Category: Restaurant Reviews

  • Anupam’s Coast II Coast

    The coast line of restaurants is far from receding in Koramangala, but since we’ve exhausted most of the coastal food options in Koramangala, and this one stuck out like a sore thumb, we decided to drop in here. Its on the same road as the Kormangala Club. Here’s the ‘how to get there‘ part. This road spoils you with options now with Imperial, Kubay, Hyderabad House, Bhojohori Manna, Heritage of Bengal and Chinese Cottage, all in the space of 100m. We’ll be making more trips here. Anyway, since we’d pre-decided that we would be dining here, we managed to resist the other temptations. The ambiance is decent, with comfortable seating.

    The menu has about 6 pages, with just about one page devoted to the ‘authentic coastal cuisine’. Hmm. The rest of the menu consists of the regular Chinese and North indian options. So, in addition to the few coastal cuisine starters (veg – Rs.75 -120, and non veg – Rs.90-300) , you also have Chinese options like drumsticks, Shanghai etc in veg (Rs.90-100)and non veg(Chicken Rs.120-130, Seafood – Rs.90-120). For the soup kind, again, there are veg  and non veg options (Chicken and seafood) with representation from multiple cuisines – Manchow, Cream of Chicken and even Shorba. (Rs. 65- 115). They also have thali options for lunch.

    For the main course, there are quite a few coastal cuisine options – very few in veg, but better in non veg – Sukka, Kundapuri, Ghee Roast in chicken and mutton (Rs.90-270) and seafood (prawns, crab, different kinds of fish – Rs.120 upwards, depending on the size of the fish). In addition to this, you have a few pages of Chinese and North indian options (Rs.110-140 range) with dry, gravy items and noodles/paratha etc.

    So, we started with a Cream of Chicken. Okay, before you snicker, it was raining outside, and we couldn’t find a coastal cuisine equivalent. The soup turned out to be quite decent, though more cornflour than cream, but then, from experience, they aren’t the only ones guilty of this. Next we had a Marvai Chilly. That’s shellfish and you have to fish a lot to get the little pieces of flesh, but it was done quite well. Mind your tongue, while eating, that is.

    For the main course, we ordered a half plate of chicken ghee roast, a fish curry (anjal – kingfish) and appams to go along with it. You could also try neer dosa or pundi (rice dumplings) though we didn’t read good reviews of the former for this place. The fish curry, though well made, obviously makes a better combination with the rice. The ghee roast was quite good, though the ghee only made a Bollywood like special appearance, but the masala made sure we didn’t miss it much. The appams were also very well made. In essence, can’t complain about the food.

    All of the above cost us just less than Rs.600. So its quite okay on the value-for-money, quantity and service parameters as well, though the last one is a very no-nonsense, matter-of-fact approach. The coast is clear, so check it out. Bwahaha. In my favor, I resisted so far. 😀

    Anupam’s Coast II Coast, 113, 6th Cross, 6th Block, Koramangala Club Road. Ph: 41460666, 41460555

  • Cafe Thulp

    When in the mood for a good ‘thulp’ (hog/binge), you could go to the innumerable Chinese or Mallu joints, but you wouldn’t get burgers and sandwiches there, and that’s why Cafe Thulp makes sense. So, now you know the why, here’s the how to get there.

    We got there at just after 7.30, and easily found place, though it did get crowded by the time we left at about quarter to nine. Parking shouldn’t be too much of a problem. A bright, airy place with some good music in the background, and pleasant service. There is a peppiness about the decor – from the huge graffiti near the kitchen to the wordplay on the menu card, and the logo that is hard to miss.

    We saw a ‘Tom Kha’ soup on the blackboard which displays the day’s special, and decided to try that out before the ‘Start me up’ part of the menu. The soup was slightly thinner than we’d have liked, but that doesn’t take away much from the fact that it was quite good. Okay, we mallus have a thing for coconut milk, but even considering that bias, the lemongrass, lime and galangal flavors, the chunky chicken pieces and the mushrooms make it a must try.

    There are about 8 starters – veg, chicken and pork options, and a ‘Prawnic Healing’ too. We chose ‘Bird on a wire’, which is chicken satay with peanut sauce. The chicken satay was good – juicy and soft, and the peanut sauce, awesome. I wanted to try out the original hamburger – Moo (or one of its variations), but D bulldozed me on that decision, and so i let go with a meek boo. On the menu, there are veg and non veg sandwich options, a few salads, as well as some other entree dishes.

    D ordered a El Pollo Loco, which is crispy fried chicken strips with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach, I was tempted by the dark side (the damn blackboard) and chose, of all things, a stir fried chicken, with cashews, served with fried rice. The former was served with a sauce I liked a lot because of its hmm, sharp taste, which provided a good contrast. Liked it when I ate it, but not after D told me the ingredients – green mango and papaya. I hate the latter, and now I don’t have a justification. Hmmph. The stir fried chicken was good, but I was feeling quite dumb for ordering it, since the menu has a huge skew towards burgers and sandwiches. Meanwhile, during the meal, I couldn’t take my mind of the average Malayali’s long association with beef, (including er, cattle class tweets). I was mooved enough to order ‘The Rocky Balboa’ to deliver the knockout punch. A philly sliced steak, with grilled onions, grilled green peppers, and cheese sauce. Excellent stuff. The bad news was that it left me with no space for either the coolers/smoothies/shakes or the chocolate cake. :\

    All of the above cost us just less than Rs.750. Drop in here when in the mood for burgers, sandwiches and a cheery ambience.

    Cafe Thulp, 998, 1st Main, 1st Block, Koramangala. Ph: 40933344, 40933355

    Menu at Zomato

  • Kungh

    The BJP central leadership is in a crisis state. In the state of Karnataka, the BJP government has dissension in its ranks. Its a bad time for the saffron party, but all that didn’t stop us from visiting Kungh, a restaurant on Castle Street, serving Kashmiri cuisine. Eh, connection?  From Pampur, thirteen kilometres from Srinagar, where it is cultivated, it comes to us – Kungh (pronounced Kong), Kashmiri for saffron. 😀

    To get there, get on to Richmond Road at the beginning (Lifestyle) and then take the right on to Castle Street. Some set of government guys seem to be digging there for that treasure, but you should get parking in one of the side lanes.

    This is the second ‘Saffron‘ we’ve encountered in Bangalore. Its an absolutely unpretentious place and somehow manages to convey a very homely feel, which is reflected in the way they treat customers too. They suggested dishes and combinations, told us what would be sufficient, talked to us about the ‘wazwan‘, (which I remembered reading in Salman Rushdie’s “Shalimar the Clown”) and generally made us feel absolutely comfortable.

    So, on to the menu. There are starter options in veg, cockur (chicken) and maaz (lamb). The veg options consists of paneer, cauliflower, potatoes and mixed veg. (Rs.50-100). In chicken, you can choose from the special fried chicken (waza cockur), the boneless tandoor grilled chicken, (troosh cockur), the spicy version (talith cockur) or a cashew grilled version (kaju cockur) (Rs.150-200). In lamb there’s Tabaq maaz (fried ribs), seekh kabab, barrah kabab, or the pasanda kabab. (Rs.150-250)

    For the main course rus (gravy) options in veg consist of bottle gourd, brinjal, palak, mushrooms, potato, priced between Rs.75-100. In chicken you could have qorma, malai or kungh (Rs.150), and the mutton options consist of rogan josh, dhaniwal qorma, marchwangan qorma, rista (dumplings in spicy gravy), or the yakhni/goshtaaba. (Rs.175-200) There are also a couple of daal options. (Rs.50-75) To go with that, you could choose from roti/naan/phulka or rice (steamed/kungh or kabab pulao) While we went through the options, they gave us a complimentary kahwa. Amazing stuff, that!!

    We started with a seekh kabab (“minced lamb grilled in tandoor and fried). Extremely well made – smooth, cut into small rings, and with enough flavour to make it probably the best I’ve had in Bangalore. I was tempted to order a waza cockur, but there were too many things to try out in the main course. So we ordered a Kungh Cockur (spicy gravy), a yakhni (“lamb dumplings in yoghurt gravy”), and to go with that a naan, and steamed rice. We ended up ordering one naan later. The chicken dish was excellent, but the yakhni was definitely the pick. A great combination with rice. The meatballs were extremely soft, the ‘melt in your mouth’ kind, and had a good combination of spices that lent it a very unique flavor. Highly recommended.

    In addition to dessert options which included kheer, phirni, khubani ka meetha and a badam meetha, you could also try the kungh lassi/nimbu, kahwa, sheer chai, or the noon chai (salted tea). I asked for a khubani ka meetha, but was persuaded to change my mind to a badam meetha, and it didn’t disappoint. D had a kungh sweet lassi and she’s got a new favourite drink. 🙂

    All of the above cost us Rs.700. Definitely worth a visit, for a unique cuisine and some excellent service.

    Kungh, #332, Castle Street, Ashok Nagar Ph: 41126043

    Menu at Zomato

  • Delicacy

    There’s no dearth of tiny value-for-money Chinese joints in Koramangala. But we read quite some good things about Delicacy and decided to have Chinese for Diwali, though I’m still bugged about Arunachal Pradesh. And that’s how we landed up at Delicacy. Its right opposite Kolkata, and for the lazy ones, from the Sony world on Koramangala 100 ft Road, head towards 1st Block (i.e turn left when coming from Indiranagar) At the next junction, where you have a Liberty showroom (on your left) and Tanishq /Silsila on your right, take a left, and then the first left. You’ll find Delicacy on your, yep, you guessed erm right, on your left. Chinese, remember? 😀

    As all the reviews said, this is not exactly the place you’d go for fine dining. Its a place so tiny, you wouldn’t believe it if you saw it. But having said that, its probably the best space utilisation I’ve seen, they’ve managed to fit in half a dozen tables without making it seem congested. Quite comfortable too, actually. But its the food we came for. And they welcomed us with some fried wontons, with a sweet sauce.

    The place serves a bit of Thai too, in addition to the regular Chinese. There are almost 20 soups, most of which have a veg (Rs.55)/non-veg (chicken Rs.60)/sea food option (Rs.65). In addition to the regular stuff, you can also find Pepper Lemon Soup, Laksa Kai soup, and the one we ordered – Delicacy Special Soup. We checked if it was a thick soup before ordering, and were told it was, but when it did land up, it turned out to be a thin soup. The person who’d taken our order apologised and took it inside to change it. It came back in a few minutes, ever so slightly thicker. Heh. Since it was quite tasty, we didn’t feel it was necessary to complain. 😀

    We didn’t actually plan for Momos, but having seen them on the menu, it was difficult to ignore. So we ordered a plate of pan fried chicken momos, and since there were more than a dozen options each of veg (Rs.65/70), chicken(Rs.80-110), and sea food starters (fish, prawns and crab at Rs.110), we had to try at least one, and that turned out to be Spicy Fish with Red Chilly. There was a flood of momos, actually a dozen of them, and quite tasty ones, especially with the sauce given along with them. The fish was awesome, hot and sweet kind, and I’d highly recommend it. We were almost stuffed by then, and we still had the main course left.

    We’d ordered a Sliced Chicken ‘N’ Pickle Chilly sauce (from a huge list of veg, chicken and sea food options at Rs.70, 90, 110 respectively) and a Butter Noodles. There are about 25 options among rice/noodles/chopsuey with all of them having a veg/chicken/sea food option. (Rs.60-100) The Butter noodles was excellent, but we could’ve chosen a better chicken dish.

    All of the above cost us just over Rs.400. Great food, excellent service, and absolute value for money. Even if you don’t want to do a sit-down meal, you should at least try the take away/ home delivery.

    Delicacy, #971/C, Ground Floor, ST Bed, Koramangala, 4th Block. Ph: 41753636/7/25502233

    Menu at Zomato

  • Chalo Punjab

    ..for dinner, that’s what we thought, after D had spotted it on her way back from work last week. No, she doesn’t work in Punjab, this is version 2.0 of what used to be called ‘Dal Roti’ in Koramangala, located just before the Sony World junction, on the left, when coming from the National Games Village direction, opposite the IBP petrol pump.

    Dal Roti used to be the value-for-money North Indian joint we used to frequent in our first round of stay in Koramangala. Coincidentally, I remember mentioning the last time we had been there, that it was time for a renovation, and that seems to be exactly what happened. So Dal Roti is now ‘Chalo Punjab’ with a ‘fine dining’ tag to boot. We reached there just after 8, and easily got a table. I think that can be attributed to this being the first weekend (I think) after the re-launch.

    Though the seating arrangements remains roughly the same, the ambience is must better, with more Punjabi flavor thrown in, in terms of props. I still wouldn’t classify it as fine dining, though its definitely a couple of steps above the initial version.

    The menu is more elaborate though, and if anything, we were spoilt for choice. You could start with sherbets/shikhanjvi/thandai/khatte aam ka panna or chaas/lassi or even an ice cream doodh sheikh (they’ve had  quite some fun with the spellings and the names), about a dozen options priced between Rs.40-80. If you’re the shorba kind, you could try ‘loveleen de tandrust shorbe’ – 3 veg and 2 non veg options, priced at Rs.70/80.

    There are more than a dozen veg starters including the Rawalpindi Railway Gobi and Peeo de Cheesy Palak rolls, at Rs.130/140. The non veg options would be about double of that, most of it in chicken (Rs.160/170) and about 4-5 options each in mutton (Rs.210) and fish (Rs.220) and a couple of prawn options too (Rs.250). For the main course, the grass eaters get to choose from about half a dozen dishes each of dal and paneer (including Major Patrick da paneer tiranga!!), in addition to over 15 other dishes, like ‘Simple di subz keema’, ‘marie memsaab di ishtew’, and ‘garima di gajjar methi malai’, priced between Rs.120-160!! There are about 8-10 options each in chicken and mutton (Rs.230-270) and 3-4 options in fish, prawn (Rs.230-270) and eggs (Rs.130-160).

    To go with that, you could have paratha/roti/kulcha/naan, priced between Rs.35-65, or biriyani/pulao/rice (like the Punjabi Times Chicken Fry rice!!) They also have thali options on weekdays – Rs.140/180 for veg/non veg. Now, you get what I mean by elaborate menu. Phew!!

    We skipped the shorba and started with a Chandigarh Chicken Cake (C3) 😀 That’s “generously spiced minced chicken cupcakes shallow fried served with a dash of coriander and chat patta masalas”. Its a perfect starter, complemented  well by the mint chutney, though 6 pieces in one portion meant that the stomach was filled a little more than we’d liked, especially when a glass of lassi was also used to wash it down. For the main course, we ordered a Kartarpuri Kajuwala Kukkad Kadi, “chunks of tender chicken simmered in a rich cashew gravy mildly spiced”, a Mardaan di Meat di Feast (!!), “a delicious recipe of tender juicy cuts of mutton slow cooked in a rich onion yoghurt & tomato, enriched with steamed spicy mutton koftas swimming in mouthwatering minced mutton gravy”, and to go along with it, a wheat naan and a cheese chilly naan. The chicken dish was more brown than white, but simply awesome, and I’d recommend it very highly. Thick and mildly spicy, it was done extremely well, so much that the elaborate mutton dish was reduced to second place, though those koftas were quite good.

    I’d have liked to try some dessert too, but was completely stuffed. I think just reading that menu fills half your stomach!! There are about a dozen dessert options (Rs.50-120) – the regular North Indian stuff – phirni (though this is Pammi ji’s!!), kheer, kulfi, rabdi, gaajar halwa, gulab jamun, and even a Mango Dolly ice cream!! Mind it!!

    All of the above cost us just over Rs.800. The service was excellent, and except for a tiny delay in bringing back my credit card (hmm), it was extremely prompt. The price may perhaps not be justified by the ambience, but its more than compensated by the tasty food, great service, and the phenomenal amount of choice.

    Chalo Punjab, 906/1, GNR Plaza, 80 ft Road, 6th Block, Koramangala. Ph:41105666/777

    Menu at Zomato