Category: Whitefield

Maize & Malt

There is a reason why I have a particular dislike for breweries on Sarjapur Road and ORR – they follow a fixed template of a hugeness, a dirty pool, bad beer, and barely-teen young adults posing for Insta reels. Just to be clear I don’t have a problem with the last one, it’s actually quite hilarious.

But it’s my unfortunate duty to inform you that our hamlet of Whitefield is now being invaded by these kind of breweries. BLR Brewing Co being another recent example. Maize and Malt follows the same template as you can see from the image below, and to add insult to injury, they even claim to have an Anglo Indian theme to their menu. A misconceived hat-tip to Whitefield, I guess.

And now for the second bit of bad news. We tried all the beers available, and in what is truly a tragic scenario, had to choose the least worst because they were all bad! Belgian Wit and Hefeweizen.

The only reason to cheer turned out to be the starters. Their Mama’s Special Tangy Pork is excellent, though I wonder who decided to tandoorise (yes, they do write Anglo Indian Tandoor in the menu!) it with a mint chutney. The Mutton Kaima Unde Fry is also very good, though they took the ‘small plate’ very literally.

We then tried the Wild West Chicken Flatbread with caramelised onions. It wasn’t as bad as it sounded though they decided to serve it in a takeaway box. And finally, the easy test for any semblance of Anglo Indian expertise is the Bread Pudding. But don’t even bother.

The service was par for the course, though thanks to people moving around chairs and their table system being not very agile, we had our food taken to others and vice versa. I even considered taking things if they looked good, but didn’t really see anything worth that effort. We deeply felt the loss of a little over Rs.2600 thanks to this misadventure.

Maize & Malt, 3, 4th Cross Rd, Vigneshwar Nagar, Kaveri Nagar, Krishnarajapuram (it’s behind Decathlon)

January 12, 2025
The Bah

My friend A has fantastic taste in design, and from the few samples I’ve had, cooks well to. So when she decided to start The Bah, in our little village of Whitefield, I was absolutely thrilled. We visited right when it opened, and then made a repeat visit recently.

The Bah is reasonably well-hidden, like every treasure should be. But if you’re willing to step into that corporate monstrosity of a building, and step on to that seemingly lonesome escalator, you will find a lovely space – in terms of ambiance, food, and drinks. The fun tone manages to blend seamlessly with the seriousness in aesthetics and dining.

We loved the al fresco seating because… Bangalore weather. We also liked that children are only allowed during specific times. That thankfully keeps away the kind of crowd that leave their children to ‘graze’ on other people’s spaces while they themselves enjoy. A gave us a little guided tour when we visited first, and I loved the thoughtfulness in the different kind of seating spaces.

Anyone who makes me a good Old Fashioned is my BFF. The Bah’s Old Fashioned is just the way I like it, none of that syrupy sweetness that most places degrade it to. On the first visit, D had a berry concoction that was fantastic. A had recommended but I can’t find it in the menu. But then, my attention span is low beyond whisky and rum. 😐 She ordered The Lonely G & Not T the next time, and got lucky again.

During my most recent visit, I also got a taste of one of the soon-to-be-introduced flavours – Salted Caramel Rum! Absolutely fantastic, and very well suited to my tastes.

‘The Other Nuts’ is a great nibble with drinks. The usually humble masala peanuts elevated with feta. When Bangalore’s lovely weather permits, try the Creamy Chicken soup too, it’s delicious. The big winner in starters is the Shotgun Pork Strips, to the extent that we repeated it in our second visit, a rare thing for us to do. The only disappointment were the beef dishes – we tried the Namauru Beef Fry Taco and the Beef Sukkha and weren’t fans of either. The beef was fine, the masala was out of flavour, and favour.

For a change, I managed to pick a winner. The Sunny-side Ravioli is an absolute delight, with a killer herbed butter sauce. The Guanciale Carbonara is good too, again the rich egg yolk – parmesan sauce making the difference.

It is not a looker, but it’s a keeper. I don’t think I can ever get enough of the Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream here. The win again is the subtlety of flavours. That is going to be a problem in future, because there are at least three other desserts here that I’d want to try.

The service is great, and the tasteful music adds to the ambiance. Our meal cost us a little over Rs. 4000, which I thought was money well spent, given the experience. I am absolutely biased but I’ve also heard good things from others who visited. So if you’re ever in the rural outpost called Whitefield, drop in.

The Bah, 2nd Floor, Primeco Union City, ITPL Main Road, Whitefield Ph: 9611081642

September 15, 2024
Prime Golf Brewing & Golfing

In the spirit of ‘Who has a bigger schtick?’ Prime Golf, in Whitefield, has apparently overtaken Ironhill as the largest brewpub in Asia. Who cares about the beer and food? For those wondering, I suspect the golf is mini golf.

It’s pretty vast, apparently a seating capacity of 1500. There are multiple seating options – indoor and al fresco and for various group sizes. Unfortunately, they have designed it in such a way that the outdoor view is pretty much dead on arrival. As is characteristic of such places, there is a gigantic TV screen so you can dine out and do the same thing that you do at home anyway. Yay.

One of the beers in the list was unavailable, and what they had instead was a Weizenbock. We tried out the samplers, and chose the least of all the evils – Whack Wit and Weizenbock. The first is a Belgian style wheat beer and the second is essentially a hybrid of the Weiss beer and the German Bock (close to a Dunkelweizen). That was the technical understanding, our friends have made their own interpretations.

The Chicken & Celery dumpling wasn’t too bad, and they got the Andhra Chilli Chicken fairly right, though I do still prefer their neighbour’s (Red Rhino) version.

Mapas Manok sounded interesting (Manok seemed Filipino – turns out it’s chicken, and Mapas reminded me of Kerala) This isn’t like the Kerala dish, but it definitely has coconut milk, so we didn’t mind. The only problem was the late realisation that we were still a little hungry and should have ordered something with it. We asked for what we thought would be simple to do – Wok Tossed Chili Garlic Noodles, but either chef was busy or didn’t anticipate people ordering Chinese. Whatever that might be, it took ages to come to the table. I suspect they plan for seating but don’t think of these people ordering!

Overall, as you might have noticed, I was mightily unimpressed. That could be the excitement of a new brewery in the neighbourhood having turned into a meh ambience and experience. But that crowd that likes Ironhill will like this one too. And that tribe is the dominant one. Sigh. The bill came to a little over Rs.3000 and I think that’s money I could have put to better use.

Prime Golf Brewing & Golfing, 5/206, SBR Central, Whitefield Ph: +917892512790

August 18, 2024
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.

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.

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!

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!

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

March 24, 2024
The Pump House

A while ago, on a brewery darshan tour in South Bangalore, we had visited The Pump House in JP Nagar, and instantly loved the vibe, and the beer. We were thrilled therefore, when sometime last year, we saw their signage in Whitefield while on our way to er, another brewery! A few days later, we dropped in, though they hadn’t started brewing then. Raining on the parade literally happened, and thanks to their teething issues being exacerbated by the rain, our experience was less than meh. But when there’s craft beer involved, there’s always a second chance. And this time we took friends along. Why suffer alone!
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August 20, 2023