Murphy's Irish Brew Pub

The wives were out of town and it was a Sunday. Do we need more reason to visit a brew pub and have some guys time over a tall glass of chilled beer and pizza? Just Pavan and I this time.

Murphy's Irish brew pub it was to be. Located in a bylane on the intermediate ring road right after Domlur, it is a nice place to chill. Located on the 4th floor, it has a nice view if you wish to sit out or near a window.

They have their own home brewed beers - 4 varieties.




We ordered a sampler and we chose what suited our palates bets for the longer haul.
The beers are crisp and quite nice actually.


The food is also decent. We ordered cheese and jalapeno stuffed mushrooms and a beer battered fish and chips. Both were very nice.  



Fish was crunchy on the outside and soft and flaky inside - just the way it should be.


Finally we ordered a half-n-half pizza. Boy! it was huge but every bit tasty.



The green half was mushrooms, artichokes in a pesto base and the red half was goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes.

They have a couple of flatscreens playing some sports channels. Just sit back and relax and unwind over a couple of beers and munch on some good food to round off a proper weekend.
 

Masala Klub - Taj Westend - Restaurant Week India

I wait for these two opportunities in a year when I can sample some interesting fares in some of the top restaurants in town. Restaurant week allows these top restaurants to showcase their best food in a pre-fixed 3-4 course meal. You can reserve a place of your choice from the website for 100/- and then pay the rest at the restaurant. This time it was priced at 1000/- + taxes per person.

We chose to try 'MASALA KLUB", at the Taj Westend which serves fine Indian cuisine.

It has both a garden seating and an indoor one. We chose the indoor one since it was lunch time and it was a bit warm outside. The decor was nice and soothing and the seating pretty comfortable.

They started us on a small platter of cut vegetables and some crisps with a tomato based dips as a welcome nibbler.

We chose the veg option for Nikita and the non-veg one for me.

The appetizers were served next - I had a sampler each of broccoli tandoori, prawns, malai chicken and barra kabab. The meats were tender and fallling of the bone and the marinate was just perfect.
Notice the decor on the plate - it was a tangy mango chutney. Loved it !!

Nikita had potatoes, brocolli and paneer in her platter.

There was some lemongrass rasam to sip on to go with the platters.





The next dish was very very interesting - it was a tamarind sorbet to help cleanse the palate and serve as a appetizer for the main course to follow.
They serve it in a small bowl and pour some liquid nitrogen into the container below it, so you get a very nice smoke emanating. Loved the spectacle.


Here is a small video to show how nice it looked.













Then we were served 4 main course dishes each with assorted rotis and steamed rice.

In all we tried the following dishes:


Chicken kalimirchi - creamy and light
Mutton gravy - Rich and spicy
Dal Makhani - slow cooked and buttery
Lotus stem and water chestnut curry - very very unique dish, loved the texture of the lotus stems.
Palak Lasooni - light and flavorful
Mili juli subz - tangy tomato base with assorted vegetables
 

For desserts there was a platter which consisted of :
Warm rich Gulab Jamun
Ras malai with Gulkand
Cashew and kismis rice kheer

They were all amazing and the presentation - WOW!
Again the artwork on the plate was edible - berry and kiwi compote.



All of this was done at a liesurely pace over a couple of hours - befitting a lazy Sunday lunch. Some talking and selfies in the beautiful lawns of Taj completed the experience.