This cafe we learned, is a franchisee unit and there are three more like it. Its just about a month old in Bangalore. It has a lovely semi-open area which seats a sizable number. It has WiFi access, Nintendo Wii, a whole range of board games (Monopoly, Scrabble, Snakes and Ladders), magazines and beautiful sheeshas of hookah. Something like a cross between Cafe Thulp, Cirrus and Coffee Day.

We settled down in huge cane backed chairs and settees. We decided to sit on the inside since there was a great deal of smoking and hookah going on the outside. We sat close to the glass partition and Anoushka had a whale of a time with a group of girls who were on the other side, sharing a hookah. She was so fascinated with the whole concept and the girls entertained her with smoke rings and kiddie banter.

The menu has an assortment of teas - hot and cold, coffees - hot and cold, snacks and pastries. I wanted to try the Malayasian Tehrik Tea - a cold tea with a really elaborate explanation on its preparation, but was told it was not available. I settled for the ice tea with kiwi. This was surprisingly refreshing and the kiwi syrup at the bottom was thick and actually had bits of kiwi in it, more like a kiwi marmalade mixed in ice tea. Really nice.

Sudhakar ordered the Ethiopian espresso which smelled really strong and turned out to be really strong. The guys here don't have brown sugar and so he settled for regular with his coffee.

Ethiopian Espresso

We ordered the Basket of Fries which was a mix of french fries, onion rings and herbed potato wedges. All three variations tasted hot, crisp and well salted. They also came with accompaniments of ketchup and mustard.

Sudhakar wanted the chicken quiche, but since it was not there opted for the chicken katti roll. The roll was hot, thick and well stuffed with a sizable amount of chicken. You don't often get to see that in most of these coffee places.

We also asked for a vada pav for Anoushka, since she thought it was a burger... not that she would eat either. It finally ended up on my plate and was tad dry.

We rounded the meal off with a blueberry muffin which came to us heated - just the way I like it. The blueberry mix was ample and coated the entire bottom of the cake cup. A little difficult to lick off, but when it comes to a good cake and sauce, you don't really care who is looking!!

We played a couple of rounds of snakes and ladders and Anoushka thoroughly enjoyed herself when she rolled the dice. What she didn't know was that we were moving our tokens when she rolled a number we needed. Anyways, the bill was within Rs 500. A nice place, refreshingly different from the gazillion Baristas and Coffee Days. Hopefully it does not join the ranks of these places soon. Some things on the menu are not available and I am putting this down to being a start-up and gauging demand. The outlet has a single unisex loo which could do with some cleaning.

This review can also be found at the Sify Food site