Zheng

So after the near miss of Zheng on Friday night, Sunday night we decided to go to Zheng. As if the weekend wasn't bad enough for me (in spite of having Friday and the weekend off, I had to be at office), things took a turn for the bizarre on Sunday night. We were supposed to meet at 8. VP called saying he'd be late 'coz he was stuck in Malleswaram, Saucy and Ms WeightConsious too were going to be a little late, and so I was waiting outside for P to come. Finally, Saucy and WC came, but no signs of P. We waited till 9 and then went inside.

Once seated, WC looked over at the counter, and who do we see there eating - P! He'd been waiting for us inside! Aaaarrgghhh!!! In any case, he was almost done with his dinner and so the rest of us, while waiting for VP, had a few drinks. Surprisingly, they didn't have Long Island Ice Tea on their cocktail menu! That was indeed a surprise. Saucy didn't like his mojito, claiming that it didn't have enough mint and lemon in it, while WC said her cosmopolitan was like cough syrup.

We didn't fancy any of the starters and were pretty keep on trying out the Mongolian barbecue section, and so that's just what we did. VP and WC had a Teriyaki sauce bowl, VP with rice, while WC had it with Hakka noodles.

Rice with Teriyaki sauce and chicken and veggies

Hakka noodles with Teriyaki sauce and chicken and veggies

Saucy had a smoked mustard BBQ with lamb and hakka noodles. His dish was really good compared to the Teriyaki thing.

Smoked mustard BBQ with lamb and veggies

I had rice with a Kublai BBQ bowl with shrimps. This was also very good and it was tough to decide which was better between this and the one Saucy had.

Rice in Kublai BBQ with shrimps and veggies

Kublai BBQ with shrimps and veggies (as above, being put on my plate)

For desserts, since P was in early, and was done by the time we decided to stop waiting outside and went in, he first had a lychee pudding. He didn't like it, in fact he hated it, so did the others, and even I, with a high threshold, didn't like it too much - I think the texture of pudding doesn't go well with lychee, and there was a strange coconut flavour coming that wasn't in place. This thing should go off the menu immediately. When it came to our turn to have desserts, VP had a banana toffee, pieces of banana deep fried and served with a syrup. This is nice. I decided to go traditional, and had a Hong Kong street food dessert called Sago Float, which was sago balls with mango and lychee jelly with coconut milk. I actually liked it, and thought it was good. However, if you don't like the flavours mentioned, then stay away from this dish.

Banana Toffee

Sago Float

Lychee Pudding

Food: The Mongolian BBQ food was very good. The cocktails were not great and they need to get their act straight there. Desserts were a 50-50.
$$$: The Mongolian thing costs 300 for veg, 350 for chicken and lamb, and 400 for fish and shrimps. The a la carte menu is the usual slightly high end price list, which would probably come to around Rs. 500-600 per head (without drinks).
Service: Good, but slow. Actually, courteous, but very slow.
Verdict: I'd like to go back just for the Mongolian thingy, and maybe try something from the a la carte menu if it seems different.

Zheng, Blu Petal, Jyothi Nivas College Road, After Jyothi Nivas College, Bangalore.