Wow! Momo

We tried this place during one of our weekly window shopping excursions - which was at the Phoenix Market City mall this time.

 
Both of us were starving and decided to go for the Chicken Sizzler Momo  , which consisted of 6 pieces of steamed chicken momos on skewers with some veggies( 3 of which were dunked in a spicy schezuan sauce) and served with some veggie loaded noodles on one of those sizzling plates  :) , and a glass of coke.

Normally  I've never liked the noodles served in combos as they tend to be basic and pretty bland, but these were so yummy, and the momos were juicy and succulent - nicely filled with the chicken and flavorsome. You also get 2 dipping sauces - one was the spicy chilly one , and the other was a minty coriander one- both went nicely with the dish.It was a pretty filling meal and since it was a sizzler, it remained hot til the very last bite.
There was a variety of momos on offer - steamed, pan fried , chicken, prawn,fish, vegetable , mushroom,spring onions, and even dessert ones filled with chocolate. But we were pretty full so dint try anything else.The place is a little pricy , as all food-court outlets are - but its much better ( and filling) than most of the food court stuff we've tasted , so that makes it worth a try .

Location - 2nd Floor, Food Court, Phoenix Market City Mall, Whitefield, Bangalore 

Price ( for 2) - Around 400Rs - each combo is around 180 , but just a plate of momos is around 60-80 rs

Yum-O-Meter - 3.5/5 

La Casa

After an evening at the park , watching baby A play with twigs and run around wild, we were ravenous and felt like digging into something meaty and delicious. On a whim , we decided to try La Casa which is quite near home. We've heard good things about this place and so, decided to give it a try - and boy were we glad we did.

First impressions on entering , you can either sit in the normal AC spot, or else you can sit in the open air rooftop ,and on this particular day they had a DJ playing as well.

Turn to your left for the AC spot and go straight upstairs for the rooftop experience.

We decided to go for the rooftop and it was awesome- the music is loud but not loud enough to burst your eardrums - and they had a good mix of music playing- club,hip hop,house mixes. It was spacious as well with good ventilation, really nice ambiance. In fact it was almost like a family style pub - good music , good food and most importantly good drinks ;) but we'll come to that shortly !
The staff was very courteous and friendly . We took our seats and the menu was bought to us, we decided on some cocktails - a kiwi margarita for S and a passion-fruit daiquiri for me .

Passion fruit daiquiri(L) and Kiwi Margarita(R)

 A margarita has the base as tequila with some citrus liqueur and daiquiri has the base as rum , lime and sweeteners. Both were chilled and just perfect with the music and the ambiance. Along with that we ordered chicken satay as a starter to the meal.

Mildly spiced grilled pieces of chicken with a peanut dip, was tasty and baby A enjoyed the chicken more than us.

Next it was time for the main course . S ordered Spaghetti Carbonara .

The spaghetti carbonara had the pasta drenched in creamy cheesy white sauce with bits of bacon and eggs. Was good, though it would be better with a little more of bacon thrown in , cos bacon always makes everything yummm... ;)

I ordered the Chicken Lasagne, and let me tell you - it was heavenly. Each bite was bursting with the flavours of absolutely creamy and sinful cheese , tangy tomatoes , chicken , pasta , we just could not get enough of it . Suffice to say our plates were wiped clean with the garlic bread so that not even a speck of the creamy sauce was left behind.
 By now,we were bursting to the seams but just couldn't leave without tasting one of the desserts and decided to try the New York baked cheesecake .

It was just the perfect end to the meal , warm and soft cheesecake , with blueberry topping - light and not too sweet.

Overall the food was absolutely divine, I would definitely recommend this place to people who want to relax after a long day at work. and those mommies and daddies who want to  kick off their shoes and relax with a drink and good music. Avoid the rooftop if you want to have a serious discussion with quieter surroundings. I' ve heard on Saturdays they have live bands as well .

Location -Kasavanahalli, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore

Price  ( for 2 ) - around 2000 Rs ( including drinks - all dishes are an average of 300 Rs) 

Yum-O-Meter - 4.5/5

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.
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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

Bistro Grill Express

During one of those aimless window shopping through Bangalore Central - Jayanagar , hunger pangs hit us and we decide - lets try the food court for a change. So up we went to the 4th floor and a wide variety greets us , 'so what do we have ? ' asks the better half. Hmm- chinese/ subway / indian / salads as usual? Thats when we spot the Bistro Grill almost at the end of the chain .Mmmm ! the smell of shawarma was heavenly and draw us to their counter. Arabic food has always been a weakness for both of us, since we have spent a good chunk of our childhood tucking into those delicacies in the Middle east. Unfortunately nothing on offer in Bangalore has come upto the mark we set with the authentic stuff but let me tell you Bistro Grill comes very very close!!

We order the chicken shawarma and the chicken lebanese sandwich. It came with pickled vegetables and a dip of garlic sauce. Both had us exclaiming in delight at the first bite - juicy and fresh vegetables and loaded with chicken and tahini sauce :). The bread was almost like the kubbus we grew up eating - not just a dry imitation of the pita bread.

Chicken shawarma(L) and Chicken Lebanese sandwich(R)

We savoured over every bite , it was fingerlicking. And dont let the size fool you - it was filling as well. Price is a little steep ( around 100 Rs for a shawarma but it was so yummy i would not think twice bout dishing out 100 bucks for this again ) . Definitely worth a second visit . And we did go a second time , this time ordering a hummus and kubbus - again yum - we were fighting over the last piece - no pictures unfortunately .

Location - 4th Floor, Bangalore Central Mall , Jayanagar
Price ( for 2 ) - Around 300Rs
Yum-O-Meter - 4/5