Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Alibaba Cafe

Mr VP and I went out for lunch to Alibaba Cafe in Frazer town on Saturday, the same place I'd first visited with my brother. Mr P was supposed to join us but he had a lot of work to finish and so was at office on a Saturday - that guy's becoming a deranged workaholic!

Since my last visit here (which also happened to be my first), I'd told Mr VP about the place, and he's visited the place twice after that, making this his third visit in 3 weeks. Surprisingly, he was ready to have lamb dishes as well, hearing which I was thrilled, coz Mr VP has an unusual 'syndrome' where the teeth on the left side of the lower jaw 'hurt' every time he eats lamb. Yes, weird, I know. We started off with a Moroccan tea pot,
and I tell you the tea these guys make is simply the best in Bangalore. It's not your regular tea powder and milk chai, and just like the Iranian tea I had during my last visit, this one was great. In fact, in terms of flavour, this one scores over the Iranian tea.

The menu is divided into three sections, detailing the cuisines of three different regions: Bhatkal (coastal Karnataka, above Mangalore), Arabian, and Persian. We ordered a chicken appetiser from the Arabian section called shish taouk, which is actually a Turkish shish kebab. The Persian equivalent is the jujeh kebab, which is what I had when I visited the last time.
Since Mr VP agreed to try lamb, we went in for a Persian lamb starter called kebab koobideh,
a Persian (Iranian) kabab made from ground lamb and put on a skewer. Although it tasted good, paying Rs. 165 for two kababs left me a little miffed, especially after the Rs 4 kababs I had in Delhi :)

For our main course, we wanted to have biryani, and so the weekend special dijaj machboos, or chicken biryani (half plate) was ordered.
The guy who took our orderd (I'm guessing he's also part of the management, and certainly not the wait staff) asked us not to order any side dish with the biryani as the taste of the biryani would be lost. Who were we to argue with him, and I'm glad we took his advice, because the biryani tasted heavenly. Not pungent, yet tasty, not greasy, yet smooth. It was great.

Sadly, just as the last time, they didn't have all the items in the dessert section, and so we settled for a shaufa pana pudding, amde from dil leaves and eggs. And just like the last time, it was very good :)

Service:Good - at least they were able to suggest good stuff
$$$:Usual Bangalore cost of around 300-500 per head (depending on size of the group & appetite)
Food:Superb!
Verdict:Worth a visit, wherever you stay in Bangalore
Extra info: 5% service charge is added to the bill

Alibaba Cafe, # 69, 1st Floor, M M Road, Frazer Town, Bangalore. Phone: 40917163

1 comment:

aarti said...

Hi Karthik,

Alibaba has something new to offer in variety and taste.
I loved the food.Below are items we had.

Khubus is pita bread
Hummus is kind of cold dip.
Spread this coli dip on pita bread or dip bread in this. ITs yum

Starters
alFaham Djaj is roasted chicken having marinated in arabian herbs
and spices.

Main course

CHicken GULGUl persain Chicken gravy with gawa poli (wheat roti like big paratha)

We had lime mint cooler which was great in taste and natural.

Desserts

UmmAli its dryfruits mixed in rabdi served with ice cream. i didn't like this much as i dont' like rabdi kind of things in sweets means liquid milk except kheer.i prefer having dry sweets

 

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