Restaurant Review - Windmill Craftworks, Whitefield

Like each city has a culture of it's own, Bangalore has become synonymous with beer lovers and fine pubs. The latest rave these days is of brew pubs which serve fresh beer, good food and a fine ambiance. There are nearly a dozen brew pubs across city now.
After reading and hearing a lot about Windmill Craftworks at Whitefield, we decided to visit it on a sunday afternoon.

Though we went without reservation, we were able to get a table.
They have seating both inside and outdoors. The inside of the place is like a library with a lot of books stacked up on the walls.
On one end is a small stage for performances etc, and on the other is the bar.
Large glass windows on one end allow ample natural light to enter and give the place a lively feel.

They brew about 6-7 varieties of beer and we tried the sampler with 5 varieties.
The servings were not too small and the beer tasted nice and fresh.
Of course everyone will not like all the flavours but it was largely very good.


We also tried some of the cocktails, which were not bad either. Don't remember the names now though.

Each item on the ipad menu, both food and drink is explained in detail along with images which helps in selection.
The beers were good and fresh, and the starters we ordered namely crispy honey potatoes and corn spinach tikka were quite good, a bit bland though. The potatoes had a very nice flavour with a slightly                                                     sweetish glaze and the taste remains etched in my mind.



For the main course i tried the Salmon Verde but to my disappointment it was grossly undercooked and tasteless.

Service is good and value for money factor is not bad either.
The ambiance of the place is lovely, it is quiet and very decent, rather upmarket and classy.
If you are looking for good meal and conversation to go with your beer, this is a perfect place. Not noisy at all.

Though my main dish was a disappointment, i'll give them the benefit of doubt for making a poor dish and would love to visit it again sometime soon.

Rating - 4/5

Hotel Review - Thotadahalli Home Stay, Chikmagalur

The concept of a home stay is different from a hotel. The owner of the property is inviting you to their home as their guest. They will show you their style of living, give you food as per their cuisine and give you a cultural insight into the lives of the locals to some extent.
Having said that, a lot depends on the owners of the place. In many cases they are not even present there, but not at Thotadahalli Home stay.



Getting here might be a little confusing so read carefully-
Take the road from Chikmagalur to Shimoga till you reach Kaimara. From there the first left turn goes to Mullayangiri, don't turn onto this road. Instead continue further in Kaimara and ask someone for directions, a small turn to your left going down will drive down towards the Estate, about 3-4 kms on.

The Homestay is within a large estate and the moment you enter towards the main entrance, there is likely to be a smile on your face.
A beautifully maintained garden welcomes you, not to mention the extra ordinary collection of Bonsai that the owner Pallavi maintains. Her husband Prakash greets you like you are extended family, and takes time to get to know you better.
He is one of those pleasing personalities who will really go out of the way to make you comfortable and make sure you have a good time. He will guide you around town and suggest places to see, even pushing you on to try some more of their food, as enthusiastic as one can get.






The property itself is brilliant. I have no doubt this is one of the best home stays in Karnataka.
Very neatly maintained and each item in the house looks handpicked personally. As you can see in the images here, it leaves a lasting impression on you.
They have 6 rooms only, 2 of which are inside the house and they have 4 cottages near the dining area and kitchen. Each room is slightly different from the other, so you can speak to the owners and try selecting a room of your choice if available.

The other important factor about staying here is the fact that food is included as part of your stay, so there is no other option as Chikmagalur town will also be about 30 minutes drive and there's no great choice there either.
They serve authentic malnad cuisine and don't go out of the way to try and make exotic dishes. Sticking to their roots, they excel in their cooking and the food is delightful. Even my north Indian wife really enjoyed the food.
Meals are to be had in the dining area only, so all guests can gather up around a bonfire, have a few drinks and share some conversation along with the meal. It's a pleasant experience unless you are really keen on your privacy.


Another factor to note is it might not suit everyone's need. If you are looking at full privacy and service at your beck and call, you will be disappointed. There is also no A.C or T.V in the room for the urban couch potatoes.
It is a rustic and wholesome stay and ideal for those looking for complete relaxation and a change from the usual.

Value for money component is good enough as a room for a couple is charged at Rs. 5500 per night, but that includes all meals and tea/coffee etc. This also includes stay and food for your driver.
They will accommodate your requests wherever possible, but the thing to remember is they are not doing this for money and it's not a hotel, so respect your premises and the people there. All the staff are very friendly and helpful, which made this stay a memorable one.

Looking forward to visit this place again soon with family/friends.

Rating - 4.5/5

Restaurant Review - Season, Richmond Road

Now this is an unknown gem, even to the finest foodies in Bangalore.
I was no exception, until my friend recently took me here for dinner one night.
The place is located in a quiet lane, where one wouldn't normally enter unless going to the hotel.
When on richmond road, you need to go under the flyover on the left hand side, and take the first left turn which leads upto Adarsh Hamilton and season is the restaurant in this business hotel.

Its essentially a multi cuisine restaurant in a formally laid out setup and they offer buffet option too.
The seating was comfortable and we sat near the TV and requested to watch the football game, and since it wasn't crowded, our request was obliged.
We ordered couple of mojitos but it turned out to be a sour disappointment, our starters were far better though.

The stuffed mushrooms turned out to be a delight as the lightly fried coating was perfectly done and the mushrooms and other filling was soft and creamy. Masala papad was as it should be, crispy base and fresh tomatoes and onions on top.
The chicken hariyali was also good with a hint of palak and chicken was cooked just right.

For the main dish we ordered egg biryani, where the rice was flavourful, but the egg was slightly dry. it was not an extraordinary dish, but good. My friend's wife ordered the veg gnochhi, and we were a tad surprised and skeptical, but it turned out to be quite decent. It was soft and creamy and not excessively cheesy.
We felt overall it was a good experience, and the quietness around let us talk and have a leisurely meal.

The service is also good and staff took care to ensure the baby with us was comfortable and even took her for a short walk while we had our meal.

It was a bit pricey, but good for an ocassion, and i'd recommend it to my fellow foodies.

Rating - 4/5

Restaurant Review - Republic of Noodles, Ulsoor

My wife and I visited this restaurant last night, as part of the citibank restaurant week happening across 3 cities in India.
They had a pre fixed menu where some of the items are not part of their regular menu.

The first thing that caught our attention was the lovely decore of this place. It has an ethnic oriental feel without being loud.
They have some terracota statues of chinese warriors on one side, and the black and red overtones create the right feel. The area is quite large with ample seating, and one side of the restaurant is entirely made up of glass and offers views outside.
Right next to it they have small water bodies with artificial lotus in it, which only adds to the ambiance.



Once seated we ordered for a cocktail, which turned out to be very ordinary, and then went on to order from our menu.
I tried the tom yum veg soup, while my wife had the raw mango salad and she fell in love with it instantly.
The salad had a very fresh taste and wasnt overly sour, it also had a good mix of nuts and cherry tomatoes to give a complete taste. The clear soup was not bad, it was slightly spicy and had very large pieces of mushroom in it, which i found difficult to eat and felt it must be chopped finer.
For starters i had the char grilled lamb with basil, and the lamb was sliced thin and had a good spicy flavour to it. I quite enjoyed the soft lamb which had soaked in the taste from the spices.
We also had the crispy babycorn which was a good dish again, not very crispy but the apricot glazing was a good addition.

The main course for both of us comprised of masamman curry vegetables and nyonya style chicken curry accompanied by jasmine rice and phad thai noodles. The nyonya chicken curry was not much to my liking as it was rather bland and was coconut milk based, which along with the jasmine rice was devoid of any flavours.
The noodles were wonderful though, and the veg curry was much better than the chicken one.

The portions of all the dishes were quite large and we were rather full by the time we finished, still we had to go for the desserts.
We chose the lemon tart with white passion mousse and a portion of orange lemongrass ice cream. And the desserts were the pick of the evening.
Both had such fantastic flavours and we finished them in no time. Each of the dish had a lemony flavour, but wasnt sour and not too sweet either. It was an absolute perfect balance of tastes which we really relished.

The service is also top notch, and seldom do you see waiters being attentive without being intrusive. The price is justified by the overall experience and i feel it's good value for money.
The sad part was to see the restaurant almost empty, maybe because most people don't know of the quality of RON. Two thumbs up to the entire team, and looking forward to my next visit.

Rating - 4.5/5

Restaurant Review - Karavalli, Residency Road

If you are looking for a stylish place to showcase south indian cuisine to some visiting guests, Karavalli will be a fine choice for it.
This coastal speciality restaurant located within the Gateway hotel greets you with a lovely ambience that would rival the best in Bangalore.


The outdoor seating is spaciously spread out, has a lot of greenery and a water body with water lilies and lotuses which looks so beautiful. The inside is more of a traditional decore with lantern shaped lights and tiled & wooden roof structures which add a traditional feel to the place.

The menu is smallish, and felt a little insufficient really. We felt the plantain leaf meal would be the ideal option to sample more dishes rather than ordering items off the menu individually.
So we opted for the veg and non-veg meals. The veg one had 2 dry vegetables and 3 curries apart from lemon rice, sambhar and masala vadas. The non-veg meal had interchanged one curry with a chicken curry and had fish fry instead of the vada.
Kerala parotas and appams are served along with the meal apart from rasam, curd, white rice and a cup of payasam.
The veggies tasted authentic south indian and each person's opinion on them differed according to individual tastes.
Though, i've eaten hundreds of thalis in my life, and i must say this about the food - it was not great, and just crossed the average mark in terms of taste for me.

Add to that the service was really poor and slow, it took almost 12-15 minutes to get our bill in the end, and by that time we were ready to blow our heads off on the waiters.
When you are paying a premium, you do expect good service, but it was not the case here surely. And at almost 1000 bucks per head, it also rated very poor on the value for money front for me.

So my overall analysis would rate:-
Food taste - 3/5
Service - 2.5/5
Ambience - 4/5
Value for money - 2.5/5

Though one of my buddies has been raving about this place when he went there for a specially organised meal by a visiting chef, I wouldn't recommend this place for a good south indian meal. period.

Restaurant Review - Chianti, Koramangala

This is a smallish italian restaurant in Koramangala 5th block which serves authentic italian cuisine.
The seating is rather small and closely laid out, about 40-45 people seating i guess.

They serve only wine apart from non-alcoholic drinks. We tried out the bruschetta and crostini along with some red and white wine to start off with.
Both were quite good and they also served us a basket of bread along with the minestrone soup we had ordered. The bread was really soft too.

We later had the veg gnochhi, canneloni, chicken pizza and also chicken parmigiana.
The taste of the food was good, not extraordinary. Can't say that it was bad, but it sure wasn't a standout.
The service was a bit of a let down and definitely it needs to go up a notch.

The waiter forgot to get one of our items and both our table as well as the one next to us were given wrong bills, with a higher billing amount. Co-incidence?
Well i'll let you decide that for yourself.

Rating - 3.5/5

Restaurant Review - 24th Main, JP Nagar

Recently one weekend, we were in the mood to have veg food not far from Jayanagar, and were looking for suitable options.
After reading lots of reviews online, we zeroed down upon 24th main, which i had passed by many times but never got a chance to sample the food here.
They don't take reservations on Sunday, so we had to wait for about 10 mins before being seated.
The place was jam packed and quite noisy too. Must be over a 100 guests dining inside.

The decore is simplistic, one wall is entirely filled with full size frosted glasses and monochrome images of old age europe adorn some of the walls.
The cuisine comprises of a very small south indian menu, mainly comprising of rice items. Chinese would be another option, but playing it safe we opted for the north indian cuisine.
We had a lime soda and buttermilk to start off with, which was totally devoid of any masalas. It was just curd, water and salt.

The veg platter took some time to arrive, and we were served a masala papad to keep us occupied.
The platter had 4 pieces each of gobi, paneer, mushroom and seekh kabab. They tasted fine, paneer was soft, mushroom was well marinated but the veg seekh kabab was slightly sweetish which we didnt like. Not a bad platter though.
For main course we had paneer tikka masala and dal makhani with onion kulchas and roti.
Unfortunately again the dishes tasted sweetish and lacked the right spices. Very very ordinary dal too. The onion kulcha was overly filled with onions, and not enjoyable. All i can say is the food really was a let down.
The service is fine considering the rush they had to deal with.
It wasn't too expensive, so we didn't feel too bad about the meal, but we are not likely to be back here again.
Maybe the diners who eat only at pure veg restaurants might find it to be a decent option, otherwise there are many good north indian restaurants in Bangalore.

Rating - 3/5

Restaurant Review - Pappadomz, Jeevan Bhima Nagar

On a busy day, while i had some work at Jeevan bhima nagar, i was looking around for a place to have lunch.
I happened to spot Pappadomz above ICICI bank on Jeevan bhima nagar main road and decided to give it a try.

It's a decent looking restaurant on the inside, and they serve basic kerala food.
It was fairly empty, and i sat down in a corner to have my meal.
The waiter came up to my table and turned my glass up and stood next to me waiting for me to say something.
No menu was offered, none asked for. "Kya milega?" i asked him.
"Meals, biryani". The reply was brief. Fish curry and chicken curry meals too, was his add on line.

I asked for a fish curry meals and was served quickly. They give an option of white rice, or boiled red rice, and i opted for the latter.
It's been quite a while since i had proper kerala food and i was also in the mood to eat healthy.

They serve you a bowl of rice with a bowl of fish curry and sambhar, papad, one vegetable & payasam.
The fish curry tasted good with rice, but sambhar was rather ordinary and bland.

Rasam and butter milk are kept in jugs on your table, which is something i had seen many a time during my short stay in kerala too.
The taste of rasam was good, but it was obviously cold lying there for so long, so couldn't enjoy it.
The jaggery and coconut payasam was a tad too sweet for my liking.

Apart from that there's nothing really to write about the meal. It was a decent functional lunch.

Service is alrite, though the waiters are quite free and they stand in a line staring at you when unoccupied, waiting for your orders. It felt a bit weird.

The price is ok for the quality and ambience, but nothing memorable.
I havent tried any of the other restaurants serving kerala food in the city, so it's difficult to compare.

This is not a seafood speciality restaurant by any means, more of a decent dining joint for kerala food.

Rating - 3/5

Food Review- Chawla's Square, Jayanagar

We saw the board of Chawla's while passing by this road and were wondering if it is 'The Chalwa Chicken' so popular in north India.
I'm not very sure about that, but their board does say they've been around for many years.

We went to the restaurant and collected take away once, and have since then placed home delivery orders a couple of times.
The place itself is a small area on the ground floor where the major area is occupied by the kitchen and they have a small seating area outside, more for people waiting for parcel or bachelors grabbing a bite.
The first floor has seating area which is not huge, but good enough to have a meal here.

Last time we had a party at home, we ordered a lot of food and got to sample large portion of their menu.
This included chicken seekh kabab and mutton boti kabab, both of which were excellent, soft and juicy chunks of meat, rather flavourful from the opulent spices.
The veg starters like mushroom achari tikka & veg seekh kabab were not as good, but not bad either.
Later we had Kadhai chicken, which was the usual fare and chicken tikka butter masala, which had a nice gravy, not sweetish, just a good blend of spices and cream.
The tandoori roti gets very hard if you are ordering at home, so we prefer the kulchas which remain nice and soft. They are flexible enough to make stuffings for you even if it's not in their menu.
I've had another chicken gravy from Chawla's but can't recall the name right now.

But what i can say with certainity is that it's good quality food at justifiable prices.
The service for home delivery is very good too, so it's a thumbs up from me.

Rating - 3.5/5

Movie Review - Main Tera Hero

You know, we as fans of Bollywood movies owe a lot to Mr. David Dhawan.
He has given us some of the most entertaining films in the last 25 years including aankhen, deewana mastana, hero no.1, haseena maan jayegi, mujhse shaadi karogi etc.
But it has been 10 years since the last real gem came in the form of Mujhse Shaadi Karogi.

While Varun Dhawan was a little kid, Govinda and his dad had a fabulous combo at the box office, so can he live up to that reputation?



To appreciate this movie you have to be very clear it is not great cinema, but a total entertainer.
The movie is about Sreenath Prasad aka Seenu (Varun), who is a student with little brain but lot of muscle, style and attitude.
He goes to Bangalore to get a degree but instead falls in love with Sunaina (Ileana D Cruz) who happens to be the love interest of Angad Negi (Arunoday Singh), a policeman with wrong intentions.
He wants to marry Ileana and won't let anyone else come near her.
Our hero ofcourse is not one to be deterred by apoliceman and his bunch of goons and goes all out to woo the heroine. Needless to say she falls in love with him and soon they are a couple. All this while Angad and his goons are being put to shame by Seenu.

A twist in the tale comes as Sunaina is kidnapped by Vikrant (Anupam Kher) who is the biggest don of Asia and Africa apparently. The reason - Well, his daughter has fallen in love with our hero on one of his rowdy bashing escapades.
And the daughter is none other than Nargis Fakhri as Ayesha.

So eventually Seenu, Angad and his sidekick Peter (Yashpal Yadav) all land up at Ayesha's house.

Ok, take a deep breath and stop trying to make sense of the script, cos there is not much of it.

Ya, so the hero is hatching a plot to get Angad and Ayesha together so that he can be with Sunaina. And eventually through a lot of silly sequences it happens, and all ends well.


In case you are wondering what the hell this movie is all about, let me tell you it is just a mindless entertainer. It has lots of shady dialogues, funny moments, good bodies and Varun has actually acted quite well actually.
Almost every director/producer dad in the industry tries to make a movie to showcase his son in best light, and doesn't Varun dazzle.
He acts well, dances, shows his body, beats up goons and goes a step above the very talented Govinda. He is here to stay in bollywood and has a long future ahead.

Even the incongruous song and dance sequences are tolerable, and most importantly it is one of the comedy movies which can be seen with family, provided they are not too conservative. The movie makes you smile, laugh ocassionally and even roll your eyes in dismay, but overall it is entertaining and a full timepass masala movie. A David Dhawan flick reminiscent of the laste 90s.

Not one if you are looking for quality cinema but a light 2.5 hours.

Rating - 3.5/5

Restaurant Review - Infinitea, Indiranagar

Infinitea is certainly one of the finest places for tea. Their selection ranges across many countries and includes oolongs, herbal, black, green, floral and some very nice blends too. 

We've visited the cunningham road outlet many a times and always loved what we had there, and on discovering that they've opened a branch at Indiranagar, we had to go check it out.

The decore is fancier here, ofcourse it's a new and better planned place. Right at the entrance is a big display of tea which they have. Neatly arranged in glass jars, it looked so good and tempting. They sell tea leaves as well but we resisted the temptation to buy a few packs.

We looked up only to find the most interestingly designed printed display covering the lighting. It just made us go wow. Innovative and pleasing to the eye. 

We proceeded to our table, they have both sofas and chairs inside. There is also a small outdoor seating. We went on to order our starters and tea. Though most of us had iced tea on this hot evening. The great part being they have nearly a dozen flavours of ice tea, which is not the case at most places that serve a simple lemon ice tea. We tried the green apple, orange and lemon ice tea and all were fantastic. Their masala chai is also near perfect and a very nice mix, not too mild. 

The other teas are served as pots which can make about 3 cups. 

The starters comprised of chicken on skewers which were a bit harder than we would have liked. The bruschetta though was fantastic. The tomatoes had a very fresh taste and the cheese was really wonderful too. The papaya and mango salad was below average and we had just a little of it.

We tried several of their main dishes, including our all time favourite RSG with corn rice, which they never go wrong with. The rice and chicken taste fantastic as a combo and the sauce is a nice addition to the dish. We have this everytime we are at Infinitea.
We also tried the cubbon fish with lemon rice, which was rather disappointing as i think the fish had been re fried ans soaked up the oil making it soggy, such a shame. The dish was reduced to 'chitraana' without it.














The chicken steak with creamy penne pasta was better, the chunk of chicken was juicy and nicely cooked, lending a good flavour to the dish, served with a piece of nice garlic bread.


The veg spaghetti on the other hand was very mediocre, plain and extremely simple, no effort or planning was put into making the dish different and it was just run off the mill.

So far the meal was 50-50 and we looked at the desserts to provide us some respite. We ordered for our usual favourites, the ganache tart which is thick dark chocolate layer over crumbled biscuits and creme brulee.

We've been having these desserts at the cunningham road outlet for years and the taste is so memorable. However, i have to say at this outlet, the desserts were also un-inspiring.

It's really a case of both outlets not being at the same level.
While the indiranagar branch is more classier, the food and service levels at Cunningham road are far better. I would recommend readers to visit the older branch given a choice, for those staying at Indiranagar and not wanting to travel more, this is still a better than average restaurant.
Best for tea lovers.

Rating - 3.5/5

Restaurant Review - Panchvati Gaurav, Garuda Mall

There seems to be this growing trend of restaurants serving North Indian vegetarian thalis in Bangalore. Think Rajdhani, Choki Dhani, Maharaja Bhog, Great Indian Thali, Padharosa etc. 

Panchvati Gaurav joins the bandwagon with gusto.

Located on the 5th floor of Garuda mall, it has easy access. 

The decore is modern with ethnic touches, the seating thankfully is comfortable.

Once you are settled, the routine begins. A swarm of waiters congregate around your thali, filling it with delicacies from rajasthan and gujarat. 

We were initially served a samosa and dhokla with pudina and sweet imli chutney. The dhokla was sadly disappointing.

The currries comprised of bhindi, paneer in white gravy, aloo subzi, dal and kadhi. There was also a decent dahi vada in there.

We were served roti, bajra roti and poori to go with our curries.

The curries were about average, not extraordinary, but the good part being it was not too heavy and rather homely in taste. And also they weren't sweet like at some of the other gujrati restaurants.

After an ample supply of rotis came the flavoured and white rice with more dal.

The sweets for the day were malpua, gulab jamun and fruit custard. The custard had a strange texture and we didn't really like it much and gulab jamun also was a bit too sweet.

The taste of the food can be described as average.

We ordered for a thandai which was quite good and refreshing, and so was the buttermilk served as part of the meal.

Service is good, staff is attentive and always there to ensure you are served well with a smile on their faces.

Value for money was pretty good as the thali is priced at about 350 or so. 

Overall it is one of the best eating options at Garuda mall but some of the restaurants serving similar food elsewhere will rank higher for me.

Rating- 3.5/5

Hotel Review - Nrupatunga hotel, Raichur

Well, Raichur is not really a place to visit given an option and it sure doesn't have too many options to stay.
Nrupatunga hotel is one of the few options available. It is a small hotel in the city center and basic in terms of amenities.

The rooms are tiny, just a bed and a TV. I was told there are no air conditioned rooms available even though I had booked for one. The fan was powerful enough and the open windows allowed some breeze in the morning.
They have western toilets in some of the rooms and the others have indian toilets, which i discovered only after i was in the room.
Sorry for this pic friends, but it is my duty to give you the real picture. You as readers trust me..

Cleanliness factor was quite good, and i even used the towels.
Didn't experience any of the room service though.



They do have a restaurant, but i'm not sure about the food quality.

The positive about my stay at Raichur was it lasted only for an hour, so I was in and out of the Hotel pretty quickly.

Value for money factor is where it scores high, as at Rs. 750 incl of tax, you really can't expect much, so by that standard it ain't bad. Besides we can't really expect a high end hotel in Raichur, cos who would they cater to?

Rating - 3.5/5