El Tablao

A month ago, a cousin of mine had come down from abroad, and she was here for a whole month. Last weekend was when she was to leave, and so before she left, us cousins (those who could make it) decided to go out for dinner. We settled down on El Tablao in Koramangala. El tablao, if you didn't already know, or haven't guessed, served Spanish food, with a special emphasis on tapas. The menu of El Tablao can be found here on the Zomato website.

We started our meal with a couple of sangrias. Now my understanding of a sangria was that it was a mixture of wine along with brandy and some chopped fruits. However, the one we were served had only wine (or had so much wine it totally masked the brandy). It tasted good though, so I guess it was ok. Was a little depressed that when it came to spirits, there was no beer (guess it didn't fit in with the tapas concept). Expectedly, they had a big list of wines, some martinis and gin (I think), along with the sangrias, but no beer. And while sipping on the sangrias, we also munched on some of the acclaimed tapas on offer.



We started off with the chorizo, the famed sausages from Spain. The ones served here were chopped and sautéed in red wine. These tasted quite good, but a little hard, which made me assume this was the cured (smoked) version. I thought the chorizo would've been spicier, but then perhaps that's the Mexican variety (totally different from the Spanish one, which uses paprika).


One of my cousins has turned vegetarian for a short period, and so for him we ordered the patatas bravas, which is generally a very popular bar snack. It was served with a spicy sauce that seemed to get its zing from a dash of vinegar in it. The other dish that we ordered to warm the cockles of my cousin during his vegetarian escapade was a Spanish omelette. OK, not vegetarian, eggitarian!. The Spanish omelette was near perfect - fluffy, almost like a cake, although when we ripped the top open, it started to deflate.

Patatas bravas

Spanish omelette

My brother isn't too adventurous when it comes to food, and so to make sure that he didn't end up eating stuff that made him uneasy, we did end up ordering a chicken tapa, called brocheta de pollo Pimientos y cebolla, or skewers of chicken breast marinated in spices, peppers and onions. I'm guessing the 'spices' were essentially paprika and some garlic. Well cooked, and no complaints.


We also ordered a plate of the lamb chops, although why the description states this as lamb cutlets, none of us knew. There were solid bones, as one would expect in a lamb chop, and there wasn't a hint of minced meat anywhere in sight, which would've been essential for the cutlets.


When there's spare ribs on the menu, it's a little hard for me to not order them, and so a portion of spare ribs was ordered. Straight away I'll say two things: the ribs tasted nice, but these weren't the most tender ones I've had, and nowhere close to the best I've had, not by a long shot. I just wish these were tender like the ones I've had at Xian.


And then something really sucky happened! We were ready to order our main course, and of course, we wanted to try the paella (pronounced pa - 'e - ya), and so when we placed our order, we were informed that the paella takes about 35-40 minutes to make. WTF! There was no mention of this on the menu anywhere, and the least they could've done is told us this all important piece of information at the time of take the order for the starters so that we could've placed the order for the main course well in advance. Damn! So the only other thing to do was to wait, and while doing that we ordered another starter, a prawn dish, batter fried and served with mayo. This one wasn't anything special, and given that I had it when people batter fry prawns, I couldn't care too much about this dish.


Finally after more than 45 minutes, the paella Valenciana arrived. Another bit of info for you the unsuspecting reader, is that the paellas mentioned on the menu along with the price is a portion for one person, but they don't serve it for one person, and the minimum quantity served is for two, so be prepared to shell out 2x the cost of the paella. In terms of presentation and taste, full marks. The dish is served in a paella itself (paella is actually a vessel in which the dish is actually made). Taste too, was quite good, with sufficient chunks of chicken and seafood tossed into it. I just wish we were informed about the delay in serving this so that we wouldn't have had to sit idle waiting for the food for over 45 minutes.


Desserts were a dull affair, although there was a little bit of comedy. I asked the waiter what the "cake of the day" was, and "Black forest, sir" came the reply. At which point, my cousin said "Oooh maaiiiii" and put his hands on his face, acting all happily shocked and excited that we were going to eat black forest pastry! :D Was quite a sight. My brother had an ice cream - 3 flavours ice cream.






Food: Overall, quite OK if you limit it to some of the tapas
$$$: Not too expensive as I'd previously thought. The above meal with 4 sangrias came to around 3,500. We were a group of 5.
Service: Decent
Verdict: Visit for some good Spanish tapas.
Extra info: Paella takes a minimum of 40 minutes to make, so plan and order accordingly. And it's served for two, so multiply the cost given on the menu by 2 for your calculations.

El Tablao, #612/1, 80 Feet Road, Near Sony World signal, 4^th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore. Phone: 41410124

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

Casa Del Sol

After a lot of deliberation, I finally agreed to go to this place. I'd heard it wasn't all that great a place, and with Harima's one floor above, Mr VP and I were both tempted to go there instead of here. Well, Mr P was insistent enough to get us into this place, and so Casa Del Sol it was. The place is nice and very spacious, and the decor is simple, but hardly Spanish. We were informed that the Sunday brunch consisted of unlimited alcohol which included wine, beer and Sangria (a Spanish drink consisting of wine, brandy, orange juice and fruits) to go along with the buffet laid out. Fair enough we thought.

And so we started off with a glass of sangria, which all of us agreed was nothing more than a glorified fruit punch, and the alcohol was noticeable only when the liquid slid down our throats; we got a very slight tingle of the alcohol only after we 'concentrated' to detect it.

We then had the veg stew soup, which tasted good, but didn't seem to have anything 'solid' in it. So I spooned in a couple of spoonfuls of mushroom and broccoli from the salad table nearby.

The starters were served to us at the table itself, and the noteworthy ones were the lamb balls (trust me, it's not what it sounds like) and the mushrooms, while the paneer and the chicken were not too bad either.

The sangria kept us company while we finished the starters, and once that was done, we ordered a round of beer: and would you believe it, Fosters, straight out of the bottle.

From the salad counter, we got a mixture of spiced pineapples, cinnamon apples, cheesy potatoes, Thai chicken salad, Tuna pasta, and a mixture I made using walnuts, spicy mayonnaise and cheese (which tasted amazing).

For the main course, I served myself the seafood paella, and I immediately realised that the rice used was not the kind typically used for a paella or the flavouring was off, when compared to the awesome paella I had at Bangalore Bistro. The chicken roulade was bland, while the fish in white sauce tasted good. I didn't have the Mexican rice that was there since I had served myself the paella, but had a helping of the ricotta & stuffed capsicum, which all of us agreed didn't have a very nice texture.

There was a pasta counter where we could get 'make' our own pasta as part of the buffet, and upon hearing that, Mr P and I went ahead there, only to realise things weren't as good as thought. There was only spaghetti and some funny coiled pasta, only two basic sauces (red and white), and the pasta wasn't anything great either.

Dessert time! And as usual, I wasn't disappointed with the desserts, although I was hoping for a little more variety.

The lemon mousse was very good, while the two cakes that were there were good too. And to wrap it all up, we decided to go with a glass of red wine.

Well, according to Mr VP, it tasted like the toilet water from the Air Force Command Hospital (I don't know when and why he tasted that, but whatever), and Mr P and I too agreed it wasn't the best we've had, although I didn't mind it. It certainly wasn't a sweet at all, but it wasn't as disgusting as Mr VP made it out to be.

So all in all, the food at this this place was average. There was enough food and booze for the Rs. 725/- we paid per head (all inclusive), but I'm certain we won't be going back there in a long time. And to the owner of the place, all I can say is "Por favor, este no Español" (excuse the Spanish if it's grammatically wrong).


Casa Del Sol, 131, Devatha Plaza, 3^rd floor, opposite Bishop Cotton's Boys School, Bangalore. Phone: 51510101