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