Nagashree is in Shantinagar and faces double road. It is an old restaurant and one we have been crossing to get to Jayanagar for years now. Recently I read some buzz online about Nagashree and the regional cuisine it serves there and it promptly went onto my list of places to go. However from the looks of it I wasn't sure if it was a place I could take the little one to and so waited till it was just Sudhakar and I. We headed there for a quick weekday lunch, as I believe that is what it is famous for. The menu is quite small with the usual suspects of chicken/mutton fry, biryanis, plated meals etc. I was actually looking for a Nati Manae styled menu, but this would do too. 

We didn't want to fill up on biryanis since we both had to get back to work in the afternoon. Instead we ordered two biryani rice, a chicken fry and a mutton fry. Instinct made us ask for something cold to drink, aerated or otherwise and there was nothing to be had. Each biryani rice you order comes in a thali, with a chicken gravy (there were tiny pieces in it), sliced onion and cucumber and a wedge of lime. Thank heavens the biryani rice was not one of those calling-all-minions-of-hell spicy. It was quite nice. 

The biryani rice

The two meats we ordered were again not doused in the same masalas as has happened to us in small joints like this. The chicken was a spicy chilli, onion and tomato gravy, making it semi-dry than a gravy. The chicken was not tough, even if it was the country chicken that was used (not too sure on this). The number of pieces, even if you were ordering just the one dish is good enough to get two people through their meal. 

The mutton dish was a deep fried onion based one. When I picked up a piece and put it on my plate (yeah I did it with my fingers, spoons be damned in places like this), instinct made me lick my fingers. For a second I was on the hotline to hell - something was tremendously spicy. I love my spice, but for a fleeting moment I thought I was done for. That must have been a one off thing where sometimes a piece tends to get a concentrated dose of the masala. The spice levels were actually quite balanced. The meat had been slow cooked and it was evident from it falling off the bone. Really liked this one. 

Chicken Fry

Mutton Fry

I tend to be a little glutton in places like this and when the waiter came around and asked if we would like something more, say a rice-rasam, I nodded my head vigorously while Sudhakar gave me this look of incredulity. I told him we could share it, which he reluctantly agreed. On it came. Hot, pepper garlicky rasam. I love mine with pickle, but there was none around. We managed to get through the plate of rice in good time. 

The good thing here is that there is dessert even if there are no soft drinks and pickle. So "triffle" pudding and caramel custard announced a little laminated paper. 'Triffle' (hehehe!!) was not available and so caramel custard it was. It was fair enough, neither brilliant nor totally blah. Definitely not packeted stuff and slightly more dense than it should be. 

Rice and rasam

Caramel Custard