I ended the last post saying that dinner was going to be from a place called Biryani Mane. Glad to report that the meal was good. But more about that the next time. This post again has risen in the ranks. I thought I owed it to Preetha, who visits this blog and suggested that I visit F & B quite a while ago. This visit was long pending and I finally did it. So Preetha, here goes. :)

Well to begin with F & B or Friends and Bacchus is on St Marks Road. It is made up of multiple outlets, Global Tree Cafe, La Patisserie, 100 ft, Bayleaf, Jacket Room and Bacchus. We opted for Global Tree Cafe. They have an interesting concept, not too common in Bangalore restaurants - that of a served-to-the-table buffet. Known as lunch@360 (Rs 360 being the price) - a menu is given to you. This has a selection of starters, salads, sandwiches, main courses and desserts. You choose what you want and a single-person portion is brought to the table. The dishes are range of Indian, European and Pan Asian.

The ambiance is pleasing with space for art exhibitions available. The service however is quite slow. Not unpleasant, just slooooowwwww. Lunch ended up being from 1 pm to 3. 40. Courses were really spaced out. Our waiter told us that he would bring an assortment of starters to the table. We asked for two Carlsbergs to go with it. The complimentary bread basket was brought and the surprise was the little bowl of hummus with a dash of mint also ground into it. Really nice.

Now for the starters. I waited for my plate to be fully loaded before I took this snap, which meant I had to wait for 15 minutes to begin eating. The green circles of goodness you see are Hare Mutter Ke Shammi Kebab. Smooth paste of green peas with a dash of Indian spices. Continuing anti-clockwise is the Angare Murg - boneless chicken in quite a spicy curd based marinade and popped into the Tandoor. Succulent bite sized pieces that really wake the palate up.

Next comes my pick - the Lemon Garlic Prawns. Prawns, tail on with a wonderful garlic lemon butter poured on top. After the fiery chicken, these prawns calm the mouth down and how... Next to that lies Lucknowi Sheek Kebab - finely minced meat with slivers of cashew. In comparison to the others - just nice. The dark pieces of chicken were Gai Yang - roasted chicken wings with Thai red chilli paste. Again I found this grilled dish just nice.

Now for main courses - to begin with for Anoushka, we chose from the kiddie menu and it was a chicken fillet dish with French fries and mayo. Honestly it was really nice, but there was nothing kiddie about the portion. It was enough for a grown-up and we had to have it parceled for home. But again, it was really nice.

Sudhakar opted for the Honey, Lime and Rum glazed chicken breast. This was served with sweet potatoes and peas. The portion was great and so was the presentation. The sweet potatoes were cubed and glazed as well and complemented the dish well.

I went for a Pan Asian dish and it was Phad Na Prik Pow which was chicken stir fried with veggies, roasted chilli paste and sweet basil leaves. This apparently is served with rice, but I asked for noodles and they obliged. The noodles were soft with some veggies adding the needed crunch. The gravy was full of shredded chicken and came in a color that looked spicy but was of the more deadlier variety - hot and sweet. What happens here is that you tend to serve yourself more based on the fact that the first bite is sweet. It is only 6 bites later, when you are reaching for the water do you realize the hot part also is in there. But it was nice dish.

Desserts were Mango gelato for Sudhakar and Chocolate Brownie for me. I wanted the Fruit Gateaux (Gate - Ex as the waiter said, thinking he was correcting me :) ) but they did not have it. Both of them were really nice... but I was really full to actually enjoy it.

The place is nice and so is the ambiance. The only grouse is the oh-so-slow service. I mean, I actually saw Anoushka grow an inch while I waited. That apart, what I loved was the chilled beer mugs that were brought with the cans and the hot plates that were set down. Lovely!!

Loos are exceptionally clean. The bill was Rs 1300 with Anoushka's meal and the beers doing the most damage. But it was money well spent for the occasional splurge.