Tag: restaurant review

Restaurant Review: Mezzeh Lebanese Lounge

Location: Great location – 80 ft Road Indiranagar, Bangalore. Between spencers and BSNL.

Ambience:  This is the terrace. There is minimal ambience. Few nice tables on the terrace. Nothing fancy at all here.

Crowd: It looks like original restaurant (World Cuisine Network) has been bought over by someone else, and the whole place is under renovation. There used to be 3 restaurants here. Now only the Mezzeh place remains.We went on friday afternoon, and there was nobody, and when I say nobody, I mean it. The 6 of us in our team were the only people who were there in the restaurant.

Food: The food was pretty good. Fairly authentic in taste. The hummus was good. The Baba ghanoush was passable (but that was probably because I am not a big fan of brinjal). The sambousik was very good stuff. The falafel rolls were pretty good too. The baklava was not that good. The biggest problem was the portion size. They have super small size portions. I mean, the sambousik’s were gone in a minute. The hummus came with 2 pieces of pita bread. And when we asked for more, we were charged, and two more small pieces came !

Price: Too steep. Just not worth the small portions or the ambience.

Overall: The valet guy said that they are renovating and should open big again soon. My 2 cents – they retain the same chef/kitchen staff. They cut the prices and increase the portion sizes. Make the ambience a little more livelier. With the great location in Indiranagar, they could be doing great business.

[Zomato link]

Restaurant Review: The Elegant Elephant

We have been wanting to try this out for a while. This is on the same building as The Great Indian Thali – Near Sony World Signal – Koramangala.

  • Serving type – Buffet – but served to the table. Not sure, if this is always like this, or, was yesterday an exception – because of low crowds.
  • Crowd – there was very less crowd
  • Food
    • The starters and the gravy had _no_ salt in them. And when I say no salt, I mean no salt, not less salt. Unfortunately, starters are something that you cannot ‘add’ more salt on. We did sprinkle away saltiness on our gravy to make it pallatable.Starters were Paneer Tikka, Baby Corn, and Corn Tikka.
    • One paneer gravy. One mix veg gravy. And one mushroom gravy (which we turned back – both R and I are not fans of Mushroom). Dal Tadka. Plain roti, Butter Naan, and Kulcha made up the roti basket. The Paneer was fresh (both in the starter and in the gravy). The rotis were not that great either. The dal was the only palatable side dish. For some reason, the chef put salt in it.
    • Jeera rice and Plain rice was the rice ‘varieties’. Again Jeera rice had zero salt, but this is a matter of preference between chefs.
    • Desserts were the only good thing to have happened – Gajar Halwa, Gulab Jamun, and Butter scotch icecream.
    • The over all service was fantastic though. The waiters filled water glasses even without asking. Jumped up in serving us when our plates were done. Great service I should say.
  • Ambience. There are two seating areas. One is the terrace. We skipped this. Was too bright for comfort in the afternoon. And there is an A/C dining room inside. This was nice and cool. Minimally decorated but clean. Washrooms etc were maintained well.
  • Damage to wallet: Rs 950 for two – all inclusive.
  • My opinion – Not worth it at all.

Review: California Burrito, RMZ Infinity, Bangalore

This is a new eatery opened at the food court at RMZ Infinity, Old Madras Road, Bangalore. California and Burritos? Yeah sure, California has a lot of Latino population, but never really associated these 2 names. Perhaps a competition to California Pizza Kitchen (which incidentally, I cannot place the association either).

It is the first week that the restaurant has been open. So this place was crowded. The food was good too. Again, the above two comments are probably because of the first week factor. We would have to check it out a month later and then figure.

  • Had the Spicy Panneer Burrito. The Burrito is fairly authentic. Slightly sticky on the outside. Warmed a little bit. The other options are salad bowl style and hard taco.
  • Next the filling. The two veggie options were spicy panneer and barbeque panneer. Panneer in a burrito is mixed-racial already. I didnt want to mix one more cuisine (bbq) in it. So spicy panneer it was.
  • You get an option of Pinto beans or black beans. And you get to choose if you want it spicy or not. I chose spicy pinto.
  • Additions include guacamole, sour cream, jalapenos, and grilled veggies. I took grilled veggies, guacamole, and sour cream. I was a little wary about the guacamole, but it was done just right.
  • Each of the above steps is a different guy. So it is a three person assembly line operation. Fairly swift and efficient. The last guy rolls the burrito and gives it to you in a bowl.
  • I also took a side of chips and salsa. Right amount of crisp and salt. The salsa was fresh as well.

Damage to wallet was Rs. 150.

Verdict: Pretty good (for now). If only they can sustain the quality, I think this would be a good place for a lunch.

Advise (for now): Reach before 1PM. Gets super crowded. Not much seating left. So you would have folks waiting for you to finish and get up (a la CTR/MTR style).

 

 

 

Thali Gharwali

On Saturday, I had lunch at Purabhi’s Dal Roti – one of our favourite restaurants in Koramangala (R loves it there too). I had originally thought I would have their delicious parathas – two parathas served and they are huge (defenitely worth the money – and they are reasonable too!). Then I chanced to see the Thali Gharwali. For some reason, R and I have always skipped this.

Today, I was in the mood for a square meal, or a um, round meal, sure whatever. And the thali it was. I know the manager of this restaurant well (yeah yeah, I know, it is because we have frequented this place too often in the past!). So he came and kushalam vijaarichified (*). I asked what was there in the thali today. And he said, good stuff and made the A-OK sign with his fingers. I said “Bring it on!”.

The perfect meal:

  • – 3 phulkas
  • – 1 katori dal makhani (the dal makhani here is the best I have tasted in Bangalore)
  • – 1 katori jeera aaloo
  • – 1 katori kadi pakodi (I am not a fan of kadi – so I fished out the pakodi and ate it ! :-))
  • – 1 katori pulao (only half cooked – typical of north Indian food !)
  • – 1 katori mixed raita (delicious tomatos and cucumbers, and very less onions)
  • – 1 lijjat papad

On the whole, quantity which is just about right, and variety a plenty. I did not feel gluttonous after the meal. Perfecto. Kudos to the Dal Roti Chef.

Location of restaurant: Koramangala – on the road which leads to Sony world junction from Vivek Nagar/National Games Village. It is between the pizza hut junction and Sony world. It is on the first floor. The entrance is on a side road. It is easy to miss. Look out for their signboard (see below):