Finally, we used the same tactic at TOIT as The Biere Club – Sunday lunch, much more easy to accomplish than the 2 seater Saturday dinner. For those not in the know about TOIT, this should tell you the story so far, as well as help you get there. Though I’d been here before on a couple of occasions, D was a first timer. They have a valet parking and for two wheelers, there’s the pavement, though it’s not always easy!
The microbrewery has 3 floors, and we sat in the non smoking section on the 3rd floor. The smoking section has a great view of the Metro, though you need to be a large group to get a table there. At lunch hour on Sunday, it’s quite a peaceful place, but the buzz during evenings is quite something! Over to the food and booze. You can take a look at the menu here. In addition to this, there are the different kinds of house beer too.
I wanted the Weiss, but that was not available, so I ordered the Dark Knight. D asked for the Basmati Blonde. The Dark Knight was not as bitter as I expected, though this does change towards the bottom. The Basmati Blonde is quite light, with just a faint malt touch. This is usually the one I have, and I only tried the other to test it out. 🙂 I would’ve liked the beer colder though. [I happened to try the Weiss on a later visit, and now I don’t mind cheating on the blonde) 🙂
We ordered a TOIT Sunavachik for starters, strips of chicken with a dip and which can be made mild, spicy or very spicy as per your choice. We asked for very spicy, but it really wasn’t all that spicy. The dip complemented it well and it made for a good combo with the beer too. [Again, during another visit, we ordered ‘spicy’, and boy it was!] I think the menu has changed a bit though, since I couldn’t find the special TOIT pork dish I was looking for and the dish we had ordered was not something that was in the menu earlier. Hmm.
For the main course, we ordered a Cream Cheese Chicken pizza – a thin crust pizza with marinated chicken and buckets of cheese. I would have liked it to be a bit more spicy – even the chili flakes on the table didn’t help. Despite being reasonably ‘toit’, we asked for the TOIT special dessert – a layered chocolate cake, which I didn’t feel was flambeed though. But it’s chocolate, and there was lots of it, so I really can’t complain. 🙂
All of the above cost us just over Rs.1450 including service tax and charges. TOIT is a place I haven’t heard a negative opinion about, and the packed atmosphere, even on weekday nights, is a testament to its popularity. Yep, it means you must visit. 🙂
TOIT, 298, 100 feet Road, Metro Pillar 62, Indiranagar
Having been thwarted once on a ‘table for 2 after 7pm on Saturday’ at TOIT, we decided to try another tack at 
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.