Monkey Bar - Break'first' Edition!

There has been so much hulabaloo since Monkey Bar launched its breakfast that I figured it's about time I visited the place (we Bangaloreans get more than a little happy when you club breakfast and bar in one sentence). So my sister, a friend and I decided to indulge in this Break'first' (as Monkey Bar calls it) on a Saturday morning, hoping we'd get a quiet table for our conversations and some good food.

The Break'first' Menu

The breakfast menu at Monkey Bar is only served on weekends and alcohol is served past 10:30 a.m.. Pretty cool, eh? My sis started off the meal by ordering the one egg dish she swears by pretty much everywhere - the Eggs Benedict - poached egg and ham on an English muffin topped with plenty of Hollandaise sauce. What's not to love? :)

I simply couldn't flaw the Eggs Benedict, honestly. The eggs were perfect and the Hollandaise sauce was just right - not too sour nor too 'eggy'. My sister found the bread a little harder than it should have, but it seemed just like the texture of that of the typical English muffin bread. Though there were only two poached eggs, they were quite filling.

My friend next ordered the Pandi Curry (which seemed so 'off' from the typical Monkey Bar-esque menu). The pork was really tender and well spiced, though there wasn't so much of a curry with it. The Pandi Curry was served with warm Pita pockets. While the pork tasted good, I couldn't have more than a few bites of it because it wasn't something as a 'breakfast' dish for me. It was not a 10 am thing for me (bacon is totally an all-day thing for me, btw). My sister and my friend seemed to share no such problem though.

Pandi Curry with Pita Bread

I didn't find the menu too extensive, so I decided to play it safe and order a sandwich instead. I was suggested the Croque Monkey by the server, which was a cheesy-gooey ham and Emmenthal cheese sandwich. My expectation of this signature sandwich was quite high, and I was mighty disappointed when the dish did arrive. I didn't find the punch of the Emmenthal or the moistness of the ham and it had zero seasoning. It was extremely vapid in flavour and was nothing more than a bland ham-and-cheese sandwich. This was served with Mustard Potatoes and fresh Baked Beans. I really liked the potatoes, they were flavourful and not too pungent. But that's the only thing I liked about this dish. To top it off, this sandwich is priced at Rs.295 which is ridiculously expensive for a simple sandwich.

The boring Croque Money

We were quite full by this time, but decided to try their much talked about signature Red Velvet Waffles with cream cheese and almond praline. These officially are the best waffles I've ever had in my life. I'm not kidding. The waffles were literally velvety soft and the cream cheese and almond praline added a brilliant dimension of sweet and sour flavours with soft and crunchy textures. We topped this generously with maple syrup, and it tasted orgasmic. It elevated us to such a happy high state that we just wanted to sit there and not move and savour every last bit of that taste.

YUM Red Velvet Waffles!

Overall, it was a very pleasant breakfast, service was highly courteous and the music was awesome as always. It's a great place to head to dig into a breakfast to cure that hangover. Our total bill (all of the above items + an orange juice and a side of bacon) came up to Rs.1860, which was quite expensive for 3 people. The endless breakfast buffet at Taj Vivanta costs Rs.700 per head, just saying.

Food - 8/10
Service - 9/10
Ambience - 8/10
VFM - 5/10
Final Verdict - Definitely go for the waffles, and ensure you're all Ka-chinged up! :)

Blimey!

I'd like to start by saying that this review is not entirely about Blimey, but about an event that I attended there. (and yes, some food was served as well)

I love that name, Blimey! Largely because it reminds me so much of all the dialogues in the Harry Potter books, that, uh, let's not go there, I won't stop. So, yes, Blimey! The gastropub is HUGE and can easily seat more than a hundred people. It's decently well-lit, so takes away the charm from a pub for me.

Blimey! played host to the Foursquare Day and the event was executed by Wooplr (a social discovery platform where people share and discover lifestyle purchases in fashion, decor and food). Hard-core Foursquare users turned up, to network and celebrate the event with gusto, and I can be honest, I turned up for the free food (I'm a food blogger, should this really come as a surprise?)

The event kicked off with a whiskey-tasting session (yeah, you missed that, HA!) which was hosted by Tommy McCready. He is the official brand ambassador for Jameson Whiskey and he loves giving these 'educative' sessions around the city about Jameson and whiskey in general. I tried the Jameson whiskey for the very first time in my life, and kinda liked it too. I tried the scotch next, which I thought was abysmal. And finally, the American whiskey, which turned out to be my favourite of the lot.Turns out, the Scotch was actually Johnny Walker's Red Label and the American Whiskey was Jack Daniel's.

Having quickly downed my whiskey(s), the steady stream of starters came about and a sense of euphoria finally swept through me (I just get really excited with food). The first starter was Lamb Meatballs served with mayonnaise. The lamb was actually really soft and subtly spiced and made for an excellent starter. To appease to the vegetarians, we were next served with Corn and Cheese Nuggets. The sweet corn and all of that creamy, stringy cheese made this an orgasmic starter. Like, really.

Lamb Meatballs

Corn and Cheese Nuggets

This was followed with Chicken and Cheese crostinis that were delicious. They weren't smothered in cheese like I would have liked them to be, but tasted good nevertheless. The chicken had a nice spiced hint to it and the bread was crunchy, yet bite-able. Many restaurants end up serving Bruschetta/Crostinis with bread so hard that would give you a toothache when you bite into them.

Chicken and Cheese Crostini

Then came the delectable Pork Ribs which I was grateful for (pork is my favourite meat). The sauce was absolutely delightful (but also had that store-bought BBQ sauce taste) but the texture of the meat was a total let-down. The meat should have been far more tender and have that wonderful fluffy, fat bits. Unfortunately, the meat was a lot tougher and seemed dry. The sauce more than made up for it though.

Pork Ribs

Finally, another veggie starter was brought about (I feel bad for vegetarians anyway, but just TWO veggie dishes seemed like open discrimination to me). These were simply fried potato wedges, lightly salted with a dash of herbs. Nothing to write home about. The final starter was a herby green chicken served with Thousand Island sauce, which like the potatoes, lacked a strong flavour, and wasn't highly memorable as such.

Potato Wedges

Herby Chicken

The service was swift, and courteous. Every server had a smiling face and patiently waited for me to take food photographs (you see, there were ALL bloggers in the house armed with cameras the size of their heads). And the ambience created for a nice place to catch up with large groups of friends. The view of the metro and MG Road makes it pleasant too.

This isn't entirely an honest review of Blimey, as this event was pre-planned and there were only a certain number of starters that I did try, so I'm not going to rate it. I did want to share the experience of trying out their food though, hence this blog post. Hope you enjoyed it! :) For more info on Wooplr, this event, and pictures from the event, you can click here. You can also follow my foodie recommendations on Wooplr here.

P.S. My blog is officially one month old. Yay! Thanks for all the love! :)

Shiro

As part of the Citibank Restaurant Week India, my sister decided to book a table at Shiro, one of Bangalore's favourite pan Asian restaurants. Restaurant Week was started in 2010, and the concept revolves around offering a 3 or 4-course meal for Rs.999 or less (excluding taxes) at each city's top fine dining restaurants. The idea is to reach a larger customer base who could enjoy a restaurant's signature delicacies at insider pricing.

We went as a group of 4 and booked a table for a Sunday night dinner. We chose the fine dining area instead of the outdoor area as the weather in Bangalore is currently very torrid and humidity is the last thing we wanted to deal with. The first thing that will strike you about Shiro when you enter is the massive Buddha sculpture that is suspended majestically which lends the restaurant an eery omnipresence. Also present were other equally large sculptures and some carvings, that make you marvel at the architecture and interiors.

The Restaurant Week menu was limited for us to choose any one dish from each course of the 4-course menu provided. Since there were 4 of us, we had an advantage of ordering a unique dish each and sampling each one of the highlighted dishes. We started off our meal by ordering the Chili Lemon Soup with Chicken, Thai Kwai Soup with seafood and an Apple Tomato Cinnamon Soup. The Thai Kwai soup was lovely, and fully loaded with prawns and crab meat. The Chili Lemon Soup with chicken tasted like a pot of comforting spicy, chicken tea, if I'm making any sense. It was delicious and the flavour was beautifully strong. The Apple soup disappointed me largely. It was sweet, which was expected, but it had a thick consistency of that of a curry and tasted like those typical ketchupy water soups.

The appetizer menu was extensive and we ordered the Fish in Chili Mustard Sauce, Thai Grilled Prawns with Wasabi Mayo, New York Maki Rolls and Tuna Mayo Sushi. The fish was cooked perfectly, was tender and the flavours of chilli and mustard were nailed with this appetizer. The prawns lacked a bit of seasoning for me, but that delicious Wasabi Mayo more than made up for it (we used it for dipping everything after that).

Fish in Chili Mustard Sauce

Thai Grilled Prawns with Wasabi Mayo

I have one word for the New York Maki. Orgasmic. Really. I can't describe the party in my mouth that I experienced when I popped that sushi in. I would probably go back to Shiro just to try this again. The Tuna Mayo Sushi was equally good, and it was wrapped with a thin sheet of cucumber. With the mayo and cucumber, this was very fresh, but not as good as the Maki for me.

New York Maki

Tuna Mayo Sushi

For the mains, options were pretty limited. We ordered the Chicken Laksa and Fish Laksa accompanied with Japanese steamed rice, and the Indonesian Grilled Chicken with Avocado Salsa and Grilled Chicken with Citrus Tamarind Glaze, accompanied with Hibachi Rice and Yaki Udon Noodles. The Fish Laksa was yum and paired beautifully with the steamed rice. The Chicken Laksa didn't fare that as well as the Fish Laksa for me. We found the  Indonesian Grilled Chicken a little too dry and lacking in terms of zing and flavour. The avocado salsa seemed to have been added as an afterthought and we didn't find much of avocado in it anyway.

Indonesian Grilled Chicken with Avocado Salsa

The Grilled Chicken with Citrus Tamarind Glaze was nice and tender and the tanginess of the tamarind with the acidity of the citrus made for a wonderful marriage of flavours. The meat was also moist and was served with charred corn kernels that had a nutty sweetness along with that 'burnt' flavour riding through them.

Grilled Chicken with Citrus Tamarind Glaze

By the time we reached our final course, we were pretty stuffed, but we always have room for a little dessert ;) Their dessert menu is strangely only full of chocolate based desserts, which doesn't leave much for the non-chocolate lovers (yes, they do exist). Strange. There were only two options for us in our set menu and we ordered one of each - the Velvet Chocolate Cake and the Coconut Pecan Tart with chocolate chips.

Coconut Pecan Tart

The Velvet Chocolate Cake was just as described - soft and velvety. It had a nice consistency and a texture that simply dissolved in your mouth. And once that velvety softness melted, crunchy butterscoth bits are a mouthy surprise, and added great texture to this dish. Everyone loved this. The Coconut Pecan Tart was not too sweet and had that nice dessicated coconut taste running through. The chocolate chips and pecan nuts brought out a new dimension, but I would have liked more textures - I would have liked the filling more soft and molten on a crunchy tart. Flavour wise, I liked the tart more. Consistency wise, the cake fared better.

Velvet Chocolate Cake

This 4-course meal with the Restaurant Week offer, costed us Rs. 980 per head (inclusive of taxes) and was totally worth it.

Food - 9/10
Service - 8/10
Ambience - 11/10
Verdict - Sushi it up!

I would definitely go back to Shiro's for a Sushi overload, and possibly when the next Restaurant Week happens :)