Tag: BTM Layout

  • Stories – The Brew Chapter

    Back in 2014, when I told friends that I had visited a microbrewery in JP Nagar, they thought I had a hangover. It took a review to prove it. 6 years later, such is the level of gentrification that it’s become a multiple-choice question! Even if I exclude that abomination called The Yellow Submarine, and the meh Uru. Bangalore traffic has scarred us to the extent that it is less scarier than a potentially fatal virus. That’s how we landed at Stories in BTM.

    (This is interesting, because the post will be published only two months later. Would the virus scare be far enough in the rear view mirror?)

    As with most microbreweries, the place is fairly large, with multiple floors and sections. Lots of greenery, and not just the standard vertical version. Thanks to the ill-communicated “lockdown”, it was not overcrowded, though there was a fair crowd.

    A for Apple Cider for D, and B for Belgian Wit for me is how we started. The Wit seemed fresh and had a mild zing to it, an easy drink. I found the Cider a little too sweet for my liking, though D was fine with it. From the starters, we tried a Chowringhee Chilli Chicken, which was basic chilli chicken, and actually quite mild despite the name. The Chicken Suya Kebab was a much better dish and that was largely thanks to the gun powder coating.

    Though I wanted to try the Hefeweizen, I finally went with the Rauchbier. I had liked the version at XOOX, though that was an ale. This one was a lager, and milder as well, though the smokiness was very much around. The Fiery Chick pizza seemed like a good companion for the drinks, and with a combination of spicy chicken, chilli flakes, green chilli and mozzarella, it did that job just fine. An experiment followed – a Chicken Cannelloni that had a tandoori masala. Surprisingly, this was quite good!

    For desserts, there was an interesting-sounding Nutella Baklava, but we decided on a Decadent Mousse. This was brandy infused rich chocolate with some nice texture thanks to crumbs and sugar coated nuts.

    The bill came to around Rs.2500, which seemed par for the course. The service was prompt and friendly, though they did make a mistake with the bill. The playlist gave the place a lounge feel that matched the overall decor and ambiance.

    Stories – The Brew Chapter, 29th Main Road, Mahadeshwara Nagar, Stage 2, BTM 2nd Stage Ph: +918046809326

  • ClayPot

    The Thippasandra version of this restaurant has been around for sometime now. But we’ve never managed to go there. So, when we saw an ad that announced the opening of a Thavarekere version, we didn’t waste much time in checking it out.

    When coming from Dairy Circle, take a right turn on to Thavarekere Main Road (this is the road opposite Prestige Acropolis -Dairy Circle side/diagonally opposite the Dairy Circle entrance of Forum/right next to the SKC outlet). Keep going down this road, soon you’ll find Prestige St.John’s Woods on your left, and after about 200 m, you’ll find a fork in the road. Take the one towards the left, and then take the first left turn, and you’ll find Claypot on the left. Yes, like a lot of Mallu things, this one is quite left oriented. 🙂

    ClayPot is the typical ‘no frills’ Mallu neighbourhood restaurant, though it serves North Indian, Chinese and Kerala cuisine. The first two are what we call Mallu versions of these cuisines, which would include things like Dall fry, Shreaded chicken with capscum, baiging chicken (sic sic sic), but then if you’re looking for perfection in such matters, you shouldn’t be here. This is the place to be when you want to gorge on Mallu stuff.

    We ordered a Malabar style Chicken Fry, a ClayPot special chicken curry, a Karimeen Pollichathu and to go with all of that, an appam, a couple of mutta appams (egg appams), and a Kerala Porotta. The Malabar chicken fry is cooked in the best cooking oil in the world (for us mallus) – yep, coconut oil, and comes adorned with crisply fried onion. There are three pieces in one portion and is quite non spicy, that, I’m guessing is a rarity here, though to be fair, they do mark the spicy stuff with a chilli icon. The ClayPot special chicken curry is a white gravy with boneless chicken in a coconut milk base and is garnished with a full boiled egg. It looks harmless but is quite spicy, and the portion is more than sufficient for two people. Karimeen (Pearl Spot) Pollichathu is fried fish with a thick masala coating which is tomato and onion based with a strong Kokum (Kodum Puli) flavor. This one is delicious, but super spicy. The appams as well as the porotta turned out good too. We wanted to try some mussel dishes, but they’d run out of the stuff.  They did have some quail dishes, but I’m sure that if we tried to squeeze that in too, it’d be our stomachs which would be quailing!!

    All of the above cost us just over Rs.350. That would tell you the story. You come here to have some excellent Mallu food without burning a hole in your pocket. While they have some North indian/Chinese veg options, I’d recommend this place only to hard core non veggies who can handle spicy stuff. There are many many more options that they offer in the Mallu cuisine part, and we’ll definitely go back for more.

    ClayPot, #1/1, 1st Cross, Thavarekere, BTM Layout. Ph: 42190344/55, 9632227355

    Update: Heard this one’s now closed