Road Trip

Last weekend, while VP was still cooling his ass in Malaysia or Indonesia or Bali or wherever, P, NitWit, ThePilot and his fiance (let's call her ThePilotess) planned to go to Woodstok, since NitWit is currently staying quite close to the place. So by the time ThePilot and his lady reached NitWit's place and we decided to walk down to Woodstok and got there it was 8:30. Hmm, well, the thing is, 8:30 on a Saturday night isn't the best time to start hoping that there would be empty seats (well ok, you can hope, but it would be futile). So I remembered that Road Trip was up the road, and we pulled ourselves to trod up the road, and I think we got lucky on two counts: we got a nice table (just managed), and the meal turned out to be quite a good one.

Firstly, I think this place has had a makeover. Now I've never been here before, but with a name called Road Trip, you'd think there'd be something in the place to remind you of bikes and the likes, wouldn't you. Next, I think is may vary from person to person, but when a restaurant has a menu and also a blackboard mentioning the day's 'specials', and people seem more interested in the specials than the menu, is that a good thing or a bad thing? No reference to Road Trip in particular, I'm just asking.

ThePilotess had apparently eaten a lot during lunch, and so she settled for a walnut and pear salad with Parmesan cheese. Pretty decent looking, and it tasted nice as well, especially since the pears were still crisp and not chewy.

Pear & walnut salad with Parmesan cheese

P had a chilled potato and leek soup, to go with the potato and leek soup he had a couple of weeks back at 100 Feet. Not too sure how this tasted, but he polished it off pretty fast, so I guess there must've been something good about it. Or maybe he was just plain hungry.

Chilled potato & leek soup

The pièce de résistance arrived next - pork sausages wrapped in bacon. Wowwee! Pork AND bacon. Awesomeness I say, just the very idea, and what's more, it tasted amazing. Fab idea, I must say.

Pork sausages wrapped in bacon

For P, apart from the soup, we ordered a dish of sauteed mushrooms with broccoli. This could have tasted better (to me) had I not assumed it would be spicy. Damn! Lot of assuming going on nowadays. Note to self: stop assuming stuff, this isn't like you! Coming back to to dish, I think P liked it, and not only he, but the others were sticking their forks into the dish as well.

Satueed mushrooms with broccoli

In the middle of dinner, we were exchanging stories with ThePilot and ThePilotess about our respective encounters with snakes and how one morning I was woken up by my mom (abruptly) and we came face to face with a beautiful spectacled cobra in our TV cabinet! (see photos). For the main course, while ThePilot was guzzling his beers (ThePilotess drives him around whenever he drinks. I wish they made more girls like her. Ladies, that's the kind of role model you need to have. Think about the guy as well once in a while!), the rest of us ordered. NitWit stuck to his age old tradition of having a chicken lasagna, P asked for a spinach and mushroom quiche, ThePilot wanted to have the beef steak ("..when there's pork and beef around, I don't even look at chicken and lamb", he says), and I had the roast pork in a white wine and fennel sauce.

The lasagna looked like mush, and wasn't standing very well, but I guess it tasted quite OK since NitWit didn't complain and mopped it up. The quiche was OK but not spectacular, but good nonetheless. The roast pork with the white wine & fennel sauce was good, although I wish there'd be a little more fat on the pieces that were served. Come on guys! It's Saturday night...I wanna sleep like a baby with a smile on my face...the sausage and the bacon put me and the smile on a collision course, and I'm sure the extra fat would've given it the 'wham' needed at the end (and by that I'm not referring to anything gay...wham, George Michael..aah, forget it). Oh, before I forget, the mash potato was really awesome...that's one thing I usually end up leaving, but I was polishing the plate this time around.

Mushroom & spinach quiche

Chicken lasagna

Beef steak

Roasted pork with white wine fennel sauce

VP had once told me that this place wasn't very nice (and at the time of writing this he tells me that he actually meant it isn't consistent). The inconsistent part is something I've heard from a few other people as well, and so I guess I'm willing to buy that. Just glad is a good meal overall :)

Food: Good

$$$: Reasonable (I guess). 5 people, 4 beers, and the food above, with a 10% tip came to around 3000.

Service: Decent

Verdict: Can surely consider a visit if in the area (I've been told this place is very inconsistent - sometimes very good and sometimes quite bad. So given the sinusoidal wave pattern, I guess my visit coincided with a crest on their graph).

Road Trip, 3524/1, Park-Service Road, 1st Main Domlur, Indiranagar, Bangalore. Phone: 41155848.

100 Feet

Apart from P and VP, there's another buddy who spends most of his time in the US, and we were fortunate enough to have him over the weekend (he's here to renew his visa). He's pretty witty at times, so let's call him NitWit. So we met him for lunch on Saturday afternoon at 100 Feet Boutique Restaurant, before moving on to ThePilot's house. ThePilot, while being a valid license holder, doesn't fly, and in keeping with Bangalore's traditions, works for an IT company that's into storage. Yeehah!

While Ms WeightConsious, who along with Saucy were to drop by, we started off with something to drink. NitWit stuck to his Heineken, while P had some wine, and I had a drink with ginger, lime and grenadine in it. I don't remember the menu of the past, but I must say that they have some very boring and insipid starters (maybe it's for this very reason that I haven't visited this place for more than 2 years now). Since P is veg, we asked for a plate of potato cheese kibbe and some crostini della casa, while NitWit's eyes fell upon the chicken tzatziki. And if you've noticed, whenever there's soup, P usually has one, and I usually split with him, and so a potato and leek soup it was.

Now, kibbe (or kibbeh) is a croquette from the Arab world, usually stuffed with rice and meat. Since ours was potato and cheese, it was expected that we'd be served with a dip that may be a little on the spicy side. However, tomato sauce is what we got, and although the kibbe was decent, I think it would have been a lot better with a little more heat. The crostinis were very good, and the toppings of olives, capers, onions, tomatoes, on some good bread covered in mozzarella made it quite good indeed. The chicken tzatziki was just yogurt marinated chicken, grilled and served along with a salad and the tzatziki, a yogurt dip having cucumbers, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil and at times, lemon juice as well. Our tzatziki was more yogurt and cucumber, almost no garlic and certainly no pepper, olive oil, lemon juice. The soup was quite simply brilliant compared to the rest.

Potato and leek soup

Potato and cheese kibbe

Crostini della casa

Chicken tzatziki

Just as we were finishing the starters, Ms WeightConcious and Saucy walk in, and they weren't in a mood for starters, and so we moved on to the main course. Pastas seemed to be the meal of the day, as there were three pasta dishes ordered. P had a farfalle boscaiola that came with a sauce called Woodcutter's sauce - made up of mushrooms. Ms WeightConcious, who wanted to only have penne with white sauce, eventually settled for a penne riviera, which had a few veggies and, well, the white sauce. I asked for a spaghetti bolognese. All three pasta dishes were quite good, and there wasn't too much talking while we ate - usually a good indicator that the food is good.

Farfalle boscaiola

Penne riviera

Spaghetti bolognese

NitWit ordered a chicken princess, a grilled piece of chicken with a mushroom sauce, while Saucy ordered a chicken mascarpone, a breast of chicken stuffed with mascarpone cheese.

Chicken princess...cluck, cluck, pakaaak!

Chicken mascarpone

I'm not sure if it's a sign that I'm getting old(er) or if it's the weather in Bangalore, but I seem to be getting full a lot faster these days. The only silver lining - I wasn't the only one at the table who felt full. We ordered a couple of apple & berry pies - more apple than berry I must add, but still pretty tasty along with the little scoop of ice cream - and started planning for the evening at ThePilot's house.

Apple & berry pie

I must say that the quality of the food at 100 Feet has certainly gone down a bit - food is probably one of those fickle things in life that tends to change with time, and not necessarily for the better. The menu and the dishes on it haven't changed much in a while, and to me, that's a sign of a 'chalta-hai' attitude. Don't get me wrong - it's still quite nice, but it doesn't seem to have anything new done to it (from a food point of view) and the prices aren't getting cheaper, so what does 100 Feet have to draw me towards it - like say a Thulp or an Egg Factory?

Food: Decent, but not inspiring anymore.
$$$: Slightly on the higher side. Maybe around Rs. 500-700 per person.
Service: Good
Verdict: Can visit if you haven't, or if you're in the area, but whether you'll come back again and again and would continue to do so is something only you can answer.

100 Feet Boutique Restaurant, 777/1, opp. New Horizon School, Near Satyapaul, 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore. Phone: 25277752

Under The Mango Tree

On Tuesday, Manuscrypts asked me to join him on a review of Under The Mango Tree. The review can be read here. Let me state straight away that since this was his first review, I guess he was a little, well, diplomatic, I guess when it came to his opinions, because I thought I used to be the lenient type, but even I found this place quite unsatisfying. Trust me, I tried hard to like, I mean I didn't even put on my reviewing hat - alright, enough already.

So Manuscrypts had invited three other people whom he'd known through the twitter world. Gautam (lawyer, entrepreneur, 'kurta'-type worker), Prmod (fashion designer, photographer), and Radha (accounts specialist @ Dell, photographer). And of course, the mercenary. Me. Although I wasn't featured...rules, you see. So we started off with soup - Manu with cream of mushroom, Gautam with French onion soup (vegetarian - not made from beef stock), and I had settled for the chilled melon soup with a hint of cinnamon.

Let's go backwards - there was ice in the chilled soup! I don't know but maybe it hadn't occurred to them that the melon is supposed to be refrigerated, and that's how it would be chilled. And hint of cinnamon? I guess some people would struggle to find the cinnamon, and so it seemed like they added several spoons extra, just to be sure it wouldn't be lost. What was lost, however, was the taste of the melon, which was already marred by the addition of ice to it. The cream of mushroom wasn't a good mushroom soup - it needed to be a puree of mushrooms, and not some stock mixed with sliced of mushroom and cream (which is what it was - unless the puree was so diluted it seemed like stock). The French onion soup lacked body, plain and simple.

Chilled melon soup with a hint of cinnamon

Cream of mushroom

For starters, we ordered the Goan sausages. Thankfully, there was an option between pork and chicken, and we asked for pork with glee. The masala used was an imitation of the Goan reshad masala, but thankfully again, it didn't kill the dish. Tasted quite good actually. I guess my overall dissatisfaction over the meal resulted in forgetting whether we had any other starters (notably the veg ones).

Goan sausages

For our main course, I settled for a pepperoni pizza, Manu ordered the king sized sausages, Gautam had the sea bass with fennel, cheese, and lemon oil, Prmod ordered a veg lasagna, and Radha settled for a veg pizza. When it arrived, it raised our hopes. As it got introduced to the palate, we wished we hadn't ordered it. It said sea bass. It was mackerel! I'm a Mangalorean, and I'll know the taste of Mackerel even in my sleep. I guess it's this deception, deliberate or accidental, that put me off. Gautam's response was even more acerbic. To quote him verbatin "I think this fish swam out of the sea, swam up a river, hiked across long distances and landed on my plate" or something like that. In short, it wasn't fresh. The mash potatoes though, although a bit grainy in texture, were quite good, and though I'm not a fan of mashed potatoes, I could have eaten it all.

Luckily, Manu's sausages were saving grace and were pretty decent. My pepperoni pizza and Radha's veg pizza were OK, and luckily being thin crust, weren't too hard to down. I think Prmod's veg lasagna was the best dish of the evening.

Pepperoni pizza

Sea bass with capers

Vegetarian pizza (mushrooms replaced with olives)

King size sausages with caramelised onion sauce

Veg lasagna

I guess since we were out reviewing the place, we were 'forced' to try desserts (I'd have left after the show thus far if I was out for casual dining). They were out of blueberry cheesecake (something the owner claimed was their specialty) and so we settled for a mango cheesecake, chocolate with caramelised bananas, and a chocolate mousse.

The mango cheesecake was more cake and mango essence than 'cheese' and/or cream (save for the top), and chocolate thingy with caramelised bananas, well, we didn't know we had to dig deep to reach the bananas, and the chocolate tasted quite awful on it's own, but combined with the banana, it was much better. The chocolate mousse seemed more like a thick sauce than a mousse, and I don't even care enough to think hard enough of it tasted.

Mango cheesecake

Chocolate with caramelised bananas

Food: Pfffbbbt. Not up to the mark...veg dishes may probably be saving grace.
$$$: Around Rs. 500-600 per head.
Service: Decent.
Verdict: Don't visit and have me say "I told you so!", coz I'd love to say it. Nice ambiance, and probably if you want to eat only sausages and veg food, then visit maadi.

Under The Mango Tree, #03, The Bat and Ball Inn, Laurel Lane, Richmond Town, Bangalore. Phone: 22111112/3/4

BM Review: The Rogue Elephant, Basavanagudi

A few weeks back, I'd visited the new branch of The Rogue Elephant in Basavanagudi. The other branch is at Ulsoor, and like the Ulsoor branch, this one is attached to Ambara as well. The full review can be read here.

Not much by way of explanation, but the caramalised figs with savoury pannacotta in a balsamic vinaigrette reduction is probably the most famous dish here. It's not on the menu, and is a special, but usually it's there everyday. This is a must have. Apart from that, the pan-fried fish medallions in a puttanesca sauce and the herb roasted chicken are very good. Also, I have a soft spot for sandwiches and burgers, and the sandwiches here are pretty big and the one we had was awesome.

Iced Tea

Mezze Platter

Just Like Crab Meat

Hummus with Grilled Chicken and Pita

Zucchini Fritters

Caramalised Figs with Savoury Pannacotta in a balsamic vinaigrette reduction

Watermelon salad with Bocconcini cheese

Veg stew for cous cous

Cous Cous with harisa and garlic

Chicken bangers with mash and onion sauce

Pasta Susana

Herb Roasted Chicken

Pan-fried fish medallions in a puttanesca sauce

Pasta Pomodoro

Chicken Coronation Sandwich

Banana Walnut Loaf

Kulfi

Mango Pannacotta

Apple Pie with Ice Cream

Food: Superb
$$$: Moderately expensive. Around 500 per head for a complete meal if you have a good appetite
Service: If the co-owner Anand is there, then be sure to chat up with him. If you ask me, he's the last surviving Britisher in India :) Service is prompt, no complaints.
Verdict: South Bangalore has it all now, so no need to head towards the crowded areas of Koramangala and Indiranagar. This is a must visit, no matter which part of town you're in.

The Rogue Elephant, #93, Next to New Generation School, Opp. Krishna Rao Park, Kanakapura Road, Basavanagudi, Bangalore. Phone: 98456 64681.

BM Review: Woodstok

Sorry that it took this long to post all that was done on the food front... no, I wasn't nursing a new year hangover or anything, I was just plain busy at work. The review for Woodstok can be read here.

Crème de potage de broccoli (broccoli soup)

Loaded potato skins

Mozzarella cheese sticks

Woodstok non-veg platter

London House Grill

Pescado a la Veracruzano

Chicken Crostina

Cottage Cheese Hawaiian Sizzler

John's Joy

Blueberry Cheese Cake

Food: Nice, but I've had better for these prices
$$$: Expensive...our meal was a touch below 3000
Service: Decent
Verdict: I'm undecided for the simple reason that places like Bangalore Bistro are a lot better for the same cost.

Woodstok, #3777, Domlur Service Road, HAL 2nd Stage (after Subway and Nandhini), Indiranagar, Bangalore. Phone: 42115042