Another post after a very long time. Boy am I getting lazy! Bengaluru does that to you; the weather, and the general lifestyle of the people here makes you do nothing more than just going in a park, temple, or a church - in short any place where you can get some quiet - and read a nice book. If nothing else, you can just amble into some book shop and spend the day there. And that's what I have been doing for the last month. Been taking long walks around Bengaluru, reading (mostly comic books), and enjoying the Bengalorian cuisine.
My next stop after Desmond's (see last post) was Coast II Coast. This one was recommended by a colleague after I admitted missing eating some good seafood. It's a nice little restaurant nestled in the into one of the lanes off M G Road. As if to make up for the inconspicuous location, the hotel management has hung up a big board outside the hotel so that even if someone is just passing by outside the lane, they won't miss the sign. Once into the restaurant, the first thing you will notice is the spacious sitting arrangement. Being a Saturday, it was almost full, but we - me and my friends that is - managed to get a good seat. The service was good, so was the ambience.The recommended food was the crab soup for appetizers, and chicken ghee roast and neer dosa for main course. We did order the crab soup - which was delicious, though very very spicy - but we also opted for the prawns ghee roast (since we basically had gone there for the sea food). I hadn't eaten this dish before, but I can tell you that it can't get better than the one we had that day. We had fish curry and neer dosa for main course which lived up to the standards set by the appetizers.
Next stop was the Punjabi Rasoi. As the name suggests - or rather screams out - this is a Punjabi restaurant. While in Mumbai, this is a common occurrence, in Bengaluru, finding a good Punjabi restaurant can be quite a task. But find one we did - in Indiranagar - and we were amply repaid for our efforts. It's a small restaurant, with the seating arrangement a bit cramped. But, the food more than made up for lack of space. The paneer masala was great, the chicken roast was awesome. Another great evening spent exploring the culinary delights of Bengaluru.
It is said that excess of anything is not good. I found this to be true at the cost of ruining my b'day. Emboldened by our earlier success, we decided to try out another Punjabi restaurant that we had had our eyes on for a long time. Mast Kalandar is the kind of restaurant that most people would love to dine in; and I am talking with respect to the location here. We had decided to try the one on Church Street (this restaurant has 10 outlets all over Bengaluru!). This one is located on the terrace, with just a roof over your head and the floor beneath your feet and nothing between. While this can be a great setting most of the time, it does not give you great feelings when you have mosquitoes sucking your blood quite gleefully. Won't go much into the menu, just that it was horrible. Period.
The mis-adventure at Mast Kalandar was followed by a hiatus of two weeks (or rather weekends). Finally, after some serious searching (not our souls, but the World Wide Web), we came upon a restaurant called Coconut Grove. This one is also located on Church Street (which caused us some apprehension), but all the people I had spoken to had only good things to say about this one. Plus the lure of tasting the cuisine from Kerala proved to be too much. The place has been decorated with real coconut trees inside, which by the way, is quite spacious. We were greeted by waiters wearing typical Keralan dress; a short sleeved shirt, a small piece of cloth slung over the shoulder, and a dhoti. The service was quite good and we didn't have to wait too long for our first course: lamb stew. It was the first time that I was having it, and I must admit that it was quite good. This was followed by prawns roast, which though not as good as the one at Coast II Coast, was nice nevertheless. The main course consisted of chicken chettinad curry, fish curry (I can't remember the exact name), appams, and idiappams. Two things to note before I go ahead, this place has no other choice of bread apart from appams and its varieties, and it has a limited fare for veggies. Chicken was very good, the fish was excellent, and the curry was the spiciest I have ever had. The appams were soft and tasty, so were the idiappams. For those who are wondering what idiappams are; they are the idlis of Kerala - atleast that's what the waiter there told me. And yes while we were having this excellent meal we were also sipping on coconut water mixed with honey and a dash of mint; one of the specialties here.
My last stop before I wrote this post was the best restaurant I have eaten in so far along with Desmond's: 100 ft. This one's been named after the street it's located on 100 ft road, Indiranagar. It's a small bungalow sort of place with the restaurant occupying the lawns and the terrace. The rest of the bungalow has been converted into a fancy gift-cum-antique shop. It's got a good ambience and very polite waiters. You can get both Italian and Mediterranean food here. The first noticeable thing on opening the menu card was that the drinks occupied more pages than the food. We dove directly into the main course. I had Penne Pollo Picante (a kind of pasta), my friends had grilled chicken with rice mixed with cheese, chicken mascapone (grilled chicken with cheese stuffing and french fries), and baked cheese macaroni. Must say all four dishes were amazing. I nearly ordered a second helping. Washed down the dinner with long island iced tea, and was very much tempted to go for the desserts. All in all, it was the perfect ending to the weekend.
More to come yet, will post it soon. Too bad I cannot post any snaps of these excellent places; since I do not have a camera. But will try to arrange for some pics soon.
