Launch of Moët Chandon Brut at Skyye

Last week, I was invited to the launch of Moet Hennessey - Chandon Brut at Skyye Bar, and having a crazy work week, I decided to drop by for a bubbly or two.

As I entered the bar, I was greeted by two gentlemen by the door who were pouring out glasses of chilled sparkling wine to the guests. I really liked this, as I've been to launches of beverages before where I've practically had to chase the bartender for getting a drink. 

Don't you just love being greeted with bottles of sparkling wine?

Skyye was at its beautiful best as always, and underwent a French makeover to suit the Chandon launch. The décor included elements of French whimsy, inspired by the idea of creating genuine connections. From custom created miniature topiaries to a giant screen depicting French windows opening out to floating parachutes, the ambience was a translation of the Chandon ethos.

The visuals were stunning! They brought a piece of France right to Bangalore!

Personally, I liked the wine. Light, heady and delivered a nice punch. I must admit, this was a first for me for a Moet sparkling wine, I've always been a red wine drinker and stick to my Merlots and Shiraz. The aroma was strong on notes of apples, pear and some citrus. I liked the texture and for me, there was a perfect balance of bittersweet (although some might think it's too sweet) flavours. The Chandon Brut was quite refreshing, and could be a possible favourite drink for me, particularly in the coming summer.

Some might ask, what's the difference between a sparkling wine and champagne? Aren't they both bubbly?
Well, yes they are. But to keep it simple, a sparkling wine can be called a champagne if and only if it comes from the region of Champagne in France. The French are pretty touchy about their wines and champagne, and sparkling wine produced anywhere else in the world doesn't earn itself the name of a champagne. Ergo, all champagnes are sparkling wines, all sparkling wines aren't champagne.

Fun fact: Sparkling wines like Champagne actually have the same health benefits as red wine, since bubbly is often made with both red and white grapes. In fact, Champagne was found to have as many of those beneficial polyphenols as a cup of hot chocolate. I found more reasons to drink a glass of this bubbly now. ;)

A bit about the history of Chandon: 
In the late 1950s, Moët & Chandon, the world’s leading Champagne House since 1743, began exploring the potential for producing world class sparkling wines outside of the Champagne region, under the ‘Chandon’ name. The first Chandon Estate was created in 1959 in Argentina.
Following in the pioneering steps of the founders and continuing its search for new winemaking territories, Moët Hennessy Estates & Wines determined that the Nashik region had the potential to produce world-class, premium quality sparkling wine. Chandon is the first offering from Moët Hennessy to be made in India. Combining the centuries-old sparkling wine-making practices of “methode traditionnelle” with the finest local grapes, Chandon will be available in two variants:  Chandon Brut and Chandon Brut Rosé.

While conversations flowed at the chic soirée as guests sipped their flutes of Chandon Brut, the appetizers did the rounds. With delicious bite sized portions that complemented the wine perfectly, I indulged myself quite extensively with the food. Here are a few pictures from the night:

Yes, that's wood, Parmesan crackling, red pepper and bread - all on one plate. Not only was this delicious, but scored very high on brownie points for presentation. :)

Cheesy Chicken Tarts that I loved. Perfectly sized so that you can wolf down a dozen of them.

Chicken and Mushroom Wontons topped with chilli paste and boy, were they delicious or what!

I LOVE oysters! And these were topped with Harissa paste and I added a squeeze of fresh lemon to create flavours that were beyond delicious. 

And we finally ended the night with an assorted cheese platter with nuts and blueberry preserve. I ensured that I guarded this long enough to get my hands on as much as cheese as I could.

All in all, it was a fun night with lots of conversations, refreshing wine and yummilicious food. Two thumbs up for the Chandon Brut, this will definitely make it into my collection for a ladies night in.

Pricing:
The Chandon Brut with its fruity flavour and taste is priced at Rs.1,200 and will be available in select stores in the city soon.

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

Medici

Medici easily comes in my top 5 favourite restaurants in Bangalore. The food is delicious, the ambience is really nice and truly fits the bill of 'fine dining' and the service has always been outstanding. Despite this, I have never visited the restaurants when it has been super crowded or have had to wait for a table (even on a late Saturday night).

I've been visiting Medici for the past 3 years (since it opened) and always thought that the food they served was world-class. The name Medici has been inspired from Queen Catherine de Medici, an Italian, who married a French man and brought to his court an array of Italian delicacies, birthing the beautiful union of French and Italian food, flavours that are loved world over.

We went for lunch to Medici on a Friday afternoon and surprisingly, we didn't find any customers at the restaurant (it was 1:30). I generally struck a conversation with our server to shockingly find that Medici was moving. They have two floors on the building in Indiranagar - one floor is the restaurant, and the floor above that is Muse, a lounge bar. They would probably be have one fine dining section on the top, also sharing that floor with a lounge bar section. Also, they would probably be revamping the menu, bringing in more Indian influences *shudders*. Apparently, this is what customers want.

Quite disappointing to hear, so if any of you want to try their delicious food, you should probably head to Medici pretty soon. Looks like they are about to move within a month, so ensure you pay a visit to their restaurant before they do. (Disclaimer: Medici has NOT paid me to promote them, neither did I get a meal on the house).

So, about the food. I started out with ordering the Chicken and Fig Salad and my friend ordered the Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tart. The salad was actually nice and refreshing and had a sweet-savoury flavour running through it. The chicken and fig blended well and the lettuce was coated nicely in a honey-mustard dressing.

The Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tart was also quite yummy (according to me, caramelized onion and goat cheese is a combination that can't go wrong). The tart was baked to that perfect crispness and the onions lent a nice sweetness to the salty cheese. If anything, I'd have liked more seasoning. And a bigger portion. Definitely a bigger portion.

For the main course, I ordered the Filet Mignon, as it's my favourite cut. This steak was marinated in Dijon mustard and rosemary and served with a red wine jus. The steak was given to me just the way I asked for it - medium rare (not many restaurants actually serve up a medium rare). The meat was nice and I liked the jus but I would have liked more seasoning. So our waiter prompty served me some Dijon mustard and a crack of pepper, something that blended beautifully with the steak. The portion size was large and I was disappointed that there were no veggies or mash served with it. I mean, it's a steak! What's a steak without mash and veggies anyway?

My friend ordered the Chicken de Medici, one of their signature dishes. This was simply a chicken breast stuffed with mascarpone and sundried tomato, also served with a red wine jus along with a rosemary potato.The chicken was nice and tender and the creaminess of the cheese along with the sourness of the sundried tomatoes married wonderfully. This was served with veggies like bell peppers and zucchini (I find veggies a must with meat - it adds more texture).

For dessert, I ordered the Chocolate Fondant, which is by far, the most orgasmic dessert I've had in the city. When you poke it, and all of that chocolate goodness oozes out, and you spoon a delicate bite of that into your mouth, you'll know 'orgasmic' was an understated word. It was not too sweet, not too hot, and was nicely soft and warm.

My friend ordered the Wine Poached Pears (I'm beginning to see a wine theme here), because this is another signature dish of theirs that we've happened to love before. The pear is poached is poached in wine, decored and stuffed with cream cheese. The first time I tried this (2 years ago), this was delicious, but this time it was slightly disappointing. The pear was poached for too long, and the cream cheese tasted obnoxiously sweet.

Overall, a good meal with a nice ambience and outstanding service again. Unfortunately, since this restaurant is moving and plans to bring about some changes in the menu, I suggest you visit Medici before it revamps itself. It truly remains one of the finest restaurants in the city.

Food - 8.5/10
Ambience - 9/10
Service - 11/10
Verdict - Definitely visit before they change their menu! :(

P.S. On an unrelated note, I also read here that Bangalore's legendary steakhouse, The Only Place is closing. If it really is shutting down, then do make a visit to The Only Place before this weekend (March 31st) to experience a piece of Bangalore history. Also, visit Medici :)

Toit Brewpub

Toit Brewpub has become synonymous with us Bangaloreans for being the go-to place to drink some good beer, munch some yum starters, listen to some music and drink up some more good beer. Having opened in 2010, Toit is ridiculously popular in the city over the weekends (don't even bother walking in after 9 on a weekend) and quite a hangout over the weekdays too.

I've been visiting Toit for the longest time and have almost always enjoyed my experience there. I especially loved the food, and kept going back for their delicious chicken wings. The last few times that I did visit Toit, the food didn't match up to a great standard, service was indifferent and the beers, well, they kept me happy. This review on Toit is based on my last visit to the pub.

Since Toit has its own microbrewery, you must try their beers - they make for a nice change compared to your standard fare of alcohol. You can choose between Weiss, Dark Knight, Colonel, Basmati Blonde, Tintin and I think a few more that I can't seem to remember. My favourite remains the Weiss, which is light and has a savoury-sweet taste. Basmati Blonde leans in closest to the Weiss as well. The Colonel and Dark Knight have that bittery taste of beer that most guys seem to love. Tintin has not been a favourite to anyone I know.

For those of you who are confused on which beer to choose, I suggest you order the beer samplers pictured below that give you a chance of trying out different kinds of beer.

And now, yes, the food. Like I mentioned earlier, their quality seems to have declined in recent times for me. Pictured here are the potato skins with bacon. These were nice, but I remember them being a lot fuller earlier and as actual potato halves instead of these small bits.

The Chicken Piccata is simply crumb-fried chicken that is lightly spiced. I was never a fan of this and it honestly doesn't taste like anything writing worthy about.

I love ordering something that sounds totally odd on the menu. So these Snake Bites definitely caught my attention. They're simply serpent gourd bits stuffed with lamb mince. While I thought they were refreshingly nice, my friend thought that it was quite an odd combination and wasn't its biggest fan.

When it comes to pizzas, I think Toit has the right idea, but they did screw up our order. We ordered the half and half of a BBQ Chicken Pizza and a Veggie Attack pizza. After having waited for twenty five whole minutes, when we asked our waiter about the pizza, he seemed genuinely puzzled and then tried to cover it up by stating that it'd take 5 minutes (this is the Indian Standard Time deviation of at least another 15 minutes). When the pizza did arrive, the BBQ chicken bit kept spilling all over with the sauce having splashed around happily. Clearly, the pizza wasn't baked long enough and our waiter didn't seem to care that it wasn't. He seemed pretty happy with the pizza.

And, the one dessert that I do order everytime at Toit is their Apple Pie. It's so beautifully baked to perfection that it makes me want to cry. The softness of the apples against that crunchy base with that light hint of cinnamon riding through make this for a perfect dessert. Two thumbs up.

Other recommendations at Toit include the Pork Chops that are succulent and well-seasoned, the Boozy Chicken where you can't taste the beer but that broccoli sauce is 'Oh, Wow!', Chicken Wings and Fried Calamari.

Dishes you can miss at Toit are the Beefy Loaded Potatoes that are poorly seasoned and so loaded that it makes your belly uncomfortable, Bacon wrapped Chicken with Almonds which made it difficult to distinguish any particular taste and Chicken in Peppers that simply tastes like a warm, spicy chicken salad.

Overall, my rating for Toit:
Food - 6/10
Ambience - 8/10
Service - 5/10
Beer - I bow down to the Weiss

Would you like to add anything to my review for Toit? Do comment! I'd love to hear your tryst with food! :) Until next time, here's a picture of beers to keep you happy. Cheers! :)