{"id":8539,"date":"2014-03-02T10:41:32","date_gmt":"2014-03-02T05:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/?p=8539"},"modified":"2014-02-10T21:26:07","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T15:56:07","slug":"the-mirage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/2014\/03\/02\/the-mirage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mirage"},"content":{"rendered":"

First appeared in Bangalore Mirror<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I came upon The Mirage quite by chance on the web, and for a few moments, when I was hunting for its precise location in Koramangala, I did wonder about the name of the restaurant and whether it was literally that! Situated on the fourth floor of a building, it\u2019s pretty easy to miss unless you\u2019re specifically looking for it. At an eye level, look for the new Corner House. (map<\/a> – though it has shifted to the other side of the same road) Parking on the street. When we visited, the place was relatively unknown because it\u2019d been less than a month since it opened, and they hadn\u2019t done much in terms of publicity. That probably explains why we were the only group there. Thankfully, the clich\u00e9 of the service staff attacking as a swarm did not happen. In fact they actually seemed a little intimidated, especially when we ordered wine \u2013 they had difficulty finding it, and seemed confused on how to serve it! For now they are serving only wines, (though they plan to make it a full fledged alcohol menu soon) so it might be a good idea to train the staff on it. But once the initial fear of strangers passed, they turned out to be quite helpful and attentive! The d\u00e9cor is functional aiming towards lounge and there\u2019s lots of \u2018greenery\u2019 – in the form of lighting, graphics and cushion covers. Marilyn Monroe seems to be quite an influence, appearing in various avatars, the most interesting of which is her quote \u201cI don\u2019t want to make money. I just want to be wonderful.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

The menu is a mix of many cuisines – Thai, Chinese, Mexican, Italian and even a smattering of Vietnamese.\u00a0From the more than a dozen options available, we began with a Sesame Potato Bites in Chili Sauce. On hindsight, we needn\u2019t have ordered this since everything else came with potatoes anyway! There was something funny about the oil in this dish, and it wasn\u2019t the kind that would make you look forward to the rest of the meal. The Fried Calamari served with Garlic Aioli and chips was up next. The squid was well cooked, the dip complemented it well and if you can ignore the general greasiness, it\u2019s not a bad dish. The Highnoons Special Fried Chicken was the last to arrive, and was served with the mandatory chips and a \u2018Mayo-Tard\u2019 sauce. The chicken itself was decent, except for a couple of undercooked bits, but the sauce, which was already a cause of much mirth thanks to our juvenile vowel movement jokes, actually had a funny taste, most likely thanks to a mustard overdose.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"collage1\"<\/p>\n

In addition to the standard menu, there\u2019s also a \u2018daily specials\u2019 display. Since the idea was to pig out, we decided to try the BBQ Pork from this set. It came with.. Ok, this is getting boring, so imagine potatoes as bodyguards and that no dish arrives on the table without them accompanying it in some form! But the pork dish actually turned out to be the first of the fantastic dishes \u2013 a superb mix of spice, tang and splendidly cooked meat. To even out things a bit, we then tried the Veg Dumplings in Hot & Sour Gravy which was served with Butter Rice. This was not in the league of the earlier dish, but the hot and sour flavours were complemented well by the mildly flavoured rice. The Cajun Spiced Grilled Fish with Dill Butter Sauce was up next. The fish was cooked well enough, but it was probably our least favourite, mostly thanks to a strange pungency. The Chicken Roulade turned out to be the dish of the day, with an awesome spinach filling, a mildly spicy herb sauce and butter rice to complete the package. From the half a dozen pizza options, we chose the Pepperoni & Bacon. They weren\u2019t stingy with the meat and the caramelised shallots added a nice touch to the thin crust pizza.<\/p>\n

\"collage2\"<\/p>\n

There were plenty of interesting options but we were pointed to the Brownie Caramel Fudge and the New York Style Blueberry Cheesecake, and thus we had a new benchmark of how meals should end! The brownie was just the right texture and consistency \u2013 neither too dry nor moist- and had some wonderful dark chocolate! Good chocolate dishes are always a tough act to follow, and the fact that the baked cheesecake almost beat it is testament to its quality. I wondered whether we should have started with desserts!<\/p>\n

\"collage3\"<\/p>\n

For about Rs.1350, you could share a couple of non veg starters, two \u00a0non veg main course dishes and a dessert. (Inclusive of taxes and service charge)\u00a0The Mirage actually lives up to its name in the sense that the restaurant\u2019s appearance doesn\u2019t do full justice to the quality of some of the dishes. Considering the Koramangala location, it manages to deliver value for money as well. A little more attention to the overall packaging, including some good music (instead of piping Radio Indigo) and it could be wonderful and make money!<\/p>\n

The Mirage,\u00a0#61, 4th<\/sup> Floor, Above Corner House,\u00a07th<\/sup> Block, Koramangala,\u00a0Ph: 080 65333533\/633<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First appeared in Bangalore Mirror I came upon The Mirage quite by chance on the web, and for a few moments, when I was hunting for its precise location in Koramangala, I did wonder about the name of the restaurant and whether it was literally that! Situated on the fourth floor of a building, it\u2019s […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2536,1981,386,374],"tags":[627,4305],"class_list":["post-8539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bangalore-mirror-column","category-bangalore-mirror","category-koramangala-restaurant-reviews","category-restaurant-reviews","tag-desserts","tag-the-mirage"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8539"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8564,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8539\/revisions\/8564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}