Category: Restaurant Reviews

  • Phobidden Fruit

    This review was originally published in Bangalore Mirror. Have made  Vietnaam ke vaaste changes to this edition of the Phobidden Fruit review. 🙂

    Phobidden Fruit is on 12th Main Indiranagar and is less than 50m from the Sony junction (with 100 ft Road), going towards Daddy’s Deli. Parking shouldn’t be too much of a problem, there is 12th Main itself and enough smaller side lanes.

    Since the cuisine was specialist, I had the Pho sight to go prepared, and was accompanied by a few Nam ‘veterans’ – Madman, and Prateek and Nithya Dayal. 🙂

    The place is a sort of glorified garage space. But though the ground floor is relatively uninspiring, negotiate the spiral staircase and you’re transported to a cheerful casual dining ambiance with wooden seating and pretty cushions. We got to hear some 80s pop and with the occasional creaking of the dumb waiter, this seemed just the right setting for a relaxed meal.

    The menu offers a bunch of appetisers, and has quite a few options for vegetarians and non vegetarians. In fact, the latter would be spoilt for choice – chicken, beef, clams, pork, prawn, fish, squid, lamb…see? You can take a look at the menu below

    We started quite well. The Banh Xeo, crispy rice crepes with a filling of button mushrooms, onion and sprouts accompanied by a spicy sauce ended up  the favourite, as did the Fresh Spring Roll (Chicken), though Madhu did mention that it might have worked better with rice noodles inside instead of rice, and could have done with some more herb flavour. The Viet Spare Ribs were fairly good too, despite the ribs being stingy on meat.

    After the starters, it was time for the Pho play. The Pho (we tried Beef and Chicken) shared a common broth and the meat was added later, but it’s still a Saigon pick, as is the Viet Red Prawn Curry.

    The Saigon kick was delivered in the form of the Kho that I ordered, salmon cooked in a rich, sweet and spicy caramel sauce. There was notthing to counter the overly sugary sauce. The desserts were also bit of a disappointment. The Coconut Sorbet, while not lacking in flavour, missed out on the texture of a sorbet. The Lemongrass Ice Cream again got the flavour right, but was more like a custard. The Che too seemed to stray from its original version. We tried a Vietnamese Iced Coffee, but instead of the condensed milk and strong coffee that was expected, this turned out to be a much diluted version.

    The service is quite prompt and despite all the tables being full, managed to do a good job without any major trouble.

    All things considered – a catchy name, a relaxed setting, and the possibilities of a unique cuisine, this place deserves a visit. So, if you’re feeling blue, and would like to ginger up your appetite with a new cuisine, but without an astronomic bill, you could try out this Vietnamese gastronomic experience.

    Phobidden Fruit, #965, 12th Main, HAL II Stage, Indiranagar.  Ph: 41255175

    PS: If you’d also like an advanced user review, do read this. (HT: Madman) 🙂

  • Coorg @ Koramangala

    Koramangala now offers a pork in the road for those interested in pigging on pigs. Ok, not on the road itself, but on 1st Main Road, 7th Block in Koramangala, same road as 64, almost opposite Corner House (map), there’s this amazing building that houses two eateries, each specialising in cuisines that give pork the culinary respect it deserves.  In what seems like a neat representation of the Indian map, you climb one flight of stairs and you reach Coorg @ Koramangala. Climb one more and you reach Zingron, that specialises in Naga cuisine! Yes, a huge dilemma, but after NE Diner, getting D to ‘acquire’ the taste of Naga cuisine is turning out to be more difficult than I thought. 😐

    So, Coorg it was, and we entered an area dominated by a shade of blue going towards purple. With one low-seating table, chairs we regularly find at ‘fine dining’ restaurants, and branded place mats the ambiance was easily better than the other Coorg specialist we had visited, but had a friendly neighbourhood restaurant feel to it.

    There was a commonality though, thanks to the single page menu. Beginning with four pork dishes, they sure know the priorities. We asked for a Pork Pepper Dry, Chilly Pork, a Ghee Rice, Chicken Masala, 2 Masala Rice Rotis and a Butter Milk. We were told later that they were adding to this menu from tomorrow. Early birds get a worm that may not be the best. Damn!

    The Pork Pepper Dry arrived first, and was awesome. With a beef like texture, and a pepper + curry leaves flavour, we thought this would be unbeatable. But the Chilly Pork, that came up next, was equally good, if not better. It’s dynamite in terms of spice, and had a nice tangy edge to it too. The butter milk came soon after, but turned out to be a disappointment – too diluted and lacking in flavour.

    In what can perhaps be described as our main course, the Masala Rice Rotis were quite unique and went reasonably well with the Chicken Masala, which had a coconut based gravy. But the ideal combination was with the Ghee rice, which was extremely good. Despite knowing that ‘the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’ is more true from a cholesterol perspective in my case, we asked for a Pork Fry. This was reasonably good too, though greasier and tangier than the other two dishes.

    All of the above cost us just less than Rs.600. The service is very prompt, and with what will likely be an expanded menu, this place is worth a visit when the hogging mood strikes you.

    Coorg @ Koramangala, No.62, 1st Floor, Near Corner House, 1st Street, 1st A Main Road, 7TH Block, Koramangala Ph: 40991191

  • Urban Solace

    This review was first published in Bangalore Mirror, and the busy urban life routine ensured that I was delayed in posting it here. 🙂

    If you don’t know the area well enough, you might end up circling Ulsoor lake a few times before you find solace. It’s between Foto Flash and Tamil Sangam. (map) Parking for 2 wheelers is easy, and the extra wheels can find space in one of the many small roads nearby.

    Despite the space constraints, the ambiance had a vibrant café feel to it. The bookshelf (despite the business books that looked out of place), the music, the posters, and the art all played a part in lending uniqueness to the place’s character. The idea, apparently,  is to create a balance between the ambiance of a café and the dining experience of a regular restaurant. It has quite a ‘house converted to cafe’ feel too, since you can wander into at least a couple more rooms, with a few tables each. Poetry reading sessions are on every Tuesday night.

    Meanwhile, the menu, on paper, looks good enough to guarantee a good meal. Short eats include a selection of sandwiches and burgers. There are quite a few options in starters and soups, and just enough salads, main course dishes and desserts to take it beyond the standard café fare. They also serve an English breakfast on weekends. You can take a look at the menu below – somehow seemed to have missed the main course page!!

    In addition to the chicken soups for the soul – Tom Yum and Cream of Chicken, that were actually spicy enough to affect the palate too, the Spanish soup, based on spinach puree, is also worth trying. Both the starters we tried were disappointing. The Stuffed Mushroom filling turned out to be a bad mushroom–potato combination and the Chicken Gujons were just bland.

    The Veg A’la King, with mushrooms cooked in white sauce, and the Mexican Chicken with a thick brown tomato based sauce, were the best among the main course dishes. The biggest disaster was that many of the items on the menu were not available. That included the entire selection of mocktails, all the special coffees, and almost the entire dessert section. The one dessert that was available – Orange Choc cake didn’t find favour either.

    On the cost front, for Rs.750, you could share a soup, a non veg starter, two main course dishes and a dessert. This seems just about fair enough considering the quality of the food.

    Though the service staff was polite and prompt in terms of delivering the food to the table, placing the order itself was quite a tedious process. Add to this, inconsistent, and sometimes unclean cutlery, and a credit card machine that wasn’t working, and you would be tempted to call it a disservice.

    You could consider dropping in if you’re around Ulsoor and need a quick bite, but the place really needs to do some soul searching. Urban Solace calls itself a ‘cafe for the soul’, and indeed, the poetry reading sessions and something about the ambiance does show potential in this regard, but sadly, amidst the soul proprietorship attempts, the food seems to have been forgotten. Many of the items in the menu were not available, and though we did manage to have a decent meal, we weren’t really sold on it.

    Urban Solace, 32, Annaswamy Mudaliar Road, (between Foto Flash and Tamil Sangam) Bangalore – 42. Tel: 25553656

  • Elements Heritage

    In terms of heritage, Elements used to be quite liked for its continental menu, while on Nandidurga Road. I was looking at the photos on their site, and wondered how I managed to miss it. 😐 All’s not lost though, as the new Elements Heritage, on Mosque Road, (just after Savoury, diagonally opposite Empire, just before Mosque Road meets MM Road – map) scores heavily on ambiance, and only differs in cuisine focus. Parking shouldn’t be a big problem, more so because there are enough side lanes around.

    Apparently, this was a really old Raj bungalow which has been revamped. As soon as we got there, we were shown a table, but also encouraged to take a little tour to see more seating options. That included a section upstairs with a live counter, but apparently, that was for the buffet diners. So we got back to our ground floor table, which was neat enough. The ambiance is really super, and the spread out table groups, not visible to each other, ensure that you feel the restaurant buzz, but still retain the exclusive dining experience. The lighting is dim, but the only discomfort that caused was in the photography.

    The menu is below, the last one was the buffet menu for the day, priced at Rs.550 + tax. (click to enlarge) While I was struggling to take the photos, the owner, presumably, who was taking another set of guests on the restaurant tour, offered to send me the menu by mail. I was almost through though, so I didn’t take up the offer. (seeing that quenchers page, I should have :\ ) That only adds to my feeling that the guys who run the place want to add a personal touch and make the dining experience really good.

    From that large selection, which included many many things we wanted to try, we skipped the shorbas and went for a “Seekh ‘e’ Elements” and a Bheja Fry. The former  consists of 4 seekh kebabs, each with an idiappam. Quite good, but the winner was clearly the Bheja fry, spicy and cooked superbly.  This was the part where I was caught between getting a good photo and devouring the food. The latter won out, as is obvious.

    For the main course, we ordered a ‘Meen appam’, and a ‘Kozhi Mulagh Ittathe’. Most of the dishes come with neer dosa/rice, so ask before you order naans/ appam/ rice separately. The meen appam actually turned out more like an ada than appam, with fish stuffed in it and cooked in a banana leaf. It comes with a sauce that seemed to have a jeera flavour, which worked well to complement the taste. Though we felt that the ada overpowered the fish filling, its still a dish you could try. The chicken dish came with two kinds of rice (one of which was the Kerala style boiled rice) and 4 neer dosas. We expected this to be really spicy, but it was actually more flavoursome, despite me eating up one of the large chillies.

    We debated a biriyani, but then decided to behave in a more un-glutton manner and  debated whether we should ask for a halwa of the day or a Shahi Tukda. The former wasn’t available (thankfully, on hindsight). The Shahi Tukda was really good – less heavy (ghee) than usual, and is highly recommended. All of the above cost us a little less than Rs.1000. The service is brilliant, offers to help and the place probably has the promptest delivery time I’ve seen  recently.

    Elements gets into our favourites list for many reasons – a menu that’s not very common, an ambiance that’s really awesome, excellent service and overall, a wonderful dining experience.

    Elements Heritage, #55, Mosque Road, Frazer Town, Ph: 41144146/8

  • NE Diner

    The original plan was Zingron (NE cuisine), but a sudden burst of laziness, and the possibility of many birds with one stone, ensured that the plans changed and we ended up in NE Diner, for the promised ‘authentic North-East Multi Cuisine’. The place is easy to find, near Forum, on the first floor of a building opposite Raheja Arcade or the Vodafone store, depending on where you’re looking from. In the days of  yore, I think this used to be a mobile accessories store – the one where we went to get a ‘condom’ for the Nokia phones. Yep, that’s what it was known as, that rubbery sheath meant to protect the phone! 🙂

    Park at Forum and attempt the pedestrian crossing fear factor challenge or try one of the side lanes nearer the place. In terms of access, it is easy to draw a parallel with the North East in general. The place seems easy enough to find on the map, but don’t attempt that staircase if you have a problem with heights or narrow spaces. And if you expect a fine dining place as the light at the end of the climb, my condolences. This is a no-frills place, and you’re as comfortable as you make yourself. In what I took to be a hat tip to the old mobile story, the chairs still have their plastic covers on! Awesome! 🙂

    When we got there, we seemed like tourists, because everyone else seemed to be from the North East, but by the time we left, there were more tourists! 🙂 One thing I constantly envy about the kids (and actually older people too) from that side of the country is their superb sense of style. The service staff here are no different! Ok, I’ve digressed enough, let’s quickly get to the food. Here’s the menu (click to enlarge)

    Communication is a bit of a problem. Let me clarify that its not anything to do with the accent, its more to do with our lack of understanding of the menu items and their inability to express fully what the above were. Anyway, with some effort, it becomes a non issue. That, of course, didn’t help us access the Chicken Safale or its pork version. Ditto for chicken momos, all of which we were told, would take a long time. So we settled for pork momos, which thankfully, turned out to be the best item of the meal. The chutney and the ‘soup’ that comes with it complemented it beautifully.

    We had ordered a soup too, but that came long after the main course dishes were kept at the table. We should have known that we were probably the first to order a Chicken-Mushroom soup, because we were asked if it was actually on the menu, and we had to point it out. Meanwhile, with all the other items on the table, we waited for the mysterious soup. And when it did arrived, it proved to be a complete waste of time, so do avoid at all costs.

    For the main course, we ordered a NE Special chicken, which we were told could be as dry/gravy as we wished. So we chose the middle path- semi gravy. Also asked for was the Naga Dry Fried pork, and to help it all down, the NE special mixed chowmein – chicken/pork, veg and egg. We asked for the chicken version. We couldn’t resist asking for the King Chilly + fermented fish + herb chutney. The pork was too salty for our liking. The chowmein was pretty decent, though I wondered what oil was being used. The chicken dish, though with an inconsistent gravy, is also worth a try. The chutney, I think, is quite an acquired taste. Its perhaps the fermented (in bamboo shoot?) fish that gives it a sort-of pungent smell and taste.The overall theme that dominated though was chillies!! That, I loved. 😀

    All of that cost us just below Rs.600. Not a bad trip, considering that my sinus blocks were forced to vanish for a while. You should drop in if you’re in the mood to experiment, and if you have friends from Nagaland/Manipur, take them along for guidance and authenticity tests. 🙂

    #404, Opp Raheja Arcade, near Forum Mall, 7th block Koramangala Tel: 8861446753

    Trivia: One of the restaurant’s owners is Nelson (read Genesis here), and this is restaurant review #111. Get it? 😉

    PS: If you’re prepared to shell out some more, Zingron is indeed a better option. One of my favourites now!