Tag: Malabar

  • Elements Heritage

    In terms of heritage, Elements used to be quite liked for its continental menu, while on Nandidurga Road. I was looking at the photos on their site, and wondered how I managed to miss it. 😐 All’s not lost though, as the new Elements Heritage, on Mosque Road, (just after Savoury, diagonally opposite Empire, just before Mosque Road meets MM Road – map) scores heavily on ambiance, and only differs in cuisine focus. Parking shouldn’t be a big problem, more so because there are enough side lanes around.

    Apparently, this was a really old Raj bungalow which has been revamped. As soon as we got there, we were shown a table, but also encouraged to take a little tour to see more seating options. That included a section upstairs with a live counter, but apparently, that was for the buffet diners. So we got back to our ground floor table, which was neat enough. The ambiance is really super, and the spread out table groups, not visible to each other, ensure that you feel the restaurant buzz, but still retain the exclusive dining experience. The lighting is dim, but the only discomfort that caused was in the photography.

    The menu is below, the last one was the buffet menu for the day, priced at Rs.550 + tax. (click to enlarge) While I was struggling to take the photos, the owner, presumably, who was taking another set of guests on the restaurant tour, offered to send me the menu by mail. I was almost through though, so I didn’t take up the offer. (seeing that quenchers page, I should have :\ ) That only adds to my feeling that the guys who run the place want to add a personal touch and make the dining experience really good.

    From that large selection, which included many many things we wanted to try, we skipped the shorbas and went for a “Seekh ‘e’ Elements” and a Bheja Fry. The former  consists of 4 seekh kebabs, each with an idiappam. Quite good, but the winner was clearly the Bheja fry, spicy and cooked superbly.  This was the part where I was caught between getting a good photo and devouring the food. The latter won out, as is obvious.

    For the main course, we ordered a ‘Meen appam’, and a ‘Kozhi Mulagh Ittathe’. Most of the dishes come with neer dosa/rice, so ask before you order naans/ appam/ rice separately. The meen appam actually turned out more like an ada than appam, with fish stuffed in it and cooked in a banana leaf. It comes with a sauce that seemed to have a jeera flavour, which worked well to complement the taste. Though we felt that the ada overpowered the fish filling, its still a dish you could try. The chicken dish came with two kinds of rice (one of which was the Kerala style boiled rice) and 4 neer dosas. We expected this to be really spicy, but it was actually more flavoursome, despite me eating up one of the large chillies.

    We debated a biriyani, but then decided to behave in a more un-glutton manner and  debated whether we should ask for a halwa of the day or a Shahi Tukda. The former wasn’t available (thankfully, on hindsight). The Shahi Tukda was really good – less heavy (ghee) than usual, and is highly recommended. All of the above cost us a little less than Rs.1000. The service is brilliant, offers to help and the place probably has the promptest delivery time I’ve seen  recently.

    Elements gets into our favourites list for many reasons – a menu that’s not very common, an ambiance that’s really awesome, excellent service and overall, a wonderful dining experience.

    Elements Heritage, #55, Mosque Road, Frazer Town, Ph: 41144146/8

  • Coastal Junction

    I was actually in the mood for a good steak, but plans had to be changed because of the recent cattle controversy – didn’t want anyone to have any beef with me. Ok, actually, the place that I had in mind  – Pizzeria Romano, turned out to be a veg only joint (according to Burrp). Bah. And that’s how we ended up at Coastal junction in Indiranagar. To get there, get on to 12th Main, towards 80 ft Road, and turn left at the end of the road. You’ll find Rosebys on your left. Coastal Junction is on the 4th and 5th floors.

    Since it was a nice breezy evening, we decided to try out the 5th floor terrace option. We reached there by around 7.45, and so were able to get a nice corner seat with an awesome view. If you’re planning to go after 8, it’d be safer to reserve. The seating is quite comfortable, and the tables decently spread out so that it isn’t claustrophobic, altogether it manages to justify the fine dining description, in terms of ambience, even if only just so.

    Though I’d expected mostly sea food in the menu, it surprised me with a decent collection of veg options. For starters, vegetarians can choose from more than half a dozen options, including things not regularly seen – banana flower, yam, sannas masala, crispy fried raw banana. (Rs.90-125). The non veg starters have a huge selection of sea food – prawns and fish mostly, lobster, (Rs.260-325) as well as chicken (Rs.195) and mutton. (Rs.255)

    Again, for the main course, there are quite a few options for vegetarians, including an ullitheeyal, pachakari stew, kerala sambar among others. (Rs. 115-155, yes, we grimaced too, at the thought of a sambar at a three figure cost). For those who cast a wider net as far as consumption goes, there’s a goan crab curry, lots of prawn and fish options (the latter mostly Kerala dishes Rs.265-315), chicken dishes (Xacuti, kori gassi, malabar stew among others, Rs.235) and a couple of mutton dishes. (Rs.295). To go along with that, you could either have biriyani (prawn/chicken/fish/mutton Rs.265-365) or choose from kappa, appams, sannas, neer dosas, idiappam, kori roti, malabar paratha (Rs.45-65) or even plain rice.They also serve alcohol and seem to have a decently stocked bar.

    Complimentary rice papadoms with a sauce and a cut mango pickle, and a glass of  rasam are given before the meal.  Do try out the pickle. Excellent stuff. We started with a Kane Bazulle, “ladyfish marinated in Mangalore masala and deep fried”. This is quite different from the rava fry we tend to order. The coconut oil flavor is unmistakable, and though  it could’ve been fried a bit more, it was quite good. For the main course, we ordered a Kottayam fish curry, “seer fish cubes cooked in spicy red coconut gravy”, a Chicken Coondapur, “semi dry chicken cooked in freshly ground coconut, red chillies, jeera and garam masala”, and to go with it, Malabar Paratha,”kerala special layered bread” and egg appam, “soft centre, crispy lace edged rice pancake with egg” (yeah yeah, the fine dining version of porotta and mutta appam for all those sniggering mallus reading this :p ). The fish curry, though spicy and delicious was a mistake. D says she was deceived by the coconut in the description, she expected it to be a thick gravy, but it wasn’t. It’d actually be great with plain rice or kappa, but we managed with the paratha. The chicken dish had a thick gravy, excellent stuff, and highly recommended, but only if you’re okay with grated coconut. The paratha was for once, wasn’t flaky, and was made well. The appam’s shape was slightly off, as compared to the ones we usually see, but was very tasty.

    Though the dessert options were different from the regular stuff we see (except for the ice creams) – dhodol, pazaham pradhaman, elaneer payasam, ada pradhaman (Rs.110-135), we were completely stuffed by then. Another example of their consistency (with the theme) was the mouth freshener – a cashew+nutmeg+cardamom Mangalore supari mix. The service deserves mention because it was the best we’ve experienced in quite a long time. They offer help with the menu, point out the not-so-obvious stuff, and are extremely prompt – right from when they bring out different courses to refilling water, and billing.

    All of the above cost us a little less than Rs.1000. Though its not inexpensive, the place is worth a visit, especially if you’re in the mood for some good coastal food.

    Coastal Junction, No:623, 11th Main, 80 ft Road, Indiranagar. Ph: 41523470

    Menu and Photos at Zomato

  • 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

  • Kaayal

    Kaayal has been on our radar for some time now. And when they announced a Malabar Biriyani festival from Feb 26th – Mar 1st, we decided there couldn’t be a better time.

    When coming from Koramangala take a right turn at the 12th main junction, at the every end, take a right and then, a left at the next junction. (where you see a ‘Fresh’ outlet) You’ll see Kayal on the right after about a 100 metres. Its opposite Miranda High School, and on the second floor. Parking is a lil bit of a bother.

    Kaayal, which means ‘backwaters’  is the quintessential Mallu restaurant, with a few props thrown in for good measure. While you get all the regular Kerala dishes here, the Biriyanis were the highlight. So we ordered a Chicken Biriyani and a Fish Biriyani and a sambhaaram (buttermilk) while we waited. The sambhaaram was about as spicy as it could get, but good.

    The Chicken biriyani was very much like the ones we Mallus get in restaurants at home, complete with the egg, thats conspicuously missing in the versions usually found in Bangalore. D was quite miffed that her fish biriyani didn’t have one, but I guess it did make sense – limiting eggs to chicken biriyanis 😀 The problem with both was that the masala hasdn’t really seeped into the chicken/fish pieces. We also ordered a Beef fry, which we had been warned about earlier – that it usually was a bit rubbery. Unfortunately for us, it was quite a correct warning. All the stuff could’ve been better. :|Might go back some other time for checking out the regular Mallu stuff.

    All of the above cost us a bit over Rs.250. Value-for-money as most Mallu restaurants go. (no we don’t consider Coconut Grove mallu on that parameter)

    Kaayal, 1647/1 , 2nd Floor, Jeevan Bhima Nagar. Ph: 25205578