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.

Singkong, Lavelle Road (4/5)

Was at Singkong with a couple of friends and we were planning to sit by the bar area, have a couple of drinks and starters before heading elsewhere for dinner. However, the starters impressed us to stay longer and what happened was a long evening with the boys and some good drinks and food to accompany. 

Ambience (4/5)

Every joint at the restaurant zone in UB City has similar, yet classy ambience. Breezy evenings are the best times to be here and yesterday was one such evening. 

We sat at the bar area - which is common between sanchos and singkong; the high rise bar seats were comfortable and the ambience was otherwise decent. However. if you ask me whether they have the look and feel for a pricy fine dining - I might disagree. 

Service (5/5)

Mr. Hirak- the staff in charge for our orders and also the bar-man at singkong, mixed up some nice mojito variants. He also took special effort in guiding us with the orders and most of his suggestions were spot on. Also. he was kind enough to replace a drink which I did not like.

The food was served pretty fast and the empty plates were cleared quickly. The restaurant also had staff deputed to consistently maintain the trash and hygiene of the restaurant - impressive! 

Pricing (3/5)

I found the liquors over priced. The food though pricy was relatively more VFM. 

Food (3.5/5)

1. Starters: 

- Stir fried chilli basil chicken 

The dish had tender boneless chicken pieces spiced adequately and with healthy flavours. The dish was however a little too oily! 

- Indonesian chicken satay - served with spicy peanut sauce

Not a fan of satay's usually because of lack of penetration of flavours in the way certain restaurants serve them- but this was an exception. The dish was no comparison to the other chicken starter, but was definitely a good chicken satay. The peanut sauce was spicy and combined as a great dip. 

- aromatic spicy chicken dumplings - was ordinary and might not be a dish I would recommend. 

- wasabi prawns was crispy and yumm!

2. Main course 

Thai green curry with chicken

The last week has been perfect when it comes to thai green curry orders and this one just upped the game. Loved the thickness of the curry and the spicy flavours of the dish. In addition to the white rice, it also combined great with our noodle order.

3. Cocktails (3.5/5)

Of the three cocktails which we got two of them were good quality stuff and were bartender special mojito variants. The other order was a wasabi mojito and we did not like it - it was replaced by the staff. 

The drinks are however overpriced and not really VFM.

Toscano, Lavelle Road (4/5)

Was catching up with my best buddy who was visiting from Bombay. He was one of my early food companions and together we have conquered several cities. Considering his fascination for Italian fine dining decided to take him to Toscano. 

Ambience (4.5/5)

This place has one of the best outdoor ambience in UB CIty- is my personal favourite. I have heard live performance are their highlight and unfortunately for us, we were visiting on a weekday. 

The restaurant was kinda packed and mostly filled with expats and foreigners. They have an extensive selection of wines and I am assuming that could be the reason. 

Pricing (3.5/5) 

Surely overpriced but the food quantity makes you think otherwise. We were full just with the starters and thats commendable considering our appetites.  

Service 

No qualms about their service. 

Food (3/5)

I ordered for a chicken starter and was looking for guidance from the staff. Was particular on not wanting to eat fried food and mentioned the same to them. My order was lost in dialogue and was served a chicken nuggets kind of dish. It was served with french fries and two dips. Tasted quite ordinary. 

Our other starter was a veg hand tossed pizza bread (four cheese piadana and oregano). This was dry and bland - did not completely suit my Indian palate. 

Dessert (4/5)

Chocolate kahlua mousse in almond tuile creme anglaise:

The kahlua mousse was amazing and the almond tuile was possibly the best crust to mount it on. The let down for me was however the creme anglaise. It pulled down what could have otherwise been a perfect dish by a few notches. 

Mocktail (5/5)

Mango zombie - easily one of the best mango mocktails I have ever had. Its a delight to watch the frozen mango puree melt and blend with the crushed ice. 

Though the food orders went wrong, I believe it is not fair to judge based on just their starters. Hence rating them 0.5 higher.

The Beer Cafe, Indira Nagar (2.5/5)

The new beer place at Indira Nagar and what a disaster it turned out to be. 

1. Their website shows off over hundred bottled beers while they serve only 13 at their store. The liquor store nearby seemed to have a better collection that this.

However had a disclaimer on each table stating legal hassles being the deterrent in sourcing these beers.

2. Food was terrible. Except masala peanuts (something which cannot be screwed up), all of our orders tasted bad.

- Paneer tikka: We were forced to return the paneer as they were chewy and inedible.

- Chicken Olivetti - olive stuffed chicken that was otherwise flavourless. Even a generous dip into the sauce that came along did not help.

- Nachos - everything about it was wrong. First, they used readily available nacho chips. There was just a little bit of cheese and tomatoes as toppings. The cheese serving was definitely inadequate.

Ambience (3/5)
The interiors are done well and looks classy. However, they looked quite empty for a Friday night.

David Guetta played tirelessly in the background.

Service was decent.
Pricing is moderate for the food but expensive for some of the imported beers.  

Mother Cluckers, Indira Nagar (3.5/5)

A Saturday night with a couple of friends and I was in no mood to travel beyond Indira Nagar. We zeroed down on Mother Cluckers for a pre-game drink session before heading out to somewhere bigger (the latter part of the plan never happened though). 

Ambience (3/5)

The place is quite cramped and it is difficult to find tables on weekends. They always have more people than their seating space and this kinda crowds up their bar area. I sat indoors on both my visits and would prefer to do that at least till winter is here. 

The ambience is otherwise simple and seating is less than comfortable. 

Pricing (3.5/5)

They are priced reasonably

Service (4.5/5)

The bar staff are cheerful and guide you well in choosing the drinks. A little more knowledge of the food being offered from their service staff could help. 

What impressed me was however the seat allocation policy. The manager kept tab of when we arrived (though we did not give any names to him) and allocated a table to us vacating two couples who arrived much later and bullied their way to the empty table. I was impressed by the professionalism, especially considering how several joints in Indira Nagar give a preference to ladies and couples. 

Food (3.5/5)

We tried a couple of chicken starters and two burgers. The fiery chicken was their standout dish and is a perfect bar starters - we ordered a second portion of this dish even though we didn't drink much that day. 

The burger I tried was decent. 

Drinks (3/5)

I have tried the LIIT and whisky sour here. Both of these were just ok; however, the LIIT has a good liquor concentration.

Chili's, Indira Nagar (2/5)

Had a very poor food & drink experience at chili's. 

We ordered for a triple dipper with the following:

1. Original chicken crisper

2. chicken wings

3. Cheese poppers

All three dishes were excessively oily. I concede that they are fried items, but the oil content was extremely intoxicating. The dips were unique from each other and decent though. 

As for drinks, I ordered for a sea breeze which was diluted and did not quite live up to the description. My friend ordered for a texas tea; this was relatively better and quite a concentrated drink. 

Pricing (2/5)

These three orders cost us INR.1600 - definitely overpriced and not VFM. 

Ambience (3.5/5)

We sat on the first floor. The seating space was quite cramped here. The ground floor definitely looked more attractive. 

Service (2.5/5)

Service was quite good until we placed our order. Refills for water and tissues took its own sweet while though. Nonetheless, the staff were friendly and courteous.

The Boozy Griffin, Koramangala (3/5)

Was here on a weekday night with a few colleagues. Incidentally the day happened to be a karaoke night and we were hoping it would be an interesting evening. Unfortunately for us, the person who was supposed to organise the karaoke session met with an accident and could not turn up.

Ambience & seating (3/5)

The pictures of the place looked really attractive in the pics but somehow I could not completely appreciate what this place had to offer. This might be personal because I have had similar views on several other restaurants- primarily on account of the dim lighting during late evening sessions.

For seating we had to choose between high rise stools and backless couches. Considering we were looking to spend a hour at least we went for the high rise chairs. The adjoining tables had metallic poles separating the sides - which I found quite pointless. Also, considering we had people sitting on either sides this was only making interaction difficult.

Pricing (3/5)

The pricing is slightly on the expensive side; especially their main-course.

Service (4/5)

Each of the tables had a tissue holder which has buttons to call the waiter, ask for bill, etc. Unlike some of the other places where I have seen similar technology being used, the staff responded instantly.

Food (1.5/5)

The food was a major letdown.

1. Veg Nachos was bland and flavourless.

2. Chicken peri peri - was served with burnt chicken pieces in an over-spiced peri peri sauce

3. Lebanese mezze platter was quite ordinary. The tiny falafels was sub-ordinary.

The devils chicken skewers looked similar to the chicken peri peri order, but had a less spicy sauce as base. This was the relatively better order of the day.

Drinks (3.5/5)

Some of their bar special cocktails were unavailable. Nonetheless, most of our drink orders were of good standard and was quite unlike their food.

Would recommend this place if you are looking for decent bar mixes.