Outback Restaurant

It was one of those days when we got bored of the mundane lunch in office and decided to eat out. Now where is always the question? Our usual craving would be for andhra meals or biriyani at the nearby Nandhini, but this time we wanted something different. Quick search on Zomato and Outback restaurant in the Ascendas mall nearby was zeroed in.

We were amongst the very few customers there, probably it being a weekday.The ambiance looked cozy and rustic, great for a gang of friends to unwind.

We were offered a drinks menu but turned it down – it being a weekday and all ;) .

We were stumped by the menu, and kept changing our minds on what to order – which is a good sign isn’t it.

We skipped the starters and went straight for the mains.

We ordered a grilled chicken sizzler, chicken burger and a chicken risotto.

Let’s start with the grilled chicken sizzler – it was a nice portion of chicken breast served with mushroom sauce and veggies. 

Grilled Chicken - sizzling away!

You have a choice of having it with rice, fries or mash. We tried the potato mash. The chicken was heavenly – absolutely right – none of that stringiness associated with overcooking the chicken. The mash was fabulous as well, no lumps and nicely flavored. It remained hot and steaming till the last bite – it was a sizzler after all.

The chicken burger was the unexpected star of the day.

Chicken Burger

Perfect and juicy, with all the right amount of fillings, which doesn’t overwhelm the burger patty. The fries it came with were awesome. We just couldn’t stop taking huge bites of this burger.
The chicken risotto was a let down – not bad but not great either. 

Chicken Risotto

I felt it was a little too dry for me although I can’t complain about the quantity.

We were really full at this point but couldn’t leave without having a bite of dessert. We ordered a sizzling walnut brownie to share amongst the three of us.

Sizzling Walnut Brownie

A combination of walnut butter brownie and vanilla ice-cream topped with hot chocolate sauce just can’t go wrong can it.

Overall we all were very satisfied with the meal. The service was quite friendly and I would love to come back and try the other options on the menu.

Location – Ascendas Park Square, Ground Floor, ITPB, Whitefield, Bangalore

Price (for 3) – Rs 1400

Yum-O-Meter – 3.5 / 5

Kaira , Cochin

Nestled in the heart of the busy and bumbling Cochin city, lies this cozy little place,Kaira , with their tagline ‘A place where good things happen’.

 

When you walk in, you are greeted by lovely paintings – it’s kind of a mini art gallery where if your wallet permits, you can walk off with one of these masterpieces after your meal. Smiling people everywhere are ready to assist you to your table.

Mona lisa in naadan vesham?

The ambience is really classy and the décor minimal but each piece makes a statement of its own .The tables are not too closely placed together which makes for the beginning of a pleasant eating experience.

 

 

The best sitting area would be the lone table in an outdoor seating where you can feel the cool breeze and enjoy the lush surroundings- perfect for those family get-togethers or hanging out with your friends.

Everyone here recommends the fish curry meals which is a steal at 120 Rs.

You have the option of either getting it served on a plate or in true mallu style, in a banana leaf. It comes with the typical kerala side dishes to every meal – some upperi ( fried plantains) , pickled beetroot in vinegar, inji curry( sweet n sour ginger curry) , beans mezhekuperuti, pachadi(yoghurt based side),avial and kootu curry , along with your moru , rasam, sambhar and pappadam.

Kerala Meals

The fish curry has a grated coconut base and all this mixed with a handful of rice together tasted just divine. 

Fish Curry

The only complaint perhaps was that the pappadam was a little bit oily which was duly noted by the chef.

We also tried the beef ularthiyete – which was tender and spicy, karimeen( pearl spot) fry , chemmeen ularthiyete( prawns) and mussels fry.

Beef Ularthiyete

Chemeen ularthiyete

Mussels fry

The parottas here are crisp and flaky and pairs great with the beef ularthiyete. 

Don’t forget to try their signature dish of light as a feather kallapams and duck roast – the kallapams absorb that creamy n delicious gravy just like a sponge and just so flavorsome.

The mutton biriyani is also spectacular with subtle spice and rich flavours.

For dessert, we had the Vattalapam – a srilankan delicacy almost like caramel pudding but with coconut milk and jaggery .It was just spot on – creamy and delicious.

Vattalapam

We came back here to try the Sunday breakfast. I ordered the English breakfast which consisted of eggs, sausages, bacon, a pancake, potato croquette and 2 slices of toast along with accompaniments of jam, butter and honey and a glass of watermelon juice.

English breakfast

You can decide how you want your eggs done, fried or scrambled and I went for a fluffy omelette. The potato croquette was crisp and crunchy outside n melt in the mouth inside. We finished this with a cup of coffee and some cut fruits, taking our time to relax and catch up .They plan to start a seafood grill area soon as well as a coffee shop – with bakes , sweet and savory. Looking forward to sampling these at my next visit.

Just a preview of what to expect in the pastry section- 

Orange cake with chocolate ganache and orange buttercream

Chocolate Truffle cake - simply melt in the mouth

Kaira is a place you feel like visiting again and again with its pleasant ambience and once here , you want to take all the time to enjoy your meal. Truly an experience eating here!

Location – Chittor Road, Kacheripady , Cochin, Kerala

Yum-O-Meter – 5/5

Breakfast @ Taj Falaknuma Palace, Hyderabad!

This is a continuation of our trip to Hyderabad. Since it was in celebration of my parents 30th anniversary , we decided to treat them to a special day and booked a days stay at the Taj Falaknuma Palace, amongst the top most hotels in India, and by the way things are looking , heading towards the top list in the world. It was just a spectacular experience. Get ready to get pampered in style from the moment you arrive - where a horse driven carriage awaits you at the reception, rose petal showers welcome you inside , and once inside your breath is taken away by the wondrous architecture which is a mix of European and Indian. Each and every tile, lamp, clock around  manages to fascinate you by its beauty . I especially loved the lobby with its venetian work , beautiful murals and soft lights.

The lobby

In the evening , you can attend the palace tour by the historian , truly a very interesting tour - his knowledge of the Nizami way of life and times is immense. After which you can relax and listen to some qawwali music on the balcony overlooking Hyderabad city.

Each and every room in this palace is so unique and remarkable, but to mention a few, there was an amazing library with extremley rare books, many first editions ones like the Encyclopedia Brittanica, books by Winston Churchill, a book written by one of the survivors of the titanic. I especially enjoyed thumbing through the earliest Visitors book with entries from British officials.

Library

Every ballroom was lovely with breathtaking chandliers, and the most famous room here is the 101 dining room - named so cos it can seat 101 guests . Its the longest dining table in the world, complete with Versace plates and gold tumblers.

101 Dining room

Truly magnificent and no picture can do justice to its beauty .
We spend the whole day exploring the palace , clicking thousands of pictures and just taking everything in.
Obviously the next morning we were ravenous. Breakfast was an absolute delight , we could choose whatever we wanted from the menu in the Celeste restaurant , and it was made fresh and bought to us.There is a great selection to choose from and ,while you wait they bring you a wide selection of croissants( both white and brown), muffins ,pastries, biscuits,doughnuts and danishes.

This was served with a variety of preserves, honey and fresh juices as well as champagne(!) .
We ordered quite a bit of things and everything was delicious.
Here you can see poached eggs , served on top of toasted muffins, ham and wilted spinach. Really tasty. 

Poached eggs with ham

Where ever we see an english breakfast on the menu , we have to try it , and here it was no disapointemnt with a spread of scrambled eggs done perfectly, chicken sausages, bakes potatoes, toast and grilled tomato.It had a side of baked beans as well .

English Breakfast

For baby A , we ordered the banana pancakes with honey and cream.This was seriously addictive - filled with the richness of bananas and butter. Baby A loved it and so did we.

Banana pancakes

Dad went for the spanish omlette - which is a thick omelette with potatoes and served with some baked beans and toast . He seemed to be enjoying it as he dint even look up while eating it :)

Spanish omelette

Bro tried the orange french toast served with some mascarpone cream - again so buttery and rich and oh so full of calories, but who cares when you are on vacation .

Orange french toast

We also tried sides of ham and pork sausages.

Mom went for indian and tried the upuma , as well as the panner paratha.

Upuma and sambhar

The paratha  was served with a variety of chutneys and tasty with lots of desi ghee but then it was like the ones we get in good north indian restaurants .

Paneer paratha

Now we were totally bursting at the seams after this spread .

Truly a 5 star meal , we all immensely enjoyed the stay as well as the food.Of course, being a Taj property its on the expensive side but I think it was worth every penny. A trip to remember!

Price - Around 1000Rs ( Buffet + included in the stay )
Yum-O-Meter - 5/5

Cafe Terra

It was one of those lazy Sundays at home .Both of us had been craving for a nice hot English breakfast for a while. The initial plan was to hit Hole in the wall Cafe , Koramangala . We've been hearing rave reviews and wanting to visit the place for a while. But on reaching there , we discovered it was actually a hole in a wall for a restaurant , and the place was jam packed. Forget eating there , even breathing there would have been a struggle . So it was time for Plan B - hit some other cafe which serves a nice English breakfast . Google came to our help this time and we started out for Cafe Terra, which sounded promising and right nearby . First impressions of the cafe was a small, very normal looking place, with some outdated comics and books at a corner shelf. Quick look through the menu and we quickly decided to go for an English breakfast , something interesting called a Hams Basket and one order of the Belgian waffles which everyone around us seemed to be having .
The order took some time and then finally it was here, well only the English breakfast , they needed time for the other orders.

English Breakfast

 One bite and both of our faces fell, it wasn't exactly awesome and most importantly, it was not steaming hot like all breakfasts need to be. The plate consisted of 2 slices of toasted bread, butter on the side, scrambled eggs,couple of chicken sausages, baked beans ,a grilled tomato , some potatoes and a mug of coffee. The toast and sausages were OK , I mean you cant really screw that up , and the tomato was (supposedly!) grilled . The potatoes were pretty normal and the baked beans were something definitely out of the can . The scrambled eggs saved the dish.But the most disappointing part was the coffee, it was cold and tasteless.
.

Ham Basket

Next to arrive was the Ham Basket, well this dish kinda made up for the earlier dish.It was a nest/basket made of ham(duh! :D ) innovatively , it had a filling of sauteed onions and mushrooms ,topped with a poached egg.Pretty interesting .It had the usual accompaniments of toast , potatoes and coffee.

Belgian waffles

Finally we finished our meal with the Belgian waffles which were browned a little too much for my liking , topped with some honey and powdered sugar .  Not really something you would write home about .

So overall, it was a pretty disappointing experience and we would definitely not go back here.For this price you can have a much better (and HOT) meal at coffee day instead.

Location - V3 Trinity, 1st Floor, 80 Feet Road, 1st Block, Koramangala , Bangalore

Price( for 2 ) - Around 400 Rs

Yum-O-Meter :  1/5