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 :)

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 :)

Under The Mango Tree

Under The Mango Tree is one of those restaurants in the city that you would usually enjoy going back to. It's a great place for friends to catch up with conversations without having to scream over the loud music and also a great place to have those quite, romantic candle-lit dinners with your special someone.

The cuisine served here is generally continental, with some Asian dishes thrown in. Food is delicious, and also doesn't burn a hole in your pocket, much to my (or everyone's) delight. The ambience is relaxed, service is friendly but slow. Be prepared to have that lengthy conversation with your friend(s) because the wait for food is long, but worth it.

My last visit here was on a friend's birthday, where she just wanted a quite birthday dinner at a nice place. UTMT seemed like the right place to go to. We were pretty hungry, so none of us were really in the mood for appetizers, individual portions of mains made more sense to us. However, since the wait was going to be predictably long, we figured one appetizer wouldn't really hurt our appetites.

So we ordered a plate of Grilled Squid Rings, which everyone thought might be a good thing to just grab and snack. The portions were pretty large, as 4 of us could happily share without fighting. The squid was well-seasoned, and also quite meaty, by which I mean it was succulent and had a nice body to it, which I don't see too often in restaurants. I don't like the idea of raw onions and cucumbers served with meat in general, especially when it comes to continental cuisine. These were priced at Rs.190.

Grilled Squid Rings

I'd also ordered a salad (ordered a main course too - I have a HUGE appetite, you see :D ). Now this was supposed to be one of their signature salads. The salad consisted of simply apple, walnuts, goat cheese, lettuce and some bacon (on my request). This is accompanied with a red wine dressing, the consistency of which was too thick and tasted positively revolting. I'm glad they didn't toss my salad in it, so I settled for the salad minus a dressing, but tasted delicious nevertheless. The salad scored high in terms of flavours and textures - it's sweet, soft, crunchy with the nuts, creamy with the crumbly goat cheese and awesome because of the bacon :). It's merely a tossed salad and tastes good by itself, so avoid the red wine dressing and take a simple olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette dressing instead. This was priced at Rs.160.

Apple, Walnut and Goat Cheese Salad

Now to the mains, my friend ordered the Pork Chops Vindaloo. The Vindaloo is generally a meat curry based dish whose primary ingredients include vinegar (for the vin  in Vindaloo), garlic, chillies and other spices, resulting in a delicious sweet-sour taste. The pork chops here were wonderfully coated with the Vindaloo gravy and the result was super-tender pork chops that were bursting with flavours in our mouth. This was priced at Rs.310.

Pork Chops Vindaloo

To keep the pork love going, another friend ordered the Pasta Carbonara. Yeah, I know it's nothing exotic, but man, did these guys nail this dish or what. The sauce iss simply cream whipped with egg and slowly cooked with bacon and cheese tossed with spaghetti (here, they throw some additional ham bits and we chose Penne instead). This has to be the BEST Pasta Carbonara I've had in the city so far. Creamy, delicious and not too heavy. I generally don't like ordering pastas at restaurants because I get tired of that monotonous taste, but that never happened here. Two thumbs up. This was priced at Rs.280.

Pasta Carbonara

Finally, my dish arrived - which was simply a Veggie Ravioli - pasta pockets loaded with Parmesan, Ricotta and spinach layered with a cream sauce. By this time, I'd already downed some of that Carbonara and wanted more of that. I like veggies, but wasn't the biggest fan with the Ravioli they served up. It was WAY too creamy and bland (I chose the cream sauce, I know), and had little or no flavour. It seemed like one big mush and I couldn't get through the whole thing. This was priced at Rs.230. This was also surprisingly, one of their signature dishes.

Spinach and Cheese Ravioli

We were pretty stuffed by the end of this meal, so decided to order one dessert split 4-ways (yeah, we're that shameless). Another signature dish here was their Blueberry Cheesecake which many Bangalore foodies swear by. The cheesecake was nice and creamy, and had a decent consistency to it. The biscuit base was not as crunchy as I would have liked it to be, but it was a good dessert overall.

Blueberry Cheesecake

My overall rating for Under The Mango Tree:
Food: 7.5/10
Ambience: 8/10
Service: 6/10
Yum!: They go bacon my heart

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! :)

Here we go!

Hello, you awesome reader! This happens to be my first post on My Tryst with Food, and I'm super excited!

Like most people, I love food and am a self-proclaimed foodie. I love everything to do with food - cooking it, studying the science and art behind it and of course, eating it. I eat out often and recently began to post photos of dishes I try on my Facebook album where I recommend people what to eat at restaurants and what to conveniently miss.

Since then, many friends (and some strangers) did follow some of my recommendations and insisted I write more in-depth reviews rather than two lines on a Facebook photo. So, here I am! Expect a lot of restaurant reviews, cooking experiments, food stories and read about my tryst with food.

Before I go, here's a photograph for a sneak peek of my first review. Cheers:)