Category: Whitefield

  • BFlat Bar

    The name should have been a hint, I should have checked the ratings of the Indiranagar version, and I should have guessed that the closer one moves towards Marathahalli, the lower the bar goes! But all of this is hindsight, and we were swept away by the grit of someone choosing to open shop at what has to be the lowest rated mall in all of Bangalore – Brookefield Mall. That, and the outside possibility of discovering a good addition to our favourites in Whitefield. Ah well.

    BFlat is on the top floor of the mall, and divides its overall space into indoor and alfresco sections. We didn’t experience the sound quality since there was no live performance when we visited, but the ambiance was not bad at all. We were encouraged just by the sight of the place, but alas, this was the first and last piece of positive news. A breezy Bangalore night persuaded us to sit outside, and choose a Galangal Sour and a white wine Sangria. Only degrees of disaster separated them. My whiskey based drink was first served like a martini. When I pointed that out, they brought it back as a Margarita, at which point I gave up and humbly drank an obnoxious mix of blended whisky, galangal, lime juice, egg white and orange juice, which had sounded so exciting on paper. D said it is difficult to make a bad Sangria, but they had managed to do it.

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  • Marigold

    Not really the best exotic kind, but hey, in the context of the swamp that is Nallurahalli, the argument might just hold! In fact, that’s probably one of the only things working against Marigold – the location. In fact, on the day we visited, there was some celebration happening right outside with loudspeakers on max mode. I wondered whether they should have listed that as an event in Zomato!

    Marigold is reasonably near ITPL so it’s not hard to imagine why the lunch buffet would be their main revenue source. A close second would be the Sunday brunch. Makes sense why they don’t even bother removing the adornments on Saturday. Geist was available and since I had not really tried it earlier, I took the opportunity to taste Weiss Guy. Reasonably mild with banana and clove tones, and a nice ‘feel’.

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  • Sidewalk Kitchen & Bar

    Except for when my professional duties (while writing reviews for Bangalore Mirror) forced me, I have avoided Marathahalli’s restaurants. There’s something about the place that puts me off. But in the first weekend of Jan, when we wanted to step out of Whitefield, but didn’t want to go all the way to Indiranagar, we found ourselves at Sidewalk, whose tiny entrance belies the expansive space they have within.

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    The place was reasonably crowded even at 7 PM. We actually got in a few minutes after 7, and I was disappointed that we missed happy hours. But apparently, that was effective only from Mon-Thu. I realised later that we had dodged a bullet there! Despite the looks of the place, the first put off for me was the smell. After we sat down, D thought I was referring to the room freshener that was being liberally sprayed. I said it wasn’t, and she then assumed it was the hookahs. But it wasn’t that either. It’s a smell one is familiar with if one has stayed in and around 4th Block and ST Bed in Koramangala. I didn’t mention it to D, maybe I’m getting old!  (more…)

  • Chianti (Whitefield)

    There is something both disconcerting and comforting that happens when one visits a place after 5 years and discovers both the self and the place to have largely remained unchanged! Well, technically, it’s not the same place, since the Chianti we visited 5 years ago is in Koramangala, and the one I am writing of is in Whitefield.

    We usually flip through the menu on Zomato before we visit, and this time after D had pronounced what she was going to be having, we decided to take a look at what we had eaten 5 years ago! And D’s choices were exactly the same – down to her deciding to ask for chicken to be added in the Cream of Mushroom soup!

    We got there early on the last Saturday of 2017. Chianti has taken over the space in the Park Square mall that Habanero used to occupy – on the ground floor. The mall, whose food options are now fairly impressive, was relatively quiet, even at 7PM. Lots of wood, some interesting art, a mix of lounge and functional seating all manage to give Chianti a lively and classy ambiance.

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  • Chin Chin

    One Sunday, when we wanted to visit a new place but also wanted the comfort of a regular haunt, and were wondering how to reconcile the two, lo and behold, the answer arrived – Chin Chin. No, that isn’t a sound effect, it’s the name of The Biere Club’s new endeavour in place of Mustard & Cress. The seat covers have changed, and so obviously has the menu. The decor has been modified, but everything else remains unchanged.

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