I have a backlog of Bangalore restaurant review posts. This one is the most recent but still rose in ranks to be posted today. The reason is that I simply had to get it out of my head. Before you read the review, you should understand the frame of mind I was in... I had been stuck in the house for three weeks... when I say stuck... I hadn't walked down the two floors from our home in three weeks (all the posts put up in that time were ones that had been done ages ago). Two weeks nursing a sick baby and one week nursing a backlog of work. And finally I had had enough and wanted to go out. There were two choices, both in Jayanagar - Jalpaan and Cafe Canada. We went to Jalpaan and while the experience was nice... it was disappointing because it turned out to be a vegetarian joint... something I did not anticipate. So two days later, we headed to Cafe Canada.
A glimpse of the above was what we could see when passing by and so you would understand my thinking that this was a sandwiches/milkshakes/quiches kind of place. Well we parked in front of the place and walked in... to be greeted by a typical Shanthi Sagar type of vegetarian menu hoarding on the wall. Okay!!! shocker number one. We still decided to wing it and headed to the "service hall" as they called it. The entire place is done up in red and white, with even a tree and string lights thrown in for good measure.
Sudhakar looked and the menu and pleaded that we leave. I wanted to stick it through. Experimenting after all is not always about things being great. We should be ready to be surprised too... well surprised we were. We decided to order the Cafe Canada specials wherever we could... and so Cafe Canada special Manchurian it was for starters. We were told it would have mushrooms, babycorn, paneer and potato. What came was thick batter fried rubbery paneer with copious amounts of red coloring and a generous toss of spring onions and.... nothing else. Didn't bother asking the waiter why because it wouldn't have made a difference.
Cafe Canada special Manchurian
Next we thought of having the Kashmiri naan, Kabul naan and the Cafe Canada special vegetarian gravy. They all sounded different and I have eaten in enough of Shanthi Sagars to know they don't have anything like a Kashmiri naan and Kabul Naan. Shocker number two was the waiter actually telling us to go in for the regular naans!! Was he not confident... we would know when we were served.
The Cafe Canada special vegetarian gravy was like any other Shanthi Sagar gravy, a pav bhaji style mash of vegetables with the famous red coloring. This one had a carved tomato and star shaped grape decorations as well which did nothing to the taste or the look.
Cafe Canada special vegetarian gravy. Don't miss the star shaped grapes
Now for the naans. First came the Kabul naan. Its stuffing comprised of.... hold your breath... coconut shavings, boiled and mashed channa dal and bits of jaggery!!! This to be eaten with a veg gravy!!!?? You can take a call on taste based on this description.
Kabul Naan - with coconut, channa dal and jaggery??!!
And now... for the piece de resistance... the Kashmiri naan. Take a look at the picture first and guess what came on top....
Kashmiri Naan
Shocker number three!!! This naan came with a generous slathering of mixed fruit jam, slices of marsh melon, orange and stray piece of chickoo... What in the world were they thinking... how is someone supposed to eat this with a gravy!!! This is when I realized the waiter did subtly warn us. The horror of that dish remains and that is why I had to write this post...
We had a sweet lassi, a vanilla shake and a lemon juice for drinks. For Anoushka we ordered a ghee rice which thankfully turned out to be only that... decent ghee rice. Others around seemed to be ordering the set meals and normal south Indian stuff. Maybe we were just being too adventurous...
Lassi to the right and vanilla shake to the left. Putting the straws together was our corny idea in the spirit of what we were eating
Ghee rice for Anoushka
The flowery wash basin was hilarious and another rib tickler about this place was the offerings on the menu - there was "Tamoto Soup", "Manchew Soup", "Palak Z Soup", "Gobi 2010 special", "Singapori Fried Rice", Sajuvani Palav". Guess I could dare an enemy to try these out. The loos are fairly clean and the bill for these atrocities was Rs 375. Anyways... this has been some weekend and hopefully Biryani Mane (home)... a take-away biryani joint... again newly opened in Jayanagar will take the horrors of afternoon away. Will keep you posted.
The flowery wash basin
Address: No 244/A, 33rd cross, Next to Deepak Hospital, Opp City College, 7th Block,
Jayanagar Bangalore 560082
Jayanagar Bangalore 560082
Phone: NA
Cuisine: Multicuisine - Vegetarian
Cards Accepted: No
Wallet factor: Rs 300 if you choose a la carte style food. Lesser for set meals
Parking: small cordoned off area for bikes
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