Category: Restaurant Reviews

  • Empire

    We’d planned on Kubay, but got there pretty late, thanks to a torturous Mallu movie that dragged on forever. By the time we got there, it was beyond 10. It was crowded even then, and we were told we’d have to wait for 25 minutes. Since we were quite famished by then, we played inky pinky ponky and agreed upon Empire, perhaps to reinforce the flagging Mallu spirit. When you’re coming from Indiranagar towards Koramangala, take the first right turn (that leads to Jyoti Nivas College/ Casa Picola/William Penn). You’ll find Empire on your left. Parking is not a problem for two wheelers, you might have to walk a bit if you have a four wheeler.

    Empire has a fast food section/snacks/ice cream section on the roadside, a/c and non a/c sections inside and a terrace section where they also serve Arabian food. Though not exactly fine dining experience, Empire guarantees good food. It also saves me from giving explanations of unpronounceable dishes 😉

    Since we were too hungry to do multiple courses, we ordered a couple of Kerala Porottas, an onion dosa, a chilly fish, a brain masala (quarter plate) and a butter chicken (half). One of the great things about Empire is the speed with which the food is served, I’ve never had to wait impatiently. And it was fortunate this time, since we were inching towards 11.30 – the time when we would be spared the effort of walking out and nice cops would escort/throw us out. The cops really believe in ‘The Dark Night’ here. Ok, sorry 😀

    The onion dosa was pretty thick,a nd though I had my own apprehensions on how it would go with the side dishes, it was actually pretty good. The brain masala was really good, and though had some giant green chillies, turned out to be just right and not too spicy. But alas, I made the mistake of using that learning for the chillies in the Chilly Fish, and was in for a nasty surprise. But I still liked the dish. The butter chicken was the odd one out. A bit too salty, a bit too much of color and a strange metallic flavor. The Porotta was not as soft as it usually is, but still quite okay. All of the above cost us just over Rs.300. That’s the best part of empire – value for money. You can stuff yourself and you’ll still get a reasonable bill.

    We had a Maghai Meetha Paan outside. Damn thing costs Rs.10 now, used to be Rs.5. Only the prices are inflated, the paan size remains the same. The Empire Strikes Back 🙁

    Menu and Photos at Zomato

  • Silk Route

    Considering it was the Olympics season, this was as good a time as any to try out Silk Route in Wilson Garden. The route to the place is as follows. When you’re coming from the Koramangala side, towards Double Road, this is on the left, immediately after the junction before the LalBagh Gate (the junction where a left turn leads you to Ashoka Pillar. you need to go straight). We reached there around 7.30, without reservation, though the places was getting crowded by around 8. And yes, they have reasonable parking space. (more…)

  • Indijoe

    Indijoe opened an outlet on Church street a few weeks back, and we’ve been guilty of ignoring it for sometime now. That has been assuaged, as we reserved in advance and landed up there yesterday. It was fairly crowded by around 8pm, so it’d would be good to book in advance. This is housed in the place where Bombay House used to be, coming from Brigade Road, just before the Museum Road junction.

    While the regular strategy in Indijoe is a starter, followed by a single sizzler, and then dessert, because it just fills the tummy, and we get to eat dessert, hunger overrode logic on this occasion, and we decided to go for a soup/starter (starter if we didn’t like the soup of the day) , and two sizzlers. Dessert was a decision left for later, if space permitted. The mind is always willing. 😀

    The menu seems to be a trimmed down version of the one at Airport Road, but larger than the one on Old Madras Road. But we didn’t miss anything much, except for a couple of desserts, and this menu offers enough selection. So, we ordered the Non veg soup of the day, which turned out to be Cream of Chicken and Mushroom, the favourite. The starter plan plan failed before it got started. 😀 The soup was just about as good as that pun, which means it could definitely have been better. While it was thick, and creamy, the flavors just weren’t strong enough, and I was forced to try a salt + pepper+ sauces combo.

    For the main course, we ordered a Stacked Chicken Valdostana, which is “sliced chicken layered with cheese and stacked, served with white wine and emmenthal sauce and accompanied with sphagetti, vegetables and spiced with green tabasco sauce” and a Jack Daniels double barrel chicken and stake (sic) combo, which is ‘grilled chicken and cheese placed between two slices of steak with smoky Jack daniels sauce served with tangy cheddar cheese, mashed potatoes and mexican salad’. The tabasco sauce and the mexican salad were served separate, respectively. The sauce is necessary because the dish is slightly bland, but I thought the worcestershire sauce was a much better add on. Though I was apprehensive on the spaghetti, because I’m not a big fan, the dish was actually done very well, and I enjoyed it. It also has a lot of french fries, not mentioned in the description, not that I had a problem with it.  We were asked how we wanted the steak, and asked for ‘well done’, and it was 🙂 , though I’m not very sure of the Mexican Salad. Now you might say, I don’t recognise Mexican when i see it, but then, I do recognise Indian. Oh well, maybe they are similar 😀

    The snag with ordering two sizzlers is that you might require external help to take you to your vehicle, it leaves you stuffed, with absolutely no room for dessert 🙁 . All of the above cost us Rs.800. It must be mentioned that the service was excellent. They took care to give extra inputs on the dish, so you know exactly what you can expect. I’ve always maintained that among all of the BJN Group properties, Indijoe is the most ‘user friendly’, and this one just reinforces the belief. Great, and will be definitely visited again.

    Indijoe, Kalpak arcade, Church Street Ph: 41113311

    Menu and Photos at Zomato

  • Mugen

    Mugen is located on 100 ft road, Indiranagar, on the 3rd floor of the building that houses Indigo Nation and Urban Yoga. It serves Thai, Indonesian and Chinese cuisine. Parking for two wheelers is quite easy, 4 wheelers would require a bit of luck factor too, me thinks.

    We called for reservations, and after a long time, got a courteous and efficient response, and a table. I was getting sick of the ‘we don’t reserve after 7.30’ spiel. You might want to reserve, if you’re planning to go after 8 during weekends, going by the crowd we saw yesterday.

    The menu has Thai, Indonesian and Chinese, in that order. They also serve liquor, and from my limited knowledge, the bar looked fairly well stocked. The Thai part is quite a few pages, the Indonesian, only a couple of pages, and the Chinese part, somewhere in between the two. The choice of dishes in Thai made us choose that, though (even with very good descriptions) we’d require some assistance.

    We managed to order the soup by ourselves :), and then gave our requirements to the person who took our orders. He was extremely helpful, and gave us detailed explanations of what we could expect. So, we ordered a Tom Kha soup, which was described in the menu as a “refreshing coconut milk soup, with lemon grass and galangal served with chicken”, which reminds me, most of the items in the menu have a common gravy/paste/rice/noodles which lends itself to chicken, veg, seafood etc. So, for example, you can also have a Tom Kha veg soup. The soup was delicious, with so many different flavours, and for once, none of the usual stuff –  pepper, sauce, vinegar etc was needed. It was refreshing indeed.

    For the main course, we ordered a Kai Phad Bai Gapraow, which is ‘succulent chicken, marinated with thai herbs, and fresh basil leaves served with special spicy thai sauce’, a Basket Chilly Chicken, “a traditional dish from the chef, served in a crispy basket”. The latter was the only chinese dish we ordered. We also ordered a Bamee Pahd “soft noodles with bean sprout, spring onions, and crushed peanut served with chicken”. The first dish has got a bit of gravy, in fact just the right amount as far as our needs went. The Basket Chilly Chicken is dry and quite spicy, and the crispy basket was quite yummy. When we saw the noodles dish, we thought we’d have to order one more. Talk about deceiving appearances!! The quantity was more than enough for two people, especially the side dishes. All the dishes were simply awesome, and that’s an understatement. The only warning I’d like to give is to have the food before it gets cold, since a salty taste starts creeping in towards the end.

    The ambience deserves a special mention, with separate seating for smokers and non smokers, there’s even an option of being seated such that you can watch while your dishes get cooked. The seating is extremely comfortable. I think this would also be a great place for large groups, not just because of the seating options, but also because it’d give you an opportunity to sample multiple dishes, which we couldn’t because we’d only two tummies at our disposal. Another special mention for the service. No snobbish ‘Oh, you don’t know this cuisine’ smirks’, an extremely helpful attitude, and someone always discreetly giving the table attention. This place exudes confidence and efficiency. Yes,  we were floored, and that’s no mean task, as you guys would have realised:D

    All of the above cost us Rs.800. I’d loved to have tried the desserts, but we were stuffed 🙁 . This one demands a repeat visit, so there’s definitely going to be a next time here.

    Ph: 41481414, 9945300004

    Menu and photos at Zomato

  • Mocha

    And, at long last, we finally landed up at Mocha on Lavelle Road. Keep going down Lavelle Road (from MG Road) and this is about 50 m after the Walton/Lavelle/Vittal Mallya junction, just before Java City. We got in by about 7.45, and the place was already fairly crowded. We sat indoors, but there’re also some very good outdoor seating options.

    Disclaimer: There’s a bit of anarchy in the ordering sequence.  At this place, we order the shake first, and then decide what to eat. It has nothing to do with The Joker. Blame it on the chocolate.:)

    So, we first ordered a Dutch truffle cake shake. The menu said it was a chocolate shake so sinful you might want to go for a confession. I confess they were right. The quality and the quantity. It must be said that we arrived on this particular choice after much debate all thanks to the exhaustive options available.

    To fill up the rest of our collective tummies, we ordered a Country Roast Chicken Panino and a Blackened Balti Chicken Crustini. The former is wildfire roasted chicken and slaw served with fresh basil presto, and the latter is chicken and peppers cooked in balti spice. While we were slightly concerned about Balti, it turned out to be just fine. 🙂 However, we found that these two, while not lacking in taste or flavours, we e not sufficient to leave us satiated. So, again, afer much debate, we decided against having dessert (thanks to familiarity with the humongous portions that are served here) and ordered one more snack – Pollo con Aioli, which is marinated chicken with Aioli. No, we had no clue on who (er, what) Aioli was. 🙂 It tasted a bit like corn, and a bit like the soggy peanuts we sometimes have, but overall was a bit bland. The saving grace was the sauce they gave with it. On hindsight, we really should’ve been gluttonous and gone for that ‘That Chocolate Thing’. For now, all we’re left with is its description – rich gooey flourless chocolate cake layered with dark chocolate ganache served with chocolate ice cream. Sigh, next time, definitely.

    All of this cost us just below Rs.600. Thats one of the good things about Mocha. It allows you to sample a lot of things, and still leaves enough room and dough for chocolate 😉

    Mocha 080 65357111 , 080 65357222

    PS. You can also check out the review of the other Mocha in Bangalore, here.

    Menu and Photos at Zomato