Kudla

Sunday, April 11, was when I finished 27 years of existence on this pale, blue dot in the universe that we call Earth. That's right, it was my 27^th birthday, and I decided to take the gang (P, VP, BakeACake, WeightConscious) out for lunch to Kudla, a Mangalorean restaurant that is part of the Ramanashree Comforts Hotel on Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road, just after Hotel Woodlands. Kudla is the Tulu word for Mangalore, and Tulu happens to be the language spoken by the majority of the folks in the South Canara (Dakshina Kannada, or D.K) district (Konkani and Kannada being the other two languages).

So we got there and immediately ordered a kokum kadi. Kokum, or brinda, is a fruit found in the Western Ghats region of western coastal India. It's used in the cooking in Goa and coastal Karnataka as a substitute for tamarind. The drink consists of coconut milk along with the kokum fruit, garlic, chili, and sometime a little coriander.

Kokum kadi

For starters, we had the prawn masala, which was superb. VP wanted to have only this and didn't want any other main course dish (he has a thing against coconut and can't eat things with coconut in it). The marinade was red chili paste, along with some garlic I guess. Simple, yet effective, and tasty as hell.

Prawn Masala

Another starter we had was the seer fish fry, which was again very nice. And of course, the famous chicken ghee roast. Since P is a vegan (lacto-ovo vegan to be specific), we also ordered a mushroom ghee roast, which turned out to be superb. The only non-Mangalorean dish that we ordered was a paneer satay with peanut sauce, but the peanut sauce (and the masala used) quite clearly had a coastal touch to it.

Seer Fish Fry

We were pretty stuffed by this time, so for the main course, we had appams and stew for P, while the rest of us had neer dosa along with prawn curry.

Appam + stew

P liked the stew and the appam combo, and even I liked the stew, since in a lot of other places, they fill potatoes in the stew, but this one had more veggies in it. The neer dosa with the prawn curry was also very good, although I'll never like the neer dosas made outside home.

Neer dosa + prawn curry

Neer dosa and prawn on my plate

For dessert, VP wasn't going to be adventurous and so had a carrot halwa.

Carrot halwa

The rest of us had a raagi manni, which is made form raagi and is kinda like a custard when it comes to consistency. I liked this, although it would have been better had they tossed in a couple of cashew nuts into it.

Raagi manni

The final dessert we had was a wheat payasa, which again, turned out to be great. It wasn't the usual milk-based on, and so had more texture to it, but then again, it didn't play spoilsport on the palate, and neither did it spoil the taste.

Wheat payasa

Along with the bill, usually you have some saunf that is served. Well, here we had saunf as well as betel leaves and the pink paste and the areca nut. I moved the saunf away to take a picture of only the betel leaves and the areca and paste, something that our waiter insisted that I take a picture of.

Betel leaves

The decor of the restaurant is very reminiscent of the houses built in the countryside around Mangalore and South Canara. Wooden beams go across the roof (usually a high ceiling to allow cooling). The waiters also dress in the traditional mundu, which is a white lungi and have a cap made of the areca palm leaves. Suffice to say everyone enjoyed the food and we had a good time.

Food: Superb
$$$: Moderately expensive, but value for money if you ask me. Our bill, with 13.5% VAT (yes, from now VAT is 13.5, not 12) came to around Rs.2600 (for 5 people).
Service: Good
Verdict: Must visit for traditional Mangalorean food.

Kudla, Hotel Ramanashree Comforts, 16, Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road, Bangalore. Phone: 66995970, 66684050

Malabar

Last evening, we decided to meet as there were a few pending 'gifts' to be given. VP's birthday gift was to be given, and I had decided that I'd also give P something for his birthday (since he was gracious enough to celebrate an anti-birthday) sometime back. SO i bought a couple of Ts online from this site called infibeam.com from where I'd earlier purchased a few really nice T-shirts. And so we decided to meet up, where else, but in Indiranagar at Gloria Jean's Coffee which now officially is our coffee adda, and I hardly ever have coffee!). P said he'd be a lil late - some last minute thing at work, and VP, although he left office at 6:20, at 7:45 he was still stuck somewhere on Old Madras Road (which according to me is the worst road in Bangalore). So when I called him, we made a quick change in plans and decided to meet up at a Chinese place next to Coffee Day (called Wang's) on the Jeevan Bhima Nagar main road. Once we got there, we saw two other restaurants there - Malabar, and Biryanis. And we decided on Malabar.

Since VP and I were the first ones there, and VP was dying of hunger, we decided to start off with something, and we ordered a couple of plates of seer fish fry (I wanted to have mussels, but they weren't available, and I didn't fancy even asking for prawns at this place), so seer fish it was.

Seer Fish Fry

With the fish out of the way, and still no sign of P, decided to order a plate of kababs (full plate with 6 pieces, and half plate with 3 pieces - no points of guessing what we opted for).

Chicken Kabab

We were nibbling on these for a while and discussing options for hosting a website (whether to go with GoDaddy or iPages for a domain), and just when we were done, in walked P. With no time to waste, we got down to ordering. 3 plates of appams (each plate having 2), a chicken stew, a veg stew, and a plate of gobi manchurian as there weren't too many other veg dishes available for P.

Chicken Stew

I know the chicken stew has chicken, but they could have added a couple of veggies as well just to give it some substance, but at the prices they were charging, you'd have to be a madman to complain. The manchurian was nice - spicy and with MSG in it, the appams actually tasted better with that.

Appams

Gobi Manchurian

Veg Stew

Food: Decent - don't complain at these prices.
Service: Decent
$$$: Cheap - all of the above, plus 6 bottles of aerated drinks cost us Rs. 455
Verdict: Can visit if in the area and aren't in the mood to spend too much. Skip starters and head directly for the main course. Order Kerala paratha and some chicken gravy - that's the best.

Malabar, Jeevan Bhima Nagar Main Road, Next to Coffee Day and Wang's, Bangalore

BM Review: Coastal Junction

Last Friday, the 31^st of July, saw me visiting Bangalore latest sea food restaurant, Coastal junction, on 80 feet road, in Indiranagar. Again, this was an official review for The Bangalore Mirror, and the review can be read here, titled 'At the crossroads'. The snaps of what we ate are below.

Squid masala

The squid masala (there was a specific Mallu name which I can't remember now) was the best among the appetisers.

Kane fry

Too thin, almost dry, and not marinated long enough, 'coz the marinade hadn't 'seeped' in deep enough (and since there was hardly any flesh, you can guess how 'well' it was marinated).

Chicken ghee roast

Tasted nice, but there didn't seem to be any ghee!!! I mean ghee roast and no ghee - are you kidding' me? They could have called it chicken masala or something, but not ghee roast.

Karwar prawns

Nice, but could have been seasoned a little more. Seemed to be lacking in salt, but the prawns were very fresh.

Baby corn something

This was ok.

Goan prawn curry

Tasted good. Again, prawns were fresh, and the spices in it were good and the dish on the whole seemed pretty authentic.

Chicken xacuti

Tasted good, but again, this isn't how a xacuti (pronounced sha-ku-tee) looks. It's supposed to be dark, like a shade of grey due to the roasted coconut nad peppercorns in it. Also, it's supposed to be 'knock-your-pants-off' spicy. This wasn't - it tasted good, but wasn't the 'real' xacuti.

Appam

Nice.

Neer dosa

Good.

Payasams

Heavenly. Probably the best dish of the night. All three payasams were heavenly, our own ambrosia.


Food: Nice, but I expected something better for the prices charged
$$$: On the higher side. Meal for two could cost anywhere from close to Rs. 1000 to Rs. 1500 without drinks.
Service: Like any other place, nothing special for a 'fine-dining' place and for the prices charged.
Verdict: Can visit once for the Malabar cuisine, other cuisines are OK but may lack authenticity.

Coastal Junction, #623, 5^th floor, Above Roseby's, 11^th Main, 80 feet road, Indiranagar, Bangalore

The full review is here:

When I hear the words fine dining clubbed with coastal cuisine in India, and when the coastal cuisine in question is from the west coast, there’s a sense of cautious uneasiness in me. One usually associates fine dining with, among several other things, dining with a fork, knife and a spoon. See where I’m going? So either we dine with knives and forks, in which case it’s a little difficult to enjoy the Malabar and Konkan cuisine without food literally flying off the plate, or the food would be made suitable to be eaten with knives and forks, in which case the chefs would need to be really innovative to preserve the authenticity of the dishes.

Coastal Junction is Bangalore’s latest coastal cuisine restaurant, dishing out Konkan and Malabar dishes. Owner Clifford Mascarenhas, who also runs the store Roseby’s in Indiranagar (Coastal Junction is located above Roseby’s), says he started a coastal cuisine restaurant partly because of his origin (he’s a Mangalorean, so opening a coastal cuisine restaurant made sense), and also because there aren’t any restaurants in the vicinity dishing out coastal food. Fair enough. On a night that saw a steady drizzle after a long time, I visited the place along with my guests Ra-Ben Almeida (Goan), his cousin Mavis Smith (Mangalorean) and her sister-in-law Milly Smith (again, Goan). And of course, yours truly was there to chip in with his Mangalorean-in-exile expertise.

The bar looked swanky, but the furniture didn’t scream ‘fine dining’ to us. A look at the menu projected a tilt in favour of Malabar cuisine. The squid appetiser we had, one of the Kerala dishes, was fabulous — right from the way it was cooked to the masalas used in it, it was lip-smacking. The chicken ghee roast was nice, but strangely, was lacking the ghee! If I can’t even smell the ghee, let alone watch it drip from the chicken, it’s not a ghee roast. Had it been called by a different name, there would have been no complaints. The Karwar prawns were very fresh and nice, but should have been seasoned a little better. Sadly, the kane (lady fish) fry lacked any real substance (read flesh), and wasn’t marinated long enough with the marinade.

For our main course, again, we tried to sample dishes from across the coast, and so a round of appams and neer dosas along with a bowl of red rice was to be polished off with a Goan prawn curry and a chicken xacuti. The appams were good — crispy and not sticky, and the neer dosas were the best I’ve had in Bangalore restaurants in a long time. Although they didn’t look exactly like neer dosas (they’re supposed to be more porous and white), they tasted great.

The prawns in the Goan curry were fresh, and the curry had everything, right from the concoction of spices to the coconut milk. The xacuti, however, was a different story. Purely going by the sense of taste, it was great. But with its introduction to the sense of sight, especially with prior knowledge as to what a xacuti is supposed to look like, you would be a little flummoxed. A traditional xacuti, according to Mavis and Milly, is supposed to be dark, like a shade of dark grey because of the deep roasted coconut and peppercorns in it. Also, a traditional xacuti is supposed to be so spicy it will exorcise all the sniffles and blocked/running noses and coughs associated with the rainy weather. In our case, the xacuti presented to us was almost reddish-brown in colour, and although it tasted good, wasn’t anywhere close to the legendary spiciness. Our tryst with the desserts saw us order the trio of payasams — one tender coconut based, one banana and jaggery based, and the third one based on rice flour and cashew nuts. All three were heavenly — India’s very own ambrosia!

At any restaurant, the ‘cost-to-quantity and quality’ ratio is something to look for the most. For the prices charged here, you certainly expect more on your plate in terms of quality and certainly shouldn’t cut any slack for loss in authenticity. What’s more, you’d expect to see something that you normally wouldn’t find in other sea food restaurants. As for Coastal Junction, it’s seems to be at the crossroads from where it needs to chart its own course towards the promised land.

Suburbia

Suburbia, as the name suggests, is on the suburbs of the city. Located on the outer ring road, between K R Puram and Rammurthynagar Underpass. And so, the usual suspects and I decided to go there since they had to leave work late. I got there ahead of them, and so started reading a book while I waited. I usually don't drink when I have to drive back, but they had a breezer flavour that I'd never had before - Jamaican Passion (passion fruit), so that's what I had, since the alcohol content is only 5% (I think that's less than what's there in beer as well).
This thing was good (well, I've always liked passion fruit, so I guess that helped).

When I began to feel hungry, I ordered a beef pepper fry until the guys came (luckily they came when I was half way through the appetiser).
The beef was extremely well cooked and soft, and when VP came and tasted it, said it had a lamb like texture. I agreed, but the taste wasn't that of lamb, so I'm a bit surprised (pleasantly) about the whole thing.

Mr P had a Jamaican Passion as well, while VP went in style and had a Jetski, a fancy lime soda with mint (he ended up having two of those).
There wasn't anything special about it, and I liked my JP better :)

As is his habit, Mr P wanted to have a soup and asked me if I wanted to split one with him, but after going through the menu, I knew if I wanted to sample the Goan dishes, there's no way I could have a soup as well. So he went ahead and had a spinach soup called cream of highway.

VP and I decided to go all out on the various Goan dishes available. Although there was no pork available here (I heard the chef is a Muslim, couldn't confirm that though), we hoped that wouldn't hurt the experience of Goan food here. So we ordered a chicken sausage masala.
The sausage was nicely marinated and although I can't comment on the authenticity of the masala used (not sure if it's actually the way Goans cook the stuff), it tasted bloody good, and so didn't really care.

Apart from the sausages, we also ordered an egg vindaloo. A vindaloo is a Portuguese dish and the name is derived from the Portuguese term vinha d'Alhos, which basically means wine and garlic, so no points for guessing what the prime ingredients here are.
The fried eggs with the masala are probably the perfect dish when your drinking, with the spices in the egg making up for the flat beer that people usually guzzle.

The day's special, chicken ghee roast, was also ordered, at which point we began wondering if we were going to eat our main course or not. The ghee roast was good, but I've had better.

Mr P meanwhile made do with a paneer peri-peri. Again, the peri-peri is a Portuguese term used to describe a particular type of chilly (which apparently looks like a bird's eye). This thing was a little spicy.
The paneer also had a strange, mildly sweet taste to eat - we weren't able to pinpoint if this was because it was made from milk that wasn't fresh or if something was added to the dish.

For our main course, again, we went traditional. We ordered appams,
sannas, and red rice. Sannas are little rice cakes, the same as idlis, with the prime difference being that sannas have toddy added to the batter during preparation.

We ordered a prawn balchao

and a vegetable stew to eat the rice, appams, and the sannas.
I'm not sure how a balchao is supposed to taste, but the fact that it did have a sweet and sour taste to it confirmed that at least they had tried to make it the right way. A balchao is supposed to have cumin seeds and red chilly paste mixed with sugar, along with a ginger-garlic paste and vinegar.

After all that, we managed to make a little room for a classic Goan dessert called bebinca, which didn't quite taste like the one I had eaten at a place called 3 Stories.
Overall, we liked the food (going by just the taste), and the fact that after binging on the food here, the bill came to a trickle over 1600 (considering the fact that we had 4 drinks, and really went all out on the appetisers), which we thought was very reasonable. Under normal circumstances, we'd have had at the most 3 starters and not 5 like we did this time.

Service: Pretty decent
$$$: Around 400-500 per head, if you're gonna have drinks along with the food
Food: Very good
Verdict: Certainly worth a visit
Extra info: While approaching the area from KR Puram, get onto the service road near Kasturi Nagar itself. Oh, and before I forget, their menu has a major misprint:they've used the word entrée where they should have used appetiser (or appetizer, if they wanted the American spelling)

Suburbia, 407, 3rd Floor, East NGEF Layout, Opposite SAIL Factory, Kasturi Nagar, Outer Ring Road Bangalore. Phone: 41499329

BM Review: Sea Spice

The reivew, after a bit of hunting, can be read by clicking here.

On the 19th of June, I had been to this restaurant called Sea Spice by 7 Star, a restaurant in the 3 star hotel Shetty Gardenia (no relation, I assure you) in Banashankari (south Bangalore). It had been a while since I visited a restaurant serving typical Mangalorean cuisine, and this place didn't disappoint. Mr VP accompanied me, and we were joined by the official guests for the review, Delilah Martis and her husband Gautham Rao, both fellow Mangaloreans in exile like me.

We ordered only coastal fare - from kokum drinks to chicken ghee roast, prawn & mussel sukka to seer fish masala fry - for our appetisers. For the main course, the unequalled neer dosa with a prawn curry, and the ubiquitous boiled rice with a typical Mangalorean chicken curry. I wasn't disappointed at all, and apart from the distance my guests had to travel to get here (they live in Marathahalli), they didn't have any complaints about the place either.

The food is pretty authentic, and isn't very expensive (sea food in Bangalore is otherwise pretty expensive). For the four of us plus the photographer, the total for all that we ate came out to around 1850, which was great. The service is quick and good, and although the decor and the look of the place isn't a very 'coastal' look (it's more modern with a fine dining look), the food made up for the missing coastal appearance.

The Bangalore Mirror site seems to be having a problem at the moment, and so as soon as it's back up, I'll post the link here for the review.

Food: Good
$$$: Moderate, not too expensive considering they serve sea food
Service:Prompt, helpful
Verdict: If you live all the way on the other side of town, I wouldn't ask you to come till here for good Mangalorean food, but if you're anywhere in south Bangalore, then this is the place for Mangalorean food.

Sea Spice, #1890, 9^th Main, Kaveri Nagar, Banashankari 2^nd Stage, Bangalore. Phone: 26715060, 26919790

The full review is here:

I'm on a seafood diet I see food,I eat it. Dolly Parton.

For people living in the coastal areas,seafood is so ingrained into their daily lives that in certain parts of coastal India,Brahmins eat fish.Thankfully,I have no predispositions towards any food group,and am open to enjoying anything created in the kitchen by any artist (oh yes,cooking is an art).Getting good Mangalorean cuisine in Bangalore was a little hard to come by in the early years,and according to owner Abhay Shetty of Sea Spice,his father started Bangalores first Mangalorean restaurant,7 Star,in Gandhinagar in 1973,introducing Bangaloreans to the joy of rice and fish curry.The success of 7 Star saw the mushrooming of several similar joints around Gandhinagar,most noticeably Hotel Fishland,which was started by a customer of 7 Star after he began having difficulty getting a table for lunch (at 7 Star).

My guests for the evening were Delilah Martis and her husband Gautham Rao,both Mangaloreans in exile like yours truly.Driving across Bangalore was a tad difficult on a Saturday evening (they live in Marathahalli),and so they hoped the drive was worth it.When asked Why Banashankari as opposed to the city center,pat came the reply from Abhay,South Bangalore has no Mangalorean restaurant.And at present,the MG Road area is in a bit of a mess with the metro work,so once things settle down there,an expansion is definitely on the cards.

We started off with drinks from a fruit native to the coast,kokum (Garcinia indica),in two different forms the regular sherbet and a mildly spicy kadi with coconut milk and spices,and an ambachye panhe a green mango drink.The kokum drinks were both good,and there wasnt anything to complain about the mango drink either.Off to a good start! This was followed by typical coastal stuff Mangalorean chicken ghee roast,seer fish masala fry,prawn sukka and mussel sukka.For the uninitiated,a sukka is a dry dish with grated coconut,fenugreek,turmeric,ginger,garlic and the works.The seer fish fry was the best,and tasted fantastic,closely followed by the prawn sukka (prawns seemed very fresh),although Delilah couldnt quite place her finger on why it didnt feel authentic enough.The ghee roast was cooked well but Gautham thought he'd tasted better ghee roasts,while the mussel sukka tasted good,with the mussels being fresh.

The hotter the place,the spicier the food - this induces sweating,which evaporates leading to cooling.Simple,aint it However,Mangalorean cuisine isnt overly spicy unlike those of other places,primarily due to fact that the coastal weather makes you sweat naturally,so no need to further spike the spice levels in the food.While discussing such fundas,our main course arrived the unequaled neer dosa,along with prawn gassi (gravy),and the ubiquitous boiled rice with a chicken Kundapur (named after the town it hails from).

Although not wanting to complicate matters,Delilah thought the prawn from the sukka seemed fresher than the prawn in the gassi,but the prawn gassi dish as a whole was better than the sukka.Dandy! The neer dosa was soft and fluffy,but Ive had fluffier neer dosas I guess this is one dish where whats made at home would be better,and not just because of the love added by mom.
The boiled rice with the chicken Kundapur is something that can only be relished in person,but suffice to say it was really good.Gautham and Delilah liked the dish,and as far as authenticity goes,I can chime in and say that having eaten quite a bit of it,it was as good as it gets.Unfortunately,we were stuffed and couldnt try another classic from South Canara kori rotti;perhaps another time.The desserts we had werent all that impressive.While the coconut pudding was pleasant,the fried ice-cream wasnt all that great,especially the outer coating of desiccated coconut.The payasa,similar to kheer,wasnt available,and would perhaps have been an apt finishing touch to an otherwise pleasant dinner.Sea Spice by 7 Star (tribute to the original restaurant),part of the 3 star hotel Shetty Gardenia,offers you a near fine dining experience of typical Mangalorean cuisine in crisp and pleasant surroundings.The coastal look may be missing,but the feel is made up with the food.

Aquasphere

My mom had to attend a seminar for psychiatrists on Sunday afternoon, and so it was a perfect opportunity for me try out Aquasphere, a place I'd been waiting to visit ever since I leanrt of its existence. And so my brother and I went there for lunch, and I had clear instructions for my brother - no chicken, only sea food is what we'll be ordering.

It was a slightly long drive, but worth it, because upon entering the place you're straightaway put at ease by the soothing light blue colours inside the restaurant, and the large aquarium there on the wall adds to the setup. My only grouse was the fact that the seats are carved out of stone/concrete, and so you can't move/adjust the seats, ergo, no point in adjusting the table since the person on the opposite side would be inconvenienced. Apart from that, I think everything about the food was good. My brother, as usual, had to have something to drink, but thankfully, this time he didn't go for his usual mango based drink, but had a blue curacao based drink called Caribbean Blue.
I settled for a spicy hot crab soup, and the amount of spices was just right - not hot enough that you'd be breathing out fire like an ancient Chinese dragon, but just enough to whet your appetite.
For appetizers, we ordered a plate of prawn wontons, oily (expected) but tasting great, especially with the garlic sauce they gave.
Apart from the wontons, we ordered a seafood basket, which consisted of crab, squid rings, prawns, and two types of fish. You have an option of tandoor (not spicy) style or Thai (spicy). Since my brother doesn't eat spicy food, it had to be tandoor style.
Apart from the fishes in the aquarium and the seafood on our plates, there was a little bunny hopping around the place, quite to the amusement of a couple of kids who had come to the restaurant. Seen here below, the little fellow (or felli?) was spending some time at my feet.
For our main course, I ordered a seer fish sizzler, Thai style, which came along with flat noodles, and tasted great.
My brother ordered a chicken sizzler, continental style, that came with fries and boiled vegetables (I allowed him to have chicken for the mains - a change of heart :) ).

Another pic of bugs.

Food: Fairly good
$$$: Fairly expensive (roughly 300-500 per head depending on the size of the group you're in).
Service: Ok, nothing special
Verdict: Worth a visit ONLY if you're in the area.

Aquasphere, 17, Sri Rama Layout, 1st Main, Next To Elita Promenade, just outside Brigade Millenium main gate, 7th Phase, JP Nagar, Bangalore. Phone: 41329017, 41329674

Alibaba Cafe

Saturday evening was when Mr P, VP, my brother (let's call him Spook) and I were to go out to watch Angels & Demons. The afternoon was going to be a bore and so I took my bro out for lunch, since it was the last two days of his vacation before the start of college. We went to this place called Alibaba Cafe and Restaurant in Frazer Town.

I'd heard a lot about this place, and was itching to go there. I'd also read that the tea served here was supposed to be superb, so I ordered an Irani Tea, and true to what I'd heard, this tea was simply fantastic. The aromas emanating from the glass were truly refreshing, and although it didn't require any sugar (because it wasn't bitter like regular tea without sugar), I plonked in a cube, which still didn't alter the taste too much and I still had a wonderful cuppa tea.
My bro had something called a Saudi Champagne - a mixture of apple juice, lemon juice and soda. For starters, since there were just two of us, and my brother hasn't got half the appetite I have, we just ordered a special kabab platter called the Bakhtiyari kabab, which was a mixture of mutton and chicken from two other kabab dishes - joojeh kabab (chicken) and chebeh kabab (mutton). The chicken was succulent, while the mutton was rich in flavour.

The menu is divided into 3 sections: Arabian, Persian, and Bhatkal (coastal Karnataka, North Canara dist.). For our main course, we ordered from the Arabian section, a chicken dish called gulgul.

Spook had a Kerala Paratha and a kuboos, the traditional Arab bread you usually have hummus with.

I ordered a couple of gawa polis, traditional Bhatkal parathas made from wheat.

For dessert, I went traditional again, and ordered something called a shaufa pana, a pudding made from dil leaves and egg. Although I was in a mood to experiment, I really didn't expect the dessert to be as tasty as it turned out to be. It was simply amazing. It kind of had the effect that a good mouth freshener has at the end of a meal. I think this is one of the best Indian desserts I've had in a long, long time, and it may just be one of the best I've ever had. Simply amazing.

This place isn't too heavy on the wallet either - well, ok, I guess that's a relative thing, but the two of us ate whatever was mentioned above for Rs. 541, which included a 5% service charge, but I had no problem leaving another 5% because I was thoroughly impressed with the food.

Alibaba Cafe & Restaurant, No. 69, 1^st Floor, MM Road, Frazer Town, Bangalore. Phone: 40917163.