Loft 38

Indiranagar is one my favourite areas to dine at in the city. And when a friend told me that she'd like to meet me for a nice dinner and drinks, I figured a hotspot in the area had to do. 4 of us decided to meet up at Loft38, the uber flashy bar located on 100 feet, Indiranagar on a Wednesday night.

We got there early, and while we didn't make a reservation, we were seated immediately with no fuss. The ambience of Loft38 is quite unparalleled to most of Bangalore's popular bars. The space is *huge*, sprawled across three floors and lighting is wonderfully done. The well-stocked bar is replete with bartenders with fancy tricks up their sleeve who put up quite a show when you want your drinks done. Also, with at least 3 dedicated bartenders at all times, you never have to worry to wait too long for your drink.

Some cocktails to get started with.

We were seated upstairs and got started with our drinks and a few appetizers. The first pick was a unanimous one, with me ordering the Mezze Platter. It consisted of Hummus, Baba Ghanoush, Tzatziki, Falafel, marinated olives, kidney bean salad, Syrian Fattoush, Pita bread and crackers. I loved the Baba Ghanoush and Hummus - the texture wasn't too grainy, and the dips weren't too runny. They were of the right consistency. The kidney bean salad was a first for me in a Mezze platter and didn't stand out. The breads were fresh and delicious, and the Kibbeh wasn't too dry. My favourite picks were clearly the Hummus and Baba Ghanoush with Pita bread from this platter.

Mezze Platter

Keeping the Meditteranean theme in mind, my friend ordered the Spicy Falafel. The deep-fried spicy falafel was served with tarator and Pita pockets. The falafel, unfortunately, fell flat for me as it was too dry for my taste and was under seasoned as well. The tarator (sesame sauce) was light and fresh and managed to make up for the vapidness of the falafel.

Spicy Falafel

The Spicy Prawns Yakitori was the next dish that caught our eye. "Yakitori" generally refers to grilled meat, most often chicken, so I was curious to see how the prawns Yakitori would turn out. They weren't served on a skewer and while they tasted delicious, they weren't exactly grilled. The sesame coated prawns were packed with flavour, cooked well and firm, but the strong hit of chilli doesn't get to you until it passes down your throat. Served atop a slice of cucumber, the prawns took no time to disappear at our table, easily making it one of the best dishes of the night.

Next, we ordered the Thai Grilled Mackerel, which were fresh mackerel fillets marinated with turmeric, galangal, lemon grass, skewered up and grilled. I might be a little biased here because of my love for Thai food, but the mackerel tasted out of this world. Perfectly seasoned with the right balance of galangal and lemon grass and grilled beautifully. Since we enjoyed the mackerels, we ordered the Harissa Prawns, also on skewers, which were coated with a Tunisian style spicy marinade. These prawns, while uniquely stretched across a skewer, lacked depth in flavour and failed to impress as the Yakitori Prawns had.

Thai Grilled Mackerel

Harissa Prawns

My friend who enjoys vegetarian food, placed an order for Grilled Cottage Cheese. I generally detest cottage cheese, so I wasn't looking forward to trying this. Though when the server did bring it, I was a bit curious to try it out. The dish was presented well, and the cottage cheese slices were coated in a homemade marinade layered atop one another with a delicious filling of apricot and chilli salsa. The strong flavour from the herbs of the cottage cheese cut through the sweet heat of the apricot and chilli salsa. Would I order this again? I'm not sure. Did it leave an impression? Yes.

Grilled Cottage Cheese with Apricot and Chilli Salsa

And while our stomachs were beginning to get filled up, we quickly ordered our main courses before we changed our minds. I knew what I needed. Some good pork. The Roasted Pork Belly made itself conspicuous to my eye and I couldn't help but order it. The roasted pork belly was marinated in a yellow bean paste and Hoisin sauce and served with Japanese sticky rice. This dish made my night; there was nothing more that I could have wanted. The pork belly was tender, juicy, fatty and bouncing of such strong flavours of the sweet spicy Hoisin that I wanted to marry it. The sticky rice served as a perfect complement to the fatty belly and both the pork and rice served my belly perfectly. ;)

Yummy Pork Belly with sticky rice

My friend wanted to try something in beef and so he ordered for the Beef Tenderloin. The roasted beef tenderloin was topped with a caramelized onion jus and was served along with sauteed mushrooms and mashed potato. We had specifically asked our server to get the beef done medium rare as we like that pinkness in our meat. The beef we got was cooked beyond just medium rare and as a result, a little tougher. Unfortunately, we didn't enjoy this too much because of the way the meat was cooked, and despite telling our server this, he simply said that this is how they cooked their meat. It was quite disappointing.

Beef Tenderloin with caramelized onion jus

We also ordered the Roasted Spring Chicken which was herb marinated and served with roasted vegetables and jus. The chicken was well cooked and the marinade was vibrant, redolent of a freshly made pesto, and went well with veggies and mash. The marinade was also slightly similar to that of the cottage cheese dish that we had earlier, making me wonder whether they were the same or not.

Roasted Spring Chicken with veggies and mash

Despite being full, we obviously had another stomach kept aside for downing some desserts. My friend ordered the Flourless Chocolate Cake. The chocolate cake was infused with orange caramel and served with vanilla ice-cream. I found the fact that the cake was flourless quite intriguing and wondered how the texture would turn out to be. To my delight, the cake was almost velvety soft and the bitterness of the orange caramel had a light undertone to the cake that went extremely well with the vanilla ice-cream.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice-cream

Our next dessert conquest was the Churros con Chocolate. Yes, at the table, the belief was that there could be no such thing as too much chocolate. Plus, I love Churros. There was no way I wasn't going to order them. The fried choux pastries were served with assorted chocolate dips with percentages of dark chocolate and milk chocolate varying, as can be told by the levels of bitterness in the dips. This was an outstandingly good dessert and the different chocolate dips brought a whole new dimension of flavour to regular ol' chocolate based desserts. It's a must try and not to be ignored, especially if you like chocolate.

Churros con Chocolate

During the whole evening, we found the service extremely pleasant and courteous, and they always checked on us if they noticed our glasses/plates empty. Being in countless situations where I've walked to the counter to get someone to take our order, this was a nice change. The music being played was also phenomenal. Loud enough to get your foot tapping and get you to groove but not too loud that you can't hear any conversations.

Overall, we had a great time, and there were a few hits and misses with the food. But the ambience, service, music and some dishes stood out well enough for me to make a repeat visit. My rating:
Food - 6.5/10
Service - 9/10
Ambience - 10/10
Verdict - Visit if you like Asian food and are looking to have a great night out with your friends.

Loft 38 is located at: 763, 100 Feet Road, Near Sony World, Indiranagar, Bangalore
Phone: 080-4933-7555
Parking: Valet parking available

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

New Year's Eve at Portland Steakhouse

Happy New Year to all you wonderful people! Hope your year is full of good food and fun. :) (I know I'm a whole 10 days late, but there's no such thing as a late wish, is there?)

Every year on New Year's Eve, I decide to go to one of those parties where I end up paying a bomb and get nibbles of food to eat, if the hordes of people give us a chance. One party, they ran out of food. Another, there was a queue so long, that I don't remember whether I reached the end of the line or not. Once, there was almost a stampede at the food counters.

So this year, we decided to do food justice and indulge in a good dinner instead of those measly bites. Many restaurants were offering some great menus, but after researching, I decided to go with Portland Steakhouse. The restaurant is located centrally and I've never had a disappointing experience so far, so that helped finalize my decision. They offered a 4-course meal along with a glass of wine for Rs.1649/- inclusive of taxes, which sounded like a good deal to me.

We walked in early to have enough time to devour our meal through the night. The restaurant was partially full, and to our pleasant surprise, the staff members had lit a bonfire outside (it's like a verandah just away from the restaurant) and it seemed to generate a lovely warmth through the air.

For our first course, our options were spread across 3 soups and 2 salads. Not being in the mood for the tried and tested tomato soups and clear chicken soups, we decided to go for the salads instead. While my friend ordered the Caesar Salad with Prawns, I opted for the Watermelon, Feta and Cucumber Salad. The Caesar Salad was lovely, fresh Romaine lettuce leaves tossed with Caesar's dressing, croutons, prawns and Parmesan shavings. I would have liked a little more dressing, but my friend didn't seem to mind. My salad was fresh and bursting with flavours. The watermelon, feta and lettuce were coated beautifully with a strawberry vinaigrette dressing that I loved. The cucumbers were sliced lengthwise too thinly, and I didn't enjoy them too much. I would've liked more texture too - crunch of walnuts, perhaps.

Caesar's Salad with Prawns

Watermelon, Feta and Cucumber Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette Dressing

Our second course had a lot more options - a total of 10 to choose from, which made us argue a lot over what to order. We eliminated the vegetarian options instantly, and after more such eliminations, we finally agreed on the Pasilla Chilli Beef and Melba Toasts with Salmon. I was quite excited about the Pasilla Chilli Beef - I had the Pasilla Chilli Chicken Wings at a bar in New York, and it was one of the spiciest dishes I've ever tried. The beef here didn't disappoint either. It was quite spicy, and balanced well with the sweetness of the bell peppers. The Melba Toasts were our favourite though. Smoked Salmon over cream cheese with dill spread on toasts make for quite the delicious, light appetizer. Also, say goodbye to table manners when you wolf down this one.

Pasilla Chilli Beef

Smoked Salmon with cream cheese on Melba Toasts

The third course was what got excited us from the very beginning - again, there were a total of 10 dishes to choose from, and it seemed to be quite a meaty affair. They had the Rib Eye Steak and New York Strip in the mains, but since we'd already tried both the steaks here earlier, we decided to try something else. Our other options were Lobster (for which you had to pay Rs.250 extra), Christmas Day Chicken, Duck and Turkey.

My friend picked the Roast Turkey with Gravy with baked sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce, and I ordered the Crispy Duck with Chilli Plum sauce. I thought the turkey was a little dry and could have done with some gravy, and then we had someone from the management who offered to top the meat with more gravy (without us asking for it); so they definitely scored brownie points for service. My duck wasn't as crispy as I imagined it would be. I expected fried, crispy pieces of duck, but while the outer skin of the duck was a little crispy, it was doused with too much sauce, softening the skin and meat by the time I tried it. Yeah, one dish had no gravy, and one had too much. :) Other than that, I thought the sweet potato mash and cranberry sauce really stood out.

Crispy Duck with Chilli Plum Sauce

Roast Turkey with gravy, baked sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce

As you may have guessed, we were pretty stuffed by the end of our third course, yet there is always some space for dessert in my tummy. I ordered the New York Style Cheese Cake while my friend ordered Haroon's famous Apple Pie. The apple pie tasted yum and had a nice crunch to it. Though I think it lacked a little cinnamon and sprinkling of castor sugar to me. The cheese cake was beyond delicious, and had a consistency accompanied with that perfect tang to die for. Their apple pie is their signature dessert, but the cheese cake was the clear winner for us that night.

New York Style Cheesecake

Haroon's famous Apple Pie

We ate to our heart's and stomach's content, and couldn't have imagined a better meal for NYE. Maybe they should feature this menu more regularly, they might just have more takers.

Overall, my rating for this special dinner at Portland Steakhouse is:

Food - 7/10
Ambience - 8/10
Service - 10/10
Verdict - They treat meat with respect, and don't disappoint in desserts either. It would take a lot more to convince the vegetarians though.

Portland Steakhouse has a great menu and is easily my favourite place in the city for good steaks. They understand what "medium rare" actually means and the meat cuts (Rib eye, Chateaubriand, New York strip steak), delicious sides and a variety of sauces really makes them stand out from the rest of the steak joints. If you haven't visited this place yet, I suggest you do at the earliest. You won't be disappointed. :)