BM Review: Ruh

This week I visited a restaurant called Ruh on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) to review it for The Bangalore Mirror. The review can be read here.

The restaurant serves Mediterranean and Indian food. We stuck to the Mediterranean section. My guests were Vrata Venet (who was also one of my guests at C'est la vie), and a couple of his friends: Eric Vicario, a Spaniard, and Olivia Godeluck, a French national, both living in Bangalore, who've started a company called Karavel Consulting for Spanish and French SME companies that wish to start businesses here.

The pictorial tour, along with some additional info is here:

The al-Harira soup, which had shredded lamb with cinnamon, lemon, and a touch of honey, was superb.

al-Harira soup

Sangria, which had peaches in it, was liked by Eric and Olivia.

Sangria

Vrata had a glass of one of the Indian red wine varieties.

Red wine

Patatas Bravas, or spicy potatoes, served with a nice salsa dip.

Patatas Bravas

The evergreen hummus, along with pita bread and pita chips.

Hummus

We ordered a Spanish omelet, but what came out, according to Eric, wasn't a Spanish omelet. "It's a nice nouveau dish, but the real deal".

Spanish Omelet

The spinach croquettes weren't as big as Eric thought they'd be, and certainly didn't look very appealing, and they were pretty fair when it came to taste.

Spinach Croquettes (yes, I know, they don't look too appealing)

The non-vegetarian mezze platter had hummus, baba ghanoush, tabouleh, pita chips, little samosas called samosi, kibbeh, little buns filled with minced meat, and chicken.

Non-veg mezze platter

The vegetarian moussaka was nice, with the vegetables cooked nicely and seasoned well. Vrata and Olivia thought they were a little aggressive with the pepper, but that didn't spoil the dish and it was still very good.

Veg moussaka

The seafood paella was a disappointment of sorts - not in terms of taste, but authenticity. What was served to us wasn't a paella, but a risotto! As a risotto is was pretty good (although I'm not sure cheese goes well with seafood), but a paella it certainly wasn't.

Seafood Paella (turned out more like a risotto)

The albondigas, or Spanish meatballs, were served with a spicy tomato sauce, and were served on a bed of rice. For the Indian palate, this tasted good, but the guests thought it was a little too spicy for their liking.

Albondigas, or Spanish meatballs, in spicy tomato sauce

The tiramisu could have used a little more sprinkling of coffee powder on the top, but otherwise it was good - mascarpone and Marsalla were both present.

Tiramisu

The baklava, a thin pastry made of sheets of phyllo dough, filled with nuts and honey, was nice, although it did feel a little dry, but not adversely.

Baklava

**Note from the writer (me)**: A couple of friends went to Ruh on Valentine's Day, and from what I heard, there were several people at Ruh on that day, more than what they could handle, and so the service suffered, and so did the food. This review was a based on experiences 5 days before V-Day.

Food: Very good, especially the Lebanese, Arabian, and Moroccan. Spanish needs a little work, but it's still good.
$$$: Around Rs. 500-700 per head without drinks.
Service: Good.
Verdict: Definite must visit.
Extra Info: The ambiance is wonderful. Although I don't have pictures of the restaurant here, I'll be sure to get them during my next visit. The restaurant is located on the Outer Ring Road (ORR), very close to the Sarjapur Road-ORR junction. If coming from Sarjapur Road, turn onto the ORR, and once you see the service road, get onto it and go ahead till you cross a petrol bunk. It's a little ahead after that.

Ruh, 912 & 913, 4^th Floor Terrace, Ganapa Towers, Outer Ring Road, Bellandur Village, Varthur Hobli, Bangalore. Phone:42022727/37, 9845175777

BM Review: C'est La Vie

C'est La Vie is the French bistro-esque restaurant of the Seven Hotel on the outer ring road. I'd been there last Friday to review it for the Bangalore Mirror. The review can be read here. Once again, I couldn't take pictures, so I'll have to use the ones taken by the photographer from the Bangalore Mirror, Ranjana, for this post. And thanks to her for the great shots!

The watered down version is here.

We started off with a velouté de champignons (mushroom soup) which was perfect in texture and taste.

A cold dish called gateau de taboulé aux aubergines et tomates confites, which was couscous with sliced of brinjal, tomatoes and capsicum was served, the capsicum adding a mild sweetness to the dish.

Velouté de champignons (top), and a melon sorbet

Another starter we had, typical of the Nice region, was the salad Niçoise, which was a combination of long-grained rice, tuna, sliced eggs, beans, tomatoes, shallots and potatoes.

Steak c'est la vie (left), and salad Niçoise

And finally, a quiche lorraine au poulet, or a chicken quiche.

For the main course, we had a filet de poisson grille (grilled fish),

a poulet Basquaise, which was tagliatelle pasta with chicken in a tomato broth,

Poulet Basquaise

a hachis parmentier au canard, which was a couple of layers of mashed potatoes with slices of duck meat in between, topped with a layer of cheese and then baked,

Hachis Parmentier au canard

steak c'est la vie, which was a moist and juicy cut of the tenderloin (or sirloin, not sure), and a brochette d'agneau, which was basically skewered lamb - like a kabab, only this had cubes of lamb meat, not minced meat.

Quiche lorraine au poulet (top left), Gateau de taboulé (top right), Filet de grille (bottom left), Brochette d'agneau (bottom right), Apple pie (middle)

Apparently, cheese is always eaten after the main course and before dessert. This is because the cheese has a pH value that makes it basic in nature, and this helps neutralise the acidity in the mouth that develops after the main course. We had a platter of Brie, Morbier, and Comté.

Brie, Morbier and Comté

We then had an apple pie (no picture), which was simply amazing, and easily the best I've had anywhere. Along with that, we wanted to have the chocolate pie which we were told was the best, but they didn't seem to have that, so we settled for a chocolate muffin-like thingy.

Chocolate muffin (or cupcake, whatever)

Lastly, a trio of sorbets - mango, melon, and red wine!

Red wine sorbet

Food: Excellent
$$$: Slightly expensive - it would work out to around 500-600 per head (although our bill came a little more - we had a glass of wine as well, so it came to Rs. 3511)
Service: Decent
Verdict: If you like Italian food (I'm not talking pastas, I'm talking about the taste), you would like French cuisine, and C'est La Vie certainly does justice.
Extra Info: While driving from Marathahalli towards K R Puram, the hotel comes on the left side.

All photographs used in this post were taken by and are the property of Ranjana of The Bangalore Mirror.

C'est La Vie, The Seven Hotel, 39/5, Outer Ring Road, Doddanekkundi, Between Marathahalli and KR Puram, Bangalore. Phone: 42627777

The full review is here:

Most Indians would stay away from French cuisine citing 'lack of taste'. They can’t be more wrong. I'd never experienced French cuisine before (unless you call food eaten on Air France 17 years ago 'French cuisine'), and so I visited C'est la vie, the French bistro-type restaurant part of the Seven Hotel, with an open mind and no preconceived notions about French food. The restaurant's manager, Vincent Structure, came to Bangalore 5 months ago from France to nurture this smart, well lit, well spaced bistro-esque restaurant, with pleasant decor - little black slates on the tables showing the menu of the day (like in a bistro), paintings and names of prominent streets of Paris placed the walls. I hoped to get a taste of real French food, and decide first hand if there was any truth in the oft repeated excuses.

My guests for the evening were Vrata Venet, executive director at Raj Hamsa Ultralights, an ultralight aircraft manufacturing firm, his wife Nirmala, and their friend Veronique Sauzay, a French national staying in Bangalore for the last 3 years. Vrata is also a paragliding instructor, and is the brother of actress Kalki Koechlin (of Dev D fame). He pointed out that at French households and restaurants, the fork is set facing down, as was the case here. This is because when Catherine of Medici, an Italian, got married to France's King Henry II in the 16th century, she brought along the fork to France (hitherto unknown in France). However, the fork bore the symbol of the Medici family, an 'M', and the King's mother did not like it staring back at her, and so she turned the fork and made it face down, and the practice continued ever since.

We started off with velouté de champignons, a mushroom soup, which was perfect in texture and seasoning. Along with the soup, we ordered a quiche lorraine au poulet (chicken quiche), salad Niçoise (consisting of tuna, eggs, beans, potatoes, tomatoes and shallots), and a gateau de taboulé aux aubergines et tomates confites (cold couscous with brinjals and tomatoes). The chicken quiche was great, and unlike any other quiche I've had before, with a cake-like texture. The taboulé was a perfect blend of cold couscous and brinjals, with thin slices of yellow and red capsicum adding a mild sweetness to the dish. The etymology of aubergine was deconstructed by Vrata: from Sanskrit vatin-ganah to al-badinjan (Arabic - Arabs took brinjal from India), to albergínia (Spanish - introduced by the Moors), eventually, aubergine in France.

For our main course, we had a steak c'est la vie (beef), a hachis parmentier au canard (duck), a filet de poisson grille (fish), a brochette d'agneau (lamb), and a poulet Basquaise (chicken). Although we tried a variety of meats, we weren't disappointed with any of them. The steak was a beautiful cut from the tenderloin (or sirloin), and was nice and juicy. The hachis parmentier is a classic baked dish with two layers of mashed potatoes with sliced duck meat in between (traditionally minced beef), topped with a layer of cheese (similar to the English shepherd's pie). Named after Antoine-Augustine Parmentier, a vocal promoter of potato as a food source, all its components blended in harmoniously. The simplicity of the grilled fillet of fish was a lesson to all who think that thick, rich gravies are the only ways with fish and other meats. The lamb in the brochette (skewers of lamb) was nicely flavoured, and the poulet Basquaise had tagliatelle with wonderfully juicy chicken in a tomato broth.

Being gastronomic artists, the French eat cheese after the main course to balance the pH levels in the mouth (the basic nature of cheese neutralises the acidic nature of the food), and so that's exactly what we did. A trio of Brie, Morbier, and Comté was eaten before we switched onto the more delectable desserts of sorbets (mango, melon and red wine), chocolate muffin, and apple pie. According to Veronique, the apple pie was better than any she's had in France, while the sorbets were good. A rating of above 4 (out of 5) is certainly on the cards here.

The French have a proverb "Il faut manger pour vivre, et non vivre pour manger", meaning eat to live, don't live to eat. But with such culinary delights, it's hard to fathom which Frenchman came up with that - maybe it was an Englishman!

BM Review: Zoe

Last Friday I had the opportunity to visit the resto-cafe lounge Zoe in Indiranagar to review it for Bangalore Mirror. The review can be read here.

The lung fung soup was not the usual fair we get at Chinese restaurants that dot the city. The flotilla of beaten egg whites was the stand out in the dish.

Lung Fung Soup

The spicy lamb chimichanga, a Mexican dish that is like a deep-fried burrito, was really good, served along with a spicy sauce and the lettuce salad in the middle.

Spicy Lamb Chimichanga

The best dish of the evening was the mushroom fritters, stuffed with Fontina cheese and chicken, served with a peri peri sauce.

Mushroom Fritters

The crispy chicken fritters also came with a spicy peri-peri sauce. I only wish they had used a different type of sauce rather than the same one where ever something spicy was required.

Chicken Fritter

My favourite - the mini lamb burgers, especially since I"m on the lookout for the best burgers in Bangalore.

Mini Lamb Burgers

The Mediterranean cheese wrap was probably the only dish that wasn't all that great. That said, the muhammara dip that came along with it was fantastic.

Mediterranean Cheese Wrap

Chicken with mushroom sauce - simple, yet perfect.

Chicken in Mushroom Sauce

Moroccan Lamb with couscous. Nice.

Moroccan Lamb with Cous-Cous

Spaghetti Primavera - could have done without the extra olives (a few is OK, but not too many).

Spaghetti Primavera with Chicken

Blackout - Simply superb!

Blackout

Yankee Doodle Do - Nice name, nice ice cream, no need to have added watermelon along with the other cut fruits.

Yankee Doodle Do

Food: Very good
$$$:Not very expensive for the quality, quantity and type of cuisine served. Our bill, with taxes, came to a touch over 2400, that's 4 adults who pigged out and 1 extra dish for the kids.
Service: Good, although the condition of the menus needs a drastic redo
Verdict: A place you certainly must try out.
Extra info:No alcohol served. Also, someone told me they were put off by the location - it's opposite Anbhedkar College, and the surroundings after Zoe aren't all that great, but hey, once you're inside, why your mind should wander out beats me. You can park in an of the lanes nearby.

Zoe, 3790, HAL 2^nd Stage, 7^th Main, Opp. Ambedkar College, Indiranagar, Bangalore. Phone: 42115257

The full review can be read here:

Pleasure drives out pain, and excessive pain leads men to seek excessive pleasures.”
— Aristotle

It’s been a while since a restaurant would turn out to be a panacea to my predicament of a happy dining experience. Almost at the end of a quiet street is Zoe, like the elusive Leprechaun’s pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Although I just cross-pollinated Greek and Irish cultures in the opening few lines, Zoe does a bit of the same — with food — with Lebanese, Mediterranean Greek, Spanish, Italian, Algerian, Moroccan, and a little bit of Mexican in its cuisine within the confines of it modern resto-lounge setup. Zoe is a Greek word which means ‘God-given life’ or ‘abundant life’, unlike bios, which refers to natural life. One look at the vibrant colours inside should be enough to bring some life (and colour) back into you after a hard day at the office.

Health and vibrancy being the theme, owner Ravi’s message is made clear with no alcohol being served here, and no smoking inside. No points then for guessing why he chose Mediterranean cuisine to be served here. My guests were Deboshree, a broadcast professional who’s also doubled up as a food critic in the past, and her daughter Zoe (coincidence, huh?) and a couple of friends. We started off with a lung fung soup and a chicken and cilantro soup, the chicken cilantro being great. The chicken fritters were nice and crispy, while the runaway hit was the mushroom fritters stuffed with Fontina cheese and chicken, served with a spicy peri-peri sauce. Another well presented and equally tasty dish was the lamb chimichanga rolls, a type of deep-fried burrito, served here with a spicy sauce. The presentation was good, and in spite of having oodles in terms of types of cuisines, neither taste nor presentation is compromised.

Apart from the food, the layout of Zoe makes it very friendly for kids, as Zoe the kid exemplified, almost tearing the place apart along with a couple of other kids. Thankfully there weren’t too many reservations from the staff. Another snacker on the menu is the mini lamb burgers — a set of 4 mini burgers served in small buns that somehow instill a sense of being homemade, and couple that with a perfectly cooked lamb patty with some caramelised onions, and presto! you’ve got yourself a first rate snack.

Along with the mini burgers, we also ordered a Mediterranean cheese wrap. This was probably the only dish there wasn’t anything to rave about. However, the muhammara dip that came with it had a lot going on inside it. The Lebanese muhammara is a dip primarily of walnuts, red chilies, and garlic, and had a really interesting taste that complemented the slightly bland cheese wrap. My only concern was that the menu didn’t explicitly mention what the dip contained (not everyone would know what a muhammara dip is), and since there are a lot of people who have violent allergic reactions to walnuts, which could be fatal, it would serve them well to mention this explicitly, or at least inform the patrons while the order is being placed.

For the main course, we ordered a spaghetti primavera, a Moroccan lamb with couscous, and chicken with mushroom sauce. At first, going only by looks, the spaghetti looked a little dry, but once we started to dig in, we realised that it was indeed good, although the chefs seemed to have hammed up the whole Mediterranean thingy by throwing in a good number of olives, which a classic primavera wouldn’t have. The chicken in mushroom sauce was fabulous. Simple and unpretentious, the sauce had the perfect consistency, neither too runny nor too thick, and the chicken was seasoned and cooked just right. Lastly, the combo of the lamb with the couscous was as good as it’s made out to be. Although it’s a standard dish and not one ‘cooked’ up by the chefs, the fact that it was done well earned them points.

For desserts, a chocolate cake with ice cream called Blackout, and an ice cream called Yankee Doodle Do multiple flavours of ice cream with cut fruits. The watermelon should have been omitted. That aside, the desserts were a delightful epilogue to conclude the saga called Zoe. “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world” — JRR Tolkien. Go figure.

Rogue Elephant...redux

Actually, threedux (this is the third time I'm going there, and haven't written about second time). A bright, sunny afternoon, and Mr VP and I headed out to Rogue Elephant, and just as before, we learnt something new from the owner Anand there. Although we reached well past noon, he greeted us with a "Good morning!", and when Mr VP responded "Good Afternoon", he replied, "Oh, but it's never afternoon until the customer has eaten lunch!". I'll need to remember that line.

We started off with what we've almost always had, a lime juice, the fig salad and the just like crab meat, same as what we had when we went there the first time. However, for the main course, I decided to go veg and tried the Moroccon vegetable stew with cous cous.


Mr VP ordered the King fish medallions with a Putanesca sauce. And then, Anand gave us an instance of how when he was working at a hotel in London, and was manning the trolley while serving a roast chicken, he moved up to the table of the lady who had ordered it and began carving the chicken and asked her "Would the lady like some stuffing?". ROTFLOL. 'Whack', the head chef apparently slapped him across his head and said, "You idiot, you never ask a lady if she wants some stuffing!".


Once the main course was done, as usual Mr VP seemed full and so I decided to have the strawberry pannacotta for dessert. This tasted good, and since I love strawberries, this was doubly good.


A nice, fat belly, and back I headed to work, and back to planning the office team trip we had planned for (more about it in the other blog as soon as I get down from the high of that trip).

Rogue Elephant, 119, Ambara Complex, Annasamy Mudaliar Road, Ulsoor Lake, Adjacent to Foto Flash, Bangalore.