Food Review - Brahmin's Coffee Bar, Basavanagudi

Anyone who has been in Bangalore long enough would have heard of Brahmin's coffee bar.
This age old institution at Basavangudi has been serving up idlis and vadas with chutney for many many years now, and with such consistency...
Idlis are super soft and vadas are crisp, thoroughly enjoyable with the chutney since they dont serve sambhar.

I've heard great things about their khara bath and kesari bath, but am yet to try those myself.
The strong filter coffee tastes superb too.

It is a small eatery, and does not have seating etc yet it is jam packed with people at most times.
The reason is the good and genuine taste which brings back food lovers again and again though the items are limited and they have peculiar timings.

Please note they close before 7 p.m everyday and are closed on Sunday's too, so plan accordingly. My friend tells me they just completed their 50th anniversary and that speaks volumes about Brahmins. 

Movie Review - Jai Ho

Koi script na apne paas hai, 

heroine bhi na koi khaas hai,

music pura bakwaas hai,

baaki sab first class hai.... kyonki sallu apne paas hai

Jai Ho is a film which is not very different from the salman khan films we have seen in the last few years. It’s totally about hero worship and one man and his fan following. In fact the movie should have been named The Incredible 'SALK'  (SALman Khan).

Boy our hero can do it all, he can fight, he can dance, he can romance and he can beat up not one, not ten but nearly hundred goons at a time. No, no, I’m not exaggerating. In one sequence he faces a hundred men and beats the first 4-5 so brutally that the others are scared and escape.

It's the story of Jai, an ex army man who was expelled for disobeying orders and is now strangely a car mechanic. A good hearted man, who along with his family and friends harbours the dream of making the world a better place to live in. He starts the mantra that if someone helps you don't say thanks, instead help 3 people in need and ask them to continue this human chain of good deeds.

Jai goes out of the way to help many people and touch many lives including a disabled student, a roadside beggar apart from his general acquaintances. As the sequence of events unfold, he involuntarily gets in a tangle with the home minister's family.

His sister Tabu and her neighbour Daisy Shah, who is also Jai's love interest try to keep him out of harm's way, but our hero knows no limitations and is always ready to give a good beating to wrong doers irresepective of the opposition. Indeed the number of goons is just a statistic for Jai who has no bars and beats the hell out of everybody baar baar.

A whole slew of actors who are out of work now will leave you wondering "ye bhi hai is film mein" as they roll in one after the other mostly for small and irrelevant parts.

Daisy shah is unimpressive even for her aesthetic value in the movie and she is not expected to have a long bollywood career.

Tabu, as we all know is a good actress and does justice to the role she's given. Salman ofcourse is impressive as the action hero and the final sequence sees his shirt being ripped off yet again to show us his well maintained body. 

The so called common man image is used as a disguise to show the action hero who alone can finish the home minister's family also.

The movie has the right message and could have been a good movie had some work gone into planning the script and dialogues. A lot of actors have also been wasted throughout the movie. It will still do 100 crore plus, but won't be threatening any box office records. The funniest movie in the film comes towards the end when sunil shetty takes the army tank out for a drive on the roads of Mumbai and shoots down a few villains with army arsenal.

Going with the theme of the movie, i'm supposed to help 3 people, and my review will help a few more survive this movie I hope. Watch only if you are a die hard Salman fan.

Rating - 2.5/5

Food Review - Monkey Bar, Ashoknagar

Food Review- Jimi's, Koramangala

Since I know the owner personally, I can tell you that Jimis started off with the idea of a coffee shop-Qwikys. Over time of course he realised that the liquor business is much more lucrative and faced with the opportunity, an arrangement was made and Jimis was conceptualised.

Over the years Jimis has expanded to other locations, but this was my first visit to the Koramangala branch. 

They are now spread across 3 floors, the ground floor has the bar counter and few tables as well. A couple of wooden tables and chairs still symbolise qwikys. The first floor has some more seating and also the smoking section, and above that is a semi open rooftop garden bar and this is where we sat.

This section has a very nice decor and relaxed ambiance. The road below is noisy but doesn't disturb you much. The seating is well spaced out and music isn't too loud so you can have a conversation while enjoying a drink. 

Their drinks selection is extensive but we stuck to the basic- draught beer. They serve fosters and it was nice nd fresh. 

To go along with it we ordered peanut masala, chicken tikka and mushroom pepper fry. The mushroom was not even on the menu but we asked the waiter if it can be made and he was happy to get it made for us. Infact staff generally is friendly and always readily available. 

Regarding the food im happy to tell you that it was not the average pub grub, and the quality was far superior. The chicken was soo tender and marinated perfectly, mushroom dish was also prepared very nicely.

We were quite happy and had a very good time here.

The bill including 4 pitchers came up to 2600 which is not a bad deal at all.

What's even better, they have happy hours from Monday to Thursdays all day long!

Cheers to that.

Rating- 4/5

Movie Review - Dedh Ishqiya

There are outright good movies and absolute trash ones as well, and then there are a lot of them which are in between. How much a viewer enjoys these movies depends on a lot of factors often related more to their personality than the movie itself.

Dedh Ishqiya will remain in the domain which caters to a select audience and is surely not a film for the masses.

Director Abhishek Chaubey has been working with Vishal Bhardwaj for quite a while now, having written scripts for several of his films and also been an associate director on atleast 4 projects. Vishal bharadwaj films have co produced this movie in association with Shemaroo, to bring on screen the sequel to the 2010 hit – Ishqiya.

Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi are back as the pair of Ifthekaar Hussain (Khalu) and Babban -the criminals with a heart...a heart that falls in love and breaks all too easily. The duo is into robbery and petty crimes and the movie starts with them doing a heist at a jewelers store and escaping with a very expensive necklace. Pretty unplanned the whole robbery, and it leads to them running hamper scamper to save themselves from the cops during which Babban is separated from Khalu(and the necklace).

Babban lands in a soup, and is seen standing in a grave dug up to bury him alive. What ensues is a hilarious sequence wherehis captor is deciding whether to chop off his head or his private parts. In fact several such sequences and intelligently written dialogues throughout the movie keep viewers smiling for the most part.

Khalu is next seen portraying himself as the Nawab of Chandpur and trying to woo the begum of Mahmudabad, who holds a Swayamvar every year to find a suitor for herself. Babban manages to reach there and rekindle his love hate relationship with Khalu, who fools him into believing he didn’t desert Babban to flee with the necklace.

Madhuri Dixit is marvelous as Begum Para of Mahmudabad, a small town in U.P. And her accomplice and caretaker Muniya(Huma Quereshi) suits her role perfectly.

The swayamvar involving romantic shayaris and a shooting contest among others goes on for several days and Khalu’s main opponent turns out to be Jaan Mohammed(Vijay Raaz) who is a local MLA and gangster.

Some wonderful funny sequence’s unfold on the screen during the next half an hour during which each tries to outwit the other while Babban falls in love with Muniya. Khalu is there for love, but Babban looks to rid the Begum of her precious belongings, during which he has a sexual encounter with Muniya and she gives him the idea of kidnapping the Begum.

While Khalu has been wooing Begum Para and winning her heart, he is surprised and disgusted when he discovers than Jaan Mohammed has been chosen by her as the winner of the Swayamvar.

The last half an hour is where the drama unfolds and we discover why and how the kidnapping has taken place, and what finally happens at the end is something I would like you all to see for yourselves.

The movie is very nicely directed and despite it’s slow pace it doesn’t leave one bored as there are a lot of witty sequences and dialogues. The direction and writing of Abhishek and Vishal Bhardwaj sure has a distinct stamp of its own with shades of Guy Ritchie at times. The writing is very intelligent and screenplay is great.

All the actors have done a fabulous job, not to be missed also is Italvi. I won’t disclose much about him though J

The seven stages of love are laid out in front of us, and the lyrics from the song sum up the state of the love filled hearts of our heroes. “Chotein bhi khaye, aur muskuraye. Aisa hi tha yeh, aisa hi hai yeh”.

The movie won’t appeal to everyone, but people looking for quality cinema should watch it. Will go with a 4/5 for it. 

Food Review - Smoke House Deli, Lavelle Road

We visited the SHD outlet at Lavelle road for a sunday lunch recently, and it was just as busy as the Indiranagar one. It's better to go here with reservations on weekends unless you really want to try your luck.
The ambiance is superb, they have both outdoor and indoor seating, and we sat outdoors. They had very nice christmas decore and a special food menu as well.

Service is good, and the staff is always close by without being intrusive.
The food presentation is neat, and we ordered quite a few dishes both veg and non veg.

The potato wedges were wonderfully crisp on the outside and soft inside, the seasoning was also very nice.
The veg minestrone soup was delightful and cooked to perfection, we really liked it.
The wild mushroom risotto was good, portion was just fine for one person.
The smoked burgers (both chicken and lamb) were realllly good. The lamb burgers here are really fantastic, beautifully minced soft mutton.
The veg sandwich was very average though.

As for the dessert we had a yule log and an orange creme brulee which was amazing.

The food is on the expensive side, but as an overall package it seems well justified.
I highly recommend it to my fellow foodies.

Rating - 4.5/5

Food Review - Noodle Bar, Whitefield

It's only now that I went through the Menu of noodle bar online, cause it took me half an hour to find parking on a sunday afternoon and my family had already ordered food...
Located at Pheonix Marketcity mall, it's the usual oriental cuisine with a mix and match of dishes from china and some neighboring countries.
The decore is simplistic and not over the top with big red dragons and lanterns etc.

We started off with an accidental "wanton" soup as the waiter misheard "manchow". Later on we ordered manchow too.
But i relished the wanton soup more than the manchow, which was also good.
The wanton soup was a clear broth with spiced wantons and it tasted very nice, subtle taste of spices.
For lack of time we went straight for the maincourse, and after a very long time I ordered an American chopsuey, it was good with crispy noodles and a sweet sour sauce with good portion of chicken and fried egg on top.

The vegetarians tried Phad Thai noodles which was a meal in itself and tasted quite decent as it had veggies and groundnuts as part of the noodle bowl.
The garlic chilli chicken was below average and the chicken noodles were nothing great either.

The cost is on the higher side, and overall experience was good, but nothing great. Worth a visit only if you are in the mall. Don't bother travelling just to eat here.

Rating - 3.5/5

Food Review - Bangalore Bistro, Cunningham Road

Bangalore Bistro is one of the best restaurants for Mediterranean cuisine in Bangalore. Earlier located at brigade road, they have now shifted on to Cunningham road diagonally opposite wockhardt.

The decore gives the feel of a very european style cafe with its mozaic tiled tables and large painted windows.
They have indoor and outdoor seating, and outside also has a very good feel, but alas the peace is shattered by the traffic on cunningham road.

The service staff are attentive and informative and know the food well enough to give you good recommendations. Service is quick too.



Coming to the food, we had the most amazing bruschetta platter here. One of the best i've ever had with 4 variants of bruschettas, each with its own distinctive flavour. For the mains i had a lovely and creamy terrific trinity featuring mushrooms and chicken with a garlic flavour and it was yummy.

For veg we tried the mock meat steak and a very different looking version of quisedillas. Both were reasonably good but not memorable as such. They don't have pizzas so that's a tad disappointing.

We were quite full so we didn't get a chance to sample the desserts which i would love to do next time i'm here.
It is not too expensive as each dish is priced at about 300-400. A dish would suffice for one average eater so its not a bad bet at all.

Rating - 4/5

Food Review - Sattvam, Sadashivanagar

It's rare for me to be at a pure veg joint for dinner, but the guests with me were such that i had no option.
I had heard about Sattvam serving authentic veg and jain cuisine and decided to give it a try.
Located at sankey road between cauvery theatre and vyalikaval circle, this restaurant has a huge seating area.
Despite that don't try to go here without booking on a weekend, it is packed with our gujju, marwari brethren...

The decore is decent and elegant, seating is comfortable, though the elbow room gets a little tight while eating.
There is an interesting signage at the entrance about how to maintain your kids by your side, and in fact there is a designated kids play area, which unfortunately was under renovation during our visit, so the restaurant was infested by loads of kids... Naturally the decibel levels were relatively very high and a peaceful meal here would be hard to imagine.

Coming to the food, we had the buffet wherein soup and starters are served on the table.
The soup was tomato tulsi soup and had a good sweet sour taste, and the starters included makai seekh kabab, paneer tikka, mini cutlet of sorts and an aloo roll kind of starter. The taste was alright and the food was served hot thankfully.
Going to the main course, they had a reasonably large spread of salads/chat followed by curd rice, bisi bele bhat, pulyogre, rasam, steamed rice, pastas and american chopsuey. The north indian variants included about 6-7 dishes and veg biryani.
The biryani was dry and pretty poor, some of the curries were better such as matar kofta, paneer and choley.

Some of the dishes had a sweetish tinge which i don't like but many people especially gujrati's love.
To be frank, the food was very average... that until we got to the desserts.
A huge spread awaited us including bengali sweets, pineapple jalebi, halwa, mousse, pasteries, ice creams, chocolate fountain, phirni and more... My mouth is watering again just thinking about it.
Most of the desserts were really nice and the fruit cream and gajar halwa were brilliant. Not too sweet, and that was the key.
I believe all baked desserts are also made eggless, so thats a big plus for the pure veggies.

Service was good and very quick, i loved the fact that rotis were served within 2 minutes of being ordered, everytime! This ensured the food could be eaten hot and is a big plus.

On the value for money front i feel it is over priced, but that depends on how best one can utilize the buffet... for the hardcore veggies its not a bad option at all.

Rating - 3.5/5

Movie Review - The Wolf of Wall Street

Having worked in the financial services sector in India for a few years, this movie was a little more obvious to me than it would be to most people.

To classify it into a genre would be a tad difficult, it is a sort of dark humour but brings melancholic thoughts every now and then, more so towards the end of the movie. It certainly is a biography  based on the life of Jordan Belfort.

The movie features the rise and fall of a stock broker in Wall Street, but not just any stock broker. A very shrewed, selfish and smart broker who knows and banks on his strengths – good sales skills and smooth talking.

After starting at a brokerage firm as a freshman, the life at Wall Street is introduced to Jordan and takes him by surprise. Focusing on your needs rather than those of your client seems to be the name of the game as per his boss and mentor Mark Hanna. 

A world of drugs, abuse and sleaze soon takes over Jordan. And after getting fired from his first job due to the market crash, he joins a small brokerage firm and is introduced to the world of penny stocks, which are unknown companies having little value but high brokerages. Greed takes over Jordan and soon he realizes the potential for money making in this line. As his wealth grows, his interest in making wealth for his client’s diminishes proportionately.

Soon Jordan starts his own brokerage firm with a new found friend named Donnie. The small firm operates out of a small office cum garage and employs people who have no idea of stocks, but can make a sale. With guidance from Jordan, the firm soon begins to do well and is christened “Stratton Oakmont Inc”. 

Quickly, the brokers learn the tricks of the trade and start making good money as their client base grows. The firm grows in size and constantly starts employing more and more staff and moving to bigger office spaces.

The big break comes when Forbes magazine decides to do an article on Stratton Oakmont. Though the article projects Jordan in bad light, the publicity ensures he is a well known name and as more magazines approach him, his popularity grows quickly.

With growth in his wealth, the feeling of being all too powerful takes over Jordan’s senses completely. He is now a drug and sex addict and feels anything can be bought with money. His material assets grow as his morality and decency decline, he even divorces his supportive wife in order to be with a gorgeous woman he met at a party.

The work culture that Jordan imbibes in his company is reflective of his personal being and he calls it a wolf pit. A pit of greed, drugs, sleeze and corruption.

En route to his growth, Jordan develops a complete disregard to laws and is soon under the eyes of FBI. Even the manner in which he deals with the FBI shows his cocky attitude and Jordan is forced to flee to Europe to hide his illegal wealth in Swiss bank accounts.

The natural curve sets in and Jordan’s decline kicks in with his personal life and health taking a complete trashing. He is a major drug addict now whose personal life is miserable and he is constantly on the run from the law. Eventually it all catches up with him and he has to leave his dream behind, and after serving 3 years in prison Jordan ends up being a motivational speaker at sales seminars.

The combination of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo which has given us some wonderful movies in the past, doesn’t disappoint again. Leonardo plays the part of the broker to the hilt and his performance is near flawless. The rest of the cast also shine in their respective roles and the story keeps you occupied as you watch Jordan fall deeper into the pit he digs for himself.

The movie though is a tad too long at a runtime of nearly 3 hours and some tight editing could have made the movie much more crisp. Do not watch this movie with family due to the language and sex based content in the movie.

It's still a good watch though and i'd rate it 3.5/5