Tag: 80 ft Road

  • Rendezvous

    A rendezvous that took quite some time, though its just a few minutes away from home. Rendezvous Euro Restaurant is on 80ft Road, right before Barista. Here’s a map. Since there are enough side lanes around, parking is not likely to be a big problem.

    Its more a friendly neighbourhood place than anything you’d come halfway across town for. But that also means that whenever I’ve passed by, I’ve seen it completely packed. We reached there a bit early, a little before 7.45. That, and the rains meant that we were among the first to arrive. But by 8.30 it was getting filled fast.

    Rendezvous has a warm dimly lit ambiance, with some good retro music in the background. Nothing elaborate in terms of decor and furniture, but neat and a great place to sip a beer and watch Koramangala life passing by. The menu is mostly Continental, with some Chinese options too. You can take a look here.

    The rain meant that we had to start with a soup. D and I shared a Mexican soup pot and my sis asked for a Cream of Chicken. Our soup, though described as a broth, was quite thick and creamy , and had salami, chicken and boiled vegetable with some cheese, that added a little zing to it.

    We skipped the starters and the Chinese options and got busy trying to choose from a range of steaks, pastas and burgers. I asked for a Chicken Crepes, D ordered a Peppered Chicken Pasta and my sis ordered a ‘Gold and Red’ burger. The Crepes were conspicuous by their absence, but the tangy mushroom sauce, and the spicy mashed potato ensured that I wasn’t left too disappointed.

    The missing component continued in D’s Peppered pasta, so D did a DIY with the pepper on the table, but apparently it still remained bland.So this turned out to be a disappointing choice.

    My sis’ Gold and Red burger turned out to be a mixed bag. The Gold half, which had cheese and salami was apparently good, but the Red half, with a cold chicken salad was given a cold shoulder. She also felt that the salad may have been her age. I was the only one not complaining much. No comments on the lines of ‘you eat anything’ will be tolerated. Hmmph. I was too stuffed for dessert, though there was even a marble cake, and the others weren’t too sure what would land up on the table.

    All of the above cost us just over Rs.700. The service was quite prompt. I think it serves as a good hangout joint, so this goes into a no gain, no pain category.

    Rendezvous, 15/1, 80 ft Road, Koramangala 4th Block Ph: 25631177

    Menu at Zomato

  • Magnolia

    One of the biggest contributors to Koramangala’s food-and-mouth epidemic is the 80 ft Road, which has more than a dozen (underdone estimate) outlets that cater to all sorts of tastes and wallet sizes. This week, we decided to drop in at Magnolia, whose earlier version existed in a quaint house very near to its current location. When coming from Sony World junction towards Sarjapur Road, cross Wipro Park, and you’ll find Reliance Fresh on your right. Magnolia is on the top floor of the same building. Here’s a map. Parking shouldn’t be a problem at all. We reached by about 7.30 and in half an hour the place was almost full.

    Magnolia has indoor as well as terrace/semi outdoor seating options. The latter is rather dim, but with the kind of weather Bangalore’s been having, its an awesome place to be. The only snag was that the photos turned out to be quite like those ‘paranormal activity’ photos. See. (that’s the soup!!) 🙁 We could’ve maybe got it right with some tinkering, but since the focus was on eating and the required material was right in front of us, being photo-foppish wasn’t a priority. Magnolia serves Thai and Chinese cuisine, (menu 1, 2 – this is the last printed one, the prices are higher by about Rs.10-20 now)  These days, we devoutly devour the former cuisine, thanks to Aroy for the Thai-in.

    We started with the ‘Thai Chicken & Lemon Grass Coconut soup’. Even considering the Mallu bias towards anything remotely coconut, this is a great soup. Its almost the Tom Kha soup, but slightly thinner and without the Galangal. The lemon grass flavour was just right, and not overpowering, and except for the rare chilli, not very spicy either. Definitely recommended.

    Next, we resisted the dim sum call and moved on to “Leg Mai Kai”. Even Google didn’t help me figure the name out completely. The closest is Loh Mai Kai. I thought it must be the iron-rich version of our dish but it turned out to be rice based. The ‘leg mai kai’ is roasted chicken with red and green pepper and turned out to be a reasonably good choice. The red and green pepper actually complemented the tending-towards-bland chicken instead of performing their regular role as space fillers. Maybe you could try the Crispy Chicken Chilly Honey, it does sound good. 🙂

    For the main course, Chicken Pad Thai with cashew nuts and as per their suggestion, Thai Chicken and Bamboo Shoot Red curry. The Pad Thai was quite good, though the cashews were conspicuous by their absence and the tamarind flavour was really subdued. The Red curry was awesome, mostly because the coconut overruled every other flavour that might have been there, except for the spiciness. The quantity of lemon grass was slightly overwhelming though. While it goes best with rice, this is a reasonably good combination too.

    The dessert options aren’t much. The service is great, and very prompt. All of the above cost us just over Rs.700. Definitely worth a visit when you need to go beyond the regular Chinese options around Koramangala.

    Magnolia, #37, above Reliance Fresh, near Wipro Park, 80 ft Road, 3rd Block Koramangala. Ph: 41102222

    This review happens to be the 50th one in Koramangala. It is also the 100th restaurant review on the blog. There is a reason why we chose Magnolia. More than 7 years back, when a newly married couple made Koramangala their home, and relied on Mars Chicken Delight, Lazeez and some others like Szechuan Garden, which don’t exist anymore, for their gastro-adventures, they saw Magnolia, the big cars parked outside, and wondered how many of their dine outs would have to be sacrificed to afford a visit.

    They picked up enough courage one day in June, and though were quite intimidated by the place, and the chopsticks presented to them, managed to have a good meal for about Rs.350, which they still considered costly. A lot of things have changed since then – they now have a blog that has a hundred restaurant reviews, for starters. They have changed too, as has the locality they once lived in. But its heartening to note that some things haven’t – despite many halfhearted attempts, chopsticks remain a strict no-no. 😀 The post is for that couple, and for the life and times then. Thanks for reading. 🙂

    PS. A new design. Much thanks to Arun and especially Mayank for the help against cruel Microsoft 😉

  • Chalo Punjab

    ..for dinner, that’s what we thought, after D had spotted it on her way back from work last week. No, she doesn’t work in Punjab, this is version 2.0 of what used to be called ‘Dal Roti’ in Koramangala, located just before the Sony World junction, on the left, when coming from the National Games Village direction, opposite the IBP petrol pump.

    Dal Roti used to be the value-for-money North Indian joint we used to frequent in our first round of stay in Koramangala. Coincidentally, I remember mentioning the last time we had been there, that it was time for a renovation, and that seems to be exactly what happened. So Dal Roti is now ‘Chalo Punjab’ with a ‘fine dining’ tag to boot. We reached there just after 8, and easily got a table. I think that can be attributed to this being the first weekend (I think) after the re-launch.

    Though the seating arrangements remains roughly the same, the ambience is must better, with more Punjabi flavor thrown in, in terms of props. I still wouldn’t classify it as fine dining, though its definitely a couple of steps above the initial version.

    The menu is more elaborate though, and if anything, we were spoilt for choice. You could start with sherbets/shikhanjvi/thandai/khatte aam ka panna or chaas/lassi or even an ice cream doodh sheikh (they’ve had  quite some fun with the spellings and the names), about a dozen options priced between Rs.40-80. If you’re the shorba kind, you could try ‘loveleen de tandrust shorbe’ – 3 veg and 2 non veg options, priced at Rs.70/80.

    There are more than a dozen veg starters including the Rawalpindi Railway Gobi and Peeo de Cheesy Palak rolls, at Rs.130/140. The non veg options would be about double of that, most of it in chicken (Rs.160/170) and about 4-5 options each in mutton (Rs.210) and fish (Rs.220) and a couple of prawn options too (Rs.250). For the main course, the grass eaters get to choose from about half a dozen dishes each of dal and paneer (including Major Patrick da paneer tiranga!!), in addition to over 15 other dishes, like ‘Simple di subz keema’, ‘marie memsaab di ishtew’, and ‘garima di gajjar methi malai’, priced between Rs.120-160!! There are about 8-10 options each in chicken and mutton (Rs.230-270) and 3-4 options in fish, prawn (Rs.230-270) and eggs (Rs.130-160).

    To go with that, you could have paratha/roti/kulcha/naan, priced between Rs.35-65, or biriyani/pulao/rice (like the Punjabi Times Chicken Fry rice!!) They also have thali options on weekdays – Rs.140/180 for veg/non veg. Now, you get what I mean by elaborate menu. Phew!!

    We skipped the shorba and started with a Chandigarh Chicken Cake (C3) 😀 That’s “generously spiced minced chicken cupcakes shallow fried served with a dash of coriander and chat patta masalas”. Its a perfect starter, complemented  well by the mint chutney, though 6 pieces in one portion meant that the stomach was filled a little more than we’d liked, especially when a glass of lassi was also used to wash it down. For the main course, we ordered a Kartarpuri Kajuwala Kukkad Kadi, “chunks of tender chicken simmered in a rich cashew gravy mildly spiced”, a Mardaan di Meat di Feast (!!), “a delicious recipe of tender juicy cuts of mutton slow cooked in a rich onion yoghurt & tomato, enriched with steamed spicy mutton koftas swimming in mouthwatering minced mutton gravy”, and to go along with it, a wheat naan and a cheese chilly naan. The chicken dish was more brown than white, but simply awesome, and I’d recommend it very highly. Thick and mildly spicy, it was done extremely well, so much that the elaborate mutton dish was reduced to second place, though those koftas were quite good.

    I’d have liked to try some dessert too, but was completely stuffed. I think just reading that menu fills half your stomach!! There are about a dozen dessert options (Rs.50-120) – the regular North Indian stuff – phirni (though this is Pammi ji’s!!), kheer, kulfi, rabdi, gaajar halwa, gulab jamun, and even a Mango Dolly ice cream!! Mind it!!

    All of the above cost us just over Rs.800. The service was excellent, and except for a tiny delay in bringing back my credit card (hmm), it was extremely prompt. The price may perhaps not be justified by the ambience, but its more than compensated by the tasty food, great service, and the phenomenal amount of choice.

    Chalo Punjab, 906/1, GNR Plaza, 80 ft Road, 6th Block, Koramangala. Ph:41105666/777

    Menu at Zomato