Recipes

Monday, November 21, 2011

Dilli Chaat Wallah & Kabab Souk, JP Nagar, Bangalore : Restaurant Review

A cafe that displays art/works of photographers is nothing new; a family home converted to an eating joint that promises to serve chaat from the capital & authentic North Indian khana on the ground floor and a gallery set to house works of photographers on the first floor is definitely new. That too in JP Nagar!

Discovered this delightful little place initiated by photographer and filmmaker Sudhir Boury. His former family home on the JP Nagar 6th phase ring road (close to the underpass) is converted to house Dilli Chaat Wallah - Kebab Souk and the up-coming art/photo gallery. Although it is situated on the busy ring road, it is on the corner of a quiet tree-lined lane.



Longing for some chat-pata chaat on a wintry afternoon, my mother and I decided to lunch at this new eatery as it is very close to our workplace.

The smell of fresh paint, polish and new furniture greeted us as we walked in. The place is not entirely ready, (minor last-minute touch-ups were going on) but the kitchen is functional. Seating options include indoor dining or you can enjoy your meal under the lush green tree along the outer wall of Dilli Chaat.

We were a tad disappointed to learn that chaat is available only after 3pm - but we (rather my mom) happily settled for a roti - subzi affair on learning that it was a vegetarian restaurant.

Started with refreshing drinks of aam ka panna and ananas ka panna. While there was hardly any aam/mango taste in the aam ka panna (was more like jal jeera), the ananas ka panna was simply superb. Pineapple lovers will for sure like this one - tangy, just enough of the
pineapple flavor and masala.

We straightaway ordered the main dishes - lachcha parontas and dum aloo, along with raitha. The parontas were golden, layered and crisp on the edges and soft towards the center. Pleasantly surprised to notice that it was actually wheat based without maida.

Dum aloo was just right in terms of spice, fragrance and consistency, although I think the number of baby potatoes in the gravy were not enough - just about 6. The gravy was thick and creamy, and delicately flavored. The potatos were nicely cooked and retained the taste of the
gravy.





The curd in the raitha was rather dilute, but fine otherwise.

We ended the meal with hot gulab jamuns. One plate serves three pieces of medium sized jamuns. The jamuns were soft and fluffy, however the center of one of the jamus was not cooked well enough, bit into some raw dough.



On the whole, the food was very home-made types - which I think is a good thing. By this I mean there was no excess oil floating on the gravy and no maida used in the wheat parontas. Also, the meal did not leave us feeling full and heavy. Light and just right.

Service was pretty efficient and staff was friendly. Sudhir actually took time out to talk to us about Dilli Chaat Wallah & Kabab Souk. His idea is to give us Bangaloreans authentic Delhi style chaat (he has lived in the capital for more than a decade and has a good understanding of what chaat lovers in the city want), and good wholesome North Indian vegetarian food - this comes naturally being a Punjabi himself. Serving vegetarian kababs is another concept close to his heart.

Cant wait to go back and sample the chaats one of these evenings. Would love to see some basics such as rajma chawal & kadhi pakodi on the menu.

A meal for two costs about Rs 370/-.

Verdict - 3.8/5

Monday, November 7, 2011

Ente Keralam, Ulsoor, Bangalore : Restaurant Review

Sunday lunch at Ente Keralam began on an unpleasant note from the time I called to make a reservation. We asked for a table for four and what I got was a whole 10 minutes of let-me-see, I cant promise you....we'll see when you get-here kind of nonsense from the lady manager. I almost hung up the phone when she suddenly had a change of heart and told me she could give me a table (like she was doing me a big favor!). Since my friends were really eager to eat mallu food and I have a weakness for appams and stew we decided to give it a shot - explicitly told the lady that we would be there between 1:15pm - 1:30pm.

We reached at 1:20pm. Our presence was acknowledged by a mundu wearing chap with a smattering of disgruntled grunts. When we told him we had a reservation, he rudely snapped in an uncouth manner and told us that since our reservation was for 1:30pm, he could not give us a table right away. We realized it was no use arguing with this mundu wearing villain who seemed to be straight out of a C grade Malayalam flick.

When the mundu wearing villain went back inside the restaurant, we realised that more than half the place was empty. We were about to fight our way in when the lady manager came and ushered us inside. Basically, we figured that they make the guests wait outside to create some kind of hype around the place. We were asked to go in only because another group of people were entering the restaurant, so it was their turn to wait till another lot was heading that way.

The only thing authentic about Ente Keralam is the ambiance and decor that includes traditional urulis and paras (vessels), an elephant nettipattam (handcrafted gold ornament that adorns an elephants forehead), portraits of kathakali dancers, mudras, chinese fishing nets, and old Malayalam film music.

The menu looks appetising on paper and stops right there! Each table is served a small portion of complimentary salted banana chips that were sodden and Chakkara Varatty (banana chips tossed in jaggery) that was not-so-sodden.

We started with Keraleeyam - a chilled tender coconut water based drink with coconut ganjee (pulp), mint leaves and a dash of lime. Quite refreshing.


Keraleeyam

For mains, we ordered sadhya, appam and vegetable stew. The appams were soft and fluffy, but the stew was actually sweet. While I do understand that coconut milk is mildly sweet, a stew is laced with spices to bring down the sweetness which was not done in the case on Ente Keralam. For a minute, I did wonder if I was having a Kerala meal or a Gujarati one.



Appam and Vegetable Stew

Next, the sadhya - a traditional vegetarian Kerala meal/thali served on a banana leaf. The sadhya comprised of vegetable side dishes such as avial, thakkali curry, eruseri, sambar, rasam (sambar and rasam are not native to Kerala at all), papad, chutneys such as enji puli, curd, rice and three kinds of payasams. All the vegetable sides were very mediocre and some were sweet too. My friend mistook a yellow smooth pulp in one of the small katoris for dessert, but on tasting it, discovered that is was mashed salted moong dal! Very very unkerala!!! This I know for a fact as I have a malayali mother-in-law, malayali neighbors and friends in dozens. The icing on the cake however, is the jet black authentic kerala coconut-oiled curly strand of hair that we dug into in the dish of white rice! Yuck! The waiter apologised profusely, and even tried to make up by serving us a complimentary dessert. Also, the buttermilk that is part of the sadhya was not served at all. We had to ask for it and it was brought to the table after desserts.


Sadhya

White rice with hair

Three types of Payasam

We pulled up the manager and all she could say was sorry! And the best part is after we paid the bill and the change was returned, the folder with change of Rs 170 went missing from the table. The manager had actually taken it away even before we could take the change back and decide if we needed to tip the shoddy service at all!

Hospitality lessons is what the management needs to dish out to their staff. Next on is a lesson in serving authentic food from God's Own Country.

Visit recommend only if you want a serving of authentic mallu hair in your food.

Verdict 1/5 (only for the ambiance and decor)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Toit, Indiranagar, Bangalore : Restaurant Review

The name Toit - I gathered from their website, implies 'full tight' or tipsy/sloshed.

Leaning on pillar no 62 of Namma Metro, the founders of Toit decided to quit their nine to five jobs to give Bengaluru a brewpub. The beer is not quite brewing yet but they promise to serve hand crafted beer soon. Till then they call themselves a pub serving great food.

Toit is a refreshing change to the pub and restaurant scene in Bangalore. Huge airy split-level space with four separate sitting zones. Enjoy a pub atmosphere, or that of a restaurant in the family enclouser, or catch up with friends in the lounge-like area, or move to the open-air smoking zone. The brick walls and dark wooden furnishing, combined with the high-ceiling and good lighting give it the look and feel of an old world pub.

A bunch of friends and I visited this place on a Saturday evening. The place was filling up fast. Luckily, we had made a reservation.

The menu listed interesting cocktails. We ordered a pitcher of Green Apple Mojito (green apple slivers in white rum, crushed ice and mint) and a glass of Long Beach Iced Tea (vodka, rum, gin, tequila, triple sec, lime, cranberry juice). The quantity of Mojito in the pitcher was more than generous. The alcohol quotient was high in both the cocktails - left us feeling quite merry!


Green Apple Mojito

The food menu is pretty varied. We tried the Barbecued baby corn. It was simply awesome - spicy, tangy and crisp. Complemented the drinks beautifully. Next, we ordered Mexican Bhel - nachos in cheese sauce and veggies. Turned out to be a regular fare.

For main course, we tried the wood-fire thin crust Veggie Attack pizza. Baked-to-perfection pizza with a load of assorted veggies and cheese. However, I think it could have been spiced up a bit - it was rather bland. But the quantity in terms of size was large.


Veggie Attack

Next on the list, we tried the veg Moussaka (a Greek dish filled with veggies, topped with a creamy bechamel sauce and baked to a golden brown). This dish was perfect - not too dry or soggy, delicate subtle flavor and the bechamel sauce was sinfully creamy. Decent portions again, however I wish they served us some garlic bread as an accompaniment. We ordered it separately (and reminded the person serving us about it a couple of times) and it was finally served along with the dessert - by which time we had devoured the Moussaka! Says something about their service on a weekend....more on that bit later.


Veg Moussaka



Toit Special

The star on the table was the dessert. Called Toit Special, its a sinful rich chocolate layered cake - we counted about 7 layers - and is served flambéed. Absolutely yuuuuummmmm! This dramatic end to a signature meal (Toit's own words) was dramatic alright. Garlic bread with Toit Special! And the confused waiter had absolutely no clue what he was doing. Added to this - the waiters were huddled in groups and seemed more busy gossipping than serving the guests.

On a Saturday night, understandably Toit is bursting at the seams with diners, but they just cannot manage the crowd. They still need to go a long way in terms of providing efficient service.

In spite of poor service, I would still recommend Toit. Good music, great crowd, a fun place to catch up with friends over drinks (excellent cocktails) and good food to compliment the drinks.

Verdict: 3.8/5

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Kakori - Kebabs & Curries, J.P.Nagar, Bangalore : Restaurant Review


Never judge a book by the cover. That is what I learnt from Kakori - a restaurant that boasts of a slightly over-the-top exterior complete with glittery blue serial lights (I first thought the place was dressed up for Diwali), and a forced gaudy Mughlai look with arches! While the ambiance inside is pretty decent, the lighting is extremely dim (you can see that in the images below - so please excuse me for the image quality).

Moving on, lets look at the most important part - the food. The vegetable kebab platter is a good assortment of paneer, vegetables, mushrooms and baby corn. Crunchy and grilled just right, the kebabs have a strong aroma of charcoal making them all the more delicious. On the spice quotient, I think they can tone down a bit as the alu tikki kebab and paneer were very spicy - and this is coming from someone who has a pretty high threshold for spice. Also
there is too much of food coloring, very tiranga looking but it wasn't independence day! :)

Eating only veggies in a kebab place is just not done - snickered my chicken devouring brother Shashank (nicknamed koli - for obvious reasons if you understand Kannada). So here is his bit. This place boasts of a wide variety of Kebabs. Tender, fresh meat cooked to perfection with the right amount of flavor and spices is what you can look forward to. The dishes are served with spiced onion rings and chutney. I tried the Kakori Kebab and the Achari Kebab. Both of them were fantastic and the quantity is just right (one dish serves two people).


Kakori Kebab

Tomato shorba is satisfactory but very mildly spiced. Some coriander garnishing would have helped.

Tomato Shorba

Spiced Onion Rings

I always wanted to have a good kofta curry but restrained myself as almost always the koftas are like a sweet dish. However, Nargisi Kofta was unlike any other kofta I have had before. It is medium spicy and tomato based. Most importantly, it is not one of those sweet koftas stuffed with dry fruits. Of course there are a few if you look really hard, but they are mashed very well with the paneer and potato. So people who dislike sweet koftas, visit Kakori for Nargisi kofta!

Kadai Vegetable was another pleasant surprise. The regular assorted veggies are used but leaves a nice tandoor after flavor.

Rotis, kulchas and naans are satisfactory.


Nargisi Kofta and Rotis

Portions are generous, the spiced onion side dish served with kebabs is a very good idea. We asked for more and the courteous staff willingly obliged. Service was quick - probably because it was a weekday evening and not very crowded.

Kakori is ideally a non vegetarians' delight. The menu boasts of various kebabs that my non vegetarian brother was drooling over. However, there are decent options for us vegetarians too. Serves alcohol. Priced moderately.

A much - needed kebab - curry - roti place in south Bangalore. Stands out amongst the cluster of 'multi-cuisine' type restaurants that are mushrooming in every corner as Kakori is sticking to serve only one kind of cuisine.

Visit recommended.

Verdict: 3.5/5