Category: Restaurant Reviews

  • BLR Brewing Co

    Back in the day, I had reviewed Biergarten for Bangalore Mirror, when it opened its first outlet, in Whitefield. It has lasted 8 years, and that’s no mean feat. We had been frequent visitors until the crowds became intolerable. Ok, them losing their brain, dish that is, also played a role. Zoom to now, they have a neighbour- BLR Brewing Co, and the crowd during the first week was a scene to behold. Even those who had reserved a table had to wait. I think we got lucky in that respect.

    BLR Brewing Co Whitefield

    The place is quite huge with two levels of seating. I suspect upstairs overlooking the courtyard would be a nice place, but we were led to a table near this slightly weird pool, which also had some seating in the middle (last photo with those mini palms) The day we visited, there was also a fire show.

    BLR Brewing Co Whitefield

    They didn’t have all the beers, but we tried a Hefeweizen, Belgian Wit, Dunkelweizen, and Six Decades (APA). The Wit was easily the winner, the Dunkel was not too bad. Everything else was reasonably bad!

    BLR Brewing Co Whitefield

    The Shrimp Hor Gao had shrimp, that’s the kindest I can say. The Black Sesame Chicken Tikka just about passed muster though it was highly recommended by our service staff. I’ll get to that guy in a bit. The Feta Salad was dead on arrival. I am naturally biased against salads, but even those unlike me agreed.

    We asked for the Old Mutton Seekh because despite the elaborate menu, there were really not many interesting choices. The saving grace in the entire meal was the Bheja Fry. They did this a little differently – fried so it got a mildly crunchy texture, with an excellent masala. I am not sure why they called it the Rainbow Chicken Dim Sum, it was all dim!

    BLR Brewing Co Whitefield

    The Roasted chicken-Cheese sauce pizza throughly depended on us for flavour, and we depended on the sauce we got for the dim sum. Now that was good!

    That service guy was something. He was at our table ALL the time providing commentary before, during, and after the order, or removing things, incessantly interrupting our conversations. I repeatedly tried to signal my annoyance, to the extent that D got annoyed at my annoyance! The bill came to a little under Rs.5300 for four of us. I am unlikely to repeat. At best, I will order in that brain fry!

    BLR Brewing Co, Plot No:2, Doddanekundi Industrial Area, Bangalore Ph: 08071174545

  • Deck of Brews

    For a change, D had already visited once, but she hadn’t tasted the jamun beer that had been recommended to me. And that was how, we ventured to ORR for an evening out, deviating from my policy of avoiding anything from Brookefield onwards!

    Deck Of Brews is a little away from the main road (ORR) and resides in a large industrial-meets-Total Environment building. There are multiple seating options – al fresco, and at least two floors of indoor seating. One reason I was lured was the terrace, but that apparently is open only during weekdays, which is when their main crowd (from the IT parks nearby) frequents the place. The next best spot for a pleasant Bangalore evening was the al fresco area.

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  • Yuki, Indiranagar

    Our last night out in 2023. We bet on the traffic being low on the night before New Year’s eve, and were thankfully right. I had seen Yuki from the metro, and thought the ambiance was great. And indeed it was. Yuki is on the second floor of a building that gives you a world of options – Leon on the ground floor, and I think, a North Indian restaurant, coming up soon on the first. As the name suggests, Yuki has Pan Asian cuisine.

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  • Suzy Q

    Now that the Whitefield Metro is up and running, I cannot whine about traffic, and we can broaden our horizons. And that’s how we landed at a place we’ve been hearing of, for quite a while. Suzy Q, all the way across the world at Vasant Nagar, but only a 5 minute walk from the Cubbon Park Metro. We reached at 7, with a reservation, and the hope that we’d be spared the young and the boisterous. But they start young, and early.

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  • Roxie

    We’ve been hearing about Roxie for a while now, and everything we had heard had been good. So, in what is now becoming a little tradition, we set out for Sarjapur Road on the Diwali weekend, when we hoped that most of Bangalore would either be at home, or visiting their hometown. That indeed seemed to be the case, as our journeys both ways took us just about half an hour. Yes, that is a very big deal in Bangalore.

    Roxie

    I think the biggest thing going for Roxie is how pretty it is! We didn’t get an opportunity to go upstairs, but the interior as well as the al fresco space somehow exudes an old world charm while still providing a contemporary comfort (furniture). High ceilings and those lamp posts outside accentuate all this. It was, as the meme goes, “looking like a wow”. ‘Roxie’ is whom the theme is based on – a traveler who picks up favourite recipes from different journeys. Yes, she is about as real as the tooth fairy. That explains Korean, North Indian, and Italian on the same (digital) page. (the menu we actually found there was slightly different)

    Meanwhile, D said she has been here when it was some other restaurant. Any idea?

    Roxie

    I was boring and chose my regular Old Fashioned. In many recent experiments, the cocktails have failed. This was one was par for the course, nothing extraordinary. D was more optimistic, and chose ‘The Solution’. I think that was some hint aimed at me. This tequila-based drink apparently has an origin story from Roxie’s hometown – Amalfi, where her friend Max used to run a Speakeasy. With Jalapeno, orange, passion fruit, thyme and lime juice, and a fancy garnish that included chilli flakes, was very good. D couldn’t resist a smirk.

    Roxie

    If you’re going to Roxie, this is the one dish I will highly recommend. Korean Garlic Bread. Super soft bun filled with Philadelphia Cream Cheese and garlic butter, this one is really the melt-in-your-mouth kind. To the extent that we were tempted to pack one up for the next day!

    Roxie

    This is the Chateaubriand Royale: Rosemary Wine Elegance. This apparently pays homage to a Parisian dish. Grilled Chateaubriand beef in Rosemary Wine jus , accompanied by mashed potatoes and Hollandaise sauce. The beef was very well cooked, and the sauce complemented it very well.

    Roxie

    We debated pizza vs pasta, and finally went for the Siciliana. Smoked Turkey was the attraction, and it also had pesto, Jalapeno, Mozzarella, Parmesan Cheese, Confit Tomatoes, and Arugula. This was quite a disappointing dish. First of all, that smoked turkey only made a guest appearance, and secondly, there was some very inconsistent saltiness that made ‘shock’ appearances that really took away from anything the dish might have accomplished. I also felt the amount of pesto could have been reduced quite a bit. It was overwhelming.

    If you’re visiting, probably a good idea to reserve, since, even on Diwali eve, the place began filling up after 8. The service is friendly, and my request for keeping the sugar low in the cocktail was carried out reasonably well. The music was retro, and I loved it. The wallet was lighter by about Rs. 3100, but thanks to Dineout and Infinia, we paid a little over Rs.2550. Not bad at all, given the location. Despite the pizza, I have to say the place has pizzazz. I’d definitely recommend a visit, especially if you’re going to Sarjapur Road, whose breweries I am anyway not a fan of. (except maybe Aurum)

    Roxie, 26, Haralur Main Rd, near HP Petrol Station, Amblipura, PWD Quarters, Ambalipura, HSR Layout Ph: 074062 75551