Tag: Lucknowi

  • O! Ustaad

    This review was first published in Bangalore Mirror. This is a much modified account.

    Thanks to the Gateway Hotel, you could end your gastronomic journey on Residency Road with ‘Arre huzoor, wah Taj boliye’. But in case you were wondering how to begin, you now have hope, in the form of O! Ustaad, at the other end. This is right after the St.Marks Road/Residency Road junction and placed under a certain Purple Haze, literally. Here’s a map. (the arrow mark is the right location) Parking should not be too difficult, since you have Hayes Road/ Convent Road also nearby.

    O! Ustaad claims to be an ‘asli Indian restaurant’, serving you the best fare from Lucknow to Mumbai and Delhi to Konkan with nazakat and nafasat, but we journeyed from the delight of Wah! Ustaad to the despair of Waah! Ustaad.

    This is one of the places where you shouldn’t go by outside appearances, because though the frontage might seem a tad dingy, the interior is bright and peppy. O! Ustaad definitely serves up an attitude and has a penchant for wordplay, judging from ‘Facebhook’ and ‘LaLoo’. The photographs of street food, and an eclectic mix of music from Junoon to classic rock, all add up to a unique character. So much for the mahaaul, now for the real haul.

    The menu may not be spread over a lot of pages, but it covers much ground in terms of geography. Kebabs from Lucknow, fish dishes from Goa and Bengal, vegetarian fare from Himachal and Punjab, and Old Delhi specialities, together ensure that both vegetarians and meat eaters are kept happy. Add to this the uniqueness of many of the items and the day’s special dishes and you’ll find that there’s no dearth of choice. Take a look. (click for larger image)

    From the 3 starters we tried, the Mutton Kulfi (one of the Day’s specials) was easily the best. The combination of melt-in-the-mouth mutton and a green chilly laden coating made it a unanimous favourite. The two starters we ordered from the regular menu were disappointing. The Pondicherry Bullet Paneer had no proof about the bullet or Pondicherry, and one of my friends had to be pacified as she felt she’d been conned into buying a Paneer Pakoda! The accompanying honey-lime dip didn’t make a good combination either. The ‘famous’ Chicken Salli Kebab was more potato than chicken.

    Himachali Dhingri Dhulma Lucknowi Gosht Korma Prawn Malai curry Bengali style Anda Paratha

    In the main course, the ones that impressed were the Murgh Khatte Pyaaz, with its unique gravy of vinegar soaked onions, pepper and yogurt, and the Himachali Dhingri Dhulma, with mushroom, capsicum and paneer in a slightly spicy gravy. The Lucknowi Gosht Korma, though decent, was lost in the bargain. The Anda Paratha is definitely worth a try too, and though the Gobi Paratha had an extra helping of chillies, it was still reasonably good, as was the Aloo Paratha. The Prawn Malai curry Bengali style had an excellent creamy gravy which was ruined by the overcooked, rubbery prawns. The Chicken Nasi biriyani, which was another Day’s special, was, as one of my friends put it, Tomato rice with chicken. Somewhere in the kitchen, a cooking oil well has been discovered, judging by the liberal usage. Though the menu lists 4 desserts, which we were eager to try, we were told that they weren’t available. The apple and chocolate pies we were offered instead were both quite avoidable.

    The service was quite prompt, and Jitesh, who looks after the Bangalore outlet, did a good job of helping us choose the dishes, especially since the day’s specials didn’t have explanations. O!Ustaad is worth a visit when you’re in that part of town.  A meal for two would cost about Rs.800. Though some of the dishes fell short of expectations, the uniqueness of the menu and a cheerful ambiance should make up for the shortfall. They also have lunch buffets which seemed reasonably priced.

    O! Ustaad, Below Purple Haze, 17/1, Residency Road, Bangalore – 560025 Ph: 080 41518147

  • Tunday Kababi

    The reviews that I had read in the last couple of weeks had ensured that before this Sunday I’d have a go at Tunday. 🙂 It helped that the place is in Koramangala, on the same road as Ping, Empire, Paramount etc, in the same building as Lazeez. (map) Parking is not very easy for four wheelers, but you should just about manage. Tunday is spread across two floors, and at about 9.30 pm on Saturday was quite crowded. Thankfully, we found a place on the first floor.

    Tunday is a famous import from Lucknow, and apparently is the first franchise outside of the place, though it seems the cooks and spices have been brought down. According to Amit Akali’s review in Bangalore Mirror (disclosure: yep, I work in the Times Group 🙂 ), legend has it that the mutton kabab was created specially for a Lucknowi nobleman who had lost his teeth but not his appetite for kababs. Also Tunday gets its name from tunda,a slang for a one armed man. You can read more here. So, keep that in mind and when you’re here, and so pehle aap ek plate Mutton Tunday kabab order karo please. 🙂

    We did, and though we had no train to catch, it was brought in a few minutes. A plate has 4 pieces and from what we ate, I’m convinced that the toothless nobleman would’ve had no trouble at all with the kabab. The phrase ‘melt in the mouth’ is a cliche for kababs, but I’m guessing this one  is a good candidate to have started it. Its awesome and I insist you try it. (a good time to mention that if you’re a veggie,you’ll perhaps feel as much a sense of belonging here as Sarah Palin in a geography quiz) Meanwhile, the menu is as simple as it can get, as you can see here

    tunday

    (click for a larger image)

    After the splendid kabab, we moved on to a Shahi Murg Masala and a couple of Tunday’s parathas. The paratha is perhaps the most unique one I’ve had. It is crispy yet soft. Do give it a try. The Shahi Murg Masala was another good choice, and though the portion was not really that large (had only one chicken piece, though a large one at that) it was delicious. Spicy too, and there was some flavour that I couldn’t quite place, though it did remind me of saffron. (but it wasn’t saffron)

    The next round consisted of a mutton biriyani and a chicken korma. The mutton biriyani was fantastic, and unlike the ones we regularly have, it was not very oily. Of the whole lot, the korma was perhaps the only one that wasn’t really stellar. But it was in the company of legends, so one can’t really blame it. By the time we finished all this, we were stuffed, and so the Awadhi kheer had to be left for another day.

    Now, this is by no stretch of imagination, a fine dining place. No A/c, the tables are just about clean, the chairs aren’t so lucky, and they won’t bring the handwash apparatus to your table. 🙂 The service is chaotic, we even contemplated joining our table with the adjacent couple, since there were at least a couple of mixed up orders. But you really wouldn’t pay attention because of the speed at which the food arrives and of course, the food itself. Besides the guys are really pleasant in spite of the furious pace, and the earnestness wins you over. So, think of it as though you’re at home, roll up your sleeves, and get to work on the part that matters – the food. 🙂

    All of the above cost us just less than Rs.450, that was after reminding them that they hadn’t billed one item. 🙂 The portions are not large, but the good part, therefore, is that you can try different dishes. 🙂 You should definitely try the place out.

    Tunday Kababi, KHB Colony, 5th Block, Koramangala Ph: 9448083030

    Menu at Zomato

  • Rakabdar

    One of the side effects of the vacation was the discovery of a restaurant in (almost) our backyard. We saw a write up of Rakabdar in the Jet in-flight magazine, and as always checked it up on Burrp before deciding on it. Rakabdar is located exactly opposite Forum Mall on the Christ College/Dairy Circle side. That, I assume, also takes care of your parking queries. 🙂

    A ‘Rakabdar’ is a master chef of the royal courts of Awadh and Lucknow, so now you know what cuisine to expect here. They were considered “alchemists of cuisine”, as they sought to better their recipes every time they served it. No, they are master chefs, and so there’s no reason to feel that they’re experimenting on you. 🙂

    The restaurant is on the second floor, and we were escorted there after a tiny halt at the reception on the ground floor. We had reserved in advance, but since its a new restaurant, that proved to be unnecessary, as there was only one other group during the entire meal. So we got to choose a nice cosy corner. They have a couple of  seating options which could’ve offered a Forum facing view, but for some reason they’ve chosen to have no windows there. Wonder why.

    We decided to skip the shorba options and asked for a starter recommended in the menu – the Seekh Kabab Imtiazi,  “skewers wrapped with lamb mince mixed with cassia powder, mace and kashipur chilli and char grilled”. There were a lot of veg starter options, and quite some in sea food too, though the latter are quite expensive. While we waited for the starter to arrive, they gave us a complimentary kulcha with dal and chana gravies. That was quite a different take from the regular papads. 🙂 The starter was excellent and fairly large in terms of quantity. The chutney given along with it did complement the taste, but I felt it could’ve been better.

    For the main course, we again went for two dishes recommended in the menu – Achari Paneer, “paneer simmered in a tangy gravy of pickled tomatoes” and Murg Rizala, “boneless chicken stuffed with herbs and green chillies, dum cooked in a gravy of yoghurt with a hint of almond and garnished with egg”. We asked for the paneer dish to be made spicy, since the chicken gravy was bound to be bland. To go along with that we ordered an Aloo & Pyaaz Kulcha and a missi roti. Again, there were lots of vegetarian and meat (chicken, and a few lamb) options for the main course, but only one seafood option. (prawn). Our choices were a bit of a downer though. I’ve never been a fan of ‘achari’ dishes, but this one had sounded different. However, it suffered from an overdose of what we figured was a cumin flavour. So we didn’t like the paneer dish much, though that could be due to our taste preferences too. The chicken dish was better, though the bones were conspicuous by their presence. (as against what was printed on the menu). When we asked them, they insisted  it was a menu mistake and not a cooking mistake. 🙂 The gravy was quite good, very creamy and thick, but some parts of the meat were undercooked. The kulcha was good, and the roti,  just okay.

    We were quite stuffed and so couldn’t check out some special kulchas we haven’t seen anywhere else. (zattar and cheese, for instance). While on the subject of missing out, here are a few items you could consider. If you’re the seafood and shorba type, there’s an interesting shorba made of prawn, calamari, salmon, ginger, lime leaves and orange juice. You could also try out the biriyani, since dum b is an awadhi speciality too. You can judge how stuffed we were from the fact that we even skipped dessert. Other than the usual suspects – phirni, gulab jamun and rasmalai, there was also a Shahi Tukra and something we hadn’t seen earlier – Qubani ka meetha.

    They seem to have an extensive beverage menu – lots of white and red wines, martinis, single malt, cognac, apertiffs, and a decent selection of mocktails and cocktails, among other things. Your parameter of reference is as always KF beer – thats at Rs.150, and the bottled water is at Rs. 40. 🙂

    The service was quite good, and they even took us on a tour of their lounge – aira, on the third and fourth floors  of the same building. The fourth floor option seemed quite a nice place to lounge around, excellent cityscape views – in a small way reminded me of 13th Floor.

    Our meal cost us Rs. 1165, and that includes a service charge at 10% and the taxes.

    Try the place if you’re in the mood to splurge on a slightly different cuisine, especially if you want a change from the nearby excellent but usual options of Sahib Sind Sultan and The Taste of Rampur.

    Rakabdar, 7, Bhuvanappa Layout, Hosur Road Ph: 43431111, 43431100

    Menu at Zomato

  • Serengeti

    A little googling tells me that its the name of a wildlife national park and ecosystem in Tanzania. Since I’m not particularly adventurous by nature, I restricted myself to visiting the dining ecosystem in Madivala. After all, it was supposed to have an African rainforests theme.

    A call for reservation was answered, the second time, and we were politely told that since it was Saturday night, reservations could be made only in specific timeframes – 7.30 to 8.15 pm and 9.45 – 10.30 pm. We chose the latter.

    Its on the 3rd floor in Total Mall alongwith Zanzibar, Silver Metro and a food court. The mall is quite easy to reach. When coming from the MG Road side, turn left onto the road that goes to St.Johns (you don’t have an option anyway after you cross Forum 🙂 ), then take a U turn onto the road that leads to the Madivala market. You can see Total on the left but the entrance is on Hosur Road.

    There was a crowd waiting to get in, when we reached, and even with reservations, and landing up exactly on time, we were made to wait about 10 minutes. Once we were inside, the undergrowth was not quite thick, so we got to see people dining among alligators, vines, elephants, waterfalls and so on :). For those who don’t mind the gurgling water sound, the outside seating would be fine. I dont, and thankfully, we were taken inside the ‘Guffa’. Its a closed structure within the restaurant and is slightly better lit than the outside. We can also see animal-skull trophies on the walls, that add to the effect – what they have called ‘the wild side of dining’. In fact, they have tried to do that in everything, including the waiters who are attired like shikaris. No, don’t expect the hostesses in grass skirts!!!

    Meanwhile, the cuisine is Lucknowi and Peshawari, which made me wonder about the connection with the setting. We went straight for the main course, though there were a couple of ‘not quite common’ options in the shorba and starters categories. We ordered a Murgh patiala kadai se and a Machi Mazedar, along with a bran roti, an onion kulcha and a plain naan. The quantity was quite sufficient, though i would recommend the fish dish to be eaten with rice. The food was good enough to warrant another visit. We also had a Sariska Panna, which is made of pineapple pulp. It was chilled and had quite a unique flavour. Though this was supposed to be an apertiff, we got it in the middle of the meal 😐

    That notwithstanding, the service was quite good. We were also given a potato chips based snack before the meal started, turned out to be quite good, with chat flavors. We opted out of desserts because there were only the usual suspects, inclusing a chocolate brownie. But then, dessert doesn’t need context, does it? 😉

    The above meal cost us about Rs.650, and we’ll definitely make one more visit, if only for the unusual setting. Reservations can be made at 9731558301/7.

    Photos at Serengeti