Pure and Natural is a small restaurant a stone's throw from my house in Jayanagar. It stands a little ahead of the 7th block Coffee Day and shares walls with Painted Platters. Another landmark would be the City College main gate. Pure and Natural started around 4 years ago. I was still with the paper then and got to know of the place through a colleague who went there to cover its unique concept.

Pure and Natural is a complete salads and health drinks place. I was so glad I found out about it then and it became a regular haunt throughout Anoushka's nine month journey to our home. The menu is extensive, considering their specialty, very rarely are you told that your choice is not available.

The menu is divided into the soups and sandwiches of the day, hot salads, cold salads, mocktails, juices and milkshakes. Each day of the week has a selection of two soups. I was visiting this place after ages and wanted to see if some of my favourite salads still tasted the same.

I went in for the Swedish Potato and Egg salad - boiled potatoes and egg whites chopped and mixed with onions and a tangy mayonnaise dressing. Just the way it used to taste almost three years ago. I also ordered the Tender Delight - coconut water, honey and a twist of lime. Should have known better since I am not a major fan of honey. Those who do like honey will love this.

Sudhakar had the corn sandwich, which had a generous filling of boiled corn tossed in a mint chutney and grilled into sandwiches. He chose to drink the strawberry delight, which was strawberry pulp, yoghurt and dash of orange juice.

Our friend decided to opt for a hot salad and asked for the Burmese salad that was noodles and vegetables tossed in a tangy dressing. The salad was crispy, thanks to the noodles, but was not hot and that was disappointing.

Sudhakar rounded off his meal with a Fruit Cobbler, that was a huge serving a fruit cocktail, ice cream and jelly. Yummy!!!. Some of the other great things to try here are the Russian salad, the Chopsuey salad, the carrot smoothie, and any of the mikshakes.

Among those I will try out next time are the salted tomato lassi, the gooseberry mocktail, the kimchi salad and the Thai shake. Simply because the names sound exotic. Anyone tries them before me, please do let me know how it tastes.

This place is also famous for its takeaways and my friend took with her a round of corn sandwich and the swedish potato salad. The place is not so hot on decor and the service is a tad laidback. There are no loos and so mummies' like me, beware and be prepared. And the best of all.... the price factor - all of this including the parcel, came to just Rs 350. And this place is completely vegetarian.