Restaurant Review

Its been long since I posted my comments on restaurants where we dined..It so happened that we either went to the same tried ones or didn't venture out too much..Anyways here's some of them where we tried:

La Tagliatella :
  I wanted to have pizza and didn't want to go to Domino's or Pizza Hut. We decided to check out this new place where we had not been before and landed up in this restaurant located in 100ft Road,Indiranagar. One of the bungalows converted into this neat restaurant with walls adorning pictures depicting way of life in  Italy (I suppose) . We had a portion of Veg Green Salad (for appetizer) and Mixed Mushroom Pizza (The names are all Italian, I'm mentioning what it actually is in Indianised language) . The Salad portion is huge : three large squares of mozarella cheese ,crisp on the outside, very soft on the inside; English corn with pistachios, walnuts and a few other nuts, lettuce, olives, caramelized tomato slices all tossed in vinaigrette of your choice (we chose honey flavor and needless to say, it tasted yummy !) . The pizza base was so damn thin and curled in the edges and you need not put any effort in chewing the base.The base along with the cheese melts in the mouth. I hear that this is close to the Italian version of the Pizza and the rest (ie, Domino's , Pizza Hut) are US versions. Whatever it is, the salad and the Pizza were filling and we didn't have place for dessert. 
Price wise, a bit on the higher end, but compared to other places which charge a bomb these days for anything, I think it is worth once in a while.

Mama Mexicana:
   I get this craving to eat sizzlers once in a while and we happened to be at 1 MG Road this time and thought of trying out Mama Mexicana there. They did not serve sizzlers, but had the range of burritos, enchiladas, quesadilla, and Pizzas and Burgers. Since I was not upto again going back to making decision of where to eat , we decided to stick to this place and finish our dinner. So, we ordered Refried Beans Burger and Assorted Fungi Pizza. The burger was decent , nothing to complain, at the same time nothing to talk great about too (You should try out the Big Moth Burger in Chilis) . Pizza base was something similar to what we get from stores and just put on the cheese,mushrooms, onions et all and sprinkle olive oil and was served. Hard to bite and chew, the edges especially and cheese was also so-so..I dont think I would go back to this place again. 

Price wise, considering this restaurant was located in the mall and all that, price looked decent for most of the items on the menu.


Food Hall:
  Food Hall has a assorted bread section, salad section and live pasta section. The pasta is decent and can serve as a quick way to fill your stomach while you are shopping in the mall. Salad bar is good with assortments that you can choose from and it is priced per the quantity you take. One thing which I noticed in Food Hall is that there are samples of waffles, breads, hummus, jams etc kept for people to taste and the queue to taste these free food is longer than the queue to order and buy food..:)

Annapoorna's:
   We went here on Deepavali day for Lunch and even though we were there by around 1PM, we had to wait for long to get a table (Like us, many had locked their kitchens on Diwali, I suppose). The attitude of those serving and the food itself was such a disappointment. The sweet got over and so they quickly made some paal-payasam which looked like just white water and one of the side-dishes had also got over for which neither did they apologies nor arrange for any replacement. The appalam was also low in quantity I suppose. But the price : needless to mention, higher than what they normally charge for this same meal every day. probably one dish was more this day and we never got to taste this one as it got over by then. Food quality was also not good that day, but even when we were done and walking out, we could see many of them entering to have their lunch. Overall, a bad experience and I for one, never vote for this place . Just that the SIL's family were also joining us for lunch and they are all prefer south-indian meals and they visit here frequently and so we chose this place. The attitude of the employees, the food quality and the price they charge : just not worth it..I would have cooked better meals than them , really.


MTR : 
  A branch of MTR is opened in 100ft Road in Indiranagar and we have had lunch there once. Good food , I would say, has both options of mini-meals and full-meals and full-meals has unlimited dosas, pooris which S relished. Sambhar and rasam are the uaual Kannadiga way, so you cant come to MTR and ask for Tamilian version of sambhar.  The main point which I wanted to mention is the tiffin that is served her. The quality is too good and for less than 200 bucks, you can have a full-filling tiffin for two. Compared to this Adayar Ananda Bhavan where the quality of food is not all that great and prices are increasing day by day, this one is definitely a winner.


Ganesh Bhavan:
  Why not mention the next door Ganesh Bhavan which serves yummy food day in and day out. So what if its a place where you will have to stand and eat , so what if the hotel's total area is 500-600 sq feet, so what if you can look at the kitchen where grinder is on in one side, dosa master is busy in other corner and onions are being cut in the third corner? This place served good food, be it tiffin or proper meal, this wins on a any day compared to Annapoorna. You wont believe if I say that for 40 bucks, you are served with unlimited quantity of rice,sambhar, rasam, kootu, poriyal, papad ,pickle and buttermilk. and the masala dosas here are a hit with me and Sambhar Idly is S's favorite in this place. If not for places like these, how will normal people get to relish outside food at a cost that suits their budget? Thank you,Ganesh Bhavan. May you keep filling the stomachs of all those who come to you.

CTR :
  Located in malleshwaram, I have heard of this place before and got an opportunity to eat here while my friend and I went to Malleshwaram impromptu on a team outing day. She had masala Dosa and I had Mysore Bonda. Benne Dosa I hear is popular here and melts in the mouth. Inspite of my friend mentioning very less oil, there was generous oil in the masala dosa and it tasted good too. Just that there is no sambhar here, only chutney for both the bonda and the dosa. Good food, overall.

Squeeeze Bar :
    This place catches attention in Phoenix Market City Mall with its claim of healthier drinks: Parfait, fruit falooda, different fruit shakes etc. Dont get fruit bowl in this place, fruit bowl only costs rs.80 for the regular size bowl you can get in any cafeteria. And the parfait was Ok for the first time , it didnt charm me next time onwards. A branch of this is opened in RMZ Infinity and here, the prices are half of what is in PMC and quality is also good. When they say Thick shake, they really mean it here and for their store in PMC, I wouldn't go there unless there is a need to.

Hello Blog post and a quick round-up

Hello Blog! I've been away for quite some time now, neglected the blog, but had quite a few posts written in head all along, but not sure when they would all see the light of the day..Anyways, without dragging too much, I will jot down the highlights of what I was upto while away from blogger

* I turned thirty !! Doesnt feel any different.We had a simple do with family at South Indies..Did a good amount of shopping two weekends prior to the D-day.In fact, I keep telling S that some of the items for the big three-oh are still pending, which I would shop in due course .I have taken some resolutions for myself , starting from letting-go of incidents that disturb me, to not be scared/frightened and to build teh courage to see how things unfold, to read more and to write more and to be decisive.

* I visited my parents after a gap of 6.5 months. Even while I was staying away from parents, I used to visit them every 4 months, but this time, I managed to be connected with them by phone for 6.5 months.

* My dad fractured his hip and it scared the hell out of me..This happened two days after I met them (which I'd mentioned in the previous point) and my dad was put up at a different place that day from my mom and the 7 odd hours of travel before which my mom could see my dad and convey me how he is was a huge period of stress for all of us..Thank God, Thanks a million for protecting dad . Kindly bless daddy and help him recover fast.

* I met my friend from college after 8 years .We were constrained for time, but glad that we met and did a quick catch up.

* My friend HV and I , inspite of staying in the same city all along, we hardly meet..We catch up on phone and text messages often, but, have not visited each others homes so far..This situation was reversed when I went to her house last Friday. It was raining, maid hadnt come, mil not home, I had to prepare dinner after coming back, and left office not-so-early..Inspite of all these reasons, I decided not to postpone and went ahead..Glad that it happened, instead of my usual procastination..

* The one year of not celebrating festivals have come to an end (due to S's uncle , and the first aniversary is also done ). I had a relaxed schedule during the festive ocassions, since there wasnt work in the kitchen preparing delicacies, but, glad that the year went by , as it was quite boring to put up dolls for Golu or invite Amman to our home for Varalakshmi Vratham or do the 4:30AM -oil bath on Deepavali.

* I've become addicted to Fruit Smasher game . Everyday I play atleast 3-4 times and end up straining my eyes and scolding the game :)..Need to come out of it soon..

* In between all of this, our team delivered a major milestone under my leadership and  there is a line-up of the next set of milestones..Thanks to the team for staying by and making it happen.It was a roaler -coaster ride with many weeks and months of slogging over days and nights and over weekends!

Let me also put up a short review of restaurants that we ate at in the recent past:

Samarkhand:  Rich , mouth watering Afghani Dhal is the highlight for vegetarians..So are the nannas, plain ones which are so soft on the mouth , rather a bit heavy on the pocket..Afghani rasa-malai melts in the mouth..I ordered Kumbh Ki Galouti against the chef's recommendation , and if anyone is reading this, pls dont order this when you go.Order Kumbh Khazana, if you are choosing one of he kumbh flavours. It is pricey , but can be done once...in a while..Last I remember going there was with my colleagues many years ago, when I used to like their parathas, but now we settled for roti and naan. The interiors are dark, with dim lighting, service is prompt , portions are small, but taste is real good., pricing is on the higher side.

Nandoos: S suggested this place and their speciality is this "peri-peri" which is nothing but different levels of red-chili in their food varieties..
For veggeterains, there is this traditional burger, sandwich,pasta, pizza, ..we ordered a burger and pasta and the pasta was good , when compared to the pasta served at Pizza Hut kinda places..Pricing is similar to Chilis, but portions are smaller compared to Chilis.I hear that Nandoos is famous for their chicken delicacies..

Sreeraj Lassi bar: we have become fans of this place..Our regular order there is Gud-Bud and Falooda. Very very nominally priced, Gud-bud is rich with three flavours of ice-cream, nuts, cherries, wafers, essence..Falooda is also equally good. soft on the pocket and when it comes to the taste of the ice-cream(considering the price-point), I dont see a much difference once you start gorging on it..

Corner House: Corner House is another of our frequently visiting ice-cream shops..Our standard there is Hot caramelo pudding, but last time, we ordered fruit jackpot, and another cone, thanks to the overdoe of ice-creams last week, S is sneezing and coughing now(:

Imli: This is situated in the interior streets of Indiranagar (inside the road where Domino's Pizza is on 100ft Road,IndiraNagar). We wnet for a dinner, food was just average, servers didnt know what is the speciality of their restaurant, they say every food item listed in their menu is their speciality, which is good for their marketing, but it is not shown in the food they served..we had specifically ordered lassi without any sugar in it, but we were provided with a glass full with loads of sugar in it..We were frustrated and didnt want to spoil our evening/night by arguing with them, hence wated the 100 bucks on lassi (: It still haunts me for having paid for the lassi which we never had(: Very average food, I wouldnt go there again..