Consistency is name of the game.

Apart from a very limited number of times, I'm always totally at home with being a food critic. It's quite an easy job to not risk too much, and almost always be in a better position to pass judgment about the unknown. But there are times, when our opinions are brought to shame because establishments cannot maintain their quality standards long enough for people to take my opinions seriously. It's for this reason, apart from many more, that I constantly stress on consistency as the ONLY secret to running a fulfilling and respected business. Now to a critic, happiness can come from anywhere - even from visiting a tried and tested restaurant the umpteenth time and walking out with the same smiling face as the first time.

So as I woke up on a fateful Sunday morning with the above thoughts, I remembered a week I spent for a nice symposium last year, at the Atria Hotel in Bangalore. Normally being the last one to wake up for anything, I had found myself waking up at six a.m every morning during my stay there to catch the superb breakfast spread. So on this particular Sunday a year later, after dragging a friend along, I found myself staring at the same mammoth buffet spread, which I will describe right now. Read on, for a bite of insight.

The Atria 24-hour coffee shop is called 1498 AD, and is modeled with painted bamboo furniture, both quite inviting and comfortable. I also saw some paintings of the spice trade route and ships era of the 1400-1500s, which seemed quite charming for that environment. But as soon as we walked in, we were too busy staring at the array of sumptuous food on offer. The leftmost table consisted of fresh toasted open face sandwiches including fresh lettuce-tomato, tomato-cheese, bacon and chicken, all of which were absolutely fantastic. They were placed right next to three freezing jugs of creamy sweet lassi, strawberry lassi and just plain cold milk. Moving further on, there were an interesting three juices for the day with carrot, tender coconut, and watermelon. I was quite impressed when I tried all of them.

After the array of liquids, there were some heavenly rava idlis, with sambar and chutney followed by a live appam counter manned by a smiling chef who was whipping up the softest appams with a delicious stew (there was choice of vegetarian or mutton). As I moved along further nearly full, I was instantly hungry again at the aroma of freshly baked croissants, muffins, banana bread and a whole array of baked goodies that took me about fifteen minutes to sample individually. If you thought we were done, we were just getting started. I filled my next plate with cheese chilli toast, spinach croquettes, mushroom quiche, scrambled and boiled eggs, and the most heavenly mashed potatoes cheese. My plate was so full that I had no room for the Channa Bhaturas that followed !! Right next to the cereal was an array of fresh cut fruits and some sweets. The guy standing next to me was piling on a lot of bacon and chicken nuggets from the neighbouring station, so I was assured that he was as much in awe as me, at the quality of food. My companion apart from helping me try all of the above food, also helped himself to a bowl of 3 kinds of cereal that he loaded up on from the other side of the buffet. He started digging in when his special made to order omelet arrived from the omelet station, just the way he wanted it.



As I sat there devouring the awesomeness of the meal before me, I realised the love and values with which my meal had been prepared for me. The Atria wants your breakfast experience to be a lazy and relaxed one. There are people to pour your coffee, bring you the paper, and even de-shell your boiled eggs for you. Talk about understanding the value of a Sunday !

I know most of you reading this have been to elaborate buffets where you are promised an extensive spread that looks and tastes perfect, but in actuality you realise that most edibles on most buffets are just there for show and to add quantity to their repertoire of dishes. The Atria has clearly never subscribed to that trail of thought, as I found that every single thing I ate that morning tasted reasonably good, if not heavenly. What's more, there were some absolutely adorable kids running around and smiling at everyone, which totally made it the quintessential Sunday morning breakfast experience.

Here's where the icing on the cake lies - we paid INR 400 of the total meal. The Atria breakfast buffet experience is priced at just 175 INR (plus taxes) which includes the best coffee that I've had in a long time (outside of the unmatched filter coffee of Tamil Nadu and home). So as I paid up and walked out, I was reinstated of the quality that this place has to offer and of the reason why it's still one of the most respected hotels in town in the era of the Leelas and the ITCs.

Change is the only constant quantity in this universe; a principle that most people don't necessarily agree with with respect to food. I've noticed that the world is often unkind to new talents and new creations. The new needs friends. My urge to establishments today is to first illustrate the ability to maintain consistency and quality before embarking on the quest to innovate. Consistency of quality is easily "Restaurant business 101". All that being said, please head on over to the Atria whenever you can (if not everyday) for an experience that will keep you on a happy high for the rest of the week !

The Atria is located at : No. 1, Palace Road, Bangalore - 01.

Note: the breakfast closes by 10.45, so its a good idea to get there early.

Bay of Bengal (the bay where they should throw the food)

All my blog followers and supporters have been pestering me to write a stink review for some poor restaurant. My constant rebuttal to them is that as a reviewer I have to be totally unbiased when I walk into a restaurant, with a mind as open as a hippie ! So there I was.... walking along Church Street past Java City and Empire, and I see Bay of Bengal, a restaurant that I'd been meaning to try for ages, since the reviews had been reasonably nice to them in the past. I look at my friend Narendra, he complies, and before you knew it we were ordering. Oh the horror of the lunch that followed ! Now I mean this more than ever - read on for a bite of insight.

The setting of Bay of Bengal , is simple, minimalistic and comfortable, quite inviting to say the least. We were seated at the table right next to the AC, which was perfect for this unusually hot weather that we've been having. When we looked at the menu, we were pretty unsure of what to pick from the vast array of dishes for offer. We settled on the Paneer Orley and the Mutton Kabiraji kabab as our starters.

Before I start my plethora of opinions, please bear in mind that this review has no pictures of the food, as I don't feel you're missing anything by not seeing them.

The Paneer Orley was the first to arrive, and it was basically just a plate of 2 medium size, incredibly oily pieces of batter-fried paneer served with cucumber and a smile on the waiter's face (WHO by the way did NOT serve us water until we were there for a half hour !!!). Completely lacking flavour to say the least, and the dominant taste was oil and rubbery-textured paneer. Not the best of starts ! The Mutton Kabiraji kabab arrived next looking like a small mutton tikki SURROUNDED by these little fried-batter balls (that resembled Boondi but tasted nothing like them) and topped off with a wafer thin layer of egg stuck to the tikki. Narendra described it as a weird carnival on his plate ! Unfortunately it didn't TASTE like a carnival. The taste of meat was overshadowed by a whole bunch of pepper and chilli, which was also stuffed inside the tikki. About 6 bites later, we were done.

Hoping that we could be a little easier on the chef while ordering main course, we ordered the Chhanar Kopta (Cubes of fresh paneer cooked in a gravy of onions & nuts) and the Doi Bhindi (Ladies finger cooked in Yoghurt & Khuskhus gravy) with some Lachcha Paranthas. The Doi Bhindi was a really small plate of like 6 bhindis with a boiled onion gravy(or what was left of a gravy) with NO sign of yoghurt in the taste. The Koptas (koftas) were soft but soggy and were too sweet with not enough savoury flavour; but still edible enough to finish. The Lachcha Paranthas looked like the Kerala Coin Paranthas, and were not half bad, but for INR 70 for 2 small pieces took all the fun out of it.

The saving grace of the meal was the beverage that we ordered called the Ampora Sorbet. It was basically raw mango roasted to make into a delicious sorbet and flavoured with jaggery and other spices. Highly refreshing and totally addictive. For 35 bucks, it was easily the favourite of that meal. The total meal cost us about INR 600 and we didn't feel it was even nearly worth it.

Bear in mind, that we didn't order the fish (Maccher Jhol) or the Lucchi Aloo Dum which are nothing short of signatures of Bengali cuisine, but in my opinion a chef should look beyond his signatures and take the entire menu seriously. I have a ton of friends who are Bengali and I've been eating Bengali food ever since my mom's Bengali classmates would invite us home for dinner. It's one of my favourite cuisines in this country and in my opinion it epitomizes the variety that Indian food is so famous for. So after that kind of opinion, it was pretty shattering to eat Bengali food that was this bad and prepared with that little thought.

The best Bengali food that I've ever had in town (apart from at my friend Avik's house) has been at Oh! Calcutta. Bay of Bengal has aeons to go before it can be in the same league. If any of you would like to go to this place anyway and give me a second opinion, I'd be more than open to hearing from you.

Bay of Bengal can be found at : 48/1, St. Marks Road, 1st Floor ( Above K.C. Das)
Bangalore.

Around the world in an hour and a half !

If you're an avid follower of the ritual of trying that new restaurant every week, then you'll agree with me on the following truth - eating out's changed since we were kids. Today its about the authenticity of the meal, the feel of the ambience and the overall dining experience. Does someone wanna tell me when we shifted focus away from the food ??!! It's appalling that mediocrity in flavour can be compromised with trivial things such as fancy china and comfortable chairs. Trying to get rid of this thought and not be too hard on our restaurant for tonight, one of my oldest friends in Bangalore, Uday and I walked into our dinner destination named "Phileas Hogg - Around the world in platey days". How did they do ? Read on for a bite of insight.

Lets start with the ambience. This dedication to the racy Jules Verne novel doesn't fall short in terms of novelty decor. We were greeted with a well-lit, easy going atmosphere adorned with wall paintings of Native America (including a spectacular wall-sized map), railway decor, half a ship , and many other subtle things that would even please the heavy traveler. The high ceilings and the fact that we were on the 4th floor, really helped keep it reasonably cool.

The menu is extensive, and tries to cover all possible popular cuisines including Japanese, Malay, Thai, Chinese, Italian, Mediterranean and also Mexican, American and Indian. I had already walked in with a game-plan. First it was essential to test the chef's ability to keep it simple, and then during the course of the meal, increase complexity and hope to God that he can keep up. We started out with the Hummus and Baba Ghanoush platter (Pastes of chickpea and eggplant served up with fresh Pita bread and olives) , The Veggie Yakitori (vegetarian version of this, ours contained tofu , mushrooms and broccoli) , and the Paneer Zafrani (saffron infused Paneer).

The platter was near perfect ! The hummus and baba ghanoush were seasoned to perfection and the pita was light and fluffy. Much more authentic than expected, it was very pleasing and wholesome and was a wonderful start to our meal. The paneer in the Paneer Zafrani was extremely soft (was probably made from full fat milk) and was seasoned and marinated beautifully. The Yakitori skewers were char-grilled to perfection and the ginger-infused soy sauce served as the ideal accompaniment - a very light appetizer which was high in flavour.

After a first course like that, we leisurely read through the extensive menu to make sure we order perfectly for our next course. As I mentioned earlier, this was the chef's turn to show us his real mettle. We finally settled on the Minestrone Soup, The Chelow Kababs with Saffron Risotto, The Chicken Stroganoff, and the Veggie Pizza Pie.

The Minestrone Soup contained very traditionally Italian vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, carrots and zucchini and was quite soothing.

The Pizza Pie was the absolute biggest disappointment of the evening. For those of you who don't know what a pizza pie is, it is supposed to look and behave like this. We on the other hand had what was basically liquid gooey ingredients sort-of filled into a doughy boat of a container. When we cut it open, it all oozed out and made it impossible to eat ! My talk with the chef about it later informed me that they were trying to make a pizza pie without an oven !!!! Yes you read that right - without an oven !!!!


Next came the Chelow Kababs, a speciality of Iran. This version was basically Paneer and zucchini marinated in what seemed like a kilogram of saffron and salt, served on a bed of - surprise surprise - saffron risotto. The saffron taste , originally supposed to be subtle, turned out to be the more than dominating flavour thereby diminishing all other flavours from the dish. Another very forgettable dish.




The Chicken Stroganoff was pleasant, with a midly flavoured cream sauce served with a quite bland, herbed rice. The chicken was tender and seemed to be marinated in some lime juice. The whole dish was garnished with pickled gherkins which were obviously out of a can - something which I don't always approve of. In any case, fresh or canned, pickled gherkins didn't seem the right garnish for something as light and subtly flavoured as Stroganoff. In any case, not a bad option if one feels like eating without wild experimentation.


To drink we had 2 cocktails, again with the hope of keeping it simple. My Lemon infused martini was dirty as I like it, but committed the criminal mistake of being flavoured with Vodka. For all those think martinis are traditionally flavoured with vodka, wake up and smell the Gin ! its always been Gin and I hope it stays that way ! Uday's Whiskey Sour on the other hand would rank up there with some of the best whiskey sours I've ever had - a truly perfect drink to accompany any meal.

To sum up, Phileas Hogg seemed to have got the basics right, but seemed to falter severely when it came to complex flavours. In retrospect, ordering 4-6 plates of starters and some drinks would still help you experience the diverse menu this new restaurant has to offer. The value for money aspect is so-so, which led to us spending close to INR 1700 for the above mentioned meal. Considering this restaurant is just a couple of months old, I feel that with the encouragement and constructive criticism from true-blue foodies like me, they are well on their way to being a favourite for many. I'd definitely recommend a visit at least once for the well stocked bar and elaborate menu.

They can be found at :
No.90/3,4th Floor, Opp Innovative Multiplex, Sarjapur Outer Ring Road, Marathahalli, Bangalore - 560037