Turquoise Restaurants, Koramangala : Restaurant Review

Hello people, I'm back to the blog world after a small hiatus! Blame it on work, some travel and a little bit of laziness :) The scorching Bangalore heat has jolted me out of my slumber and here I am - back to doing the rounds of Bangalore restaurants.

One Saturday evening, twelve of us friends landed up at Turquoise Restaurants in Koramangala quite by chance. The restaurant has two sections, The European and The Indian. With majority in the mood for cheesy delectables and pasta, the group headed to The European.

The vegetarians started with Messe - Cold Starters and Salads served with Pita Bread. The Pita bread tasted like under cooked set dosa. Some of the dips were just about fine - hummus was average and salsa tasted flat - no zing or punch. Rest of the dips are not even worth a mention.

Crostini Misti

The non-vegetarians chose Ali di Pollo - Baked Chicken wings marinated in herbs and Barbequed Shrimps. My sibling and hard core foodie Shashank says – “The chicken was definitely leftovers. Tasted like rubber. We even told the bearer. In any other place, they would have immediately made amends by asking to choose something else. But nothing remotely close to that here. The Shrimps were bland, tasteless and well, I can say I’ve tasted better. We then ordered more chicken from their Indian menu and I must say that was quite okay”.

Another veggie starter, Crostini Misti with an assortment of toppings was passable. The herb ricotta cheese topping was decent and the bread was grilled just right. The rest of the toppings were pretty bland and insipid. I understand that European food cannot have Andhra spice, but - the flavour has to be wholesome and tasty. The only starter that really had any taste/flavour and was actually passable was the Baked Auberguine with Tomato Confit, Cheese.

Mozzarella Fritta con Balsamico

The ball started rolling, and quite literally (in the stomachs), when the Mozzarella Fritta con Balsamico (cheese balls) came to the table. On the first bite, we thought the taste was rather odd (maybe stale cheese?), but we dint make a fuss about it as we were a big group of friends bonding and having fun after ages... After about 15-20 minutes, my friend and husband both complained of a queasy stomach and uneasiness. By then, it was pretty late for us to move out to another restaurant. With two friends who are expectant mothers, we decided to play safe and switch to Indian food.

Baked Auberguine

Another round of starters included the basic Tandoori Fish and Tandoori Ghobi. Decent enough, but nothing to write home about. While the queasy stomachs continued, we requested the bearer to organize some basic curd rice to settle the stomachs. It was flatly refused. We requested to speak to the owner, who again sent word with his man Friday that curd rice was not happening. Since requesting politely to speak to the owner did not work, a firm holler did the trick (really - does it take such a lot to get the owner to a guest’s table???) We told the owner about the queasy stomachs and requested for some curd rice with tadka. This is what the owner said - "We don’t have curd rice on our menu. We don’t do curd rice. Or let me put it this way - my cooks are not South Indian." He told us this with an arrogant sarcastic tone - not at all becoming of a restaurant owner talking to his guests!

It’s not like his cooks are from Europe or something? Any cook worth his salt who makes all sorts of North Indian dishes should be able to put curd and rice with a dash of tadka. It’s not rocket science and nor do you have to be a South Indian to do so. And probably because the European cook was away, the starters were so tasteless!

We were so disgusted by this attitude that we skipped dessert although I was pretty tempted to try their Baklava (but who knows, probably the Greek cook was in Athens or something!).

Bad Food with an Attitude + A total rip off + Arrogant Owner = Turquoise Restaurants.

Verdict : 1/5 (only for the Indian)