Restaurant Review - Tim Tai, Koramangala

Well, surprise surprise!
I hadn't known of this place until i came across it while browsing for good asian restaurants in Bangalore.
We reluctantly decided to give it a try and to our delight it turned out to be a great decision.


The decore is fab-u-lous. Bright and sprightly, colourful brilliance. Spacious with a tree right in the middle of the place and a glass ceiling above it to allow for some natural lighting. It also allows you to see the pitter patter of raindrops on a rainy day. The ceiling is quite high and lends a roomy feel to the place.
The partly open kitchen exudes confidence and invigorates your senses with the sight of delicious food being dished out. Not to forget the wonderful aroma.

Once seated and done looking all around us we got the menu in our hands and started to go through it. They have 3 seperate menus - drinks, dimsums and food.
We dabbled with all 3 and ordered something from each.





It's a real shame that i forgot to pick up the bill and i can't find the menu online anywhere. I would have loved to be precise about the items we ordered, but going by their overall quality of food i think most items will be very good.
We initiated with some iced teas and a fruit punch. They have some very interesting iced tea flavours like berries, orange and cinnamon and lemon grass, all of which were brilliant. Tasty, refreshing and not too sweet.

We had a veg dimsum which was filled with soya and the outside was very light and not a doughy taste. Decent dish.

We also had a raw mango salad, something all of us love and this one was perfect. Not too sour and had a nice tinge to it.
The fish wrapped in banana leaf was the treat for us sea food lovers and the fish was sooo tender, it fell apart the moment you touched it with a fork. You have to be gentle with your cutlery to pick it up, but the spices and creamy texture of the fish made it wow!


The chilly chicken was less fancy, the normal fare made properly.



We went on to try some spicy noodles which was a complete dish in itself and didnt need any gravy, even though we had a very good chicken curry and a veg one for company. There were a host of vegetables in it and the gravies were different thankfully.
We also managed to squeeze in some crab omelette in between somewhere and it was nice and fluffy with really small bits of crab meat in it. You really wouldn't even know the crab is in there if you are an eggetarian.

Service was quick and food came to us in good time. The place was nearly full on a sunday afternoon.

Considering great food and good service in a wonderful ambience the bill for 5 of us which came to about 4000 was the icing on the cake.
We'll surely be back for more soon and i'll highly recommend it to all foodies out there. Hope they keep up the quality.

Rating - 4.5/5

Restaurant Review - Big Pitcher, Old Airport Road

The big pitcher has been gathering lots of eyeballs and eardrums and there has been a buzz about this place since the last few months.

It's located next door to Leela Palace Hotel in airport road and is spread out over a large area of 4 floors.

We scampered in just as the world cup game between France and Germany was about to start and were frantically looking for a place to sit. So in the melee we ran up and down across all four floors having a quick glimpse of each.

The top floor is where the giant screen was put up and it was less noisy and more of a dining area. The ground floor was where the DJ console was set up and a large screen which was playing the match and could be seen from the party open mezzanine floor as well. 

We managed to grab 3 stools at the mezzanine floor and could look at the screen through a see through glass pane preventing the drinks and the drinkers from crashing down. 

Once the match started, the DJ turned down the music and put on the commentary, and only when we heard the thud of the football, we realised WOW! JBL speakers with amazing output.

That's it, we were set for the evening and ordered our drinks. A Rob Roy - whisky based cocktail with some bitters. A vodka cucumber cooler, the name of which I can't recall, and a pitcher of Long Island Iced Tea. 

The cocktails were a bit mild for our liking but the long island was really good. The pitchers they have here are very interesting too unlike the regular round bottom flasks we receive elsewhere. They have a large cocktail menu.

The starters we ordered were the malai prawns and nachos. The nachos were very uninspiring, seemed like a packet you open at home and serve with some basic accompaniments. The dips were very poor.

The malai prawns were ok. Grilled and creamy, the prawns were crunchy but just a little bit chewy. Not ideal.

For mains we tried a veg pizza which was not good at all. Baked in an oven, the crust was undercooked and burnt at the same time. Not evenly baked and i'd recommend you to stay off the pizzas. 

The other dish we had was an Italian version of 'khichdi' with some fried potatoes and a large chunk of paneer in it. This was better, but nothing memorable. somehow we got really thirsty after eating this dish.

We decided to move to Leela for our desserts later on.

The service was ok, staff is friendly and fun but kitchen seemed to be slow. Took a long time for us to get our food. Maybe because they were packed.

Pricing is not bad, but food definitely needs to improve. My sister tells me their basket of fries is really wonderful, so something which can be tried here. I'll need to visit again to try some other food options here.

Rating - 3.5/5

Restaurant Review - Olive Beach, Bangalore

Some of you might be surprised to see the low rating from me for Olive Beach, a rare blemish on the very popular and revered Mediterranean restaurant on Wood Street. My rating however is based purely on my experience that evening which was rather unimpressive.

Most foodies in Bangalore would have tried or at least heard of Olive beach, quite likely while recommending a romantic dinner to a friend. The decore of this decade old restaurant comprises of beautifully lime washed white walls in a dimly lit, quaint ambiance that feels like dining in Santorini, Greece.
They have a partly covered outdoor seating as well. There is no doubting the look and feel of the place, but we felt the seating was just not comfortable enough. Something that kept lingering in our minds, the longer we sat there.

The Mediterranean menu is large enough to have something for everyone to try.



We started with a guava based mocktail and an iced tea, both of which were just so-so. My wife had the tomato and fennel soup which was quite good and it had a nice texture and different taste to it. Not a bad option.
The starters were limited to harissa prawn and a veg platter. The prawns were average, cooked properly but not a memorable taste. The veg platter though was a big disappointment.
The dish consisted of a couple of small puff pastries, nice and flaky. A few pita breads, some roasted eggplant and some pieces of veg cutlet(call it whatever you want, but that's what it was). It was accompanied by some hummus and another sauce which all of us kept tasting, but couldn't figure out what it was. Nothing to talk about at all.


Our mains comprised of-
1. Corn and potato Galette on Vegetable Etoufee - essentially a shallow fried cutlet which was dry and floury, served with a little dry vegetable stew. Not enjoyable at all.
2. The veg version of Spaghetti with amatriciana sauce - a red sauce pasta with tomatoes, chillis and grilled pasta. Mildly spicy and rich texture. A decent dish.
3. Cajun rubbed chicken breast - it was just that! served with some mashed potatoes and a bbq sauce, the chicken could have been more tender and more flavoured. It was just ok.
4. Chermoula marinated sea bass - Undoubtedly the dish of the day. a juicy and soft fillet served atop a bed of beautifully flavoured rice and sauteed spinach. A saffron lemon sauce poured around the dish. Now, if only all the dishes had been as good, our dinner would be fabulous.

The desserts- tiramisu was very good, soft and nice cake and a rich coffee flavour in the gelato.
The berry brest (i think thats what it was called) was presented brilliantly, but the taste was a sour disappointment unfortunately.

The service overall was also quite a let down, the waiters seemed disinterested and preoccupied. Our plates were not changed after we were done with the starters. No second helping of water throughout the meal until we had to ask for it at the very end. It was difficult in fact to catch hold of the service staff also.

The bill at the end came upto 7000 for a meal for 5 without any liquor and considering we had an average meal and ordinary service, it felt very bad dishing out so much money while there are far better options out there.
So it's definitely going to be very long before i come here again.

Rating - 3/5

Restaurant Review - Alto Vino

After having missed dining here on a couple of occasions, we figured out that they are open only for dinner.
So we dropped in on a sunday night for dinner at one of the top Italian restaurants in town.

Located within the wonderful Marriott, Whitefield the ambiance is so peaceful, away from all the hustle and bustle of the city.
The look and feel of the restaurant is rather plain, no decoration done as such, nothing extravagant. Just simple and elegant.
The part open kitchen has an inviting feel to it, and the chefs were working away creating masterpieces for the diners.
Their head chef is from Italy, so you can't doubt the authenticity of the food.





The server came up to our table soon enough seeking the order, and we started with a glass of baileys and the most wonderful mocktail - berry berry caiprioska. And i must tell you more about this fabulous drink. It was a mix of blackberry, blueberry and cranberry juice with cinammon syrup.
The drink was not overly sweet firstly, and the taste was so refreshing.
Poured over crushed ice, the drink got over rather quickly i felt and the taste lingered on in my mind well after.

To begin our meal we tried a vegetarian salad which comprised of tomatoes, cheese, onions, cucumbers, olives, capers and a wonderfully tasty light dressing sauce. Sounds simple but it was a delicious coming together of flavours.


I feasted on the batter fried seafood with a spicy tomato sauce, it comprised of shrimps, squid rings and zucchini.
The batter was wonderfully coated, and in particular the shrimps were light and crispy. The pieces at the bottom of the dish were a bit too oily and i couldn't finish it alone too, quantity was quite large.



Our mains comprised of the linguini aglio olio, which was lightly drizzled with olive oil and had a nice taste. This kind of pasta never has a sauce, so it has to be flavoured to perfection to keep it from being bland, and no doubt about the composition.
We also had a vegetarian gnochhi, where the quantity was not large, but the dish was very good. Light and soft covering on the outside and light cheesy stuffing. Some perfect shavings of cheese to top it off. My wife felt it had an eggy taste, though i doubt it, since it said pure veg.

Portions were not too large, a single dish will not suffice for a good eater.

Pricing is high and a meal for 2 can easily go above 3000, so it can be kept on hold for those special occasions.
Will want to come back and try some more of their offering sometime.

P.S - They don't serve Pizza..

Rating - 4/5

Movie Review - Holiday: A soldier is never off duty

I got to catch the latest flick involving Akshay Kumar this week. And this one had a storyline.
Holiday: A soldier is never off duty had got reasonably good reviews and I wanted to watch this one.

As the name suggests, the movie is about a soldier i.e. Akshay Kumar, and his home coming from the army for a vacation.
The purpose of the holiday is to see a potential bride, i.e. Sonakshi Sinha.

The holiday however goes unlike anything planned as he involuntarily gets involved at the scene of a terror incident. Seeing the police inaction and inability to cope up with the situation, he decides to take matter into his own hands and kidnaps the terrorist.
Soon enough he comes up with a plan involving his colleagues wherein they foil a major terror attack together, thereby angering the mastermind behind the attacks.
The movie revolves around the concept of 'sleeper cells' who are terrorists that work without knowing the future plan but are just a part of the jigsaw.
The finale sees the terrorist face off with Akshay directly as they try to outsmart and out muscle each other.

All this goes on while there is an entire parallel track running, revolving around the love lives of our hero and heroine. The coming together of these 2 storylines is so bad, it feels like an amateur working on a movie merging software and trying to bring 2 movies together.

The sudden song and dance sequences and all of the mush involving our lead actors is what ruins what could have been a perfectly good film.
Sonakshi Sinha has no purpose in the movie, and quite frankly she doesn't even makes up for good eye candy.



Akshay kumar does well in his role as an army officer and looks the part, making his over the top action sequences look believable.
Freddy daruwala as the leader of the terrorist outfit essays his role well as a shrewd criminal mastermind.
The storyline is quite ok, but the treatment given to it by the director is bad.
If the purpose of the love story was to show the soft side of the army man, it has failed terribly.

What does bring a tear to the eye is the last song, where all families send off their sons/brothers/husbands back from the vacation, not knowing if they'll ever come back. A beautiful song indeed.

Could have been a really fab movie, but it warrants a watch. A tribute to the real heroes.

Rating - 3.5/5

Hotel Review - Goldfinch, Mangalore

I say it’s arguably the best hotel in Mangalore because I’ve also stayed at Ocean Pearl and across all parameters they measure quite close and its difficult to pick a clear winner.
It was my first visit to Hotel Goldfinch in Mangalore, although I’ve had a few dining experiences at their Bangalore hotel.

The property is not very large, the lobby and reception area is rather small I’d say. The hotel has more than 50 rooms though, and the room was very nice indeed.
The table and plush leather chair gives you a space to work and the sofa right next to it is comfortable to sit down for a while and watch some TV, which was not their best part, as the channels were not tuned  and difficult to operate.

The bed was nice and comfortable offering good sleep quality, and decore of the room was decent and neat. Bathroom was small but workable, and importantly had a faucet, hair dryer and toiletries. Rooms are on the topmost 3-4 floors and have a view of the city.



The lower floors occupy the banquet halls, the spa and salon, ‘mojo’ the bar and  couple of their restaurants. They have dining options like Kabab Studio, which specializse in north Indian dishes apart from Kababs. They also have live musical performance on weekends. It is also where their buffet breakfast is served.
The other restaurant is ‘Sana di ge’ which is a very nice sea food specialty restaurant.

The location of the hotel is very central, and it is near Bunts Hostel and Jyothi Circle. Pricing is good for the quality offered too.

Service seemed alright but will need to experience more in order to know better. That does mean i'm gonna be back again, because I had a good stay.

Rating - 4/5

Restaurant Review - Sana-Di-Ge, Mangalore

Mangalore is famous for it's sea food and if you are looking for a fine dine sea food  option, then Sana-Di-Ge, located at the Goldfinch Hotel is a fantastic option.
The restaurant located on the 8th floor boasts of a fine ambiance, with a fish tank on the wall adding to the look.



The seating is comfortable and music is not too loud.
The waiters are also dressed in traditional mangalore attire with a dhoti and shirt.
They take care to ensure you are comfortable and they give good recommendations for food too.

I was solo, so had a limited appetite, I had a prawn starter which covered in this wonderful masala which was flavourful and spicy, had a good amount of oil too. But it went well with my drinks and the prawn was perfectly cooked.
They also serve some fryums along with the drinks, and these arrived in an interesting wooden cart on my table and i liked the presentation, though not the taste.













My main course was very simple - a fish curry along with the humble but healthy brown rice. The fish was Anjal, and didnt have any thorns in it, it was nicely cooked. The curry had a rough texture on the tongue maybe due to the presence of lot of spices, but it was not bad. A good companion to the rice.

The place was not too noisy and as i looked out of the windows, overlooking the city, i sipped my drink and had some good Mangalore food. It was a relaxing experience, which was rather heavy on the pocket, but can be experienced once in a while.

Rating - 3.5/5