Mexican Food Festival @ Aloft - Cessna Business Park

Bangalore has been an epicenter of the South for several global cuisines and tje city's Mexican food could be ranked among the best in the country (or at least in South India). While there are several standalone restaurants that have been doing a great job in bringing these cuisines to our city, the five star hotels have followed a different strategy and have religiously hosted food festivals to offer these global delicacies to us.

I was invited with a few fellow food bloggers for a preview of the Mexican food festival at Aloft - Cessna Business Park. The festival is on till April 22, 2016.

Pricing 
The promotional menu is priced at INR. 1099 and each add on cocktail could be bought at INR.199 (both of these priced are excluding taxes).

Drinks 

They offer five margarita flavours (Cinnamon, Watermelon, Hazelnut, Tamarind, Cucumber and Pineapple) along with the buffet for this food festival. With tequila being the base liquor - these cocktails are perfect summer coolers if you are looking to beat the recent heat wave in the city.

Food
Highlighting the key dishes from the menu:

1. Nachos with dips - While we love our nachos with regular salsa or Guacamole, one gets to try a few more adaptations and variants of these dips with their nachos here. They offer the following five dips for nachos:
- Pica De Gallo
- Guacamole 
- Mango Salsa
- Salsa Roja
- Gemada Salsa

2. Tacos - With fresh and crunchy taco shells, the chicken tacos was filled with tender and succulent chicken chunks, black beans and veggies. They also offer a vegetarian substitute for the non meat eaters

3. Quesadilla -Again chicken and vegetarion options; the chicken quesadilla was outstanding and is probably among the better quesadillas I have had.

4. Ceviche de camaron - I would have refused to eat raw prawns if not for the description given by the chef. In this dish, prawns marinated in lime for over 16 hours is served with corn, sliced tomatoes, olives and jalapenos. This salad styled offering was a perfect melody of flavours and had a great balance to it.

5. Ensalada Espinaca Y Aguacate
A fresh salad with fresh and green spinach, mangoes, avocado, radish and cilantro-olive oil dressing.

6. Chicken Mole - Chicken breast topped with chocolate sauce
It was my second attempt at mole and I found it more compatible to my taste preference this time around. Unless you have already tried mole's before - it is a dish you might struggle to appreciate.

 

Desserts 
They had two mexican desserts:
1.Tres leches - this was decent, but I must concede that I have had better.
2. Flavoured churros with mango and chocolate dips - found this to be a little off; probably the better churro experiences I have had at other places is the reason.

While the promo menu has enough items to meet your hunger needs, you could also try items from the regular buffet spread if you are dining as a part of this offer.

On The Edge, MG Road (4.5/5)

I have tried thai food at several places recently and except two or three joints, the results of most of these explorations have been quite average. With this background and zero expectations we decided to visit 'On The Edge'. 

Ambience (4.5/5)

This restaurant has a semi open set up and is located on the 13th floor of Barton towers; a building that has the evergreen 13th floor and ebony in the same floor and commercial office space in floors below. 

We were here on Friday evening and with consistent inflow chilly winds, tasty hot food was the best cure for our needs. Also, the restaurant offers shawls for those who can't embrace the chillness, which I would consider as a wonderful gesture (also after a while it would be impossible to sit around without them - which means its a good customer retention/satisfaction measure). 

The seating options include high rise chairs, wall mounted seating (with cushions of course) and regular dining chairs. Personally, I believe that encompasses all options a place like this can hold. 

With dim lighting, candle lights to support - it might also be an interesting place for a date night. 

Pricing (4.5/5)

I would consider their pricing to be very reasonable when compared counterparts selling similar quality of food. 

Service (4/5)

The staff who attended our tables did a great job in helping us choose the dishes. Also, the wait time for food and drinks was not too long.

One incident that impressed me: as I was clicking the pic of one of the dishes I commented to a friend that it looks great; for which a staff nearby responded saying it would also taste great. What I then thought was arrogance, was nothing but confidence in one's own team. Good job sir! 

Food (4/5)

Our orders included the following:

1. Red thai curry (veg)

Had a couple of small helpings of this dish and it was pretty good. 

2. Pad thai (veg)

Probably the only dish I did not enjoy much. But that's also because I am not a fan of pad thai. 

3. Chilly garlic noodles

A decent noodle offering which combined very well with the curry we ordered (staff recommended). 

4. Stir fried chicken - peanut and chilly curry

The winner dish of the day. The curry was mind-blowing and I am definitely going back to try more of this. 

The curry had a good dose of peanuts and was a thick coconut milk induced chicken curry. Loved the traditional flavours and how the curry combined with both noodles and white rice. 

5. Thai green curry (chicken)

A dish that I have best enjoyed at republic of noodles and singkong and no place has come even close to matching their offerings. 

Well, here is a place that I might now add to that list; curry was a little less thicker than singkong, but extremely delectable.

Drinks

They have a common bar with 13th floor and you would find all the drinks from there being served here. 

I was not drinking but my friends had ordered a red wine sangria and bira (a belgian beer that you do not find in too many places). The sangria tasted pretty good and the beer was as good as always. 

Desserts (4/5)

We ordered three desserts: ebony and ivory,  beeramisu and wayanad. Liked them in the same order and all three of them were unique and relishable in their own ways. 

#ebony and ivory - a chiffon pie with white and dark chocolate swirls

#beeramisu - a beer tiramisu

#wayanad- coconut and jaggery crepe rolls - you would enjoy this is you are a mallu

On a summary note, this place is a must try and I am definitely revisiting!

Big Pitcher, Domlur (3/5)

Background:

Another place I have visited twice before reviewing. First experience I feel in love with their pizza's and the second time I realised maybe hunger got the better of me during the earlier visit. 

Ambience (3/5)

The property is located 500mtrs into old madras road when you enter from domlur bridge side. This multi-floored property has a different theme and offering across different floors. 

I have been the ground, first and second floors (though I believe the real fun are in the floors above). The ground and first floors have jarring music and is over populated with boy gangs - effect of having 100ft road (the party capital) - less than a KM away. The second floor is relatively peaceful and might be a place to watch a sports event (the all blacks vs Australia rugby finals were on when we visited). The rooftop charges an entry for couples I was told. 

Otherwise the ambience and seating is decent. 

Service (4/5)

The staff are quick to respond to requests. Service is pretty good. 

Pricing (3/5)

Pricing is moderate. A meal with a drink per person for 8 cost INR. 4800, i.e 600 per head.

Food (3/5)

Some of their dishes and starters tasted pretty good. But across the visits I learnt the pizzas lack consistency. 

Among the starters - the chicken wings (served in drumstick style) tasted pretty good. Rest of them were quite ordinary. 

Beer

Not a fan of their beer. 

Cocktails 

Son of a beach and mojito were of good standard. 

On a summary note, despite the decent offering the place fails to attract the best crowd due to its location and proximity to Indira Nagar.

Om Sai Skanda Dosa Camp, Ulsoor (4.5/5)

Whenever I crossed this place I have wondered what all the crowding was for in front of what looked like any other corner side dosa shop. Zomato ratings and reviews added as an additional motivation to check the place out. 

Today, on my way back home I stopped here for a small pre-dinner meal and decided to try the place out. 

Service (4.5/5)

Food is ready and served in seconds from the time you order. 

Ambience  (3/5)

Despite being a corner shop/fast food joint, they have taken efforts to maintain the cleanliness inside and outside the restaurant. It's no surprise that I found quite a lot of people crowding this joint whenever I passed by. 

However, as a fast food diner- there is always the discomfort that one faces, especially considering the customers need to stand in the footpath of a busy main-road as the indulge in these delicacies. 

Pricing (5/5)

Extremely cheap. Two masala dosa's, 1 vada and 1 idly cost us INR.90. That is great VFM considering the quality of the food we ordered

Food (4.5/5)

Masala dosa- easily the best masala dosa I have had in recent times. It was very crisp, perfectly dosed with masala and red chutney on the inside and adequately sized (I am literally craving for more as I type this). 

Vada - not hot as it was readily available. However; one can just not complain about the crispiness of this offering. 

What made it better was the not so sweet sambar (perfect for a Chennai origin foodie) and the not so bad- thick and fresh coconut chutney. 

Would be unfair if I rate them anything lower than 4.5 - especially considering how satisfying the experience was. 

Definitely going back!!!

Dunkin Donuts, Gopalan Mall (2.5/5)

One Night In Bangkok, Indira Nagar (3/5)

Been hearing about this place from every foodie I spoke to and decided to visit them for some good Thai  meal and drinks last Friday night. 

Ambience (3.5/5)

What impressed me about the ambience was the effort taken to introduce the Thai theme to the Bar. They have wall paintings of MMA fighters and other art representing Thai. 

However, personally I did not enjoy the ambience enough on three counts:

1. Cramped seating arrangement and limited floor space

2. Dim lighting

3. Jarring loud speakers (sound quality was not the best)

Pricing (3/5)

Their cocktails were priced moderate; however, the starters were relatively more expensive. 

Cocktails (3/5)

Some of the cocktails we ordered were exceptional while some were unique and different. 

What I liked:

- Pattaya Sour

- Muay thai punch

What I was indifferent to

- Mango spice

What I did not like

- Passion Margarita

- Thai Basil Mojito

Food (3/5)

This place functions as a Thai bar and does not really have much of food options except for their starters and thai curry. 

The following veg starters were exceptional and are a must try if you visit:

- fried lotus stem with peanuts

- pad thai wrapped in egg

The thai curry and rice was also pretty good, except that the quantity of curry served was inadequate for the rice and chicken portion. The chicken was cooked well and had a barbecue flavour to it. 

Non veg starters we tried the following and it did not quite agree with our taste preferences:

- stir fried chicken with basil and young peppercorns

- bbq chicken isaan style (similar to the chicken served with thai curry and rice - was better of the two non veg orders)

Service (4/5)

The staff responded well to requests and replaced wrong orders without any complaints. 

On a summary note, the place needs to re-look at their food offering- both in terms of adding dishes and also improvement in the quality of few of their offering.