Kinara

On Feb 17, I finished 5 years at the place where I work (GXS). Well, unofficially I finished 5 years - I say unofficially because on Feb 17, 2005, I had joined as an intern, along with 19 others from various colleges, all of us in our final semester of engineering. Now that only 7 of us remain from the original 20, we went out to celebrate, and since we're in different teams, getting a suitable date when everyone are free and could come was getting a bit tiresome and so finally since Kinara was right next door, we decided to go there.

The restaurant looks nice - it's got a nice ambiance and the interiors are cool. They've also got a couple of coconut trees within the premises as you're not allowed to cut them for construction.

Onto the food. Instead of going a la carte (which is what I'd have preferred), I was outvoted 6-1 that we go for the buffet. The buffet is Rs. 199/- + taxes, and is served at the table itself - no need to get your butt off the chair (for the food at least). And so the buffet it was. They started off with a shorba for the non-vegetarians and a pea or spinach soup (don't remember) for the vegetarians. Oh, the menu changes everyday for the buffet, so don't go there hoping you'll get the same stuff we had. There was way too much pepper in the shorba - not a very pleasant start.

Chicken shorba

Some of the veg starters: Aaloo something and veg cutlets

Aaloo and veg cutlets

The achari paneer tikka was OK - the spices were good, the paneer by itself wasn't the best I've had.

Achari paneer tikka

I don't have any other pictures worth putting here - as you can imagine, I wasn't very thrilled with the food. The non-veg starters were also OK, but nothing special, and I don't even remember what they were.

For the main course, there were two chicken dishes - one a keema and the other a chicken tikka masala. Now CTM may be something that was given birth to in the UK with Campbell's tomato soup and what not, but this was not a CTM. Don't get me wrong - it's not that it tasted bad, but just that it wasn't tasting like a CTM.

The vegetarians had some palak dish and something else, and the rice item was a veg pulav, which was actually nice. For dessert, they gave us butter scotch ice cream with a gulab jamun. Ugh! Butterscotch and ... forget it. The food served for the buffet was average, nice, but there was nothing special, and although we didn't try the good stuff (a la carte), I'm not going back there in a hurry.

Food: Average to nice
Service: Decent
$$$: Sufficient quantity for what they charged, but expected better quality.
Verdict: Avoid buffet if possible and try the a la carte (and then let me know).
Extra Info: This place is located at one end of 100 Feet Road, after KFC and Domino's Pizza, adjacent to one of my office buildings (GXS).

Kinara, #305, 100 Feet Road, after Domino's Pizza and next to GXS, Bangalore. Phone: 43494349, 9900002118.