Alila Friday BBQ

Wednesday, June 26, 2013Me! In words

There is a certain sense of joy when it comes to Friday nights - its not a school night, I won't have to wake up to that dreadful alarm on my phone, no lunch boxes, hurried breakfast making or even work for that matter to wake up to the next day. A night that I can really forget about routine for a while. So that's why when the Alila BBQ night invite came through, I thought nothing could be better than to kick back with some good drinks and good food. This was a CaL Blogger's table event and the rest of the gang was coming along with their family, so there was enough to entertain all.

Traffic was murderous that evening and added to that our driver decided to take the route from traffic jam hell. It took us all of two hours to get there and with Anoushka in the cab with us, I was worried about her getting fidgety. Thankfully with the company we had, that fear was instantly thrown out of the window.

We were perhaps the last ones to reach there with Sudhakar having been the first to arrive from MG Road. Traffic can be really mean that way. Anyways once we reached, it was welcoming sight to see all the BBQ counters set up right under the night sky. Each counter had a blackboard menu propped up next to it. The system was simple - you select a table, place orders for your drinks, head on to the BBQ station, ask for what you like, get it and head on back to your table to enjoy.

One of the grills going strong

I wanted to have something off every counter and started with the salads - you read bacon and potato and know there can't be any other option to go with. It took a little while for the salad bowl to be refilled, but I soon got my share. It was creamy, the potatoes soft and the bacon... well its bacon, I don't need to tell you how it was.

While I waited for my bacon and potato salad, I placed my order at the tandoor section - the lasooni murgh and the Achaari Tandoori aloo. It was nice to see that everything was pretty much made to order. While all the meats and veggies are marinated and kept aside, they are skewered and placed in the tandoor when you place your order.

Finally having got my salad, murgh and tandoori aloo, I marched straight off to the table - you see the drive had encouraged all the caged wild animals in my tummy to break free and with the little one already settled with a fabulously delicious plate of Makloubeh - a Mediterranean style eggplant rice, replete with soft eggplant and olive oil, I needed to find my mini zoo. Anoushka made a whole meal of her Makloubeh, and I snuck bites at regular intervals. The lasooni murgh was garlicky to the extent I like, the aloo could have done a few more minutes in the tandoor, but the marinade was brilliant.

The salad grill counter

The potato and bacon salad

The bar counter

I really wanted something nice and potent to drink and started with the watermelon mojito. While it looked very pretty in its glass, it was not a pleasant drink at all. It was more watermelon juice than anything else. Surprisingly though, the same drink on the neighboring table had a different hue and tasted much better. The bar may want to look into these inconsistencies. We also were lucky to get at the table a strawberry chilli martini, which if I am not wrong is not on the menu, but done on special request. Now this.was.a.drink and I rather shamelessly downed two of them. There was also a frozen pina colada at the table which made for an interesting twist to the drink and in some measure also became dessert!

Strawberry chilli martini in a double glass

Frozen Pina Colada

And now back to the main course - there was a lot to choose from, especially from the western grill section - in my first round I had the Thai Fish cakes, the chicken yakitori, the maple glazed sweet potatoes and the pork sausages. The Thai fish cakes were excellent, spiced well and really set the tone. Everything else I brought to the table in this first round, I had nothing to complain about.

Round two I knew what I wanted and so got me some mini beef steak, which was done medium like I requested, so yay! for that. I also got some nasi goreng which warranted shameless number of returns for more and some pommes persailles.

It was sights and aromas galore at the grills

Thai fish cakes, mini beef steak, chicken sausages and hoisin marinated lamb chops

It was finally time to head to the dessert counter and somehow the mango malpua did not call out to me, so I skipped that. BBQed fruit broquettes did not really appeal to me and neither did the grilled banana. Am not really an ice cream person so that was out too. I settled for the grilled muffin, only for the novelty factor. Each muffin is split in half, grilled and given to you. The counter had a choice of preserves - berries of different kinds being pre-dominant and passion fruit too. One of the preserves I was told by the staff was commercially canned and that did not sit too well with me. All said, the combinations were nice. Maybe a little more innovation in the dessert section perhaps.

The Dessert counter

As the evening was winding down and the breeze kicking in

Overall we had a great time and for Rs 1199 all inclusive, this is a good way to spend a Friday evening. Top on the food charts were the nasi goreng, makloubeh, lamb chops, beef steak, bacon and potato salad. Of course the other non-vegetarian offerings were good as well. Vegetarians may find things a skoosh boring. The drinks could have done better, but the strawberry chilli martini deserves a standing ovation.

Couple of suggestions - a few more arrangements for larger groups to sit together. Also, a ticket system, where the food comes to the table, instead of having to wait for one dish while the other is going cold on the plate would really help.

The Menu that evening - click on the pictures for a better view