Mexifornia Menu at California Pizza Kitchen

I have been hogging so much lately, that it seems like all I do everyday is eat half a dozen times (maybe even more). New restaurants to try out, blogger meets, all-you-can-eat buffets, all catch my fancy, and are somehow getting the better of me. In another blogger meet at California Pizza Kitchen last week, I tried out their new menu inspired from Mexico, or as they like to call it, their Mexifornia menu.

When I entered the restaurant, the servers greeted me with a big smile wearing cute sombreros (the Mexican hat, that I absolutely adore). Keeping in mind the theme of Mexico, everything from the music to the decor was suited well to it. After being seated, Chef Kuldeep Bharani began to outline the menu for the night and mentioned that CPK introduces a Mexican style menu every year and loves experimenting with the flavours. With the state of California bordering Mexico, it only made sense that the brand stayed true to its roots and paid a tribute to the neighbouring country's cuisine.

We started off with the CPK Nachos - these were regular nachos, topped with oodles of cheese sauces, jalapenos, cilantro, tomatoes and a nice dollop of sour cream. I believe it's hard to go wrong with nachos, and well, that stayed true here too. I enjoyed the nachos, but I would have enjoyed a nice big blob of guacamole as well. Nachos + cheese + guacamole + sour cream = Heaven!

CPK Nachos

Next up, we had to Tick Our Pick, where we got to create our own Tapas platter by choosing a base (flat tostada, tacos, chalupa), topping (chipotle salsa, roasted corn, checca, sonora chicken, southern chicken), sauce (jalapeno guacamole, sour cream, spicy tomato) and garnish (shredded lettuce, sour cream, scallion). Since there were 8 of us at the table, we all experimented with the various toppings, bases and sauces. I selected a crunchy taco with roasted corn, jalapeno guacamole, sour cream and shredded lettuce. I thought the flavours really came together in this and the heat of the jalapeno in the guacamole cut through the sourness of the cream wonderfully.

Crunchy taco with roast corn, jalapeno guacamole and sour cream

The pizza menu was then laid out in front of us and before I could order, the chef said he'd be dishing out every pizza there was in the menu for us to try. Unflinchingly and with no complaints, I patiently waited for the pizzas to arrive. We kicked off with the Serrano Cotija Pizza which had marinated Baja cottage cheese on a regular crust with mozzarella, roasted corn and mushrooms. I personally do not like cottage cheese, but this pizza made me think otherwise. Baja marinade is a very tangy, Mexican-style blend of garlic, citrus, chilli pepper and cilantro that gives a kick to meats and vegetables in most Mexican dishes. The Baja cottage cheese was lovely here and the corn and mushrooms were perfect accompaniments.

Serrano Cotija Pizza

Next, we were given the Egg & Chicken Pizza, a spicy but simple pizza with minced chicken, eggs and red bell peppers. I didn't like this pizza at all, and felt that the flavours didn't work. I personally thought this would be an egg Florentine of sorts (with a bubbly egg cracked in the middle of the pizza). It tasted too, for the lack of a better word, eggy. Yes, egg pizza that tastes eggy is expected, but it did not taste good and it just didn't work. The chicken mince also lacked seasoning. The rest of the bloggers at my table agreed.

Egg and Chicken Pizza with red bell peppers

The Sonora Salsa Pizza was queued up next, a thin crust pizza topped with roasted tomato salsa, mozzarella, homemade roasted corn and black bean salsa, garnished with jalapeno guacamole sauce and cilantro. This pizza to me, represented Mexico at its best. The roasted corn and black bean salsa were redolent of flavours from Mexico, forged with the acidity of the tomato salsa, along with the heat of that jalapeno guacamole that I loved made for a light pizza packed with powerful flavours.

Sonora Salsa Pizza

The Tijuana Chicken Pizza, which Chef Bharani said was the most selling pizza of the menu, soon made its rounds. Albuquerque sauce smeared on a thin crust with mozzarella, grilled onions, shredded chicken and sliced jalapenos topped this pizza. I'm partial to jalapenos, so I did enjoy this pizza, but these jalapenos weren't from the bottled ones soaked in a brine solution. Fresh jalapenos used on this pizza elevated the flavour profile of all the toppings as well and made for a spicy-licious pizza that we all enjoyed.

Tijuana Pizza

The final pizza was the Southwestern Pizza, with refried bean sauce on a regular crust topped with grilled onions, tomatoes, baby corn, broccoli and sour cream. This pizza didn't excite me too much, and somehow the sourness of the cream dominated the flavour of the refried beans making this just another pizza with veggies and chicken that lacked character.

Southwestern Pizza

With our tummies nearly full with the pizzas, we learnt that there were 'Specialties' from the Mexifornia menu that weren't to be missed. With a heavy heart because of a heavy stomach, I reached out to take a bite of the beautiful Baja Fish in Banana Leaf - a lovely Baja marinated Basa fish that was wrapped in a banana leaf and baked in a hearth oven. Chef Bharani mentioned that the fish was cooked with two techniques - steaming and baking. The fish was perfectly moist and tender, and the citrusy kick of the Baja marinade made love to the fish so delicately, that I gorged it down in quick mouthfuls.

Baja Fish in Banana Leaf

With me being stuffed up nearly to my neck, I went ahead and tried the Tex Mex Fajita served with sauteed onions, bell peppers, shredded chicken tossed in soy sauce and fajita spice with homemade tortillas with quintessential sides of guacamole, sour cream and roasted tomato salsa. The soy sauce in the meat in a Mexican menu seemed a little off to me, but the chef explained that it was to give it a salty kick that would work well with the flavours of the sour cream and guacamole. In a strange way, he turned out to be right, but yet again, the guacamole and sour cream dominated the flavours, though I'm not entirely complaining. I've always had a soft spot for fajitas with guacamole after all.

Tex Mex Fajita

The California Styled Burritto Wrap arrived in all its glory, filled with California rice, refried black bean sauce, cheddar cheese and shredded lettuce, drizzled with sour cream and served with spicy BBQ sauce and fries. Now this is a massive burritto, and a portion that could easily feed at least two people. Standard burritto filling, nothing to write home about, except that it was quite heavy. I would have liked some jalapenos/chilli and a dash of lemon to give it some zing, as it tasted a little too vapid to me.

California Styled Burritto Wrap

If you don't already know, there is one stomach for food, and another for dessert. So while I had stuffed myself uptil my brain, my second tummy immediately opened up to welcome dessert with open arms. The first dessert I tried was the Apple Enchilada - crisp wonton sheets with apple compote and Philadelphias cheese, which were fried until sweet and golden brown, served with apple sauce and vanilla ice-cream. When it comes to fruits in desserts, I love the use of apple; when it's deep fried in wonton sheets, even more so. This was truly a magical dessert that had the right balance of different textures of crunchy and soft, different flavours, and even the hot and cold between the wontons and ice-cream, all work a little too well to create an orgasmic dessert that will leave you wanting more (I'm not kidding, I was halfway home when my third craving got to me).

Apple Enchiladas

The other dessert was the Coconut Lime Tres Leches Cake, which is a popular Mexican dessert, and had a light and fluffy texture, dominant with flavours of coconut and lime. The flavour of the coconut milk is quite distinct and is cut sharply with the citric acidity of the lime; despite that, the fluffy texture and the flavours somehow didn't create the best of desserts for me. The table was divided on the verdict of this dish, so it's really a matter of personal preference (as is in all cases).

Coconut Lime Tres Leches Cake

Now that I had my share of dessert(s), I was officially stuffed and couldn't eat a morsel more. Overall, I enjoyed the Mexifornia menu that CPK had to offer and definitely recommend it to those who like Mexican food. Must-trys include the Sonora Salsa PIzza, Tijuana Chicken Pizza, Baja Fish in Banana Leaf and the Apple Enchiladas.

Note: The special Mexifornia menu is available only till July 6th, so make sure you visit soon. Also, they have a special menu for Margaritas, but due to license issues, it's only served in the CPK outlet in Whitefield. If you do try the drinks there, please leave a comment below and let me know! :)

The Fatty Bao

There's only so much of ignorance you can afford when a new restaurant pops up in town. Especially when people start raving about its food, when it is in a convenient location like Indiranagar, and when the man behind it is Manu Chandra, a chef Bangalore loves.

So it was no surprise that my sister and I decided earlier last week that we needed to find time over the weekend to visit Fatty Bao to enter Asian food heaven. The gastro bar opened a fortnight ago in Indiranagar, next door to Monkey Bar (run by the same management). We visited on a Sunday night with no reservation because that's how much of a smart ass I was as I believed Sunday night wouldn't be too crowded at 7:30 pm. WRONG!

We couldn't find a table on the 3rd floor, so we were seated upstairs, in the terrace area. I actually liked this better, the top floor looked much nicer, and while I would have liked to be seated at one of the empty tables (every single table was reserved), we made do with being seated at the bar. I generally don't mind bar seating, I have a strange penchant for bar stools, but that's only when I'm in a let's-get-guzzling-mood, which I wasn't sadly, on a Sunday night.

We had to get started with getting us some Bao (open faced steam buns). In all honesty, the delectable picture of the pork belly Bao that Kunal Chandra had put up on Facebook recently made me nearly cry at work and make me want to visit the place at the earliest. Damn that guy with his amazing food pictures! So, as I was saying, we got started with a meaty Bao, the rolls and the salmon carpaccio. My friend and I ordered a beer while my sister ordered the Micky Ninja, one of their signature cocktails - vodka shaken with muddled fresh orange slices and cucumber with a dash of Jameson whisky. It was fresh and lovely, though I found the cucumber taste to be a little too dominant for my liking, and dash of whiskey would be quite accurate.

Micky Ninja!

We waited nearly 30 minutes for our first dish to arrive, and we were pretty frustrated by then. We were famished, and after half an hour, our first dish, the Salmon Carpaccio finally made its appearance. Delicate slices of salmon with ginger & garlic juice, soy, yuzu and topped with sliced jalapeno and radish made for a pretty sight. And while it was delicious, it was over in exactly 2 bites. I would have liked the carpaccio to be a bit thinner, I personally found the salmon to have a bit too much of body here.

Salmon Carpaccio

Another ten minutes and a lot of bothering-our-server later, our food finally turned up (with the rat race in our tummies and estimating the long wait for our food, we ordered a few more dishes while waiting). First up, the dish that had me drooling at my laptop screen all week - Char Siu Bao, BBQ pork belly and green apple kimchi in Hoisin sauce in a Bao. One bite of this and I had angels singing "Hallelujah!" inside my head. It was THAT good. Pork is my favourite meat, so this may be a little biased, but you won't regret ordering this dish. The pork is succulent, meaty and melts in your mouth. Hoisin sauce also renders it a nice sweet, salty and tangy taste that I enjoy, so I'm giving you the heads up anyway. Also, this is messy. Ensure you're not ordering this on a first date or anything (unless your date would devour this messily too, in which case GAME ON!).

Char Siu Bao - OMNOMNOMNOMNOM!

This was promptly followed by the California Roll - your standard fare of cucumber and crab meat in a Sushi roll sprinkled with Tobiko (flying fish roe). This didn't disappoint, and was light and fresh. And as you may have guessed, disappeared in 60 seconds.

California Roll

My sister and I enjoy duck and since there are not too many places in town that serve good duck, we decided to experiment with the duck-based dishes at Fatty Bao. They had two options - the Crispy Duck Spring Rolls and the pan-fried Bao with duck. We told our server to give us what he felt was the best, and he served us the Sheng Jian Bao (steamed buns pan fried on a cast iron) with duck in Hoisin and spring onion. I will be called the layman here, but these tasted like regular pot stickers with duck meat that failed to leave a mark. That, or maybe my expectations were too high, but I wasn't its biggest fan. With only four Baos, this was the only dish that didn't fly within a minute, with the last steamed Bao being untouched.

Sheng Jian Bao

Since we generally like Sushi rolls, we ordered a couple more - the Spicy Tuna Tartare and the Prawn Tempura. Delicious, and also disappeared 60 seconds later. I felt that I could have 12 plates of the rolls and still continue to eat with no shame whatsoever.

Spicy Tuna Tartare and Prawn Tempura rolls

We were almost done, when we decided to order another Bao - with Braised Beef Cheeks, because who doesn't like beef cheeks? Stuffed with pickled radish, pickled red onion and cucumber,  the flavour and texture of the beef cheeks stood out. The richness of the meat with the acidity of the pickled veggies combined very well to create a delicious dish. Having said that, I still prefer the BBQ pork belly Bao to the beef cheeks, but you could give the latter a try if you like to experiment (P.S. Bao take at least about 15 - 25 minutes for preparation, I was told later).

Bao with Braised Beef Cheeks

I think we were finally full (were we?), and the place was packed by the time we left (which was around 10 30 pm) Our bill for all of the above came up to Rs.4000 for 3 people that included 3 beers and a cocktail. While all the dishes are priced between Rs.250 - 400, since the portions are small, they might not exactly 'fill' you up. And well, I guess that comes with being a gastro bar, because the idea is to serve you bar food with bar style portions. I'm a heavy eater, so maybe my opinion shouldn't always apply to the general bar-going crowd. ;)

My rating:
Food - 8/10
Ambience - 6/10
Service - 5.5/10
Verdict: If Asian food is your thing and you like to experiment, then give this place a go. Visit for yummy Baos and meat cooked to perfection, but be willing to patiently wait and settle for smaller portions.

I would definitely visit Fatty Bao again, they've won me over with their food. And I'm hoping my next visit doesn't have such a high wait period. Also, the music is a little too low-key for me. It almost sounds like it's a jazz lounge for the hoity toity, but I'll save my judgment on that. The tempo could be brought up though, since good music is key to a bar's overall ambience.

Fatty Bao is located at: 610, 3rd Floor, Above Monkey Bar, 12th Main, Indiranagar, Bangalore
Phone: 080-4513-3582 (please make a reservation)
Parking: Parking space available in the bylanes of Indiranagar