Secret Garden Cafe

We have heard and read so much about Secret Garden Cafe, that we just had to get to it someday. And that day finally came over a weekend. It took a while for us to find the place, considering that it is at the end of a long line of apartment buildings. Following that you get into the backyard of one of the many gates at the dead end, turn to your right and then up a metal flight of stairs and onto an al-fresco terrace of a home. Nice... after that adventure, I was really keen on reading the blackboard menu and getting down to ordering.   Since no one turned the menu our way, I just walked on over and began to read. Just then, one of the two ladies in grubby salwars and aprons offered to turn it my way. Thank you very much! And I took a seat. We started with an ice tea to cool down. Simple and nothing much to talk about.

The blackboard with the day's specials

Ice tea

We decided to start with a Salad Nicoise - the thought of something nice and cool like the salad was quite welcoming in the afternoon. The salad appeared soon enough - while the overall taste was nice (I still preferred the Cafe Noir one), two things put us off - when the plate came, the lady had one of her fingers a little too far into our salad for comfort and the amount of tuna was very miniscule, just a few shreds here and there. We got over the finger-in-food thing considering it just one off, but noticed it was happening with quite a few of the plates going out.

Salad Nicoise

For the mains, I decided to go with Chicken Tagine with couscous and Sudhakar had the Bacon and Spinach Cannelloni. One look at my dish and I was really happy with the quantity, but then as I was going through it, I was disappointed. Generally when I feed Anoushka from my plate, I pull out all the chicken pieces so that she gets it. As much as I dug, I got exactly 6 smaller-than-bite size pieces of boneless chicken and the rest was chickpeas and potatoes. I felt bad since the meal is priced significantly and I would have liked more meat in something that actually tasted quite nice. The same went for the spinach and bacon cannelloni. While the spinach was fairly abundant, the tiny shreds of bacon felt like one rasher that had been chopped up for the entire dish. Very disappointing.

Chicken Tagine with Cous Cous

Spinach and Bacon Cannelloni

When we were half way through our respective meals, the complimentary bread basket came to the table. Hmmm! but must add, it was really nice, though quite late in the coming. Junior made most of her meal from that. And yes, it was one bun-sized loaf sliced into 4.

Garlic bread

Desserts were a saving grace with both the carrot-orange cake with ice-cream and the home-made orange sorbet being really nice and ample in quantity.

Carrot-orange cake with ice-cream 

Home-made orange sorbet  

Overall, we came away very disappointed. From what we saw that day, most of the cafe was filled with people who were regulars. Service seemed more tilted in their favor, and that is honestly how we felt. I asked both the ladies manning the floor for our bill which never came. I asked one of the owners for it who was busy tidying up a table for some friends and who asked me to wait a while before promptly forgetting about me (Sudhakar had gone to get the car) and then finally I walked up to the kitchen, asked for the bill again and after an additional wait finally got it. This meal came close to Rs 1800 and honestly I would have been much happier at Ta'aam, up the road where I would have had my fill in Rs 400. The loo was clean. I believe the place is only open for lunch and not on Sundays, so its best to call in a check.

Address: 7/1 Edwards Road, Off Queens Road, Bangalore

Phone: 41131365

Cuisine: Continental, European, Mediterranean 
Wallet factor: Rs 1500 for two

Parking: May the parking Gods be with you since they weren't with us!

Ocea

Happened to be chatting with Karthik of Gastronomical G-spot the other day and the topic of Ocea came up. Sudhakar has been here quite a few times since his office is just round the corner. He mentioned it to me several times, but for some strange reason we never went there. After the chat with Karthik, our Sunday lunch plans were set. Yes, I know, yet another coastal place in a short span, but realllly... can you come away from a great fish meal without having a goofy look of happiness on your face?

Parking was not much of a hassle, since we "cleverly" parked in Eva Mall and hiked it to the resto. They have a non ac seating area downstairs and some upstairs too. The airconditioned section is up there too and in this heat, there was no doubt about where we were heading. Once settled, we opened the menu and decided to go all the way on fish this fine Sunday afternoon. I (very predictably) headed straight for squid - ghee roast. There was an ample amount of masala on it (would have gone great with beer), the rings were a bit chewy, but it was all in the masala - since we ordered the mains a little late, we had all the time in the world to finger lick this one clean. On the spicier side, but really really really nice.

Squid ghee roast

Sudhakar is as predictable as I am and he asked for the anjal fry. The masala here was thinly coated allowing the fish and its freshness to stand out. The fish was quite a big guy in size. For all of you who by now know how fussy Anoushka is about eating - she had a huge helping of this without needing to pull out a gun, so that speaks volumes for how much she liked it and how good it was.

On the table was also this chutney. Quite vinegary on first taste, but you will notice that it also has some beetroot juice in it. Small bits of carrot were there too. What this chutney did was give an added tangyness to all the fish we were eating.

Anjal fry

The really interesting chutney to the left

I have had two great kappa meen curries till date. One was from Appam Corner and the other was on a house boat in Alleppey (thanks to a pitstop we made at a toddy store). And so when we saw it here, it was more of a mutual agreement. The tapioca that came though was not in the mushed up form we had from the other places and did not have fresh coconut sprinkled on it. But it was tempered and very easy to mash into the bangda fish curry that came with it. 

Kappa (tapioca)

The bangda curry had just one large tail piece in it, but it was the gravy that was brilliant. A simple one of onion, tomato, ginger and garlic, but the flavor it packed thanks to the fish being cooked in it was something else. And it went perfectly with the kappa.

Bangda Curry

Anoushka wanted to have her "baby noodles" or idiappam and so we ordered that to go with bangda curry for her. What we did not bargain for was that a plate had seven pieces. And so after two she was done. We didn't need a better excuse and ordered for a fish moilee with seer fish to go with it.

The 7 pieces of idiappam

The fish moilee was everything a typical coconut curry of fish is expected to be - super heavy on the coconut, translucent slices of onions, garnishing of tomato and enough cholesterol to give you a discounted trip to clogged-artery ville. But it was the perfect match for the idiappam.

Seer fish moilee

Ocea sees most of its crowd on weekdays considering its location. That's when you have to go to taste their mussels fry and their fish roe, both of which we wanted but were not available. Unbelievably, this meal came to Rs 785, all inclusive, with a lime soda thrown in. We bowed out of desserts wanting to go home with the spicy taste on our tongues. They do have a regular Indian/Chinese menu too if you like, but then don't miss out on their best offerings by wasting your time with it. The loo is clean. 

Address: Next to St Joseph's Commerce College, Brigade road, Bangalore

Phone: 40636261

Cuisine: Coastal, Seafood, Indian, Chinese
Wallet factor: Rs 750 for two

Parking: Nothing exclusive, look in the bylanes close by

Mainland China - Jayanagar

There is a small story to this water curtain that you see here. A couple of years ago we were driving around Jayanagar for some reason and happened to see this restaurant called Thames - water curtain on the outside seemed so inviting that we pulled up  and proceeded to walk in thinking finally, Jayanagar had a decent European/Continental place to head to. This was much before Cafe Pascucci, Cafe Mondo, Rogue Elephant and Eurasia made their entry. We sat down and when we were handed the menu it was like someone poured a jug of cold water on our heads. A blah! multi-cuisine non-veg menu, something close to a non-veg Shantisagar option. Since we were there we ordered and were done with it. Thankfully the place shut down soon enough. 

And now in its place comes Jayanagar's Mainland China outlet. The water curtain is still there and thankfully the interiors have a much more classy look than the last time we set foot in there. I had been to Mainland China in Mangalore with a friend on my last visit and quite enjoyed myself and so wanted to take the rest of the family there. 

The water curtain with a history ;)

Ok, now enough with the water curtain and on to the food. The menu is quite large and the selection for veg and non-veg is equally good. No pork here :-( , but that is the fate of all Chinese joints in South Bangalore. Onto the table first came the sauces and salads. And I get peeved with the fact that everyone brings kimchi to the table when its something that has been thrown together in the morning. Except for Soo Ra Sang, I have never seen any other joint actually take the trouble to ferment their kimchi the way it is supposed to be. 

We also ordered a Frozen Lychee, which was a slush, decorated and shaped well. Ice cold and really nice to on a rather hot afternoon. 

Frozen Lychee

We started with the Shanghsi Crab Meat Soup, splitting it two-ways. Quite the nice soup - lots of crab meat, not cornfloury and set the base quite well. Since junior has an affinity to soup, it went down well with her as well. 

Shanghsi Crab meat soup

We were with a friend and had two starters - Tangy crispy fish and the Stir fried chicken with straw mushrooms in chilli wine sauce. Both were really nice, but in first place was the tangy crispy fish. Pounded fish, shaped and thinly batter fried. The taste was entirely in the batter. It was at once, sweet and tangy, meaning that each of us had to attack the plate as quickly as we could if we wanted that last bite.  

The stir fried chicken I expected to be a little more dry than what came and maybe that's why it may not have been a perfect choice for a starter. The staff did not advise us otherwise. Taste-wise, the wine comes across with every bite. The dish is quite mild and for those who prefer to go easy on spice, this would be a good choice. 

Stir fried chicken with straw mushrooms in chilli wine sauce

For the mains we decided to go with one of the house specials - Lamb Mahlak. We were told that it was going to be medium spicy and was made with 5-spice powder as the base. What came was a lamb dish with the meat thinly sliced, in what seemed to be a soya-based sauce and which was spiced up with dried red chillis. You could make out that there were multiple spices in there, but none of them overwhelming. This lamb dish went pretty well with the sticky jasmine rice that we ordered.

Lamb Mahlak and jasmine rice below

We were going all out here and so decided to end on dessert. We asked for a coconut caramel custard custard. A slight technical issue with this dessert was that there was no hint of coconut anywhere, neither in the physical form, nor in essence. It was a plain and simple caramel custard and that's it. 

Coco'not' Caramel Custard

We enjoyed our afternoon here. The loos are clean and have an entire aromatherapy thing going on in there. Not to miss is poster on the door announcing that the staff have everything you need from a sewing kit to reading glasses in varying powers for you to make use of. hmmmm! The meal is a splurge and came to Rs 2500 after all the taxes involved. Could have done with a couple of 100s lower than that. :-) . Oh Yes! the Chinese tea is unlimited and I shamelessly milked the offer for all its worth. It really helps in between courses. 

Address: 233 Barons Inn, 40th Cross, 9th Main, 5th Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore

Phone: 26532525

Cuisine: Chinese
Wallet factor: Rs 1200 for two

Parking: Nothing exclusive, look in the bylanes close by

Coastaal Express

I worked in the Shivananda Circle area for three years and thanks to ever-obliging colleagues and PG mates discovered everything that the area and my limited budget could afford me. Of course this place wasn't around when I lived in the area, but I happened to stumble on it when looking for a place to eat after we went for a kiddie play to Chowdiah. I did get a lot of other nice suggestions - but squid / Kori Rotti and a taste of home trumped all. 

Rather than get a masala papad or some such to mindless nibbles, we got onion sandige baskets. I had just finished my stock at home and these were so welcome. Anoushka hijacked the basket and batted those cute eyelashes and got us another one. 

The seafood menu is exhaustive and the menu clearly mentions that you need to ask for the price of fish like Anjal, Kane, Pomfret and crab. We started with my favorite Squid Masala fry. All the red you see did not translate into fire engines clanging their way to the restaurant. The color is the magic of Kashmiri chillis and the masala distinctly the Mangalorean Meet Mirsang - vinegar, chillis, spices all ground together and then sauteed with squid rings to make what you see. Spicy yes, but in a lovely sort of way. 

Squid Masala Fry

Chicken ghee roast is on the menu and its says clearly you need to wait for at least 25 minutes for it to come to the table and so we ordered it with the squid assuming it would come with the main course. But it arrived around 15 minutes later. Lots of ghee, coconut, another chilli paste which was quite different from the squid - am assuming they left out the vinegar and toned down on the heat levels. This was a great half plate of ghee roast. But my all time favorite still is the one from Suggi's. 

Chicken ghee roast

We wanted to sample as much as we could, and so went in for the Coastaal Basket which has 4 each of neer dosas, moodes, pundis and appams. The appams were brought in later. We had this with chicken pulimunchi.
Each of the items in the basket were nice, with the neer dosas being soft (again Suggi's had by far the best), the moodes and pundis were grainy and went very well the pulimunchi, which though labelled spicy was not of those napalm-the-tastebuds variety. It had a very mix balance of hot and sour tastes. Appams were nice, but any day, they are best eaten of the tava. And for the life of me I don't understand why restos can't invest in the appam kadai and get that really deep fluffy center with crispy edges to their appam. Either that or learn to get it right.

The Coastaal Basket

Appams

Chicken pulimunchi

And of course, since we were more than just the Holy Trinity of 3 of us at this meal, we ordered the Kori Rotti. Junior as usual partied on the rotti (khispy in her words). The chicken curry was great, made in the Kundapuri style, heavy on the coconut milk, right on the spices. Maybe a drizzle of freshly grated coconut before it came out would have completed the dish even more. But this was one good Kori Rotti.

Kori Curry with the Rotti below

Service is nothing fancy, but prompt. The space is clean and though from the outside you may feel you cannot take the family in, you very much can. The place serves alcohol as well and the one beer we shared went really well with the meal. The total came to around Rs 1200. The loos are clean.

Address: 6/4 Shivananda Complex, Shivananda Circle, Kumarapark East, Sheshadripuram, Bangalore

Phone: 22355094

Cuisine: Coastal
Wallet factor: Rs 1000 for two

Parking: Nothing exclusive, look in the bylanes close by

Poush - from the hearth of true Kashmiri Pandit

Those of you have read a couple of my posts will know that I don't really like buffets. I find them extensive and never really representative of what the restaurant has to offer. There have been very few in Bangalore who have managed to make their buffet count for them - recently it was the Village (for the experience), the Dancing Wok (limited and great) and the West View Grill House (the array and the style). So when we were invited to a Kashmiri Pandit spread at the ITC Gardenia, we went there with all the expectations of something brilliant.

Ok, so heads up - the Kashmiri Pandit spread is part of the dinner buffet on offer at the Cubbon Pavilion - so take a walk around the table first and decide what you want on your plate. There is a quite a bit and unfortunately that tummy-on-hire concept is yet to take off. We had a wonderful chat with Chef Suman Kaul under whose watchful eyes these dishes have been allowed to the table. Kashmiri Pandit cuisine is not all about sweet rice topped off with raisins (contrary to what we are generally served in the name of Kashmir). Saffron is of course predominant. Onions and garlic are not much used, and  dried ginger is where all the heat comes from. Meat is treated with love and often slow cooked overnight. For the Pandits it is mutton that reigns supreme.

Kahwa - the cup comes with the crushed nuts at the
bottom and then topped up with tea

This conversation took place over the starters which was Kahwa - a sweet hot tea with crushed dried fruits at the bottom of the cup that came floating to the top when the tea was poured in. Also a bread basket - sheermal, made with saffron and milk, and kulcha, pur and telvour. These were paired with Kabargah, mutton that has been simmered with milk, saffron, a blend of Kashmiri spices and topped of with varq. The breads were great on their own, seeing that junior demolished a basket on her own. What made them even better was the Kabargah. All it needed was a gentle slicing with a butter knife and off it slipped from the bones, onto the bread and into our mouths.

Bread basket - kulcha, pur, sheermal and telvour

Kabargah

Fried Lotus Stems

There was also Lotus stem fries - first time having these and was taken aback by the fibery texture at first bite, but then they turned out to be one of those snacks that grows on to you and you can't stop eating. We took a walk around the buffet and decided how we wanted to go about. The thing about Kashmiri cuisine is that all the gravies have to eaten with steamed rice.

So we started with Kanagache Doone Var - this is is rice preparation, quite close to the khichdi we make, but a richer version. It had morels and whole walnuts in it which made it a dish that was hot, soft and crunchy and very very comforting to have. The best way to eat it is with a generous sprinkling of the dried fruits that is kept along side it at the counter.

Kanagache Doone Var

There were three meat dishes - I took each in the little bowls placed around and asked for one bigger bowl of rice on the side. Again, both of us served ourselves just one piece of meat each to make sure we could head to the vegetarian section as well. The first was a chicken dish - which was on the spicier side but with a thin gravy that packed all the flavor. One spoonful with the rice and you will have all your taste buds dancing. The second was a fish dish - Gaad Monje, which was cooked with knolkhol. Again -  though the gravies looked similar, there was a sea change in flavors. The fillet of fish was thick and with rice as an accompaniment, made for quite the mouthful. This was not spicy in the least.

The chicken simmering away in the pot

On my plate, and in the bowl on top, the Gaad Monje

Next we decided to give the white rice a break and headed for the kheema pulao. This was again not too heavy and with a bit of raita on the side made for a nice in-between bite. The kheema is so well ground that it blends with the rice perfectly. Took a small break after this running behind junior who had found some friends for herself. But when we were done, it was straight to the table and to the Mutton RoganJosh that was just calling out to us. The meat on the RoganJosh was typically the fall-of-the-bone kinds and the gravy has to be tasted to understand what I mean by fabulous. It will also spoil you for life when it comes to a good Roganjosh. 

Kheema Pulao

Mutton RoganJosh

It was back to rice again and this time we clubbed it with two vegetarian dishes - the Haak, which is a gravy of collard greens and the Nadur Yakhni which is a gravy of Lotus stems. The Haak is literally the greens cooked in their own juices and helped along with some chillies. My mother will be so proud to see me of all  people down an entire bowl without complaints. The Lotus stem dish was the second version of this ingredient for the night. It will take some skillful wrestling to break a piece but with the yogurt based gravy that it comes it, will make it worth the effort. 

Haak

Nadur Yakhni

There were two other vegetarian gravies - the Mauje Chamman Kaliya - Paneer with Knolkhol and the Gogje Razma which is Rajma with turnips. But our tummies were sending out distress signals and we just had to save space for desserts. 

We had the kesar kheer (L), the phirni (R), both set in earthern matkas and not too sweet as to have you on a sugar rush till breakfast! We followed this by as-sinful-as-partying-with-Satan dessert called Shufta  which is basically dried fruits and nuts simmered in saffron and honey. Be warned, one teaspoon worth and you will be staying the night with Satan (and not regretting it one bit). And rounded it off with Rote - a layered sweet, slightly chewy pastry. The night's eating was closed with 2 cups of kahwa, before we ambled our way to the lobby and waited for the wheelbarrow to carry our stomachs back to the car. (they should consider having these handy in restaurants)

Kesar Kheer (L), Phirni (R)

Shufta

Rote

This Kashmiri Pandit special is part of the ongoing dinner buffet. So besides the dishes mentioned here, there is huge selection of dishes to choose from as well. But if a taste of Kashmir is what you are after, you will choose wisely. All of the food - meats and veggies have ghee as their primary medium of cooking, so if you are on a diet of any sort, this can only fall in your permissible night(s) of indulgence. Its ITC, so I don't have to tell you about the level of service - its great. 

The Kashmiri Pandit festival is on from March 2nd to March 11th at the Cubbon Pavilion. This is for dinner only. The buffet is priced at Rs 1250++ per guest. And if you prefer unlimited beer and beverages it is Rs 1500++ per guest. 

Woodstok

Off late, we seem to be running into the same problem - we head out looking for one restaurant - miss it and then find something else instead. It happened to us three times in a row. In this case, we set out to find Road Trip, went around in a couple of circles and then decided to stop at Woodstok. They had a sizzler festival going on and I was in one of those heavy duty eating modes... and we got parking - didn't need a better excuse to stop.

We were ushered up to a nice little cove on the first floor. Just three sets of tables here before it went into an  open air seating. The air conditioning was on and with the heat going around, we were grateful. First off, something to cool us down - I had a Blue Lagoon (funny how anything with Blue Curacao ends up with this unimaginative name especially since it was sans the vodka), which was blue curacao, lemon and fizzy water - basically blue colored lemon soda. But it was cold and comforting. Sudhakar had the Go Green - which was a mint lemon soda. Now this had some minty flavor in it so was a better drink than mine. 

Blue Lagoon and Go Green

Where there is pork on the menu, it will end up on our table. You would think being Mangalorean I have had my fill - but the love for all food porcine prevails eternally. We ordered the Pork Tok - which was described as pork rubbed with Indo-American spices and roasted. Now I have no clue what Indo-American spices are but what came to the table was really yummy - the onions were still a bit crunchy and the pork a good mix of fat and meat - there were some bell peppers thrown in. The meat was not roasted to a crisp but just between chewy and succulent.

Pork Tok

Junior went on a pancake trip as soon as she saw a sketch on the menu that looked it. It came with two knobs of butter, but that was not enough for her. She batted her eyelids at the staff and soon she had another bowl of butter to go along with. These pancakes were rather thick, but had the same taste as when we make them at home. The butter got to junior in while though and she began to party on our sizzlers.

Pancakes with butter (though the option was syrup was there)

Since it was a sizzler festival - I went with Caramelized Onion and apple pork chop... yes pork again... I like my pork... so oink oink!!. What I really really liked with this sizzler was the caramelized onions - it was not the usual onions deep fried to a crisp or grilled along with the pork. These were actually sweet, probably cooked in sugar or equivalent till they reached this gooey, goldeny, transparent mass. With the pork and the grilled apples, the combination of tastes was fab.

Caramelized Onion and apple pork chop (the chutney like mass to t
he right is the caramelized onions)

Can you resist a description that says Bacon wrapped beef in pepper sauce with mashed potatoes. We didn't and this turned out to be Sudhakar's order. A fried egg with its yolk popped out formed an additional ring on the Saturn-styled dish. Beef, bacon and gravy... you can't go wrong and it didn't... Quite the filling plate and we ended up taking a bit home. 

Bacon wrapped beef in pepper sauce with mashed potatoes

And we decided to wrap up with the Woodstok Wonder - Almong and Chocolate pudding with a Vanilla bean sauce. The pudding was warm - cake like and with the cold vanilla bean sauce made for a great dessert.

Woodstok Wonder

We enjoyed our meal here. The service is pretty attentive and prompt. They had a regular menu available as well, which was interesting, but we stuck to the specials. Loos are clean. This meal came to around Rs 1300.

Address: #3777, Service Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Domlur, Bangalore

Phone: 42115042

Cuisine: Sizzlers, continental, european, serves alcohol
Wallet factor: Rs 1200 for two

Parking: Nothing exclusive, but you should be able to find something