BM Review: Blue Fin Cafe

Around 3 weeks back, I visited this new cafe on Brigade road called Blue Fin Cafe. Right, Brigade road, and you'd start to wonder where on Brigade road is there place for something new. Old timers in Bangalore, remember during the mid-90s, there were just two malls in the whole city where the young n happening used to hang out - one was Mota Royal, the other was 5th Avenue, and Blue Fin is in the quadrangle, or the atrium as they call it, of 5th Avenue. The review can be read here.

The food here is all marine life (fish, prawns, crabs), so vegetarians, if you come here, you're going to be fishing in troubled waters. They have a kokum sherbet (juice) among the things to drink. This place is run by a person who is a prawn farmer, and so right at the top I can say that the prawns are some of the freshest I've had here. The menu, like in any cafe, has essentially snacks and finger food, but there are also some 'main courses' available.

Besides prawn burgers and prawn spring rolls and crab cutlets, there are also a variety of prawn and fish items in sauces/gravies of different styles. We started with a glass each of kokum juice, and a host of prawn dishes: Bangkok prawns (similar to a Chineses dish, soy sauce, garlic, and all), Colaba prawns (garlic & butter), Karaikudi prawns (peppery), Malpe prawns (ghee + red chilli), and a London fish n' chips. The fish n' chips was served with vinegar, the way it ought to be done (along with mayo). First time I'm seeing it done the right way, and so plus points there, but the batter of the fish was a little too thick, and we could taste some of the oil. The rest, tasted good, but there were a few things to note:

1. The prawns and fish (ordered later) were fresh.
2. For the prices charges, I think it's total VFM.
3. The sauces/gravies were nice, but nothing great.
4. It didn't seem as though the prawns/fish were 'cooked' in the sauce/gravy; seemed like the gravy was spooned over the seafood.

I liked the prawn spring rolls, and even though the wrapper was a tad too oily, the filling made up for it. The crab cutlets though were dry and had too much of crumbs outside. The Colaba prawns was a bit bland, and a butter-garlic flavoured sauce ought to have been bland, but this didn't even have the garlicy flavour.

The Chowringee, Karaikudi, Malpe, and Bangkok prawns and fish were all decent, but the one thing that was obvious was that the fishes/prawns weren't 'cooked' in this sauce/gravy.

Kokum juice

Bangkok prawns

Malpe prawns

Chowringee prawns

Colaba prawns

London fish n' chips

Prawn spring rolls

Crab cutlets

Overall, decent place given the price and the location, although I'm not sure if our junta have come to the stage of accepting fish/prawns with gravies as snacks.

Food: Decent for the price, although sea food is best
$$$: For fresh seafood, the cost is decent. Around 1500 for all this plus 4 full meal combos (4 people).
Service: Huh? You place your order at the counter, pay, and they get the food. Go figure.
Verdict: If around the area, and if in the mood for seafood snacks, hop in.

Blue Fin Cafe, #182/183, Ground Floor, G-22, Atrium, 5th Avenue Mall, Brigade Road, Bangalore. Phone: 65593377