Category: Indiranagar

  • Daddy’s Deli

    This rendezvous with Parsi food has been long pending. Daddy’s Deli is a restaurant in Indiranagar that serves Parsi cuisine, and is open only 3 days a week-  lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday and only lunch on Sunday. Its on 12 th Main Indiranagar, when coming from the Koramangala side, take a left at the 12th Main – 100ft Road junction and go straight till you see the Executive Inn on the left. Its in the same building on the first floor.

    We reserved in advance and though a couple of tables were occupied by 8pm, we could still find a good place. The ambience is excellent, with comfortable seating and cosy corners. Book shelves lined with old Readers Digest issues, and the ancient green soda bottle lend a nice touch.

    Since the place serves (almost) exclusively Parsi food, the menu is quite small, but there are still enough choices for all sorts of -vores. Munching on the complimentary sarias (Parsi rice chips), we decided to start with a plate of brain cutlets, and also wanted a Chicken Liver on Toast, but the latter wasn’t available. So we had to live with that lack of cholesterol, but the crispy on the outside, smooth inside brain cutlet made up for the disappointment. There’s no need to brainstorm on this one, have it!! There are also other starter options like cocktail kababs and Farcha (fried chicken) for the non vegetarians and at least half a dozen veg options.

    For the main course, you could either have dishes like Sali Murghi/Boti/Kheema accompanied with rotli (4 for Rs.30) or go for rice dishes. Thanks to our greed, we ended up ordering a Patra ni Machhi, “fish coated with green chutney and steamed in a banana leaf” and Sali Murghi, “chicken in brown gravy topped with potato crisps” from this set, but decided to skip the rotlis. Instead we ordered a Dhansak, “the all time favourite. A parsi speciality – masala dal with mutton, served with brown rice”. The descriptions were quite disappointing, they really don’t do justice to the food. 😀

    The fish was soft, almost boneless and served with a mint-coconut based chutney. D had to be stopped from finishing the banana leaf too for the chutney particles that stuck on. I loved the chicken dish, and thankfully, it went quite well with the dhan. The mutton-dal combination of the saak was new to us and so we took some time warming up to each other, but we parted as friends. Now before the vegetarians close the page, there were at least 4 options I counted in the rice dishes.

    And thus we come to what we call the main course, and the more ignorant ones call desserts. After much deliberation, we chose a lagan nu custard, ” a Parsi favourite, steamed and baked brown”. Soft, and topped with crisp nuts, this just melted in the mouth and was over very very soon. And then we realised what marital understanding was all about. With no words spoken, except of course, for placing the order,  a Chocolate mousse made its way to the table. Daddy’s Deli – Double Dessert – Parsi for the course!! 🙂

    All of the above cost us Rs.950. Drop in for a homely ambience, very helpful service, and some great food, don’t be parsimonious for once. 😀

    Daddy’s Deli, The Executive Inn, #3289, 12th Main, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar. Ph: 41154372-75

  • Laa Jawaab

    A recent addition to Indiranagar’s North Indian dine out options, this restaurant is on CMH Road – the non metro side. 🙂 When coming from the Koramangala direction – on 100 ft Road, take a right turn at the CMH Road- 100 ft Road junction, you’ll find the restaurant on the right, opposite ICICI bank, just before Fabindia. Valet parking is available for 4 wheelers and there’s a 2 wheeler parking right across the road.

    The restaurant is on the first floor, describes itself as ‘swaad ka khazana’, and has two sections, one has a regular restaurant seating, and the other is more of a lounge section. (though they don’t seem to have a liquor license yet) We’d reserved in advance, but found it wasn’t required, especially if you land up before 8. There are a couple of nice 2-seat options, which give you a view of CMH Road. The ambience is otherwise pretty ordinary, with piped instrumental hindi music. The menu is shaped like a pankha (fan) and offers standard Delhi/North Indian cuisine.

    There were only the regular shorba options, but quite a few starter options (veg and non veg – including 2-3 sea food options), so we ordered a starter – Gilawati Kabab, which was described as “a unique mouth watering lamb kabab with the distinct flavours of Lucknow”. I liked the way it was served – on a tiny paratha, but the taste was skewed towards one flavor – nutmeg, says D. That took away from what would otherwise have been quite a good dish.

    For the main course, we ordered a Paneer Lababdar – “cottage cheese simmered in an onion and tomato gravy”, and a Murgh Methi Malai – “chunks of chicken with fenugreek and cream”, and to go along with that, an onion kulcha, a khaas amritsari kulcha and later, a plain naan. There was an interesting fish dish, (in addition to a couple of regular gravy options) with spinach and mint, but we decided to play safe. The paneer dish was quite ordinary, though spicy, and seemed quite lumpy to me, maybe because I was expecting a uniformly thick gravy. The chicken dish has a creamy white gravy, and an excellent one at that. This one I recommend. The portions are quite large and easily sufficient for two people. Both the kulchas were well done, the Amritsari kulcha is slightly spicy and has a stuffing (potato/onion). The dessert options were the regular suspects, except one – Paan Ice Cream, which I would’ve tried if I wasn’t so stuffed.All of the above cost us just over Rs.850, so its a bit on the expensive side.

    In essence, nothing extraordinary, but if you’re around Indiranagar, and are in the mood for North Indian food, you could check it out.

    Laa Jawaab, #516, 1st Floor, opp ICICI bank, CMH Road, Indiranagar. Ph: 42173232/42183232. [i can’t understand people who communicate their website url just to show a parked domain

  • Shiok

    Shiok is a restaurant that serves Far-eastern cuisine. And it’s moved. No, not the cuisine, just the location. Though we’d heard about it a lot when it was on CMH Road, (online mostly, but we’ll get to that later) we never managed to visit. So, when we saw the signboard on the Inner Ring Road (before the flyover, on the right, when coming from Koramangala), we decided now was as good a time as any to try it out.

    We skipped the reservation part but were lucky enough to get a table. I liked the ambience – elegant, pleasant to the eye, and cosy. There’s also a cocktail lounge – ‘Moss’ on the first floor.

    We started with a “Minced chicken and celery soup” (kaeng jued) , a Thai soup, “a tasty yet light soup with bits of minced chicken, celery, chinese cabbage and black mushroom”. Though it was a thin soup, I quite liked its flavour.

    We skipped starters and for the main course ordered a Beef with ginger, chilli, basil and crushed peanuts, described further as ” tender beef with several assertive flavours that nevertheless blend nicely together. The peanuts provide a crunch and a mild contrast to the other seasonings”, an Indonesian green chilli chicken (ayam cabai hijau), which is “chicken cubes simmered with green chillies, lemongrass,  ginger and tomatoes” It also says that this is for real chilli lovers and may be fatal in large doses. (yes, they also mention they’re kidding, so don’t worry). To go with these two, a Chi hor fun, a Malaysian noodle dish, “browned braised chicken cooked with flat rice noodles and savoury sauce using ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce and chicken stock”. I felt the beef could’ve been a little more evenly cooked (some pieces were a bit rare) but I still liked it enough to slurp the gravy!! The crunchy peanuts did bring in a nice contrast. The chicken dish, though it displayed a few chillies, is less scarier in real life than is made out to be in the menu. I quite liked this too. In both cases, there’s not much of gravy, but since our noodles  had a bit of its own (hmm “squishier” than the Malaysian noodles I’ve had elsewhere), it worked out fine. And that’s why I was impressed with the service, because our original choice of chicken dish was vetoed by the person in  charge of our table, who suggested this one since it would go better with our noodles.

    Though i couldn’t find it in the menu, they did offer us some desserts, including a chocolate mousse, but unfortunately I was stuffed enough to pass 🙁 All of the above, including a service tax of 10%, cost us just over Rs.800.

    Shiok belongs to a MadMan (he’s one those really ancient bloggers, about 8 years, makes me feel young!!  :D) , though judging from the food, I’d wager that there is definitely a method. 🙂 You can get the exact location, have a look at the menu card, check out a few recipes and even reserve a table right here. Good food (quite a lot of choices for vegetarians and non vegetarians), nice ambience, excellent service, do give it a try.

    Shiok, #96, Amarjyothi Layout, Intermediate Ring Road. Ph: 65715555/6666. www.shiokfood.com

    Update: Closed

  • Kaayal

    Kaayal has been on our radar for some time now. And when they announced a Malabar Biriyani festival from Feb 26th – Mar 1st, we decided there couldn’t be a better time.

    When coming from Koramangala take a right turn at the 12th main junction, at the every end, take a right and then, a left at the next junction. (where you see a ‘Fresh’ outlet) You’ll see Kayal on the right after about a 100 metres. Its opposite Miranda High School, and on the second floor. Parking is a lil bit of a bother.

    Kaayal, which means ‘backwaters’  is the quintessential Mallu restaurant, with a few props thrown in for good measure. While you get all the regular Kerala dishes here, the Biriyanis were the highlight. So we ordered a Chicken Biriyani and a Fish Biriyani and a sambhaaram (buttermilk) while we waited. The sambhaaram was about as spicy as it could get, but good.

    The Chicken biriyani was very much like the ones we Mallus get in restaurants at home, complete with the egg, thats conspicuously missing in the versions usually found in Bangalore. D was quite miffed that her fish biriyani didn’t have one, but I guess it did make sense – limiting eggs to chicken biriyanis 😀 The problem with both was that the masala hasdn’t really seeped into the chicken/fish pieces. We also ordered a Beef fry, which we had been warned about earlier – that it usually was a bit rubbery. Unfortunately for us, it was quite a correct warning. All the stuff could’ve been better. :|Might go back some other time for checking out the regular Mallu stuff.

    All of the above cost us a bit over Rs.250. Value-for-money as most Mallu restaurants go. (no we don’t consider Coconut Grove mallu on that parameter)

    Kaayal, 1647/1 , 2nd Floor, Jeevan Bhima Nagar. Ph: 25205578

  • The French Quarter bistro

    Flanked by music (Planet M) and coffee (Barista), The French Quarter bistro is located on the 100 ft Road in Indiranagar. When coming from the Koramangala side, this is immediately after the CMH Road-100 ft Road junction on the left.

    We called to reserve in advance, done smoothly, with a casual “see you in the evening, manu” thrown it at the end. There went the stereotype of French snobbery I had in mind.

    The flyover construction has left the area in a bit of a mess, but parking for two wheelers, thankfully, is not a problem. Though we didn’t find a maitre’d like the one in Spiderman 3, we were allowed to choose a table that we found comfortable. Nice. The ambience is very relaxing, high ceilings with a couple of palm trees, soft music, and bistro style comfortable seating. One is bound to linger here for longer than the food warrants. And while we waited for the food, they served bread and butter, and replenished it a few times too.

    We started with a French Onion soup , which is “beef consomme with cheese croutons”. Its a thin soup and a milder flavour than I’d anticipated, but still good enough. For the main course, in addition to the items on the menu, there’s also the Plat du jour, that you can find on the blackboard. Though all reviews stated that it was a salad + entree combination, there wasn’t a salad to be found. I’m still curious.

    So, D ordered a “Pan seared red snapper in lemon butter sauce served with herb rice” (regular menu) and I ordered a “Chicken a’la King, with herb rice”. We experimented a bit with Tabasco sauce and thankfully it turned out fine. They serve moderate portions and despite appearances, they’re quite filling. I was hoping to have some chocolate crepes, but unfortunately they didn’t have it, and strangely, I wasn’t tempted by the chocolate mousse cake. I confess I’m a bit worried about that.

    Before the billing, they ask you if they can include Rs.10 – to be given to Akshaya Patra (a cause for underprivileged children), a very good initiative. All of the above (no mineral water) cost us just over Rs.800, including a service charge of 10%. Extremely pleasant service, great setting and decent food. Definitely worth a visit.

    The French Quarter bistro, 298, 100 ft Road, Indiranagar. Ph: 080 42171998

    Menu at Zomato