Bangalore restaurants- Food and Travel: budget eating

Freshmenu

Thursday, January 21, 2016Me! In words

So this has been a post in the making for a long while now. Over the last year or so, there seems to have been an avalanche of sorts when it comes to home delivery of food - from curators, to independent kitchens to home cooks and so many more. There was once a time when Tandoori Nights in Jayanagar was our one and only go to place for takeaway and comfort food - but now, we are spoiled for choice (PS: I still love Uncle and Tandoori Nights).

I used to be extremely skeptical about online delivery services. Having been on the receiving end of "order was not registered", "its raining, our Internet is down", "We can't track our delivery boy", "We don't deliver to your area, despite confirming your order online that we can" - I was all but ready to give up with most services. But then Sudhakar convinced me to give Freshmenu a go.

So we ordered and the order came in 45 minutes later than it should have and I walked around with a "I told you so" look on my face. But our first order of a pasta and burger turned out to be so good, that I was willing to give it a go again. And I am happy to report that from our second order, close to around 6 months ago, I have never had an order come in late.

Yes, on occasion, the chicken in the chicken salad was forgotten, or a dish was left out of an order, but that was rectified soon enough, with just a phone call. Every place is allowed a few mistakes. But bottom line has been that the food has always been worth the money.

The food has always been good, the packaging great (I have found some great uses for the boxes outside of the kitchen!) and the innovation regular. The introduction of the breakfast platters were a great addition and very filling for a weekend brunch. In most cases, I just fried up some bacon at home and completed the breakfast platter the way I wanted it. The seasonal jams and preserves that come in are always brilliant.

Christmas time saw the addition of some really good plum cakes and we ordered ourselves a few of those. Currently Freshmenu is on a specials spree and they are done with their Asian and Bread specials and are currently on their Burger promotions. We have been sure to order something for each special each time.

So Freshmenu divides their menu into Appetizers/Salads, Mains and Desserts. We don't usually do desserts, but this once we ordered a Walnut cake with caramel drizzle (I may have got this name a bit wrong) and it was fabulous. The salads can be a meal in themselves and I love that the dressings are never the staid vinaigrette or cream based ones. The orange dressing is a favorite. Special mention goes to their Chicken Quesadillas. I invariably order one of those every single time I see it on the day's menu. The salsa and the sour cream dips are what warrant the repeat orders from me.

And so Freshmenu has become an integral part of the ordering-in culture in the Prabhu family. The fact that the prices are usually in the Rs 200 to Rs 250 for a main course, makes it an affordable good option. I am hoping their specials take them down the Mexican, Japanese and some interesting Indian cuisines way as well.

Take a look at some of what we have ordered. All of these are taken on the phone or the point and shoot and may not really do justice to the dishes. But then hey - we ordered in and wanted to dig in, so had to be quick about it!.

Three Bean Salad

Dukkah Rubbed Chicken with Spiced Rice

Gremolata Spiced Fish with Spaghetti

Crepelle Alla Florentine

Breakfast Platter - With Pancakes and honey, herbed bread, potato croquettes, mushrooms in white sauce and baked beans.

Spaghetti Bolognese - they are very generous with their meat sauces

Teriyaki Chicken in Bowl- this turned out to be a little sweeter than I anticipated

Tex Mex Titanic Burger - Sudhakar is a huge fan of their burgers. Always massive sized, but packed well and they reach us intact.

Bangalore restaurant reviews budget eating Chinese

Bento Boxes at OKO

Tuesday, October 06, 2015Me! In words

There are some weekends when all you want is a lovely meal without having to put too much of thought into what you are ordering. Those are the days when a pre-fixe menu is exactly what I would like. We were recently invited by The Lalit Ashok to sample their Champagne Bento Box at OKO. This is available all through the week for lunch only, making it a great option for those working meetings as well.

I have always loved the interiors and the expansive outdoor canopied seating of OKO. Having visited the restaurant multiple times at night, this was the first time we found ourselves here in the afternoon. We were guided to our table indoors and the view from up here was a beautiful Bangalore skyline, with the clouds and the sun playing peekaboo. Of course the skyline could have done with a lot less buildings, but then that's the price of "development".

The Bento Box menu offers three main options of Thai, Chinese and Japanese - each of these has a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian box that you can choose to go with. With your meal choice comes some Sula Brut. We were enough around the table to choose a non-vegetarian option of each cuisine. The meal was further enhanced with a sashimi and sushi platter.

While we wait, the amuse bouche of crisps with a sweet and spicy chilli
dressing made for a nice palate cleanser

The meal was accompanied by Sula Brut

This is the adorable little pot of light soy that was served along side the Sushi and Sashimi platter. Next to it you see a glass with what is called OKO water - chilled water steeped in cinnamon. A refreshingly lovely take on life's most important beverage.

The sashimi of Mackerel, Salmon and Tuna were fresh and evenly sliced. They were placed on an excessively large bed of seaweed and julienned carrot. I can never tire of sashimi and these were as fresh as they get. There was also Nigiri sushi of prawn, egg and white fish. The little brown hoods were omelet pouches with sushi rice. There was also some vegetarian maki sushi. All of the sushi were very well rolled and tasted great. What would have elevated this platter to another level would be some great presentation techniques.

And then each of our Bento Boxes came about. They come in beautifully laminated black boxes that are engraved. These are opened with a flourish at the table. Here you see the Chinese box with Ni Mong Tang Hai Xian - Lemon Coriander Soup (in the closed soup box that I unfortunately forgot to shoot when open), Xiao Ji - Chicken dumplings, Szechwan La Jin - a Chicken with Chilli, Wuxiang, Yang Rou - a Lamb Stir Fry and Vegetable Fried Rice. Dessert was the Date Pancake with Ice Cream. A fragrant and flavorful meal, this box, like all the others that followed was steaming hot and was perfectly proportioned for a person. The dumplings were moist and the soup very aromatic and strong on the lemon. The chicken in chilli and the lamb stir fry were great accompaniments to a rice that could stand on its own. The date pancakes, were not overly sweet and closed this box wonderfully.

Date Pancakes with Ice Cream

The Thai box had a classic street food special, the Por Pia Chae - Thai Style Vegetable Spring Rolls, Som Tam, the raw papaya salad, Tom Yum Kai - Chicken Tom Yum Soup, Kaeng Kheow Waan Kai - Thai Green Curry chicken with Khao Mali - Jasmine Rice. Dessert was another classic - the Tab Tim Grob - water chestnuts with shaved ice in coconut milk. This box is the ideal representation of standard Thai meal offering. The Spring Rolls and the Tom Yum Soup nailed it in terms of flavours, aroma and textures. The Som Tam did not pack enough of a punch for me, but then I am sure a restaurant of this nature has to think of the larger audience. The Thai Green Curry and Jasmine Rice are comfort food at its best. Do not miss the little sauce in the center that packs a sweet and sour flavour.

Tub Tim Grob

And then the Japanese Bento Box - Again a great selection for anyone looking for a classic Japanese meal. The Miso Soup has that depth of flavour which is so integral to it. The Spicy Salmon Roll Maki Sushi is a crowd pleaser. It is the Maguro (Tuna) Tataki that totally hits its for a sixer. The fish has been treated with respect and is a pleasure in every bite. The Chicken Teriyaki goes perfectly well with the Gohan, sticky rice. Desserts are not really a thing in Japanese food and so a lovely platter of cut fruits rounded up this meal.

The fresh fruit platter to round off the Japanese Bento Box

If you are looking for a quick meal that is clearly representative of a cuisine, then OKO's Champagne Bento Boxes are for you. All Bento Boxes come at Rs 999 + taxes for the non-vegetarian box and Rs 899 + taxes for the vegetarian.

Banashankari Bangalore restaurant reviews budget eating

Military Hotels in Bangalore - Part 2

Wednesday, August 19, 2015Me! In words

I have developed quite a fascination for Military Hotels this past year. I spoke of two of them in an earlier post and now have two more here to wax eloquent about. The first is a personal favourite simply because it is so close to home and the food is divine. No week goes by without a quick stop for an indulgent lunch. Ranganna Miltry Hotel has been around for a long while now and if you follow my Facebook and Instagram, you will know that my love for Ranganna Miltry knows no bounds.

From the few conversations I have had with Muniranganna, the owner and a one time wrestler, I came to know that he inherited this eatery from his parents. It was a small, dilapidated looking space that had its loyal customers spanning a couple of generations in Jayanagar. Today, he runs it along with his sons. The eatery has moved to a larger, airier space, just one road away, complete with family seating space, and is packed to the gills any given day.

Spices are picked up from the nearby KR Market and Muniranganna religiously handpicks up every piece of meat that goes into his preparations. How do I know this? Well, we go to the same butcher and have seen him in action. In fact, if you ask for advice on the cut of meat to select, he will happily oblige you. Here is a look at just some of the food that we constantly head back for at Ranganna Miltry Hotel.

You get served on leaves or plates, depending on what you order - you take your pick.

Thale Mamsa - Head Meat gravy - this one is a spicy dish that packs in all the flavor that oozes out during the slow cooking process. The spice is from the whole garam masalas that you will find abundantly and pepper. It is tempered with a generous amount of fresh coriander leaves.

Yes, its a poorly shot photo, but excitement got the better of me. Sudhakar's standard order when he is here is a Ragi Mudde with a meat curry. The Ragi balls are smooth and make for a sumptuous meal each and every time. Top it off with a share of mutton palav and siesta-here-we-come.

This Fish Curry comes with a generously oily base that packs in the heat of red chillies and of course Munriganna's secret mix of spices. He told us once that only a select few in the kitchen know the recipes of these dishes, among of course his immediate family.

My personal favourite and almost every time order is the Kheema Balls - what you see here is the Kheema Ball Dry - there is also a gravy version which kicks up the spice level a few notches higher, but is equally excellent. The meat is hand pounded along with all the spices and condiments it needs. It is then shaped into these generous balls and cooked in an amazing base of tomatoes, whole spices, peas and more.

Though my favorite Mutton Palav among the Miltry Hotels I have visited so far continues to be Naidu Miltry Hotel in KR Market, this one is a close second (yes, I still like this one over Shivaji Miltry Hotel). The meat in this one is always flawless, the spice comes from a generous onion-chilli mix and of course large handfuls of coriander and mint. Try the palav without the gravy first as, the gravy just adds to the spice factor.

The Chicken Fry is a typically home styled version of onions-ginger-garlic-tomato with a few spices. Again, a dish that shows how a few simple things can result in major transformation of a core ingredient.

A meal I once had of Rice with Kheema Gojju. These types of plated meals are by far the most common thing you will see going at lunch time. The kheema has been hand chopped rather coarsely, allowing it to take on all the masalas that have been added in. Team that up with the rice and that spicy gravy in the middle and you have a satisfying meal.

Rasam is how most meals end here and you do not want to miss this little steel cups of heaven. The staff is generous with their rasam and will get you additional cups if you request for it. You also get a choice of aerated drinks. Service is quick and the food hits the table soon. A meal for two will not cross the Rs 400 mark. The place also has a very clean men's and women's washroom. There is limited parking outside the restaurant, the parallel roads offer you a better bet.

Shivaji Military Hotel

Okay so for those of you who have heard of miltry hotels, there is no way you have not heard of Shivaji Miltry Hotel. By far the most popularly known joint, this place has been around for decades (as have most other miltry hotels). Finding it is not that difficult if you keep the Banashankari Bus Stand as your landmark. Just ask around and you will find yourself standing under the lemon garlanded entrance of the eatery soon enough.

The thing with Shivaji Miltry Hotel is your timing. People come here for the Donne (a dried leaf bowl) Biryani/Mutton Palav and believe me it gets over rather soon. The place serves just about 2-3 dry meat dishes a day besides scores of donne biryanis. There is a certain strategy you need to apply to getting your fill at Shivaji.

1. Arrive at the right time - Biryani in the mornings is usually done by 10.00AM, so arrive early and you get it. You can try catching the next round which starts getting served around 12.45PM to 1.00 and if you are lucky till 1.30PM. There is another round that gets done around 2.00PM usually based on demand for the day.

2. Getting a seat - Not that Shivaji is a small eatery, but it is packed... all the time. You have to master the art of scanning the space to see which table is nearing done. Stand next to the person eating and quite shamelessly stare them down till they finish eating and get up. Please don't wait for the table to be cleared, you will lose the seat. Sit down and the table is cleared in a jiffy and your order will be brusquely taken.

Of course, for those of you who cannot fathom doing this, the place also has a brisk takeaway service going simultaneously.

The plates of leaves stitched together that are placed in front of you

Buckets of Pachadi are carried around and it is unceremoniously dumped onto your plate, along with a plastic cup of the meat gravy. While you sit mesmerized with this whole quick mechanical process, the biryani is being set into donnes and your starter dishes are plonked in front of you.

The Chicken Fry - which comes with a generous dose of a spicy gravy

The Mutton Fry, which uses a red chilli masala as a base. Both dishes are oil-heavy as they are meant to be. They go perfectly well with a Coke, till you get your Donne with Biryani.

It is honestly quite a sight to watch the servers walk past tables with trays piled high with Donnes. Before you can blink, entire rows of patrons are already digging into their palavs. Each donne can served two people quite easily. You have to have a seriously large appetite to make good of one on your own. The palav is light, quite non-greasy with the meat being soft. Flavors of chillis and whole spices come through nicely as does that of the meat.

Little plastic cups of pepper rasam that are placed on your plate as you end your meal. These are poured from classic metal tea kettles of yore. You can ask for another helping, if you manage to catch the eye of your server.

Shivaji Miltry Hotel is an experience in itself. From the crowded tables to getting a seat to actually eating and then walking out with a burp of satisfaction. If you are looking for a quiet laid back miltry meal experience, I would put my money on Ranganna. But if you are looking to be in the eye of the storm, which BTW is a great experience too, then Shivaji it is. Service is quick, but bordering on rude. A meal for two will not go beyond Rs 350 to Rs 400. There are clean loos and hand wash areas here. Bike parking is about as much as you will get, if you are lucky.

Of course, there are so many more that I would like to visit. In my next post on Miltry Hotels, I will tell you about Shrinidhi Miltry Hotel in Basavangudi and Kaveri Miltry Hotel near Nandi Hills, which actually serves pork as well.

Bangalore restaurant reviews budget eating Foodie adventures

Militry (Miltry) Hotels in Bangalore - Part 1

Monday, November 24, 2014Me! In words

The culinary landscape in Bangalore is evolving by the day. Here is a city where people are as comfortable sipping on sake and sitting at a live sushi counter, as they are queuing up for shawarma at the neighbourhood outlet. From breweries to Asian fusion cuisine to food walks, by-two coffees and gastro-bars, the food scene in Bangalore is all about the experience.

While things are constantly evolving, there are some experiences that have remained the same over the years and for a simple reason - there is no real need to change anything. The food is outstanding and there is nothing additional necessary. I am talking of Military (Miltry - misspelt as far as I know from local language influences) Hotels. While these have been around long before my parents were in diapers, social media seems to be reviving interest in them. My interest in Miltry hotels began when I first got off a train at Majestic and used the bylanes of Cottonpet to get to home to Jayanagar - the unmistakable aroma of biryani filling up congested roads is hard to ignore - BTW these aromas were wafting across from the newly relocated S. Govinda Rao Miltry Hotel.

This was the beginning of a Miltry Hotel discovery plan that I charted - of course I haven't covered all the places I want to and repeat visits are pending as well. Nevertheless, once you get a taste of the food served here, it can be something of an addiction.

Rewinding a Bit

An experience like that of Miltry Hotel needs some background. Simi Mathew of The Oota Walks is a brilliant resource on the history of the Miltry Hotel. She says, "The origin of the Hindu ‘Miltry’ hotel may be traced back to the Maratha regime under Shivaji Bhonsle. These hotels came about to cater to the Maratha soldiers. Another story speaks of a bubonic plague that swept through Bangalore in the early 1800s killing scores. Women and children were hustled off to distant villages to save them from the illness. Miltry hotels came up to provide sustenance to farmers who stayed back to tend to their fields.

A third story speaks of the arrival of the British in Bangalore in 1806. Several soldiers from Tipu Sultan’s army were integrated into the British Army. Old Bangalore or the Cantonment area did not have any meat serving places. That is when these little restaurants came about with soldiers are their primary patrons. The prefix Hindu was primarily to denote that beef and pork were not served here."

Most of these little hotels have been in families for at least 3 generations and the recipes are family secrets. Progress for them has been switching to gas cooking from fire wood, moving to concrete buildings from brick & tile spaces, table seating from the floor, alcohol to no alcohol! What you are assured of at any of these places is a food that has years of experience and passion that comes through in every morsel.

Getting Down to Business

S G R Miltry Hotel

So let's begin with S Govinda Rao Miltry Hotel. This 107-year old institution moved to its current location in a small bylane in Cottonpet this year. Its earlier space quite literally looked like my ancestral home in Mangalore yanked out of context and placed in the middle of a traffic/human/animal/pothole-ridden Akkipet. This spanking new place is an improvement as far as location goes but is still all of 2.5 rooms with a corridor for a kitchen.

It definitely does not look like anything from the outside but the rumblings of my tummy did not let me hesitate. The tiny place was haphazardly filled with blue collar folk fueling up for a day of hard work. Apparently, nothing does it quite like a meat-laden meal does. A few nonplussed looks at us and they were back to their meal. We found ourselves a spot and settled down at tiny, stone tables, enough to seat two and were ready to be served.

This is the view from our seat in the corner. The shelf you see just past the blue door is where the little cutlery they use is kept. It also has the wash basin. Bottled water is available.

Ragi Mudde meals (meat based of course) are a common morning feature as are mutton pulavs. As the day progresses, and I mean 10.30, the next batch of pulav is often in the making. Chicken and mutton fries are available on different days.

Idlis, soft as a down pillow on your cheek with Kaima Ball Curry was what Murali, the head chef cum waiter cum cleaning staff offered us. We nodded in agreement. Instantly on our patris appeared raw sliced onions marinated in a green chilli and ginger paste and a wedge of lemon. Food is brought on the patris and served by hand. That’s how our idlis came in. Small steel bowls of gravy appeared and from a sauce pan that has been well tempered with time and spice, were spooned out two Kaima balls for each bowl. To say the start was divine would be an understatement. And you know what elevates it to that deliriously delicious level - the marinated onions!

We followed this up with mutton palav, a coriander-green chilli-ginger-meat combination, the quantity of which was enough for 3 medium appetite folks. But we were here on an eating binge and honestly pigged out enough for around 1.5 meals each. The pulao was rather basic, spicy yes, but we mellowed it down with the lime. Its steaming hot and that's always a factor that gets me going as far as food goes.

We also had fried chicken, which was literally swimming in a pool of spicy oil. That in no way will put you off, because the last thing on earth you will be thinking when this meal is going on, is health, calories and other such mundane stuff. This chicken preparation is much like what you will get at a village home - generous in all the ingredients.

All through the meal, Murali, who has been with the restaurant for 27 years, regaled us with stories of his clientele – ranging from local political honchos to film stars to those staggering in for a bite after their nightly tipple. He told us of how he had come to the city to look for a job and a cook here was the first thing he got - and here he has been for all these years, "No godfathers for people like me," he said. We asked him which days the place is closed - Saturdays and Mondays was the reply and that too for religious reasons. "But once the fellows who come here are two pegs down - there is no religion and no abstaining from meat," he says rather philosophically.

There is a lot more I would like to try here - ragi mudde meals for one - the mutton dry preparations another. But it will take the alignment of the planets, my darn work schedule, school and home to all miraculously come together soon - and I am hoping it will. The meal was approximately in the Rs 300 category, definitely not more.

Address: #4, 1st Cross, Cottonpet, Bangalore 560053

Phone: 9880821521

Holidays: Saturday and Monday

Parking: For a bike, if you are lucky

Average meal for 2 (over-eaters) - Rs 350

N. V Naidu Miltry Hotel - K. R Market

I don't really know the reason I included N.V Naidu on my list of miltry hotels to visit. Maybe the fact that it was smack in the middle of K.R Market, kind of close to home. Maybe for the fact that from a Maratha version of the miltry hotel, the Andhra style sounded interesting, or simply because curiosity got the better of me. And so Sudhakar and I battled insane traffic getting into K.R Market one afternoon, with just some vague instructions pulled together from equally vague sources online. Someone somewhere online mentioned that it was opposite the mosque and so we looked for a mosque.

Just as you enter K.R Market from the Chamrajpet side, past the massive, yet ancient structures dotting the narrow humanity/traffic clogged street, you will suddenly spill onto KR Market at a signal, right below the flyover. Look diagonally in front of you and you will spot the mosque. Get on to that side of the road and now look diagonally left, there is no missing the massive, massive board screaming N.V Naidu Hotel in different size fonts. After a bit of manoeuvring, we managed to park the bike around 750 mts away and hiked it back to where the board was. The only thing running through my mind then was how comfortable I would feel in the place - it takes quite a bit to rattle me, but even then. Mentally prepared to turn tail and run, the first thing I saw when I entered was a portly woman, occupying one bench, meant for 2, saree tucked into hip, literally doing an "apply to face" with her mutton pulav. I found a place before Sudhakar got his bearings.

There was no way I could have gotten a picture of the outside of the place considering I was busy negotiating my clumsy legs on what can only be described as an obstacle race of a road. But I did find this online, which has two of the signages at least.

So N.V Naidu opens into a small square space with a few tables and the cash counter. A door later, you are in a long corridor, lined with concrete benches built into the walls and heavy set stone tables in front of you. The space is enough for two people to sit. The day's menu is up on the wall (a picture of that somehow got deleted). We ended up sitting right in front of the corridor you see below - which led to the washing basins and the washing area for the kitchen.

Trust me, what you see is not dirt or filth, but rather age showing on the building. Both the dining area and what we could see of the kitchen was clean and constantly being washed down.

So we went with what are usually the staples in a place like this - though they did have brain on the menu, it did not really catch our fancy that day. So we started with a mutton pepper, which was supposed to be dry - but came to us in the gravy form. Generous portions of mutton, peppery gravy - enough to waken even the most dullest of taste buds in a good way. Its one of those that will make you wish these hotels still served liquor, like some of them used to way back in the day.

The mutton pulav came next - we asked for one each since we were ravenous after that ride. It comes with a katori of onion raita and a wedge of lime. This pulav is by far my favorite pick among the few miltry hotels I tasted. It has a nice pepper and ginger-garlic base than a green chilli one. the meat is generous and has been cooked to just the right softness. What adds to the brilliant taste is the gravy that is served on the side. This is the one that packs the spice punch and definitely uses mutton stock as a base of preparation. You will definitely save a small bit of the gravy to sip on to round off your pulav before you burp in satisfaction.

The fiery gravy that comes alongside the pulav.

Every pulav meal here ends with a bowl of rasam and buttermilk. The die-hard rasam fan in me wanted to sneak into the kitchen and figure out how in the world they got this peppery/lemony rasam to taste as brilliant as it did. I shamelessly asked for another katori of it, where everyone was asking for the buttermilk. It really is good.

N V Naidu has all the staples of a miltry hotel. Perhaps on my next visit I will be able to get more of its history out and be able to update this post. Service is very prompt and the waiters are constantly hovering over your table to make sure you get your extra raita, buttermilk or rasam. Bottled water and even aerated drinks are brought in from neighboring shops on request. An average meal here is around Rs 300.

Address: #2, Market Circle Main Road, Kalasipalyam, Bangalore 560053

Phone: ------

Holidays: Monday

Parking: For a bike, if you are lucky, and you must have some inner connections with the heavens if you bring in a car.

Average meal for 2 (over-eaters) - Rs 350

Bangalore restaurant reviews budget eating Continental

Leanin' Tree Art Cafe

Monday, September 01, 2014Me! In words

Jayanagar, like most other places across Bangalore city seems to be sprouting new places to eat. This one is quite close to home. It has the most interesting name and that was reason enough to step in. This is a little cafe, that has a small ground floor seating with a small art studio for displays attached. There 4 tables upstairs. The entire terrace wraps around a tree, hence the name Leanin' Tree Art Cafe.

First visit, we sat upstairs and Anoushka was quite thrilled about being up close and personal with a tree on the first floor of a restaurant. It took a good 15 minutes or so to get our menus. We asked for two starters, the names of which I forget, and an order for Anoushka, plus 2 mocktails. It took an additional 10 minutes for the staff to come back and tell us that there was no power and so more than half of the appetizers were knocked off the menu. We decided to drop appetizer there and move ahead to mains. Unfortunately, our mains took quite a while coming and that too just one at a time, with Anoushka's being the last to arrive. Quite ticked me off considering you would think its common sense to have the child's meal brought in first, especially when I mentioned so at the time of ordering.

Anyways, all these irksome things aside, we did get our food. And here is what it was like.

Classic Mojito - which really did not taste anything like a classic virgin mojito, but more like an overly sweet lime juice and nothing else. The Hot at Leanin' Tree - guava, tobasco, W'shire, salt and lime, red chili flakes was a valiant attempt at an interesting combination but the chilli flakes on the rim tend to burn your lips a bit not allowing you to take in the rest of the drink.

Paradise - Mango, orange, litchi juice with strawberry crush - this is something we ordered on our second visit and was really nice and pleasant. I can definitely imagine settling down with a plate of fries and this drink in summer. Albeit mostly packaged juices put together, it was a pleasant mix.

Nachos and Salsa - The second time round we were a bit lucky with the starters. After asking for potato skins, it took around 5 minutes for the staff to come back and say its "going to take a long time and so maybe we would like to order something else". Considering our earlier experience of slow service, we took his word and asked for nachos and salsa instead. Crisp nachos with more of your masala papad topping peppered with bits of rajma and a diced tomato-chilli bowl to mimic salsa. Decent munchies till the food came.

Twice over, without realizing we ordered the same dish - Herb and Garlic Marinated grilled chicken with mash and veggies - pleasant white sauce with pepper, steamed veggies and some nice mash. Perfect for one person and nice, if you looking for reasonably good food of this nature that is not heavy on the wallet.

Leanin Tree special burger - Again, great for one person. The burger patty is chicken seasoned with primarily Italian spices and then layered with the usual burger suspects. Could do with cutting down on the onion a bit. Reasonably decent for burger cravings.

Spaghetti Bolognese - I love me a good spaghetti bolognese. This was fairly good - hot, generous chicken mince over nicely done pasta and garlic bread on the side. I liked this one.

Chicken with Chasseur Sauce Sizzler - if you are in the mood for sizzler, this one will please. Its got it all - meat, potatoes, mushroom sauce, roasted cabbage base (I love that in sizzlers) and veggies.

Classic Fish and Chips with tartare sauce - For Anoushka this was perfect. Am guessing the fish is basa, but the coating was crisp, the fish moist and hot and the fries completing the package. All good!

Cafe Latte to round up one meal.

Leanin' Tree cafe is actually a nice hang out place if the service really really bucks up and moves quicker. Its the small things that matter, like handing you a menu in less than 5 minutes of arrival, serving a child on time, getting your food quick enough, handing you your bill in less than 15 minutes of asking (both times we walked down to pay our bill because we were tired of waiting). It does have some pleasant food and can be nice place to meet up with friends, but the slow service is a dampener. A meal for two does not cross the Rs 700 mark.

Address: 23, Patalamma Street, Opp Pai Vista Convention Hall Basavangudi, Bangalore

Phone: 61344899

Cuisine: Continental

Cards Accepted: Yes
Parking: street parking, may be tricky

Freshmenu

Bento Boxes at OKO

Military Hotels in Bangalore - Part 2

Shivaji Military Hotel

Militry (Miltry) Hotels in Bangalore - Part 1

S G R Miltry Hotel

N. V Naidu Miltry Hotel - K. R Market

Leanin' Tree Art Cafe

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Bangalore restaurants- Food and Travel

Freshmenu

Bento Boxes at OKO

Military Hotels in Bangalore - Part 2

Shivaji Military Hotel

Militry (Miltry) Hotels in Bangalore - Part 1

S G R Miltry Hotel

N. V Naidu Miltry Hotel - K. R Market

Leanin' Tree Art Cafe

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Bangalore restaurants- Food and Travel