Its been a while since we treated ourselves out as a family. So one weekend, the three of us decided to head out to "nice" place. Sudhakar suggested Glass House and a quick online peruse seemed positive and so we headed off. This restaurant is on Lavelle Road and having valet parking here is a massive plus point.
Once we stepped in, its pretty obvious why the space has its name - the decor is predominantly glass and looked lovely in the afternoon Sun. Am sure that night ambiance is much more romantic and pleasing to the senses. There is indoor seating, semi-outdoors, mezzanine that looks out through the glass to the nice looking bar area and the main road, am guessing since we didn't go all the way up there. We chose the al-fresco seating because honestly, it does a world of goodness to my photos.
Am not really an afternoon drinking person unless its some major cause to celebrate and so stuck to a mocktail. Not being able to make a choice, I was asked what my preferences were. So I said "fruit-based, not lychee", "berries", "fizzy" and I was brought a lightly fizzy Berry Delight - strawberry pulp at the bottom, not sure of the other berries used if any, but it was not sour, just the right level of sweet, a hint of lime somewhere and not overloaded with ice to dilute.... long story short - I liked my drink.
Sudhakar decided to experiment and had the Asahi beer, which I was skeptical about since it was Rs 400 a pop and you want something like that to be good. Turns out it was good for a one time indulgence - not overly strong - two-steps better that KF Ultra.
Berry Delight and Asahi Beer
We were going the whole way today and decided on two appetizers and two main courses. I was a bit confused on what to order for Anoushka and sensing my confusion our waiter offered to bring in the deli menu for me to choose sandwiches for her. This worked out good for me because I asked for a honey glazed ham and gouda cheese sandwich. It was then further customized for me with plain bread and no grilling simply because my daughter actually doesn't like any frills. But the fact that the restaurant did not hesitate it doing this gave it a few additional points for me.
While we were waiting for our food to arrive, which did take a while in the coming, we were served some bread with olive oil and dukkah. The bread was not warm but tasted good - especially the soft olive dusted bread. The dukkah was fresh and crunchy and it made for a good plate of munchies till the food arrived.
What really made me happy as a mommy was that a fish bowl with a fighter fish in it was brought and placed on the table to entertain Anoushka - a novel way to keep kids entertained and at the table. I saw it at a few other tables and it did seem to have everyone in place. The Glass House went up a few more notches on my charts.
Anoushka's sandwich was the first to arrive and the generous helping of chips on the side made it all the more interesting for her. The sandwich was good in the sense that it was generous with both the ham and the cheese. Though am guessing asking for it to be grilled would have made it a bit less dry. Nevertheless, she finished one sandwich and the chips and we had ourselves an early evening snack.
Honey glazed ham and Gouda cheese sandwich
We ordered two appetizers and the Cocktail Jacket potatoes with scallion cream and an addition of bacon bits was the first. Don't be taken in by the picture, the bowl is actually a small square lunchbox size and the potatoes were actual cocktail, pop-in-your-mouth-at-one-go size. But they were done beautifully. Not so hot that you will be yelping with the first bite (trust me jacket potatoes have got the better of me enough number of times). The scallion cream and good sized bits of salty bacon rounded this dish off very well.
The other appetizer that caught our eye was the Seared potato gnocchi with wasabi pea puree.... the gnocchi was soft as a spoonful of whipped cream with the slight sear giving it that delicate texture. The burnt garlic bits sprinkled on top and the wasabi pea puree were perfect accompaniments. The wasabi peas puree though did not carry even a hint of wasabi, which was slightly disappointing because we ordered this dish solely based on that word. But again, for the gnocchi, it was brilliant.
These two appetizers were brilliant and we should have stuck to a single main course, but we were being indulgent. The appetizer portion may seem small to you by normal standards, as it did to me, but in hindsight I do feel these were portioned to be starters and not anything more. So if you would rather just go for a hearty meal, I would suggest sticking to one appetizer, or simply going straight to the main course.
I am a sucker for risotto and always need to check it out in every restaurant that offers it. So when I saw the crab and rocket pesto risotto, I had to have it. And a pretty good choice it turned out to be. The risotto was laden with hand stripped crab and the rice had a good bite to it. The crab fritters placed in the middle rounded the meal up well. Since I was half packed with the appetizers, our doggy bag had a little addition to it.
Sudhakar went for the Togarashi Marinated Salmon, creamy spinach and potato wedges with citrus sauce. A great choice it turned to be - a thick filet of salmon with a nice pan-seared crust to it. The only disappointment was the creamy spinach which was more watery than creamy. Though it tasted good, the texture did not allow it to be a great accompaniment.
There was no way we could do desserts after this and decided to do that another time. When we found that the starters were taking their time to arrive at the time, we informed told the staff that we were on a tight time schedule as we were headed for a movie and wanted to wrap up the meal by 2.15 that day. We were paying our bill at 2.05PM. So service-wise I give them a thumbs up and the same goes with child-friendliness. This meal was expensive to say the least and was close to the Rs 3500 mark. Anoushka is growing up and so I did not get a look at the loo like I normally would.
Address: 25/2 Lavelle Road, After Java City
Phone: 67947389
Cards Accepted: Yes
Parking: Valet
Parking: Valet
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