The Ugly Duckling

I'd heard a lot about this new place on Millers Road, and was quite intrigued by it's name and the fact that it served Greek and European cuisine piqued my curiosity enough to make me want to try it out. The restaurant is owned by an Indian and a Danish national, and it's named after Hans Christen Andersen's famous story, because both owners are big fans of the author. Visiting this place was also a first of sorts, not only in terms of the cuisine, but also because I got to meet a new friend, whom I shall christen Ms SpunkyFunk.

The interiors of this place are pretty decent, and the wall is full of paintings which I thought gave the sense that they were trying hard to establish a European connections, while Ms SpunkyFunk thought it was, well, for lack of a better term, pointless! And although we did not see a single picture or showpiece of a duckling (let alone ugly), there were several frogs with different instruments, which Ms SpunkyFunk loved and wanted to take home.

And so on to the food. We both ordered a round of iced teas

and for appetizers, Ms SpunkyFunk ordered an egg mimosa,

which was very similar to deviled eggs, and the only thing I didn't like too much about it was that it had raw onions (I prefer them caramelised). I ordered a fish croquet, which was crumb fried and served with a dip.

Oh, I forgot to mention, Ms SpunkyFunk is a lacto-ovo vegetarian, so I had to eat the fish on my own (I wasn't complaining).

For our main course, Ms SpunkyFunk ordered an aubergine moussaka,

which she said wasn't quite the way a moussaka was supposed to be. Well, she's travelled all over Europe, and was quite right in her assertion that a moussaka ought to have a slightly more runny gravy of cheese. I had a Prawn Souvlaki, which consisted of skewered prawns with a bed of rice along with a spicy marinara, and it tasted pretty good.

I did, however, have an issue with the skewered prawns - they were skewered with tooth picks, and I had a bloody hard time getting them off using just the forks, and so had to use my fingers and get them a little messy.

For dessert, despite my initial apprehensions, Ms SpunkyFunk talked me into having a Ferrero Rocher wedge, which turned out to be really very nice,

sinfully chocolaty, while she had a passion fruit gelato sorbet,

sorbets being her favourite form of dessert anywhere, even over ice cream! The sorbet tasted amazing, and is something I'm going to have for certain the next time I come here. Sunday was a cloudy day, just the kind of day I like - no sun, slight drizzle and a little nip in the air. Add to that a nice lunch with a beautiful and extremely chatty person - sweet!

Food: Good
$$$: Moderately expensive
Service: Could have been better
Verdict: Can certainly try once

The Ugly Duckling, 71, 5th Floor, Sona Towers, Millers Road, Benson Town, Bangalore. Phone: 22375982

Millers 46 for a birthday

Mr P called us out for lunch on Monday for his birthday. He had taken the day off and called Mr VP, and also Ms BakeAcake. Luckily, I didn't have a lot of work to do at office, and so could slip out for almost, gulp, 4 hours for lunch! Millers 46 it was again, and so good food was guaranteed.

It's been a while since I'd met Ms BakeAcake, and it wasn't just me. None of us (P & VP included) had had a lot of meetings with BakeAcake since she got married. Yeah, we have a married girlie in our group, although I'm sure if Mr P or Mr VP read this, they'd protest saying she's not a 100% part of the group now that she's married (they're a little millitant that way). We started off with a round of lime sodas and soups, and we pretty much covered the soup menu of Millers. I had a combo stew, which had shrimps, mixed veggies and ladies fingers (okra) in it.
Ms BakeAcake had a chicken creme soup with mushrooms,
Mr VP ordered a chicken Minestrone soup,
and the birthday boy Mr P had a veg creme soup with mixed vegetables.

After the soups (actually while we were having the soups), BakeAcake told us she would need to hurry things up because of an irritating colleague of hers who usually tried to sabotage her work if she realises BakeAcake isn't at work. So we wuickly ordered a plate of chicken tenders for ourselves (the meat eaters)

and Mr P ordered a plate of cottage cheese fingers.
While tucking away at the food, we caught up on a lot of things we'd missed over the last several months (almost a year) with BakeAcake. And yeah, in the midst of all that, we also ordered our main course.

Mr P, being the veggie, went for a veg lasagna, and I have to say that every place I've been to that serves lasagna has a unique way of presenting it, and Millers was no different.
Mr VP stuck with chicken and ordered a chicken cheese grill with rice, and that thing looked mean and I was wondering how Mr VP was planning on finishing that alone.
Ms BakeAcake ordered a classic New York steak with cheese and bernaise sauce.

Before we go any further, I'll let you all know that she ate around 20% of the steak and said "I'm too full to continue" and tossed it over to me. All afternoon she kept saying that I've lost so much weight, now I know: she was readying me to eat what she couldn't! Women, you can never get anything straight out of them.

I was a lil busy clicking pictures of others food and engrossed in the taboo topics we were discussing that I forgot to click a picture of the bacon burger I ordered until I was almost half done. It was a classic BLT with some salad by the side for garnish, which I've always found a little funny, coz I've never seen anyone clean that up from their plate while eating.
I've been on this quest to find the perfect burger, and so I've been looking to eat burgers wherever I can. The steak sandwich I had the last time I came to Millers was very good, and although they called it a sandwich, if you're gonna put a steak in the middle of a piece of bread, sorry, it doesn't become a sandwich, it's a burger. I go by the stuffing, and not the outer bread/bun jacket to call it a sandwich or a burger.

I've had crisp bacon before at Fresco's, but this bacon was something totally different.. It was a little think, and had fat on it, and it wasn't chewy at all. Now I know why Americans and Europeans go gaga over bacon, especially when there's a little fat on it. This thing is delicious, truly delicious, and I'm glad I had the pleasure of wolfing it down.

We decided to have desserts outside at the Sweet Chariot on Cunningham Road, but while walking there, BakeAcake got a call from work that required here to go back at the earliest because, no surprises, the sabotage had begun. Mr VP took her, while birthday boy dropped me back to office and headed home. I wonder if BakeAcake owes us dessert now, since it was her work that got dessert taken away from under our noses. I guess we'll never know.

Millers 46

#46, Miller's Road, Bangalore. That's the address, and at that spot you'll find Miller's 46. A steak house where you certainly will not find the most annoying cretins of Bangalore - young college kids in the midst of public displays of affection (something almost synonymous with the Coffee Day outlets) or rich, spoiled school kids blowing away their pop's moolah. Millers 46 has a slightly snazzy yet informal look to it which goes perfectly with the kind of food they serve. With just 3 of us left among the guys from the original group of 5 guys and 2 girls from school, we decided to head out to Millers, which would make it the first visit there for all of us. Thanks goodness Mr. VP's brother reserved seats for us, coz otherwise we'd have had to wait for at least a couple of hours, as we later found out (yes, that's how crowded Millers gets).

Once we got in, we noticed that the place had a very Texas look and feel to it (as it was supposed to). The waiters were all dressed in a nifty uniform and were always smiling, or so I thought. Anyway, we ordered a round of mocktails (since we had to drive back home, alcohol was a no-no). While Mr. P and Mr. VP had a southern ginger, with ginger syrup and lime cordial, it was a toothless shark, consisting of lime juice, orange juice, grenadine and ice, for me. Along with the drinks, we ordered a mixed platter (since Mr. P is a vegetarian) which consisted of chicken lollipops, wings, tender fried chicken, mushroom caps (which Mr.P ate before I could take a picture), fries and a lil salad.
Everything on the platter tasted good, except maybe the tender fried chicken could have been a little spicier, given the fact that Millers 46 has a Texan look and feel and the food served is supposed to be with a Texas touch, but nevertheless, it was good.

On to the main course, and I was craving to have a good burger in a long, long time and immediately decided to start off on the Texan steak sandwich, and apart from the fact that it had a slice of Amul cheese in it (I was hoping for bubbling, hot Mozzarella or something), it was really good. I had asked for the steak to be well done and it was still juicy; definitely a must have if you're going in a group.
Mr.P, the vegetarian, teed off with a Mexican potato spud dish with beans and tomato. I'm not a big fan of eating plain potato, so took a spoon of the baked beans and mixed veggies and cheese, and it was good. A little spicy, but not overly fire-in-your-mouth spicy. I just wish there's a substitute for the potato to account for the carbohydrates, but hey, for those who don't mind potato, it's a nice dish.
Mr.VP, the poorest eater amongst the three of us, ordered a brandied cube steak on a bed of rice. The beef was marinated in brandy (duh) and was done pretty well. Well done as Mr.VP asked for, but still juicy and not dry.
Mr.P and I weren't done :) So on to round two. While Mr.P ordered a Veg a la king,
and I ordered a plate of grilled spicy pork sausages. Personally, I'd have preferred to have had the sausages with something other than a pepper sauce, but what the hell, they're trying to be Texan with everything, and since the sausages were good and so was the everything on the plate with it, no complaints.
All in all, an amazing experience. Some people may say that Millers is a little pricey, but hey, when the food is as good as it is, I really don't mind shelling out a little more.

After the meal, we thought of going to watch a movie at Sigma Mall, and in spite of having a really heavy dinner (especially Mr.P, who had a lot of potato! fries, spud, a bit in the a la king... phew), we actually sprinted a small stretch on Cunningham Rd towards the mall, only to get there and learn that all the tickets for all the movies that night were sold out. Damn! And then Mr.P said he probably was going to throw up, which wasn't very nice, coz I was afraid that would cause a domino effect: he throws up, then watching him throw Mr.VP throws up and then I follow. Luckily, that wasn't to be, and after hanging around the mall for a while, home sweet home for some snooze.

Food: Very good
$$$: Not as expensive as you'd think
Service: Decent, prompt
Verdict: Best place for steaks (and maybe burgers).

#46, Millers Road, Vasanthnagar, Bangalore. Phone: 41148022, 41131746, 41131740