Starbucks in Bangalore

American global coffee company Starbucks just opened its very first store in Bangalore and everyone has been buzzing about it since! I was invited to the opening of the flagship store located in Koramangala on the 22nd and judging by the number of people who were haggling outside the store, I was a little hesitant before entering. One foot in and I was swarmed with 300 odd people squeezed in the coffee shop, glaring lights, camera flashes, and thankfully, that lovely aroma of roasted coffee beans wafting through the air.

Squiggling in, elbowing people and getting elbowed in return, I reached a space where I could finally breathe and was thankfully greeted by a lady serving us mini chocolate Frappucinos. Cream, chocolate and coffee: how can this possibly go wrong? One sip of the cold coffee and I got that lovely flavour of roasted coffee beans that delighted me. But by the end of the small glass of that coffee, I was feeling reasonably full.

The Starbucks Roast Spectrum

The lovely Deepika, from whom you can ask for two frappucinos trustingly.

When I spotted Arjun and Irum from Wooplr with coffee-bearing smiles.

Akhib is courteous enough to smile for the camera while I sneakily grab four delicious Lemon Bars.

I love people who can get my name right!
And, oh, this was a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Lovely.

Here's Nikitha, who got my name right. That is enough reason for me to llike her.

Avani Davda (L), CEO, Tata Starbucks Limited and John Culver (R), Group President, Starbucks Coffee APAC

Salmon & Cheese Croissant and Double Meat Sandwich loaded with lamb pieces and sausage,
generous amounts of cheese and a fried egg. *burrrrp*

Chicken with Roast Peppers on Ciabatta - ordinary in taste, and quite filling.

I *love* the interiors of this place.

The guys who ensured that my coffee and service was perfect.

What I Liked About Starbucks:
Extremely friendly service delivered with big smiles. The staff had huge smiles plastered across their faces and were very warm. Personalized cups with your names is a tradition followed in Starbucks stores around the world, and that definitely adds a nice touch.
Delicious coffees - out of the 3 coffees that I tried, the Salted Caramel Mocha stood out for me. The salty sweetness combined with that nutty flavour makes for one helluva coffee!
Ambience is warm, well set-up and walls are adorned with fun things to read.
Delectable desserts - the Blueberry Muffin is not to be missed!

Stabucks could work on: 
Sandwiches: Barring the Salmon and Cheese croissant (and whether or not that is a sandwich is debatable), I didn't find the sandwiches that great. They tasted ordinary and the quality could definitely improve.
Including lighter food items in the menu: Everything from the cream filled pies to even a Roast Chicken sandwich with peppers is mighty heavy. A sandwich and a coffee will easily fill you up, but leaves you feeling a little bloated. I'd like it if they start serving salads bowls here like the other Starbucks stores around the world do.
Pricing: The coffee and food prices ranged from Rs. 100 - 250 and are not exactly expensive, but not cheap either (no surprises there!). I think they could definitely improve the quality of the food and add more items to the menu for that price point.

Of course, this isn't a review, just a piece collecting my thoughts on the store opening.
While it was nice to see a packed house, I couldn't fathom why all the guests looked like they came straight out of a fashion show. Extremely well-dressed,  all made up, designer purses in hand and definitely adding to the glam quotient of Starbucks.. Oh, well, I think I answered my question right there. :)

Disclaimer: This isn't a paid review of Starbucks. The food and coffees offered were complimentary to all the guests who attended the opening of the store.

Starbucks in located in Koramangala, opposite Raheja Arcade. The opening of the store has been responsible for causing traffic in the area the past couple of days. If you want to enjoy your experience at the coffee shop, wait it out a week till the buzz dies down and sit down for a cuppa. :)

Cafe Noir

So I know this post is coming a whole month too late, but I genuinely forgot about blogging about this restaurant experience, and also had been held up recently with other things. For our  final pitstop the Restaurant Week India 2013, I picked Cafe Noir as the menu looked like something my family and I would enjoy.

We walked in on a Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. and the place was decently packed. Our server, flashing a beaming smile courteously showed us to our table where we had our menus individually rolled up and tied with ribbons like little scrolls. Wasting no time, we ordered our amuse bouches (pre-starters) immediately. With only two options - seafood and vegetarian, my entire family chose seafood, and I decided to try the vegetarian one instead.

All Around the Seafood was simply a shot glass of warm seafood soup, a deep fried prawn, a slice of bread and a clam shell dusted with basil powder. The soup was beyond revolting and the clam shell made no sense to me. The prawn was bland, but the only acceptable dish on the plate. I had no luck with All Around the Carrot either. A glass of horrid, watered down carrot juice passing off as soup, carrot sticks with aioli and warm carrot slices tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper. You can't go too wrong with this but it just tasted like plain ol' carrot (can't do much). My expectations should have been lower, it's just an amuse bouche, after all.

Amuse Bouche - All around the Seafood

Amuse Bouche - All around the Carrot

But thank God the worst was over, and our 'real' food could start doing the rounds. The menu had a good variety, and we decided to try one of everything. We began with Sea Scallop Declinaison, which had one pan seared scallop on mashed cauliflower and another with beetroot carpaccio. I loved the beetroot and scallop combo, which I never thought of as an ideal pair. The scallops were also perfectly cooked, leaving a good bite. The mashed cauliflower was definitely worth writing home about.

Sea Scallop Declinaison

Our next starter was the Goat Cheese Duo which had honey roasted goat cheese toast on a fig jam base topped with a beetroot stuffed with cream of goat cheese and nuts. For me, this was the best appetizer of the night. The creaminess of the goat cheese and sweetness of the fig jam worked magically. This, along with generous drizzles of balsamic vinegar and a delicious beetroot confit with creamy cheese offered for delightful tastes and textures.

Goat Cheese Duo

We followed this with another vegetarian starter, the Basil Crumb Fried Mozzarella Millefeuille, which was this wonderful fried mozzarella cheese layered with tomatoes and seasoned with a pesto and tomato coulis. If you like cheese, this is definitely something that you would enjoy. Everyone at my table loved this, but I felt that it could get a little 'too cheesy' after a few bites. The pesto and tomato coulis added nice dimensions of flavour, and I was totally taken to the Parmesan chips that accompanied this dish.

Basil Crumb Fried Mozzarella Millefeuille

Our final starter was Chicken Liver Pate with grenadine onions, figs and balsamic reduction. This was something that I picked solely for trying everything on the menu, as my family wasn't too keen on the liver. I thought the pate tasted alright, a bit too bland, but this is liver, so you can't expect anything different. However, when smeared on bread and topped with the onions and figs, this was quite a mouthful. The sweetness from the figs and acidity of the balsamic vinegar created for a healthy balance of flavours with the liver pate.

Chicken Liver Pate

Done with our starters, we proceeded to our mains. My parents don't eat beef, so I decided to order the Tournedos Rossigny for myself. This was a seared beef steak topped with foie gras (more liver pate), served with mushrooms, baby onions duchesse potato and a nice red wine sauce. The steak was done perfectly medium rare, was moist and had all its juices running out the moment I sliced through it with my knife (enormous portion though). The sauce went well with it, but what blew me over were the fabulous Duchesse Potatoes. While these were simply cubed and not in the shape of fancy ribbons and waves they usually are (often piped), they definitely left an impression. Duchess Potatoes are mashed potatoes with egg yolks and seasoning and then baked until golden brown. These were wonderful, really.

Tournedos Rossigny

A seafood lover, my Dad tried the Unilateral Cooked Seabass on a spice crust with eggplant marmalade, honey confit onion and drizzled with pepper sauce. He really enjoyed the fish, and particularly the spice crust. What I liked about this dish was also the generous amount of sauce used to coat it, so that it wasn't too dry and the lovely tang from the eggplant marmalade and honey confit onion.

Unilateral Cooked Seabass

My Mum decided to try the Chicken Leg Confit on a cromesquis with a rosemary sauce and Caramelized Breast with mashed sweet potato and tapenade. The cromesquis is a deep fried croquette with a liquid centre (usually, meat is used with the Cromesquis Foie Gras being quite popular lately), and here, we had the chicken leg in a cromesquis. While we didn't hit the perfect liquid centre with this, the fried croquette and the delicateness of the leg confit with rosemary sauce was quite yum. The caramelized breast was also tender and succulent, and the sweet potato mash was something I personally fell in love with.

Chicken: Leg Confit in a Cromesquis & Caramelized Breast

Quite full with our mains, we were given two options for our desserts - a strawberry based one and a chocolate one. The majority went with the chocolate one and ordered for the 3 Chocolate Ganache which had one layer of dark chocolate ganache, one layer of milk chocolate ganache and one layer of white chocolate ganache served with Noir's specialty chocolate sauce. Yes, that is too much chocolate and I couldn't get past the second bite for this dish. It didn't impress any of us too much.

Three Chocolate Ganache

The other dessert Beverly Hills was strawberry jelly with a salty caramel cream on an almond biscuit served with strawberry coulis. You can tell by the description about the varied tastes that played in our mouth that made this super yummy. The consistency of this dessert was stellar and I loved how it perfectly melted in my mouth, with the almond biscuit giving it a nice crunch. Two thumbs up!

Beverly Hills Dessert :)

And, that was the end of our fabulous meal at Cafe Noir during Restaurant Week India, and I'm glad that we picked this as our final pitstop. I also want to add here that the service was friendly and courteous and our server explained each and every dish to us quite politely and helped us order accordingly as well.

Food - 7/10
Ambience - 9/10
Service - 9/10
Verdict: Definitely go, they know how to create magic with meats.

Cafe Noir is located at:  2nd Floor, UB City, Vittal Mallya Road, Near Lavelle Road, Bangalore - 560001

Phone: 080 4098-2050
Parking: Parking space provided at UB City 

The Mirage

I like trying out new places to eat and I'm particularly interested in newly opened restaurants to check out how they fare in the first few months of the place being opened. So when a friend wanted to catch up over dinner, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out The Mirage.

The Mirage is a multicuisine restaurant in Koramangala serving Chinese, Italian, Mexican and American food. The main course menu tends to leans towards serving Pan Asian food largely though. We walked in on Saturday night at 9pm to find the entire restaurant completely empty. It was a little surprising but we wanted to focus on having a good conversation, so we didn't mind all that much.

We decided to order a couple of starters and ventured with the BLT Crostini and Thai Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce. I could add that communicating with the servers from time to time was a problem as they didn't quite understand when we asked them for recommendations and they were a little confused when we asked them to explain some of the dishes (this happens very often with new places).

Our BLT Crostini soon arrived, and I took one bite of it to reach bacon heaven. The bread was perfectly crunchy, topped with lettuce and tomatoes tossed in mayo and a slice of perfectly crispy bacon. This was such a genius creation that I kept wondering how I had missed serving this as an appetizer for when I have parties at home. The Chicken Satay was well cooked, and tasted good but it wasn't served with the authentic  Asian style Peanut Sauce. It tasted something like a curry paste, but we were too hungry, so we downed it immediately. The cabbage that accompanied it had this lovely sweet chilli vinaigrette dressing that went really well with the meat.

BLT Crostini

Chicken Satay

Their menus are broken down into separate pull out pages of different sections - Burgers, Pizzas, Appetizers, Mains, etc. This was honestly very frustrating as whenever we wanted to explore something else to order, we had to keep fishing out and hiding one menu page under the other. It looked like I was playing Solitaire with menu cards on my table.

The various menu pages

My friend and I being Asian food lovers that we are, ordered a Vietnamese Chilli Prawn with Sticky Rice and a Hong Kong Fried Rice with 5 Spices. The Chilli Prawn tasted good except that it didn't taste of 'chilli', but honey instead. The sauce was excessively sweet. But somehow it didn't taste all that bad to us and we polished it clean anyway. The sticky rice was perfect and had  that lovely balance of salt, sugar and vinegar (they take 20 minutes to make this).

Vietnamese Chilli Prawn with Sticky Rice

Hong Kong Style Fried Rice

My fried rice soon came, and I first noticed some meat pieces in it, and was puzzled (there was no meat alternative to this, it was supposed to be a veg fried rice). I had ordered a vegetarian fried rice and I pointed it out to the server who looked equally confused. He finally clarified with the chef, who apparently claimed to be confused. I could still deal with it, but this could have been a serious faux pas if a pure vegetarian were in my place.

The fried rice was nice and spicy and the accompanying gravy was sweet and sour and I loved all the flavours coming together. The fried rice was also loaded with assorted meats - prawns, crab stick, chicken and bacon, and that added wonderful dimensions of flavour to the fried rice. The quantity was quite large, and we ended up packing some of it to take home.

I'd also like to add that I had ordered 4 other items on the menu for my main course, but none seemed to be available. The Caesar Salad on their Facebook page looked divine, but I couldn't find any salad section on their menu. Upon asking the server, he told me that they did serve salads, but he'd have to check with the chef instead. He returned saying that there was an Asian Salad available. I promptly got excited and ordered it, only to be told five minutes later that it wasn't available. That really ticked me off.

I asked the servers for a feedback card, and they said that they didn't have any. And they said if I really wanted to write, I could write on their Specials Board instead. I figured that there really was no point talking to them and asked to speak to the manager/owner, who also, unsurprisingly, wasn't available.

Overall, while I liked the food, the service and the chaos that came with it didn't make me too happy. I think the management should really invest in training their staff about the menu and should try sticking around (especially on busy nights) for the first couple of months to take care of service and other issues.

Food - 9/10
Ambience - 8/10
Service - 6/10
Verdict - Visit for the food, but ensure you're fully aware of what you're ordering.

A meal for two along with a glass of wine came up to Rs.1400.

The Mirage is located at: 61, 4th Floor, 1st Main Road, Above Corner House, 7th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore
Ph: 080-65333533
Parking: No parking available, but you should be able to park in the many bylanes of Koramangala.

Olive Beach

For my next visit for the Restaurant Week, I picked Olive Beach. Olive Beach is one of Bangalore's most loved restaurants, both by the locals and expat crowd. The lovely romantic ambience, (usually) friendly service and delicious food crown this restaurant as a top favourite amongst many food lovers in Bangalore.

I hadn't been to Olive Beach in a few years and I thought it was about time that I visited the place. Also, their menu looked attractive and had more of a variety in starters and main course relative to the other restaurant's menus I checked out. I wanted to try out everything on the menu, so I decided to go with a bunch of my friends, so that all of us got a chance to sample everything.

Olive Beach's decor is really something to talk about, especially at night time. Everything from the blue gate that leads you to the restaurant, to all of the scented candles placed meticulously around, the soft lighting and lovely green everywhere makes this rank very high as far as ambience is concerned. The entire ambience creates for such a warm welcome that you can't help but just be wowed by it.We went on a Friday evening at 8 pm, and the restaurant already seemed half-full. I walked in and was greeted warmly by the gentleman at the reception. Upon confirming that I had booked a table for the Restaurant Week, the server who was appointed to guide us to our table immediately flashed a frown that never left his face for the entire duration of our meal.

We ordered our starters first, and decided to take one of each, as that was what we had decided. Our server said that we had to order all the 3-courses upfront as it would take time (that didn't make sense to me, how does ala carte work here?). We ordered all the 3-courses like he asked us to, and he left grumpily. I found the server extremely rude in the manner he asked us to order upfront (we had no idea that that was the concept) and he seemed really impatient and irritated when we were discussing who would order which main course/dessert (there were many options and each one had their own preference). 

Once our order was placed, we were starving and wanted to munch on something. We waited for the bread basket for about 10 minutes, but it never came. I wasn't sure whether it was not included for the RWI meal or whether our server genuinely forgot/didn't bother serving us. I finally caught the attention of another server and asked him about the bread basket, upon which we received two plates of bread with olives and butter within 5 minutes. The bread was fresh and incredibly soft and we downed it in no time.

Soft, warm bread and olives.

Our starters soon arrived and we couldn't wait to dig in. I ordered the Potato and Cream Cheese Chowder with sauteed bacon, scallions, carrots and sweet corn (anything with bacon does me in very easily). When I first tried the soup, it didn't taste anything extraordinary, but after having more of it, the cheese and corn tasted lovely and the bacon was super yum. This was a decently sized portion, so fills you up quite quickly.

Potato and Cream Cheese Chowder

Our next starter was Tuna and Egg which was served with nicoise olives, baby potato chips and fresh arugula leaves drizzled with a 5-herbed vinaigrette. Despite the small size, the cut of the tuna was divine and went beautifully with the herbed arugula and the egg. We assumed that the egg was hard boiled by the way it looked, and when we poked it with our fork, that lovely yolk oozed out to coat the arugula as well, offering a party of flavours in our mouths with the tuna. The potato chips were a little too soft for my liking.

Tuna and Egg with arugula

The next starter was the Wild Green Filo Pie where the filling of spinach, mustard and radish leaves were sauteed with garlic, almonds and feta and baked in filo pastry sheets. This wasn't too memorable in terms of taste, as I was really hoping the punch of the mustard or the saltiness of the feta would hit me, but never did. The light filo pastry sheet and the almonds in the filling added nice texture to the pie.

Wild Green Filo Pie

Our next starter was the Baby Mushroom Tart Tatin, which was slow poached mushrooms  layered with a creamy, herbed goat cheese mixture and mushroom ragu in handrolled pastry. Mushrooms and goat cheese generally pair well and this tart didn't disappoint at all. The taste of the goat cheese was highly discernible and blended well with the mushroom ragu. The tart could have been crispier though.

Baby Mushroom Tart Tatin

Our final starter was the Smoked Chicken Salad in a hummus yoghurt dressing served with apple straws, pomegranate and walnuts. I have always been a fan of the chicken and apple combination, so I knew I'd like this salad; I just wasn't sure about the hummus dressing on it though (I never considered fruits dipped in hummus as an idea even). My doubts were put to rest when I tried this salad and fell in love with it instantly. The different combination of textures and flavours in this dish surprises you and you're bound to love it. The meatiness of the chicken, crunchiness of the walnuts, tartness of the apple, sourness of the hummus yoghurt dressing and bite of the pomegranate made this a highly memorable salad for all of us.

The super yummy Smoked Chicken Salad.

Our general reactions to the starters were mixed, but we liked most of them. We geared up for our mains and they soon began to arrive. Again, we took one of each, and I decided to go for a vegetarian option and the moment I spotted Gnocchi on the menu, I was sold and ordered it immediately. This turned out to be decision I regretted.

I had ordered the Gnocchi Alla Romana, the Roman style of gnocchi preparation which was a baked dish made of semolina, Parmesan and cornmeal. It tasted abysmal. There was no seasoning, no flavour to it and the dish tasted plain awful to me. I passed it on for the rest of my friends to try, and they concurred. The gnocchi was served with grilled asparagus and artichoke, but they offered little redemption. What I wanted was the traditional gnocchi stuffed with potato or any other vegetable, and I received something I didn't like. I decided to speak to the chef and he told me  that this was the Roman style and that this was the way they served it. He was highly courteous and offered to replace it with another dish, and I decided to go with the risotto, that was also on the menu.

Gnocchi Alla Romana

My bigger problem was with the fact that the gnocchi preparation/style wasn't mentioned clearly on the menu. Gnocchi Alla Romana wasn't clear to me that it would be anything but the stuffed gnocchi pasta. There should be no room for ambiguity in such a case, and I was mighty disappointed with what I received.

My (replaced) dish arrived, which was a Goat Cheese Risotto with wine soaked pearl onions, spinach and herbs. One look at the dish and I could tell that the rice wasn't cooked long enough. The biggest part of cooking risotto is the constant stirring of the Arborio rice and adding plenty of stock/water to cook it well leaving it just to the bite. This rice was nearly crunchy, not cooked well at all and the flavour of the goat cheese didn't seem to come through at all, making this just as bad as, if not worse than my gnocchi dish. I didn't bother complaining about the risotto as I'd already sent a dish back before and didn't want to make a scene. Overall, I was disappointed with my main course.

Goat Cheese Risotto

Our other main course was the Moroccan Chicken Stew, which was a stew of marinated braised chicken thigh with chickpeas, okra, pearl onions, and served with minted saffron rice pilaf. The stew was very ordinary and honestly, it didn't leave a lasting impression enough that I could write something here about it. I also found the chicken a little tough and the chickpeas hard, and not soft like I would have liked it to be.

Moroccan Chicken Stew

The other mains ordered included the Crusted Sea Bass, which was a parmesan crusted fish with mushroom duxelle and romesco and the Roasted Tenderloin with oxtail and mushroom ragu, pearl onions, green peas puree and fondant potato. The sea bass was lovely with that parmesan crust and the mushrooms went very well with the fish. The tenderloin received mixed reviews on the table and I felt that oxtail and mushroom ragu didn't complement the tenderloin well. I loved the peas puree and fondant potato though.

Crusted Sea Bass

Roasted Tenderloin

Unimpressed with our mains, we looked forward to our desserts with little or no anticipation; but we were pleasantly surprised when the desserts did come along, as they were nothing short of brilliant. First came the Warm Apple Tart with green apple jam, candied apples, cream cheese mousse and praline ice-cream. The apple and cream cheese mouse was a delightful combination and the praline ice-cream added the right amount of sweetness and a lovely crunch that went well with the tart.

Warm Apple Tart

Next came the Lemon Mousse served with a warm citrus cake with vanilla sauce and lemon sable. I LOVED the lemon mousse, and thought it had just the right amount of tang that made it perfect in every way. But trying to finish it single-handedly might be a challenge, as after a few bites, the collective sourness and tang of the citrus cake and lemon sable begin to take over, making it a little too tangy. The next dessert was the Brioche Almond Pudding with frangipane, blueberry compote and vanilla gelato. This dessert was nice, but not memorable. The frangipane had that lovely sweet nuttiness of the almonds that matched the sweet tang of the blueberry compote.

Lemon Mousse

Brioche Almond Pudding

The hero of the dessert round was eggless Chocolate Cake with chocolate cremeux, vanilla cream, cherry and berry sorbet. We simply expected this to be a regular chocolate cake but this cake wowed everyone's tastebuds in an instant. The chocolate cremeux provide for 3 flavours - a lovely sweetness, followed by a slight bitterness and elevated by a salted edge. A hint of chilli was probably the only thing missing. :)

The orgasmic creamy Chocolate Cake

Our 3-course meal finally came to an end and it had its fair share of ups and downs. For me, however, the service (particularly with our server) was very disappointing. He was rude and indifferent to us from the moment we got into the restaurant and was very indifferent throughout. I wouldn't dismiss it as him having a bad day, because he was very friendly with the group next to us, but apathetic only towards us. I gave my feedback in the form given, but I don't know what help that would be of.

My final rating:
Food - 6/10
Ambience - 10/10
Service - 2/10
Verdict - Save your appetite for the indulgent desserts, don't expect the best in food and service!

I've mostly only read glowing reviews of Olive Beach, but my experience wasn't as great as everyone hypes it up to be. The food was merely above average, and the restaurant bill would indeed dent your wallet. If you did try the RWI at Olive Beach, do leave a comment below. I'd love to know how your experience was! :)

Olive Beach is located at: 16, Wood Street, Ashok Nagar, Off Brigade Road, Bangalore
Ph: 080 41128400/+91 9945565483
Parking: Valet available

Benjarong

So the Citibank Restaurant Week is finally here, and I’m very excited. Yay! Spanning across 3 cities (Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore), the event usually happens twice a year – in April and in September. The idea is to give people an opportunity to dine at each city's finest restaurants at a fraction of the price it would normally cost through a three-course prix fixe menu. This allows participating restaurants to showcase their food by selecting dishes representative of their philosophy and diners get to experience restaurants they may have hesitated from trying. A 3-course meal at these fine restaurants costs Rs.750 plus taxes per head. I won't call it cheap, but it's not too expensive either.

The first restaurant on my list was Benjarong, the Thai restaurant located on Dickenson Road. I've been to Benjarong before and have always enjoyed my meal there, but it had been a while since I visited it last, so I picked it. Also, they had the most extensive menu of the lot, offering 4-courses with plenty of options, so it was a personal favourite.

We went on a Tuesday night at 7 30, and the restaurant was empty except for one table. We were offered the menus and everything looked really tempting. Each of us was allowed to pick two starters (mighty generous, if you ask us), so we ordered the 3 starters off  the non-veg menu and one from the vegetarian menu. Your meal here typically begins with the Thai version of what I may call a paan. Except that instead of betel leaves, you'd have the iceberg lettuce served with pieces of ginger, peanuts, chilli, lime, toasted coconut and jaggery. It all comes together wonderfully to essentially give you 3 prominent Thai flavours - sweet, sour and spicy.

Thai style Paan ;)

We ordered our appetizers, along with our soups and salads. Surprisingly, the first dish that came to our  table was the soup. As far as I know (and the million army parties that I've attended), it's always the appetizers that precede the soup. The soup is served as a reminder of "Dinner is nearly ready." Do educate me on this if anyone knows the whole deal. Anyway, we ordered the Tom Yum Soup, which was a spicy Thai soup flavoured with lemon grass, Kaffir lime and galangal. I ordered the vegetarian one and my friend ordered the shrimp one. I liked the veggie one better because it was lighter and had a distinct, clear flavour of the lemongrass; the shrimp soup literally tasted 'shrimpy', i.e. had that fishy taste that I didn't particularly enjoy.

Lemon grass soups with veggies (L) and shrimp (R)

My first starter, Grathong Thong Gey was simply herbed water chestnuts in rice tartlets. Now, I really like water chestnuts as I love their versatile use, so I might be a little  biased while writing this, but this was a splendid appetizer. The herbs blended very well  to give the chestnuts an already fresher taste and the tartlet was perfectly crispy. My next starter was the Gai Hor Baitaey, which was spiced chicken wrapped in pandanus leaves. The chicken was wrapped in a pandan leaf which locked its flavour and heat and was perfectly moist and tender when we tried it. I enjoyed both of my starters.

Chicken in Pandan Leaf (L) and Water Chestnut Tartlets (R)

My friend ordered the Grathong Thong Gai, which were rice tartlets filled with herbed chicken mince (similar to the veg one). This tasted fine to me, nothing exceptional, and I found the water chestnut tartlet to taste far better. The final starter was the Tod Mun Pla, which were fish patties served with cucumber relish. This was a mighty disappointment, as the fish tasted like it had some gram flour coating and was a little too greasy for my liking. My friend agreed. No sign of the cucumber relish either, but we were served a sweet chilli vinagrette which, fortunately for us, completely overpowered the tasted of the fish patties.

Chicken Tartlets (L) and Fish Patties (R)

For the salads, I picked the Yum Mamuang, the raw mango salad (something that I've always enjoyed here) and my friend picked the Larb Gai, which was a minced chicken salad flavoured with Kaffir lime leaves and mint. My mango salad was lovely as always with the toasted peanuts and chives, just that I found it a tad too sour (largely because of the unavailability of good quality raw mangoes in this season). The Larb Gai was a total breath of fresh air with the chicken coated with that lovely Kaffir lime tang and the fresh mint powering through. Both the salads were a hit among us.

Raw Mango Salad

Chicken Larb

We were filling up real fast and still had main course to try. There were four options in the non-veg menu, and we decided to order all four of them (since each of us were allowed to select two mains, again, a very generous choice). I ordered the Gai Pahd Hed, which was stir fried chicken and mushroom in a wild oyster sauce and the Gae Pahd Prik Tai On, stir fried lamb in a tender peppercorn rice. I liked the chicken in the oyster sauce a lot. This was served with steamed rice. It was light and the combination of chicken and mushroom was a wonderful marriage that went well with the rice. The lamb was nicely flavoured and had a lovely peppery flavour. The accompanying veggies with it were also nice, though I ate this like a starter instead of pairing it with my rice.

Our next orders were Kaeng Keow Wahn Gai, which was a chicken green curry with pea and aubergine and Pla Rad Prik, fish in chilli basil sauce. We chose Thai flat noodles in a chilli basil sauce as an accompaniment for this. The chicken and aubergine went very well, and the rice was a better accompaniment to it. I found the peas, however, hard and very difficult to bite into. The fish had a nice chilli flavour, but was nothing exceptional.I enjoyed the flat noodles in the chilli basil sauce immensely though.

Now completely stuffed and nearly bursting at the seams, we had a final dessert to go. My friend ordered Sankhaya Fakhthong, which was a coconut and pumpkin custard. It was an odd combination, but we were curious to try it. The flavour wasn't too great, and I didn't get much of pumpkin flavour anyway. The texture wasn't silky as that of a typical custard, and the total dessert wasn't much to write home about. My friend even termed it as 'Coconut Halwa'. :P

Coconut and Pumpkin Custard

 Since curiosity seemed to be the theme of our desserts, I ordered the Aitim Takrai, which was nothing but lemon grass ice-cream. I had never tried a lemon grass flavoured ice-cream and seeing this on the menu definitely piqued my interest. Two generous scoops of this pale green ice-cream finally arrived on my table and I took a small teaspoonful. I LOVED the burst of flavour in my mouth and loved how versatile the taste of lemon grass was right from the soup to ice-cream. I recommend this to everyone. My next stop: Wasabi Ice-cream. :)

Lemon Grass Ice-cream

Our lavish 4-course meal finally came to an end and we were too full to even move. The bill came up to Rs.940 inclusive of taxes and was money well spent. I must add here that we found the service outstanding and our server constantly came to our table from time to time, serving us, explaining the dishes, and taking good care of us. We did leave a generous tip because the service was fantastic.

Food - 7.5/10

Service - 10/10

Ambience - 9/10

Verdict - Definitely go to try an authentic meal from Thailand in the heart of Bangalore.

I'm looking to try two more restaurants this week for the RWI, so more reviews coming up! :)

Benjarong is located at: 12/1, Ulsoor Road, Ulsoor, Bangalore

Contact number: 080-32217201/+91-9342-401-606

Parking: Valet