Silver Wok

Silver Wok is almost an institution if not a just a landmark for Bangaloreans who've been in the city for more than 10 years and haven't confined themselves to only a few pockets of the city. Nestled next to the Lakme beauty parlour on Richmond Road, this Chinese restaurant has been there for almost forever, and even after repeated mentions from various mouths that it serves some of the best Chinese in town, something or the other kept me from visiting the place, until last Wednesday, when a friend told me it's going to close down shortly. But before I even get into the details of the food, let me clarify one thing: we found out that 'closing down' was a temporary thing, from the 31^st of December 2010 to February 2011. So post Feb, you should be able to visit the place again.

I visited the place with Suhas and Santosh (guests at Khazana and Saffron) and a colleague of Suhas. I'm guessing they have seating in the cellar as well (which is where the repairs are happening that will cause them to close temporarily), because the seating on the entrance floor isn't too much, the walls are drab, and while the linen and cutlery are decent, I think it's about time they went in for a makeover. Perhaps all that leaking that took place leading to repairs and a temporary shutdown is a sign of fate, destiny, the hand of ... oh crap, what'm I saying! Bully, serves them right for not being ship-shape :)

The menu at Silver Wok is fairly big, and has sufficient options for vegetarians as well as options in poultry, pork, lamb, and sea food. We decided to start off with soup. While Suhas, Santosh and Rameez, settled for a crab manchow soup (initially they wanted to try a crab soup, but were told that it was plain thick crab soup and would be bland), while I had a shrimp clear soup, the menu stating that it also had a little bit of fish sauce in it. I loved my shrimp soup - hard to describe the how and why but it tasted the way I love seafood soups to taste (and no, not fishy!), while the others too seemed to enjoy their soups. Also, there were quite a few shrimps in my soups, a welcome sight when compared to most other places that would add a piece or two, giving an impression that they're doing you a favour by adding the shrimps in...a shrimp soup! No such inhibitions at Silver Wok though.

Crab Manchow soup

Shrimp clear soup

One of the main attractions at Silver Wok, I was told, was the chicken with crackling spinach, and this dish lived up to its reputation. Well cooked and well flavoured, the chicken was nice and tender, while the spinach was just brilliant - crispy, sweet, and best of all, it could be eaten alone and gelled well with the chicken as well.

Apart from the chicken, we ordered a portion of bacon wrapped prawns. My word, we were served 12 huge pieces of thick bacon slices wrapped around prawns. Unfortunately, these were again coated with a little bit of corn flour and fried - I really don't know whether this is done to hold the bacon and the prawn together, or for flavour, because I'd be gobsmacked if just grilling it wouldn't produce the desired effect. Nonetheless, thankfully, the amount of corn flour on this wasn't as much as the one we had at Xian, and so it was more palatable.

Lastly, no visit to any Chinese place that serves momos would be complete without ordering, well, momos! So a plate of steamed chicken momos it was, served along with a spicy salsa and spicy/tangy sauce that was kinda like the peanut paste you get with satay. Just as well that the salsa was spicy, but then again, I think I enjoyed it without anything as well. Again, not the best steamed momos, but certainly one of the better ones I've had.

Chicken with crispy crackling spinach

Bacon wrapped prawns

Chicken steamed momos

After getting thoroughly stuffed with 12 pieces of bacon wrapped prawns, out main course was certainly going to be a tame affair. So we ordered one rice dish, called Thai fried rice, which was a delightful mix of chicken, egg, prawns, and veggies. Since we hadn't had any lamb dishes, and since there were only 3 lamb dishes for the main course, we zeroed in on the Hunan lamb, which was a mixture of soy, ginger, corn starch, but again, not the best lamb dish I've had, but passable I guess.

And finally, like as if we hadn't had enough, we ordered a Cantonese roast pork, a sweet and mildly sour sauce, almost, in fact, if I'm right the same as char siu pork. It was really very good, and we were very full - not the ideal comforting combo when you're craving to eat as much as you can, especially when it's pork. Oink.

Thai fried rice (r), Hunan lamb

Cantonese roast pork

Food: Very good
$$$: Moderately expensive for a Chinese joint, but then again, their food is much better.
Service: Quick, to the point where I thought they wanted us to leave soon! :)
Verdict: Must visit for good Indi-Chinese food.

Silver Wok, #85, Sheriff House, Next to Lakme Beauty Parlour, Richmond Road, Bangalore. Phone: 22242288

BM Review: Tango Calypso

Several weeks back, I'd visited the restaurant Tango Calypso, which is opposite the Life Style and Sapphires toy store on Richmond Road. The review can be read here. The restaurant, although having the word Calypso in it, baring touches Caribbean cuisine. It's more 'Euro American' is what they claim. Well, I put them to the test, and they came up short. You'll have to excuse the quality of the photos for this one - I was using my point & shoot and the lighting was a little dim, hence the blurry images.

The soups, polloa la garlic fungi (mushroom soup with chicken and garlic) and the American corn chowder were both nicely done. Creamy and smooth, they set the ball rolling in the right direction. However, the toppings on the bruschetta weren't good...in fact, they tasted quite bad, as though the tomato was spoilt. And the other thing is they weren't using cherry tomatoes, which I think is the right way to go about it. The Sicily garlic prawns were cooked well, but the garlic was a little string and we weren't able to discern the taste of the other spices (if any) mixed in. The last of our starters, the caribe chicken, seemed to have cajun spices rubbed on it. The chicken was nicely done and it would have been perfect had they not added the cajun spices in excess, thereby masking the taste of the chicken and presenting our palates only with the taste of the spices.

Pollo al garlic Fungi (mushroom soup with chicken and garlic)

American Corn Chowder

Bruschetta

Sicily garlic prawns

Caribe chicken

For our main course, we ended up ordering the following: I had a classic surf n' turf, which came beautifully presented, but I'll be a monkey's uncle if they expect me to cut a steak with a stainless steel table knife! The risotto Milanese and the pasta feta Siciliana were good according to my guests, while the pepper painted salmon fillet seemed a little too small for what was charged and the chicken balsamico was nice, but not memorable.

Surf 'n' Turf

Risotto Milanese

Fusilli feta Siciliana

Chicken Balsamico

Pepper painted Salmon

You can check out Ruth's blog to see a picture, sorry portrait, of Mona Lisa smoking a joint! Although at first glance you'll think this place is one of those absolutely formal dining type joints, the Mona Lisa with a joint just shattered whatever facade was propping up that idea.

Food: Nice, but certainly not worth the money charged. Presentation and ambience are good, but still, I can get similar kind of food (at the same prices or lesser) that tastes a lot better at a lot of other places.
$$$: Expensive. For 5 of us, including VAT and a 5% service charge, the bill came up to Rs 4444.
Service: Decent
Verdict: Unless someone else is paying, I don't think I'd be revisiting in a hurry.

Tango Calypso, #44, Richmond Road, opp. Sapphire's Toy Store, Bangalore. Phone: 25545555, 25554444.