It absolutely was, and it had nothing to do with the food, service or anything that you’d normally judge a restaurant/pub on. Normally, nothing would get me to visit Sarjapur Road, but hey, microbrewery. That, and its photos on Zomato making it look like the sets of MTV Grind! (who remembers?)
Truth be told, the ambiance was quite good. Poolside would have been perfect, but we were told that the section wasn’t open because there was a rain forecast. We’ll get back to this. We got ourselves a table near the bar. The crowd was extremely mixed – fresh-out-of-engineering-college gawking kids, middle aged families, Sarjapur’s Page 3 equivalent, living ads of Malabar Gold, probably businessmen, and so on. Hoot 1 – crowd. Not enough children though, so I didn’t have anyone to make faces at.
As we waited for our friends, we decided to get ourselves some beer. Out of the five craft brews, only two were available. D ordered a Saint Martin Abbey Triple, which was described as “liquid gold served to perfection”. After we tasted it, the only thing I was left wondering was whose liquid gold? Ugh! I had asked for the other available beer – Saint Martin Abbey Dark, which was described as “an uplifting experience”. This one delivered on the promise, only because it is easy to uplift anyone who has tasted that Morarji Desai prescription known as Abbey Triple! Our friends arrived by then, and after tasting both, decided to order wine an cocktails. No Rose wines were available, and no Bira, so the poor souls settled on Tuborg and a Blood Orange & Mint cocktail. My friend described the latter as Rasna with a hint of Vodka. The rest of us missed the hint.
Now is a good time to tell you that if you want to read the menu before you order, get your own damn flashlight (or a mobile). A Nam Prik Lamb and Lat Mai Kai were asked for, and fries. The fries were some sort of secret military operation, because first we found wedges hiding beneath a layer of fries. Then, another bowl of fries were brought to our table, and we were asked whether we had ordered fries! Lat Mai Kai was diced chicken with shredded onions. This one was supposed to have “a hint of red wine”, but now we had figured out how these ‘hints’ worked! The dish was mildly spicy and not particularly bad. The lamb was much better – crispy and spicy.
The place had filled up since we walked in, and they had opened up the poolside section, probably in desperation. Open sky, great breeze, and…. let the rains begin! And it was quite a downpour. People sitting by the pool started running towards any and all shelters they could find, and in a classic expression of collective human emotion, everyone sitting inside began to clap! Hoot 2 – behaviour!
Since rains and Uber are in a relationship, we decided to take things slow. The Butter Chicken Pizza seemed an interesting way to pass time. One of our friends had this vision of a crust filled with Butter Chicken gravy, but it turned out to be a very, and I mean very, ordinary pizza! Meanwhile, the rains continued unabated. That meant folks inside wouldn’t leave, even if it meant standing. People who were seated had to take the load, literally, as even shoulders were used as seats! We could have been irritated, but were too busy being entertained. That was because there was a crowd waiting to get in as well and they were straining against the glass, reminding us of zombie movies! Hoot 3.
After a while, the rains thankfully retreated, but before we left I had to try the Chocolate and Old Monk Mousse. Surprisingly good stuff, this time there was more than a hint! Oh well, at least it ended well!
All of this cost a little less than Rs.2500. Won’t say more about the food, but it was all very entertaining! They played “Cheap Thrills” twice when we were there, I love these meta connections!
Hoot, BBMP 2034/69, Block 2, Kaikondrahalli, Varthur Hobli, Sarjapur Road Ph: 45128701