The Foodie one :)

So my weekend started a little early this time :) I was home Friday thanks to a bad case of the sniffles! After a tab and approximately 13 hrs of non stop sleep I managed to feel a little better by Friday afternoon and was downright bored by Friday evening!(Guess that shows I was fit and fine by then!) :)

Some friends of mine from my old office were headed to this place nearby for dinner so I joined them and had quite an enjoyable evening :)We went to this place near my house called Grigliato".Funny name I know and a quick Google refused to divulge the exact meaning, so this can be your take home from this blog...ohhh and if you do find out let me know :) :) I think it vaguely means "Grilled" :)

Grigliato: A cute lil Euro-Chinese restobar and by bar I mean it only serves beer and shandy.The food is really nice, being a continental place in HSR Layout I had some  reservations about the freshness of the food,what with spicy Andhra joints at every corner, not to mention the CCD's and the French Loaf's and the what not!

Anyway in a bid to get some sort of structure into my rather haphazard blog :) I'll review each restaurant I’ve been to over the weekend on a set of parameters :)

1. Ambiance/location
Grigliato is located(as I mentioned earlier) in one of the lanes of HSR Layout, a tad bit of a muddy road, as its a service road to the main Outer Ring road. The good part is that its never extremely crowded and you can always find parking there. Which trust me is a boon in Bangalore! The restaurant itself does not look like much from the outside but is quite pretty and nice of the inside. It has bamboo woodwork, with comfy cushions as seating, dim but bright enough lights and a separate smoking section. They play some good music(not the fancy DJ kind) but some of the latest tunes on shuffle mode :)

2. Food and drinks
Siiggghh now this is where I could go on and on and on! They have LOVELY food! My favorites being the chilly mushroom (spicy!!!with lots of onions, spring onions and slit green chilli’s!).
Their selection of grilled chicken with veggies in different sauces is also really nice. Another favorite of mine are their baked dishes(the basked corn and spinach, the baked spinach and mushroom) served with garlic bread.Yummmm!!
I haven't tried them myself but I hear their sandwiches are to die for as well! Not the usual dry bread sandwiches that made me averse to sandwiches as a whole! But nicely moist with coleslaw and grilled to perfection :)

They serve only beer though and go up to the extent of shandy but that's it! Which in a way if perfect for a Friday evening :)

3. Price
Totally affordable, a pitcher of beer costs like 390 bucks and serves 5-6.Each dish is anywhere between 150-250 bucks which is completely affordable and absolutely large group friendly.

Verdict: Nice place to chill and hangout with the gang on a Friday after work.

So the next place I went to was The Banana Beach Bar! On Saturday evening J

1. Ambiance/Location
Located in the busy Koramangla area, this lounge bar is quite a fun place! As funky as the name the decor is done up like a beach side shack, with boats and little thatched bars and giant swings complete with a sheet of water falling all around and making that beautiful tinkling sound only water can make. The place is again large group friendly and very popular with the yuppie crowd. The DJ is very good and the music is loud, so its not a chill and yap place, its more of a chill and party place. The Saturday I went the Dj was playing rock and accepting requests so that was quite fun :)

2. Food/Drinks
This place concentrates on the alcohol and starters and not that much on the food. The starters were extremely tasty and in fact we ordered one of our starters twice (Ram fell in love with it!).We had the devil chicken and the thread chicken, both of which were awesome. I looked over the dinner section but the seating is so pub like with low tables and dance floor and boats and stuff that eating dinner there would have been quite out of place :)
Ram had a Caribbean Bomber (Was ok and he claims he could hardly taste the alcohol in it! That’s what happens when you are used to drinking single malts! :) ) and a Peroni beer. I had a Virgin Pink Panther (Ram said it tasted exactly like his Bomber!) and a Minty cooler (Had a tad too much of mint for my liking, but tasted nice with the spicy devil chicken).

3. Price
Priced like these places usually are.Rs.350 ish for the cocktails and Rs.200ish for the mocktails.The starters are anywhere between Rs.250 to Rs.400.

Verdict:Nice place to chill and a fun place to go if you have a rambunctious crowd who can start dancing on the spot and stuff :)  It’s a nice place in Koramangla area that is famous for its food joints and not its pubs, so a theme pub is bound to do well here :)

Oh and I must mention when we left it was pouring! We didn't valet park the car so we ran in the pouring rain and got home drenched :) :) Well it was fun in any case, it’s bound to rain at the beach sometime rite?? :) :)


So anyway come Sunday I decided to treat Ram to a nice dinner and drove him all the way to Vittal Malaya road(where UB city is :))

We went to this restaurant called Sunny's :)

1. Ambiance/location
Smartly located on the posh’est’ road in Bangalore Sunny's is like its name :) Bright, cheery and a combination of Al Fresco and indoor dining.

It’s not like the seating is extraordinary, its not like the tables are rose/teakwood, but still the place has a little charm about it. Especially in the evenings under the trees and the lights. They play decent music inside but we chose to sit outside and were serenaded(??) by the music from the numerous pubs and other watering holes ,cafes and discs in that area :)Oh and it started to rain (again!!) in the middle of our meal and we had to run for cover under the canopy covered seating area :) I think the rains are just following me around :) :)

2. Food/Drinks
Continental food, but not the usual conti stuff like pasta and lasagna, the kind of stuff that you see on Top Chef (Yipppy :) )
Horseradish, gazpacho, pizzas with artichokes and to top it off a lovely wine and Belgian/Italian beer list.
Well eating wise I didn't experiment too much(Force of habit :),I like watching stuff but I don’t know how much of it I would actually eat :)) I stuck to a Creasers Salad, Thai Grilled chicken and Grilled chicken country bbq style.
The Thai grilled chicken (an appetizer) was really nice and the dipping sauce was a mix of a little honey and vinegar with lots of red chili’s chopped into it! I truly understand what Nigella was talking about now :) balancing the sweet with the spicy :)
Ram had the Stir fried calamari with garlic, basil and white wine and a Chicken breast sautéed with ginger and orange. He raved about them both but it may have been the Belgian beer talking :)

3. Price
Slightly expensive but perfect for a romantic evening :) and yes that's priceless in any case :)
Verdict: Yumm food, nice ambiance and a good if not great location :)

Soooo that’s me suddenly realizing my blog is all about Food and Fashion!!

Heh :) That's the life eh? :) :)Let me know your favorite :)