100 Ft Boutique - Sunday Brunch!!!

I had just filed my first two patents at the USPTO and I wanted to celebrate with my regular gang - Pavan, Prathap and Prassana!

With a strong recommendation from Prassana, we decided to try out the famed Sunday brunch at the 100ft. boutique restaurant on ---- 100ft road of course! Duh!

They have a nice seating in the open with some live music. The day was perfect, not too hot but sunny.


Its a buffet which includes a choice of cocktails, mocktails and beer. Unlimted!
The food is divided into four broad sections, if I may say so.

There are the starters in the buffet spread, which has a huge choice ranging from assorted cheeses, salads, breads, soups, hot and cold mezzeh, fish fingers and stuff like that.
 
This is what I piled on my plate for my first tasting! :-)
Loved the bacon wrapped prunes and the pungent Brie cheese in particular.

Trying the red and the white wine in the pic below.

 A champagne based cocktail!



 A white wine based cocktail.




Then they have the hot grills which is served on the table and has vegetarian and non-vegetarian options.
They have a choice of lamb chops - lightly marinated and grilled to perfection, prawns, chicken and mushrooms.
Please note the lamb chop that Prathap has so proudly displayed!



 You can order for a custom omelet if you wish to. We of course ordered the cheesy omelet!




There is the main course - which is a choice of rice or pasta with a couple of gravy dishes. But I do not remember anyone going for it given the vast choice and other interesting items we had.

Finally there is a choice of desserts. Red velvet cake, Chocolate mud pie, brownie and stuff.



Oh and did I mention they have some custom made pizzas and pasta. We ordered a classic margarita pizza.

A three cheese ravioli in (surprise surprise) a cheese sauce! Damn Pavan's love for cheese! :-)


If you are game for it, you can flex your vocal cords to karaoke.

We just had a great time there.  Catching up, eating, drinking and some more eating.


At 1500/- per person this is a good deal, if you just want to have a really lazy Sunday brunch spread over 2-3 hours.

Chinita - Authentic Mexican fare!

This new mexican place had opened in Indiranagar and we were reading some rave reviews on Zomato. They had a staggering rating of 4.8 out of 5!
Had to try this place out - but the day we chose was also when the heavens decided to open up. It was raining like crazy but it actually worked in our favor.
The place is small and remains very crowded and going without a reservation is not recommended, but due to the rains some of the reservation folks did not turn up.

Their menu is nice and clean and we ordered even before getting a place to save on time.

The service is quick and the food very very authentic. I have had lots of mexican stuff when in Dallas, so I guess I know a thing or two.

Well the below is what we ordered.


Started off with a veg Quesadilla - crunchy on the outside and  cheesy on the inside. It was phenomenal.

Braised pork soft tacos. Soft corn tacos with some spices rolled into it. The pork was slow braised and then pulled. Soft and juicy and a bit spicy too. The pork is accompanied by some lettuce, sour cream, jalapenos and salsa. Wow!


Wifey took the burrito bowl - which is basically is herbed rice with beans,cheese sour cream  & salsa, with a topping of spinach and caramelised onion. Wholesome meal this one.


Pavan chose a similar bowl with some other veg stuff in it.

Rashika ordered the veg enchilada. Its is basically veggies rolled in corn tortillas and soaked in tomato salsa and baked. It was good too.



Oh BTW, did i mention the drink that Pavan ordered. It was an almonds and rice based drink with Cinammon. Well let's just say, it was pretty awful!



The meal cost us ~1500/- which I guess was a decent price for the food.
Recommended if you wish to try some real mexican food, but please call up before heading out to avoid a long wait.

898 Steaks and Grill

Now that is an interesting name for a restaurant. Who the hell cares for the name - All I care for is the quality of the food and it is top notch! Situated in the 3rd floor right behind Taco bell at Sony Signal in Koramangala, this place is not readily visible unless you actually look for it.

It has a terrace seating with some quirky decor and seatings. I love it though. Have always visited it in the evenings, when it has been very pleasant, since it is cool and you can enjoy a beautiful and relaxing dinner.

Ok. Now on to the dishes. If there is one thing that you have to try here, it has to be the Veg Lasagna. Yup!, you heard it right, I recommending a vegetarian dish, but I am sure that is the best lasagna I have ever had in Bangalore. Soft, creamy and cheesy - heavenly!!

 Mozzarella cheese sticks!!

Vegetable Ratatouille!!

I love the grilled fish sizzler in a butter lemon sauce. We have tried various other things on the menu such as ratatouille, grilled chicken and burgers and they have all been good.
















They also serve steaks. Although I have never had it, one of these days, I plan to.

Below is a chicken thigh that we ordered. 















Very recently you can also order from a host of desserts, which I guess they previously did not offer.


The prices are decent and thankfully there is not too much of the taxes and other charges. You pretty much pay for what you eat. A meal for two with a soft drink each, main course and dessert would cost ~1500/-

One note though - please mention if you would like it to be a sizzler, since the default option is a plate unless mentioned.

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.

In the heart of Sakleshpur - Kadumakki resort

After working my *** off for the last three weeks, I figured a break was imminent else there was the risk of burning myself out.

Just wanted to get away from office, from the 'halla-gulla' of Bangalore even if it was for a couple of days.

Last minute booking and the same group - Pavan and Family with Niki and I.

This place we booked is called Kadumakki resort, showed up at no.2 on Tripadvisor among Sakleshpur resorts/homestays.

Started off early morning on Saturday - 14th March at ~6:30 to beat the Bangalore traffic. The drive to Sakleshpur is via Hassan after we take a detour at Nelamanagala.

Its a pleasant dive without much traffic and good roads. Stopped for a nice warm breakfast somewhere after Kunigal.

The resort is around 10kms from Sakleshpur and the last 3 were mud roads and were patchy yet fun to drive.. Read as fun to drive in my Punto and not so much in the Rapid - city sedan of Pavan's!! :-)

Reached the resort around noon. There are 10 individual cottages in total among a huge clearing surrounded by hills and plantations. The spring sun was warm and bright and the air fresh and cool ... Was such a welcome change!! More over, 6 of these cottages were empty so we practically had the entire place to ourselves.





The specialty of this resort was the small stream that flowed right though the property and kind of made a small natural swimming pool. This is where we all headed and spent the next couple of hours enjoying in the water.  The kid enjoyed it the most.. The water was cold for him but it was no match for his enthusiasm.. It was so much fun ..


Post some cleaning up and a nice bath, time for some devouring as we were ravenously hungry after all the hard work in the water!!

The food was amazing. Simple wholesome and very very tasty or shall we say that we were just too hungry ..  :-)

After a good siesta, the evening was spent nicely. There was a cool breeze picking up and I had a good time playing some stuff with the kid and Nikita.

After dark there was a bonfire and we just sat around it playing some good music onto the bluetooth speaker that the resort owners provided us. It was kind of nice thinking on their part.


Dinner was again an even better affair with some fresh fish on the menu.. had a nice relaxed dinner and called it a day..

Early next morning, woke to the chirping of birds and the loud quacking of the dozen or so ducks that were on the property.














Pavan and I then went on a guided trek to a nearby hill to see the view and it was amazing..
The fog had not lifted off and we could get a grand view of the surrounding area from the top of the hill ..

Reminded us of all the amazing treks we had done over the years from Manipal with our beloved bunch of KTC-7 and other karmic buddies.

Spent the rest of the time relaxing on the hammock beside the stream till it was time to leave..

Cannot wait to get away again to some place nice for some more fun and unwinding..

Pasta - Creamy, spicy and of course cheesy.. At Home!

Here is a simple, quick and easy method to do some amazing and authentic pasta at home.

I use :

- Delmonte penne pasta
- Pasta sauce
- Veggies
- Cream and Cheese
- Olive oil and Chilli flakes (optional)

Simply boil the pasta with some salt and oil, so they do not stick to each other.
When 'al-dente' i.e. almost done - strain and run under cold water. You do not want the pasta to keep cooking in the residual heat. I add some whole spinach leaves in the boiling water too. Hey, I want my greens! You can skip it totally.

In a pan, heat some oil(olive oil preferred) and add some crushed garlic, chilli flakes and 2-3 table spoons of the pasta sauce. Add finely chopped veggies (onion, broccolli/cauliflower, olives(black/green) and bell pepper (red/yellow,green)) and saute till the oil leaves the mixture. Add the pasta/spinach and mix salt as per taste. Add some fresh cream to make it creamier and moist.

I usually grate some mozarella cheese on the pasta and put it in the oven for a few minutes for the cheese to just melt a bit.

Garlic bread goes great with pasta, so you could just fix some to go with it.
Take a pan, heat it, add butter, a few flakes of crushed garlic and just sponge in two slices of bread and let it rest till it gets brown.

There you have it .. Pasta and garlic bread ..
Makes a quick and interesting dinner ..