Having been thwarted once on a ‘table for 2 after 7pm on Saturday’ at TOIT, we decided to try another tack at The Biere Club and reserved a table via Poshvine for Sunday noon. Here’s a map for those who aren’t sure where it’s located. Parking would really depend on when you’re dropping in. One option is to park at UB City and walk. We sat on the ground floor, with a view of Lavelle Road as well as the microbrewery. There are two more floors – the smoking sections, I think. Lots of graphics on the walls, reminded me a bit of Mario Miranda. Looks like a peaceful place, without the buzz that TOIT seems to have, but that was probably because of the time we were there at.
From the huge selection of beverages and meatables, (don’t worry, there are veg options in plenty too) we decided to go for a wheat beer (you get a 500 ml for the price of 330 ml as part of a breakfast combo) and a glass of Biere Sangria. We also ordered a Moroccan Chicken to go with it. The wheat beer was fine, and perfect for the non-regular beeraholics, but on my taste buds scale I prefer the Basmati Blonde at TOIT and the one at Punjabi by Nature, in that order. The stout beer is pretty good, if we go by the 4sq tips. Maybe some other time, when I’m not riding back. 🙂 The Sangria was much better, and chances are that you’ll really like it – especially the little zing that the lager adds.
The Breakfastwich arrived first – a sub with ham, bacon, a couple of fried eggs and a token cheese presence. While the bacon and baked beans were just fine, the entire thing proved a bit unwieldy, and didn’t really impress much. The Breakfast pizza arrived a bit later, and it was then that we realised that they had forgotten to tell the kitchen about the Moroccan chicken. But one look at the pizza was enough to convince us that it was a fortunate mistake. The thin crust pizza had bacon, sausages, mushrooms and a fried egg at the centre of it all. Sliced just right, it was quite awesome with a tomato tang, mild spice and a good load of cheese. Great combo with the beer. 🙂 We really had no space for desserts.
The service was reasonably good, barring the Moroccan chicken incident that proved advantageous for us. All of the above cost us less than Rs.1200, thanks to the Poshvine deal. Definitely worth a visit, especially considering that it’s Bangalore’s first microbrewery. 🙂
The Biere Club, 20/2, Vittal Mallya Road-Lavelle Road junction Ph: 42124383/4/6
From the starters section, we chose the Stuffed BBQ Chicken, bell peppers in slices of chicken breast with a faint flavor of wine from the marinade, and a BBQ sauce that was mildly sweet and quite spicy. This one is highly recommended. From the really huge number of choices in pizzas, pasta, sizzlers and steaks, we sniffed out the Pattaya option from the special street pizzas, mostly thanks to the promise of coconut flavours. 🙂 We also asked for a Chicken Parmesan. The former turned out to be excellent though there was only a whiff of coconut, but there was enough chicken on a stone oven made crust to keep us happy. The Parmesan came with a red sauce and pasta, and was another good dish. The only snag was that we ran out of space for desserts.
The menu (click to enlarge) is to the point, so don’t expect to see casual mentions of noodles or butter chicken anywhere. We decided to start with a Grilled Beef Burger and a Whole Thigh, and add to it in case we felt hungry. The Burger was excellent, crisp on the outside, superbly ground meat inside and helped by a tasty sweet and spicy sauce. The French Fries deserve a mention purely for the flavour that they brought to the table. Cheesy, mildly salty and overall a great complement to the burger. The Whole Thigh is served with a veg salad and garlic bread. Though it was quite decent, I’d have liked the chicken grilled a bit more. Since we were still hungry, we also got ourselves a Grilled Chicken Fillet Burger which was as impressive as its beef cousin. Continuing the theme of the restaurant, the desserts are also grilled (fruits). But we had a movie to catch and therefore skipped.
Until a few months back, the domain after Barista on 1st A Cross could very well have been called Keramangala, thanks to the proliferation of Kerala food joints. But when Paramount shut shop, after finding that it really could not be true to its name as long as Empire was around, and the spot immediately after Barista turned into Coconut Grave, courtesy the deep pit that appeared in place of the similar-sounding restaurant, Kerala was beginning to lose its gastronomic hold over Koramangala. But a new hope soon arrived in the form of NBC – not the television network- but Naushad, the Big Chef. For those in the habit of watching Malayalam channels, Naushad would be a familiar figure, rattling off easy-to-make recipes from across the world into the airwaves, for about seven years now. He has a Bangalore connection too – he did a hotel management course here. From a catering origin, NBC now has branches across many cities in India and plans to expand in the Mallu homeland across the waters too – the Gulf. I have been to one of the restaurants in Cochin. Though the menu does vary a bit across the outlets, keeping in mind local tastes, the biryani, which has found great favour in Kerala, is a common factor.
The starters section is predominantly North Indian and Chinese and the one item that caught our attention – the Chilli Fish NBC style was still in its natural habitat, and therefore unavailable. We took this opportunity to test out the North Indian representatives in the menu and asked for a Chakori Kabab and a Nilgiri Kabab. The former was a chicken kabab with a mutton mince filling but was a bit too sour for our liking. The Nilgiri Kabab –chicken again, was much better – tangy and mildly spicy. The Prawns Pepper Fry was the best of the starters, with juicy, succulent prawns and a very spicy masala.
Just like the starter section, this one too has quite a lot of North Indian and Chinese items, but we were quite focused. The fish continued to give us the slip even when it came to the biryani. The Chicken Biryani, NBC’s signature dish arrived first and was very good – flavourful, non sticky rice, just the right amount of masala, and well cooked chicken. It seemed more Travancore style than Malabar, in terms of taste as well as the conspicuous absence of the boiled egg. The other dish that gave it good competition for the top spot was the Chicken Ulathiyathu, a dry dish with some excellent spicy masala. Try it with the soft and fluffy appams. The (Mutton) Brain Roast is quite unlike the versions you’d find elsewhere, both in texture and taste. But it lost its impact thanks to the oily aftertaste. We finally got the fish in the curries – Alleppey and Malabar – both coconut based, and if you like a sharp tang, you should try the former. Watch out for the fish with a swollen head though – mostly bone.
The Meen Pollichathu though, was quite a disappointment with an uncharacteristic bordering-on-bland masala and a pomfret that seemed to have extra bones in its body. The Dosas and Kerala Porottas performed their role reasonably well. The latter was quite crisp but lacked that hint of butter that has now become a characteristic of the Dosa based combination.
From the liquor menu, we decided to check out the Gol gappa shots – puris (2) filled with Indian spices, and you can add the vodka shot yourself. From the four flavours available, we asked for pepper. Since the hours were happy, we got another couple of shots. It comes with a glass of beer., and we asked for one wheat and one dark lager. The Gol gappas were pretty awesome, and the wheat beer is perfect for less-than-occasional drinkers like us. The dark lager is more standard. The shots were at Rs.395, but considering that a glass of beer costs Rs.150 standalone, it was a reasonable deal. In addition their regular 
We asked for the Tawa Magaz Masala and though we were told initially that it wasn’t available and that we could have the regular version (Amritsari Magaz Masala) instead, it miraculously did appear on our table in the end. The Kandhari Murg was our next choice, and the person who took our order very helpfully suggested that we could manage with a half plate. Ditto with the Chicken Keema Naan, when we asked for two and he said one would be enough. Turned out he was right, the damn naan was more like a medium pizza in terms of size. The brain was quite good and spicy. The Kandhari Murg was a yellow gravy dish (not boneless) with the creamy texture of regular white gravies and quite rich. Both worked really well with the keema naan, a bit spicy and quite filling.