As a proud resident of Malleshwaram a few years back, the only the other place I ever wished to live in was - you guessed it - Jayanagar 4th block. For vegetarian middle-class souls, these two areas in Bangalore are worth Paris, London, and New York rolled into one. And not without reason. There are few such places in this universe where one can go around with a list of tasks and get them all done in a single walk. From getting clothes altered, to sipping a cup of coffee and tucking in an idli or two, to saying a hello to a desired God there is a little bit of everything for the mind, body, and soul.  Because of the restrictions of space and patience of my readers, I am going with my  gut feeling and writing about that one thing that you, my readers can never have enough of - great food that is light on the wallet. (more…)

I happened to visit “Nalapaka” , , a restaurant that serves authentic north Karnataka food The moment you enter the restaurant, you find a placard.

It says ‘Sharanu Banni’ in Kannada. In simple English it means ‘Welcome’You get in and check out for availability of seats and go ahead and sit down to enjoy some authentic food.
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Olive Beach has been described as “Bangalore’s most Miami-esque hot spot” and for good reason. The interiors are visual therapy, the food is divine and the desserts are out of this world. What I like best is the visual dimension to the way your order is served up. Thought I’d share an eyeball popper or two.

Location : 16 Wood Street, Ashok Nagar.

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Next time you’re in the Queen’s Road/Miller’s Road area and feel like a steak, try Millers 46. The atmosphere is relaxed and the wild west cowboy theme is reflected in the attire of the waiters and the menu too! Besides a variety of steaks, they also have burgers, pastas, grilled fish, and sandwiches. And the desserts are pretty good too, from whatever we had ordered.

The Millers Mixed Starter platter which has chicken wings, mushroom caps, chicken lollipops and french fries are a nice way to start off. And if you’re feeling extremely indulgent, try the Cheese Fries. They’re sprinkled with chilli flakes and topped with melted cheese - actually it’s a whole meal in itself!

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It’s rare for Indians not have a taste for Punjabi food… but good Punjabi food is quite rare as every cook jumped on to create his / her own Punjabi food versions and varieties. And our craving for the pure Punjabi one continued… ‘Oye, ki kariye’… ‘Sanu chakk de phatte’!!

Well, the fun is back in the city with ‘OYE Amritsar’ - the roof top dhaba. The witty, wild and tongue-teaser name joins the rest of the foodies clubs. With loudspeakers, lanterns, lurid filmi posters and asli Punjabi songs… oh, they do serve the food too!
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Gosh, I just noticed that there’s been no mention of food lately. So just in case you’ve been wondering why we haven’t been posting about one of our favourite topics, here’s a peek into Sue’s Food Place :)

Located in Indirinagar, Sue’s Food Place has been one of those haunts that I keep going back to in Bangalore. It was, in fact, one of the first places that my friends told me about when I had come to the city. They lived nearby and this was a favourite haunt of theirs, so it wasn’t long before I was soon introduced to the joys of Sue’s lovely spread.

The place is rather homely so don’t expect a flashy ambience or decorations. There are loads of memorabilia, especially signed mementos from the West Indian cricket team who usually visit this place when they’re in town.

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- Ever wondered what ‘taste’ would have relished the Mughal Emperors?
- Which recipes would mesmerize their taste buds with the magic of their Khansamahs?

The leads to the answers may be found at Umerkot, a traditional Indian and Mughlai place situated on 80ft Road in Koramangala. Three entrepreneurs- Sajit Chacko, Sanjay Tyagi and Anand Singh while with a strong background in multistar hoteling experience opened up Umerkot, a fine dining restaurant and offers up gourmet delights akin to those produced by the royal khansamahs.
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About a week ago, I was meeting Debbie and a friend (Martin) after an event at Alliance Francaise and we decided to try a place Martin recommended - Nanking Restaurant in Sigma Mall on Cunningham Road. He’s the one who recommended Dahlia to us, so I was hopeful this would be reasonable too.

Nanking is apparently the latest outpost of a restaurant with branches in Delhi and Mumbai. It bills itself as Chinese, not multi-cuisine, and it lives up to the billing. We started with an appetizer that sounded like it would be something like a spring roll, crispy on the outside and a mixed minced meat filling. We also had been craving pork and so asked to try their spareribs. At this point the host asked “do you like crab?” “Yes we love crab.” He disappeared only to return with a GIGANTIC live crab vigorously waving its claws. (The crab in the photo is smaller, I didn’t manage to take a picture of the one we ate.)

“How about this?” “Um, sure!” “Would you like it steamed?” “Can you make it sauteed in black bean sauce?” “Of course.” “We’d like that then.”

More after the cut.
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Monday night while wandering down Church Street, Debbie and I were looking for dinner and decided to try a place new to us - Saigon Restaurant. I expected it to be your typical pan-asian multi-cuisine restaurant, but hoped (from the name) for some decent Vietnamese dishes.

When we sat down, we were surprised to see that the menu was entirely Thai, and not just the same tired old thai dishes you find everywhere, but interesting, innovative (and authentic!) dishes we hadn’t seen anywhere else. Evidently Saigon is putting on a three week Thai food festival, and has brought in Chef Chantanee Chuangsuvanich from Bangkok for recipes, advice, teaching, and supervision.

Our impressions after the cut.
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Friday evening’s when most of the ‘wine and dine’ places are flooded, few gateways like Taj Gateway offers a ‘true’ gateway to unwind yourself from busy week schedule,we tried ‘Karavali’ restuarent offering authentic Kerala food along the candle lit ambience…

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