3 –Good. Can give it a try.
4- Great!!
5 – Yes! Yes! Yes! And I’ll tell all about it.

Details:

130, 1st Cross, Jyoti Nivas College Road
Koramangala 5th Block, Bangalore
Contact: 080 49652437
Timings: 12 Noon to 3:30 PM, 7 PM to 11 PM

MELTING SPOT - INDIRANAGAR

Going by the reviews on Zomato and fuelled by a craving for pav bhaji badly somewhere close to my area, I hit upon this spot. Between my house and this eatery (which is a very, very short distance), I also passed number of food joints and hit upon the idea for next year’s monthly reviews to be area wise and my area – Indiranagar in specific:)

No prices for guessing what I first ordered here – Bombay cheese pav bhaji. Totally spot on! So comforting and melt in the mouth cheese all in the right portions.

Ordered tomato chaat next – nothing to write home about. I’ve had better and there was an overdose of imli chutney.

I went alone and the disadvantage of this is one can’t eat a lot, so decided to try their ice creams that they seem to be known for. Went for the quirky sounding “Fire in a hole” – a combination mixed with Ferrero Rocher (I love this chocolate), choco sticks and hazel Nutella, topped with chocolate sauce. Exotic though it sounds, I felt I was just eating plain, if a bit gooey, chocolate ice cream with sauce. No digging through ingredients. Tasted good though.

Interiors are warm, colorful chairs. I loved the posters with funny sayings. Not sure how it’ll be on weekends. Portions sizes are just right for one person and wallet friendly. Overall, a good place to visit if in the area by yourself or if you want to go with a friend for a quick snack.

What I felt bad was missing out on some of their offbeat flavors like paan bliss or their signature roll ice cream which I’ve heard so much about. For that, I’ll need to take a friend who loves ice cream and doesn’t count calories which I’ll be sure to do next time:)

Overall rating: 3.5/5

Ratings for reviews:

1 – No! No! No!
2- Just about average.
3 –Good. Can give it a try.
4- Great!!
5 – Yes! Yes! Yes! And I’ll tell all about it.

Details:
Address: 188/1, 6th Main Road, Next to Gospel Church, Defence Colony, Indiranagar, Bangalore.
Contact: 9742061338, 9844188265
Time: 12 Noon to 12 Midnight

In pics: Bombay cheese pav bhaji, Imli chutney, Fire in a hole ice cream.

CAFE FELIX - MG ROAD

What a lovely, lovely place! I keep frequenting 1mg mall but I dint get a chance to eat at this place which is in the next level until recently. I loved it so much, that I went there again the very next day with my friend.;). I realized that whenever I go out to eat, I’m completely the starter/appetizers and desserts person and don’t care much for the main course (unless it’s south Indian food) and this is the kind of place where the snacks and desserts feel like a full meal.

Ambience is clean, calm and airy. Spacious and plenty of seats – sofas or chairs which you can choose to sit on. Ulsoor lake is best viewed from a distance;) and you’ll get a beautiful view of it from this place. They have a bar counter and a bakery counter.

Staff are friendly. Day 1 when I went by myself I had mosquitoes for company and got badly bitten. Day 2 my friend and I were free from it:)

Here are some of things my friend and I ordered over the two days in a row :

Crumb fried onion rings : Fresh and crispy with ranch dressing and mayonnaise….this combination works well compared to ketchup.

Greek Salad: Light and healthy, the roasted pumpkin seeds gave it a nice crunch.

Crinkled fries spicy BBQ rub: Like the name it’s all crinkly potato fries sprinkled with BBQ powder. Addictive!:)

Lemon pie: Creamy and filling, fresh crust and perfect mix of sweet and tang.

My friend had fish fingers which she loved.

Virgin Mary: This drink is the same as all other places but went well with the snacks.

Cookie Dough Skillet: Man! What an unusual dessert! It’s their signature dish and a must try for every dessert lover. Absolutely delicious and can’t be described in words. You have to wait a while for it to be served though, a wait that’s worth it.

A meal for two here would be approximately about two thousand but depends on what you order. The first day I just had veg food and it came up to much less compared to the second day where we had drinks along with our food.

This is the kind of place I would love to hang out regularly either by myself or with friends and that’s exactly what I plan to do. Cant wait to try the other items on their menu like burgers and shakes.

Would I tell about this place to others? Yes! Would I go again? Most definitely:)

Overall rating: 4/5. (It can get a bit pricey and thumbs down for the mosquitoes on day 1)


Ratings for reviews:

1 – No! No! No!
2- Just about average.
3 –Good. Can give it a try.
4- Great!!
5 – Yes! Yes! Yes! And I’ll tell all about it.

Pics: Greek Salad, Onion rings and Lemon pie.

Details:
Address: Level 5, 1 MG Mall, Swami Vivekananda Road, Trinity Circle, MG Road, Bangalore
Timings: 12 Noon to 11 PM
Contact: 080 22086644

THE GREEN PATH - MALLESHWARAM

I was spending the day in Malleshwaram, one of my favorite areas that still holds the charm of old Bangalore and decided on lunch at The Green Path just opposite to Mantri Mall.

Walking around the place I could only see greenery, wood or clay – from the furniture to the artifacts to the décor, all beautiful and earthy!

I had reached there early so to kill time I headed to their organic store, browsed about a bit and picked up a face scrub and then it was lunch time! This was served on the second floor with more wood and green to greet you. Even the water bottles were prettily flavored with lemon grass and mint!

Soup was served first and it was clear and hot.

You’d think healthy food is really boring. What’s lunch without something deep fried, crispy and oily? But actually whether it was the sundal (which actually looks boring but quite tasty) or the roasted beetroot and pumpkin starter or tava veg all served with chutney varieties…. were the kind that made me want to eat more.

Main was jeera rice, sambar, dal, rasam, beetroot palya..out of all this I liked the jeera rice and dal the best. Dal was truly amazing and I could make a meal of this without anything else!

Millet Dosa was next and this is the first time I’ve eaten a millet dosa. Millet anything for that matter! This was pleasantly tasty.

Desserts were cocoa bean pudding, cocoa bean cake, millet burfi & banana pudding and cocoa bean ice cream. Millet burfi wasn’t good at all and smelt a bit strange. On the other hand, the cocoa bean ice cream was too good and loved every spoonful of it.

On the not so plus side, I remember once the company I worked for had a contract with a caterer who had their own farms to provide lunch for us, the employees. They must have had a bumper of beetroot for every single day until the contract was over, all we got is beet root rice, rasam, sambar, curry and every dish you could think of was from beet root and more beet root till I couldn’t stand the vegetable anymore.

Same here. It was an overdose of beetroot – chutney, starters, rasam… tasty though some of them were, it was just too much beet root. I found the service painfully slow.

Overall, the meal was at its healthiest best. They had a saying on their lift doors – You are what you eat so don’t be fast, cheap, easy or fake..Be organic! and they totally live up to this. Nothing remotely artificial, fattening, plasticky, greasy or oily….if you understand what I mean. It was good to experience food that was different from our everyday meals and the calming ambience was altogether worth it.

Ratings for reviews:

1 – No! No! No!
2- Just about average.
3 –Good. Can give it a try.
4- Great!!
5 – Yes! Yes! Yes! And I’ll tell all about it.

Overall rating: 3.5/5 (only because I’m a dessert freak and I wanted more and better desserts!)

Details:

Address: The Green Path, Opposite Mantri Metro station, Sampige Road, Malleshwaram, Bangalore
Contact: +91 9538256777, 080 23569777
Timings: 12 to 3 PM, 7 PM to 10:30 PM

EBONY - MG ROAD

When I first heard about Ebony on MG Road many years ago and its beautiful view of Bangalore that everyone raved about, I made a decision that when I fall in love, my most romantic dinner date will be at this place with prince charming. Many frogs later, I’ve fallen in love…with the person in the mirror every morning. I decided to treat myself to a lunch buffet that I had heard so much about. On an impulse my friend accompanied me.

This is likely to contradict everything everyone says about this place…I didn’t like the view!:) All I could see was wires and dirty terraces and smoke from the rooftops. Maybe because it was noon and night times would be better with the city all lit up and the not so pleasant sights hidden in the dark. We actually chose to sit indoors.

There were plenty to choose from and too many to name as it was a buffet so I’ll talk about what stood out and what didn’t.

Atmosphere inside – Comfortable.

Soup – Minestrone soup…Okayish.

Salad Starters – Papdi chaat, dahi vada and salad – were all good with the papdi chaat the best. Tandoori Potatoes were awesome. My friend liked the chicken starters.

Mains – Indian food was good not great, usual pulao, dal, paneer gravy…. Ginger capsicum noodles were awesome!! My friend and I wished we weren’t so stuffed with the starters. I could have made a meal of only this and the gravies that went with it were good too.

Desserts – big thumbs down. Consisted two burfis - apricot and pista (which actually tasted like a diamond shaped doodh peda), gulab jamun, ice cream and bite sized mango cake. No chocolate though I got an offer of chocolate ice cream from the staff. I sorely missed chocolate and most people I know love to end the meal with chocolate in some form especially mini pastries, black forest and the likes. Even if the menu changes everyday, desserts should have something chocolatey methinks and not totally devoid of it.

Music – remixes of old hindi songs. Wish they had played the originals.

Service – courteous with no extra effort. No feedback form. No asking if the food was good. Nothing. But I was happy to see plates cleared promptly, water refilled.

Overall I’m on the fence about this place. I liked a lot of things, wasn’t impressed with some of the others. Not sure if I’d visit again but I may change my mind just for the ginger capsicum noodles;). Prices were reasonable.

Overall rating : 3/5

Ratings for reviews:

1 – No! No! No!
2- Just about average.
3 –Good. Can give it a try.
4- Great!!
5 – Yes! Yes! Yes! And I’ll tell all about it.

Details:
Address: Barton Center, 13th Floor, MG Road, Bangalore
Contact: 080 41783344
Timings: 12:30 PM to 3 PM, 7 PM to 11 PM

SHIRO - UB CITY MALL, VITTAL MALLYA ROAD

For the month of July 2017 review, I wanted to target an all Chinese restaurant till I got to know about the Dim sum festival going on at Shiro. I’m crazy about Dim sums. I could eat them every day. There have been times that one of my friends and I used to go for all you can eat buffet, skip everything there from rice to desserts and eat only dim sums. This review is for the vegetarian section only though they have 40 varieties of Dim sums in vegetarian and non vegetarian categories. Dim sum lover’s dream!

Weekdays at Shiro are paradise – quiet, tranquil and the huge statues of Buddha makes it visually appealing.

The first thing I did was complain about the serving plates. While most plates at food places are either plain white or have some flowery design, plates at Shiro had brown spots. The spots make it look like plates haven’t been washed. Turns out it is part of the design of the plate!! and being the visual person that I am, it put me off. After all, food is about presentation as much as it is about eating. Krishna, who served me was kind enough to understand my finickiness and replaced it with plain white design free plates:)

The Dim sum menu had some options – A la carte or Dim sum special unlimited options of five types of Dim sums for Rs.995 plus taxes. I decided to opt for that. Actually this is a better way to get to taste a variety over a la carte which is quite pricey.

What I had:

Spicy broccoli & water chestnut dumpling

Spinach and corn dumpling

Crystal dumpling – mushrooms, carrots, zucchini and Chinese cabbage

Vegetarian Shen Jian Bao (a bit too doughy for my taste)

Chi chow style dumpling (crunchy with baby corn and peanuts– for me best of the lot)

For me, one was no different from the other except for the one with baby corn which had a bit more crunch. All of them were hot, melt in the mouth delicious and filling. The spicy chilly sauce made it all the more enjoyable.

However, after five steamed options, I was craving for something crispy and ordered cheese rolls which was delectable. I would have preferred fried wontons though!

However stuffed I am, I can never resist dessert and ordered a chocolate volcano (molten chocolate cake with ice cream), which was wowsome!

Jasmine tea in the end was refreshing.

Since this festival has a time limit, it’s a must experience for all dim sum lovers.

Overall Rating: 4/5

Ratings for reviews:

1 – No! No! No!
2- Just about average.
3 –Good. Can give it a try.
4- Great!!
5 – Yes! Yes! Yes! And I’ll tell all about it.

Photos: Dim sums, chocolate volcano.

Details:

Address 2nd Floor, UB City Mall, Vittal Mallya Road, Lavelle Road, Bangalore.
Contact +91 8041738864 080 41738861
Timings 12:30 PM to 11:30 PM