Birthday at Pepper Cafe

This post is more than a month overdue. It was the day I updated the description of the blog from "A 27 year old Bangalorean's ..." to "A 28 year old Bangalorean's ...". It was my birthday dinner at Pepper Cafe with a few of my closest friends. Special day, special people, special moment. Nothing much to write, most of the dishes were the same as what we had when I'd gone to review the place.

One fact worth mentioning is that Ms Quiche and Ms BakeAnything came with a gift - Ms BakeAnything had baked me a wonderful chocolate cake. I usually don't choke, but I did while writing this post :) Many thanks also to Rohan D'Souza (partner & chef at Pepper Cafe) for ensuring the food was top notch.

Chef's summer salad

Italian chicken bites with garlic scallion mayo

Fish rissoles

Crab, chilli and corn soup

Fried calamari with cocktail dip

Beetroot hummus

Grilled basa topped with Cajun spiced crab

Asparagus and artichoke fusili pasta

Chicken something with a pepper sauce

Lebanese lamb chops with tabouleh

Grilled tenderloin strips with vinegar salad and horseradish cream

5 spice marinated chicken breast with spicy Asian sauce

My budday cake

BM Review: Catch Marine

Last week I'd visited a new seafood restaurant in Indiranagar for Bangalore Mirror. The review can be read here.

The pictorial review is below.

Roasted Mushrooms and Tortilla soup

Cioppino

Captain's Platter (Calamari, Sole fillets, Mussels, Prawns)

Louisiana Seafood Combo

Nasi Goreng Combo

Lamb Chops Combo with Prawns and spring vegetables

Lamb Chops Combo with Prawns and mashed potatoes

Tiramisu

Chocolate Volcano

Food: Good, but nothing amazingly different from other seafood restaurants for what they charge
Service: Good
$$$: Expensive... our bill came to Rs 4500 for 5 people (including VAT + 10% service charge)
Verdict:Food is good, but overpriced.

Catch Marine, #760, Above Van Heusen Showroom, 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore. Phone: 41122303/4

P!ng

Finally, P decided to come out on a Saturday after almost a month working weekends as well, and I also got to know that the guy has put in his papers. Hope everything works out well. We went and watched the movie Twilight, and I won't say the movie is good, although P & VP said it was OK, I thought it was almost funny - I mean a vampire can't look into his microscope becasue he can't read the thoughts of a girl??? Gimme a break! The pricing for the tickets on weekends is akin to robbery, so that didn't help the cause.

After the movie, we decided to head towards P!ng (that's Ping), a restaurant that specialises in dim sums. I had reviewed this place for Bangalore Mirror earlier, and I must say that there are certain improvements in terms of the taste (subtle differences in taste, which I had pointed out the last time I was here). Kudos to Rajanikanth and his team for going ahead and making things better. They've also added a few more dim sums to the menu, and the entire menu itself looks swankier now.

VP and I split a Miso soup, while P had a P!ng special veg soup, as the Miso, although vegetarian, is made from fish stock.

Miso Soup

We had six starters: Shanghai steamed chicken momos, some veg momo with spinach and tofu, banana leaf-wrapped chicken, firecracker prawns, grilled button mushrooms, and a Chinese steamed bun (whose name I can't recall now). All were wonderful. The banana leaf-wrapped chicken and the firecracker prawns were as good (if not better) as when I came here for the review. The mushrooms and the bun were also very good. Service was good as well, and we didn't have to wait unusually long for the food.

After stuffing ourselves with starters, we just settled for a simple pineapple fried rice along with a stir fry called 8 treasure something. Not too heavy on the stomach because we wanted to have desserts.

Desserts from the Dessert Bay were fantastic. A lot of work seems to have gone into the menu since my last visit here.

Knock Out

Kahlua Tiramisu

Kahlua Chocolate Mousse

Food - Very good
$$$ - moderately expensive, depending on your appetite. We have large ones :), our bill came up to a little over 2300 with a 7% service charge. But then again, we had 6 starters, 2 main course dishes, and 4 desserts, so do the math.
Service - Very good
Verdict - Must visit
Extra Info - Turn into the lane next to Sukh Sagar (opp. E-Zone), drive up ahead and park anywhere on the left where you see others have parked.

Ping, #130, 1st Cross, 5th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore. Phone: 41521773