Mugen

Mugen is located on 100 ft road, Indiranagar, on the 3rd floor of the building that houses Indigo Nation and Urban Yoga. It serves Thai, Indonesian and Chinese cuisine. Parking for two wheelers is quite easy, 4 wheelers would require a bit of luck factor too, me thinks.

We called for reservations, and after a long time, got a courteous and efficient response, and a table. I was getting sick of the ‘we don’t reserve after 7.30’ spiel. You might want to reserve, if you’re planning to go after 8 during weekends, going by the crowd we saw yesterday.

The menu has Thai, Indonesian and Chinese, in that order. They also serve liquor, and from my limited knowledge, the bar looked fairly well stocked. The Thai part is quite a few pages, the Indonesian, only a couple of pages, and the Chinese part, somewhere in between the two. The choice of dishes in Thai made us choose that, though (even with very good descriptions) we’d require some assistance.

We managed to order the soup by ourselves :), and then gave our requirements to the person who took our orders. He was extremely helpful, and gave us detailed explanations of what we could expect. So, we ordered a Tom Kha soup, which was described in the menu as a “refreshing coconut milk soup, with lemon grass and galangal served with chicken”, which reminds me, most of the items in the menu have a common gravy/paste/rice/noodles which lends itself to chicken, veg, seafood etc. So, for example, you can also have a Tom Kha veg soup. The soup was delicious, with so many different flavours, and for once, none of the usual stuff –  pepper, sauce, vinegar etc was needed. It was refreshing indeed.

For the main course, we ordered a Kai Phad Bai Gapraow, which is ‘succulent chicken, marinated with thai herbs, and fresh basil leaves served with special spicy thai sauce’, a Basket Chilly Chicken, “a traditional dish from the chef, served in a crispy basket”. The latter was the only chinese dish we ordered. We also ordered a Bamee Pahd “soft noodles with bean sprout, spring onions, and crushed peanut served with chicken”. The first dish has got a bit of gravy, in fact just the right amount as far as our needs went. The Basket Chilly Chicken is dry and quite spicy, and the crispy basket was quite yummy. When we saw the noodles dish, we thought we’d have to order one more. Talk about deceiving appearances!! The quantity was more than enough for two people, especially the side dishes. All the dishes were simply awesome, and that’s an understatement. The only warning I’d like to give is to have the food before it gets cold, since a salty taste starts creeping in towards the end.

The ambience deserves a special mention, with separate seating for smokers and non smokers, there’s even an option of being seated such that you can watch while your dishes get cooked. The seating is extremely comfortable. I think this would also be a great place for large groups, not just because of the seating options, but also because it’d give you an opportunity to sample multiple dishes, which we couldn’t because we’d only two tummies at our disposal. Another special mention for the service. No snobbish ‘Oh, you don’t know this cuisine’ smirks’, an extremely helpful attitude, and someone always discreetly giving the table attention. This place exudes confidence and efficiency. Yes,  we were floored, and that’s no mean task, as you guys would have realised:D

All of the above cost us Rs.800. I’d loved to have tried the desserts, but we were stuffed 🙁 . This one demands a repeat visit, so there’s definitely going to be a next time here.

Ph: 41481414, 9945300004

Menu and photos at Zomato