Tag Archives: Indra Nagar

Lunch at Habanero

Habanero is the spanking new Tex Mex restaurant that has opened up on 12th Main Road, Indra Nagar.

It suddenly sprouted up new and shiny last month, and my colleagues and I were just waiting for an opportunity to make a visit, and now finally we did.

Habanero is ideally the place for drinking + food. They offer a tempting happy hours special on Indian booze between 12:00-10:00 pm. Unfortunately, ours was a working lunch, and we could not take up their offer. Next time though, I am definitely coming on my time to try their Sangria and Margherita pitchers.

We more than made up for the lack of alcohol though. We ate enough to feed an army.

Here are some photos:

This is an image taken from the Habanero website. We ordered the fajita with mixed vegetables

We were way too hungry to take photos and so I have taken these snaps from the Habanero website. On the left in the above photo is the dish I ordered – Vegetable Medley – which was grilled vegetables (yummy zucchini, broccoli, and mushrooms) served with Spanish rice, potatoes, and beans in a cutlet kind of thingie – extremely delicious and filling.

Yummy enchiladas

The beyond awesome desserts.

Mud pie

I died and went to heaven tasting the mud pie. It tasted less like a mud pie and more like a chocolate tart, but nevertheless it was delish and I have no complaints at all.

Tres leches cake

We also ordered the tres leches cake, a Mexican specialty. It tasted pretty good, kind of like an Angel cake. I enjoyed it too. But, I am a chocophile, and so the mud pie was the clear winner in this battle of the desserts (at least for me).

Overall, the place is awesome, and they have a variety of dishes. I am definitely bringing other friends along for our next drinks + dinner session. I plan on trying out more of the starter options they have. But definitely making room for the mud pie in the end

Btw, Habanero has two locations in Bangalore – one in Indra Nagar and one in Whitefield. You can make your choice based on the distance.

About these ads

Enjoyable Time Getting Berry’d Alive

6 Replies

Last week, we went to Berry’d Alive – a dessert place in Indra Nagar that was simply a heavenly experience.

This time, I believe pictures speak louder than words and so am ditching the review. Here are two photos of the desserts that we ordered…

A Chocolate Caramel Tart and a Raspberry Coffee Yogurt in the Background

Didn’t realize the blueberry almond crumble is heart-shaped until I saw the photo I took

This is simply a must-go place for Bangaloreans with a taste for out-of the way sweet eats. Don’t come here expecting your regular vanilla ice creams and pineapple pastries. Come with an open mind and you will enjoy your desserts.

Address:

No. 1079,
12th Main Road,
HAL 2nd Stage,
Indiranagar,
Bangalore

The Island – A Restaurant Review

4 Replies

The Island

Indra Nagar in Bangalore is chock-full of restaurants. Almost every other building houses some kind of eating joint or the other. And it’s not just about quantity, almost each restaurant in this area offers a unique and interesting ambience, menu, and overall dining experience.

To enliven a boring working Saturday, a couple of colleagues and I decided to try the new The Island resto-lounge that has opened in 80 Feet Road, Indra Nagar. Normally, I am a little apprehensive when the term resto-lounge or resto-bar is used to describe something – I always associate it with a closed, smoky, dark, and boozy ambience. But, I had seen The Island from outside and knew this place would be pretty different.

And it was. Different. In an awesome way.

As we walked in to the place, we could hear soothing, running water everywhere. And we immediately felt relaxed and ready to turn a dull boring day into an unexpected treat.

We picked some outside seating close to the fountain and got down to the serious business of deciding what to order. We ended up choosing the following…

Litchi Cooler

Grilled Vegetables

Quesadilla and a Mango Bloom on the top left corner

Chimichanga (image taken from the web as I forgot to take a photo)

The food was pretty delicious with the quesadilla being the star. It was yummy beyond words. The grilled vegetables was standard fare, but I loved it for the freshness of the veggies. The chimichanga (which I can only describe as an oblong cheese filled samosa) was tasty but extremely filling. It was just beyond our capacity. Strictly for cheese lovers or someone extremely ravenous.

After helping our friend finish her chimichanga (not very successfully), we just could not even get up from our seats. There were two hammocks placed nearby and they were just beckoning us to come and have a snooze.

But, alas…we had to go back to work and so we just managed to wobble our way outside to catch a rickshaw, get to office, and then slump into our chairs.

Two Awesome Restaurants in Indra Nagar at Two Completely Different Price Points

3 Replies

We are supremely lucky to be living close to Indra Nagar in Bangalore, which is absolutely one of the hot spots for sophisticated eating choices at varying price points. This month, we visited 2 excellent restaurants that I am happy to recommend to anyone looking for eating places in Bangalore.

First up, is the reasonable eating joint we visited a couple of weeks back – Cream Centre.

Cream Centre

This is apparently a chain of vegetarian restaurants with franchisees already present in Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai. However, we did not know that and almost missed this little gem thinking it was a bakery (the name is seriously misleading).

But the food was awesome, with a varied menu to interest people with different types of palates. For the continental foodies (like me), there are the sizzlers, and the pastas. For the Indo-lover, there is channa batura, tawa paratha, Bambaiya ragda, and more. And for the junk food lover, they have the most awesome onion rings I have ever tasted .

We started off with the drinks. The iced tea was standard stuff, but my friend really enjoyed this awesome crushed ice, fruit mocktail. It was also so huge that we could all happily share .

Absolutely awesome drink, unfortunately I forgot the name

My friends ordered the sizzlers.

Paneer Shaslik Sizzler

I ordered the pasta in pasta, which is an innovative option of providing two types of pastas within one dish. Here is a photo:

A cheesy macaroni surrounded by spaghetti in a tomato-based sauce

I am a bit of a pasta purist, and so I can’t say I enjoyed this whole-heartedly, but still this is a dish that could appeal to others. I have to say that the food on the table looked identical to these pictures that I took off the Cream Center website, and I think that’s pretty impressive. Not too many dishes end up looking just like how they are advertised!

Another reason we loved our experience at this restaurant? The sweetie pie manager came to check how we enjoyed our food and even offered us a dessert on the house! We were really tempted to take him up on his offer, but alas! we were too stuffed already. If only he had come 10 mins earlier, we would have definitely taken him up on it .

All in all, it’s a great value for money fun dining place.

Now, onto the super-pricey restaurant, we visited last weekend – the 100 Feet boutique restaurant.

100 Feet restaurant on 100 Feet Road in Indra Nagar

Primarily a Mediterranean restaurant, this one ranks high on both the food and the ambience. This is an old house that is converted into a restaurant/shop. The atmosphere is relaxed, there is a wide range of cocktails, and the food and the service is excellent. We were a huge group ordering tons of stuff, and not one item was a disappointment. Even the folks who were not too fond of Mediterranean food cleaned their plates. And the desserts are to die for. I shared a tiramisu with my mom, and was really regretting not getting one just for myself alone. The snubnose polished off a massive Belgian chocolate mousse cake; the cheesecake was also a huge hit!

So, it’s a great place, but the prices are a little on the steep side. However, if you are not on a budget, or are content with just a couple of dishes, then this is the place for you. I unfortunately don’t have pictures to share, but trust me, this is a seriously awesome dining place!

A Fitness Update

6 Replies

Some of you more observant readers might have noticed that I recently added tai chi to my exercise list in the A Brief Bio widget on this page. This is a part of my overall resolution to bump up my fitness levels back to my pre-snubnose levels. For the past couple of years, I just left myself drift on an ocean of junk food, and carb fest blaming my over-eating on stress and lack of time.

I started out with a bang earlier this year with the running and the push-ups. I gave up on the push-ups a couple of weeks later when it got too tough. I was a bit concerned with hurting my back trying to do more than I could. I continued with the running and now I have the stamina to run for an hour! Not very fast though so I still need to work on my speed, but I am quite happy with my progress.

The weight loss has also been proportionate with my efforts. I am now able to fit in all the jeans that I did before the snubnose. There is one downside to the weight loss though that I didn’t really expect. Old friends are thrilled that I am back to the same old Nishita again, but people who have known me only the last year or so have become super-concerned. Are you feeling well? Hope you are not sick? And the worst, why don’t you get checked for diabetes? – urggh…enough with the questions already. I am feeling perfectly fine, thank you very much!

Now that the monsoons have set in, running is no longer possible on a regular basis, so enter tai chi. I have been practicing it for the past couple of months, and I have been meaning to blog about it in greater detail, but I thought I’d wait a bit to see if I really enjoy it or not.

I have always wanted to learn some form of martial art, but somehow something or the other (usually lack of initiative on my part) saw to it that nothing ever came of my general dreaming about it

Until the day one of my colleagues at work decided to do a short presentation and demo of tai chi for us at work. After a few of us ~~expressed interest~~ begged him to start conducting regular tai chi classes at work, he agreed to teach us the basic 8 forms in the office space itself. After that, if we are still interested, we can continue with our tai chi practise at the Tai chi Academy in Indra Nagar. It’s been pretty good going so far. We have learnt 6 forms (there are more than 85, so we are just beginning), but I love the experience already.

Usually, when I take up some exercise regimen, it’s about quick results – how much weight will I be able to lose. This time though, it’s not about the weight. It’s all about enjoying the journey of learning. I love the thought that goes into the practice of tai chi – the concepts of yin and yang, the care and attention to detail that our tai chi master is bringing to our classes, the beauty and fluidity of the movements as you move from one form to another. Here is a video of a tai chi practitioner going through the forms:

There is beauty and fluidity, but there is also a force involved. Currently, I am extremely clumsy and forgetful while practicing, but I hope to be as graceful one day. Don’t be fooled by the video, folks! it’s much harder than it looks.

Let’s see how it goes, will definitely keep you all updated

Contemplating Switching Libraries

17 Replies

I have been a loyal member of Eloor Library from the time it first presented itself on my horizon (almost 15 years ago). It’s been a long and fruitful partnership on both sides – I get to read a lot of wonderful books that are not always stocked in Indian libraries; the library makes a bucketful of cash because of the amount of late-charges that I end up paying. I am not really the fastest of readers, I like to take my time with a book and happily ignore the 2 week lending time on my books.

In my mind, so far there has been no equivalent/competing library in India. That is, until the arrival of the shiny, new kid on the block – Just Books. In Bangalore, this library has spread rapidly with a number of franchises throughout the city. And one opened up pretty close to my house early this year.

Still not good enough to attract my attention. I thought the prices were on the high side, and there did not seem to be enough variety of books to justify the pricing.

And then last week, something changed within me. All these years I have uncomplainingly driven the 10km stretch over crappy traffic-logged roads twice a month to Eloor Library. But last week, with my hubby grumbling loudly, and a record 2 hour commute to the library and back, I realized (or was made to realize by the hub) that this routine is just not working.

The very next day, he steered me over to Just Books in Indra Nagar and we went through the registration details with the librarian in charge. This time something inside me went hmmm…on first glance the rates do seem expensive, however there are a lot of services on offer. Here are some things that intrigued me:

They have a variety of sign-up rates depending on your reading habits. I was pretty interested in the annual Rs.3000/- plan. It allows me to checkout upto 3 books and a magazine at any one time. There is no deposit system with this plan, which means there is nothing to lock me into the library after the year’s period is up.
With this plan, there is no charge on individual book withdrawals (something that is a bit of a bane with Eloor Library). This means that I can opt for hardcover versions of books or the latest newly-published without having to pay any premiums. There are also no late charges. I can hold a book for as long as I want without any late penalties (yippee yay!)
Just Books has a decent reading room as well as a good selection of children’s books (much better than Eloor).
They also have a very strong online presence, allowing me to reserve books online, and getting them delivered to my house (unalloyed bliss!)

So, what has me hesitating? Why haven’t I made the shift yet? Why is the thought of walking up to the Eloor librarian and demanding my deposit back and closing the account making me feel strangely sick inside?

Stupidly sentimental me is finding it hard to let go of something that has been a part of my reading life for so long. In addition, I still feel that Eloor has the better selection of adult books; they do stock more serious literature, and have a wider variety of classics. Just Books seems to fill up their library with a number of copies of the latest bestsellers; but don’t seem to have some of the more obscure books. The librarian does promise that they procure books on demand, so I suppose the lack of readily available books should not be an issue.

However, the commute to Eloor was tolerable when my life was simpler (read as no baby, and no household chores). Now, it is becoming impossible for me.

So, what do you suggest? Have any of you patronized either of these libraries? What do you think? Specifically would like feedback from patrons of Just Books.

Adding a poll to encourage more responses

Back from Vacationitis…

9 Replies

So, I am back from vacation and I have so much to blog about I just don’t know where to start. I am still so perked up after the short break that I am probably going to blather on in my blog for the next couple of weeks about the fun we had (interspersed with long pending reviews of course!).

I spent the whole of last week attending a friend’s wedding in Mumbai, and then traipsed off to Goa’s sunny shores for some much needed R and R.

Before I start off relating my travel saga, I just need to add some tidbits about the shopping preparations leading up to the trip. After all, that’s where the fun first started.

My friends and I went on a random shopping trip to Commercial Street (Bangalore’s top street shopping destination), when I suddenly got the brilliant idea of getting a new salwar kameez for my friend’s wedding. Popped in to Fazal’s and immediately hit on the perfect one for me. In muted shades of green and brown (I love this color combo, even my blog has a similar color scheme ) with just the right amount of sequins, I knew I had a winner with this one.

Here is a shot of the salwar:

The colors are really beautiful, here they appear a bit too bright

The colors are really beautiful in actuality, here they appear a bit too bright

One of my friends also mentioned seeing a gorgeous churidhar kameez at a newly opened boutique called Suvasa in Indra Nagar, suggesting that I might also like that one for the wedding. I didn’t really take her suggestion seriously but then I happened to pass the store a couple of days later, and saw it displayed. Walked in and within 10 mins, this one was also a part of my closet

Here is a shot of the churidhar (did I mention it is pure silk ):

Quite a steal for a silk churidhar kurta

So, everything clothes-related was set for the trip. Now, I only had to decide on the books I was planning to take with me.

I thought something light and not too taxing would be ideal, and so into the suitcase went Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger and Peony in Love by Lisa See.

I have finished with the Lauren Weisberger, which turned out to be a disappointing read. I pretty much love what I have read so far of Peony in Love, and am looking forward to seeing how the story evolves.

Also coming up are more photos and some fun travel memories that I’d like to share with you all

Ciao for now!

New Eating Hangouts in Indra Nagar

2 Replies

Gloria Jean's Lured in by the promise of a sample drink, we (hubby, myself, and snubnose) walked into the new Gloria Jean’s coffee outlet on 100 Feet Road in Indra Nagar.

I generally love coffee shops and I always like to hang out and chill with friends and family. The focus is less on eating and more on conversation and of course people-watching

So, once we walked in and settled ourselves down, we had a look at the menu, and decided on the following:

Chocolate croissant (for me and snubnose)
Veg puff (for Kalyan)

We also asked for the sample drink. The sample drink was a minuscule (and I mean almost microscopic) cup of Strawberry Chiller. We all washed it down in one gulp. It was extremely tasty and I would not have minded ordering it, but everyone is just recovering from a cold and I didn’t want to take any chances.

Our order arrived, and we all settled in to eat. The chocolate croissant was nicely warm and gooey. However, it had a faint eggy smell, which was slightly off-putting. Now, I know that croissants are made with eggs, but the really good ones don’t smell of it. The Coffee Day croissant is far superior. Kalyan found his puff okay.

The steward mentioned that there was a complimentary “Babycino”, which is available for kids under 5. I was totally floored by the concept (I have never heard of any special drink for children before), and I was very curious to see what the Babycino looked like. And, it was complimentary, so what the hell…

The Babycino turned out to be a combination of cream, cold milk, some colorful sprinkles (people with kids will know what sprinkles is, but it is very difficult to describe to others), and a small marshmallow stick.

It was filled to the brim and given in a small Espresso cup. Now, giving a toddler a cup filled with milk to the brim is just asking for trouble. So, I asked the steward to put it in a larger cup so that spillage is a little less. He refused, and said that the larger cups are “countable”, which means if there is any missing, they are asked to account for it.

Hmm…I ended up taking 2 small cups, dividing the drink into smaller quantities and giving it to her. Not very happy at all. I almost wished she had spilt the drink there, so that they would understand how dumb this policy is. However, I guess I should not blame them completely as this is the case with many outlets (Subway is another example). Really, businesses should start thinking about the customer a little bit more.

Anyway, while returning home, I was thrilled to see that “The Cream and Fudge Factory” has opened a branch in Indra Nagar. It is located just behind the Coffee Day on 100 Feet Road.

The main Koramangala outlet serves some amazing ice-creams, and I am thrilled to see that it is now located a lot closer to home.

Now, just waiting for mom to come visit…she really enjoys the pleasure of a good dessert…

Reached home and ended up having a bad stomach-ache. The croissant really did not agree with me at all

Fine Dining at Herbs & Spice

5 Replies

I have been eating at Herbs and Spice in Indra Nagar since it opened years ago in a small bungalow off CMH and 100 Ft road. At that time, I really used to enjoy the small rustic-style, relaxed ambience, and the awesome food and desserts.

This time, when my mom came to visit, we decided to take her to the new, expanded restaurant that they have opened in 80 Feet Road.

The new place is also pretty gorgeous. It is built on a terrace and offers both open-roof and closed-roof seating. We chose the open-roof option (not really chose, as the place was packed and we had to just take what we could get). And sat down to enjoy and soak in the atmosphere (hoping that it would not rain).

And we sat, and sat, and sat. Probably, because the place was packed, we had to wait almost 15 mins for a waiter to come take our order.

And once we ordered, it was another very loooong wait. The snub nose started to get very restless and started flinging table napkins and cutlery around. When she threatened to start off with the plates, hubby very obligingly took her for a round (which mainly involved climbing up and down stairs). Finally, the food arrived …

We had ordered the following :

Spinach and cumin soup
Abissini with broccoli, olive oil, and chili peppers (abissini is a small shell-like pasta – very similar to the ones sold by Barilla and even Bambino)
Spaghetti with whole tiger prawns

The food was definitely worth the wait. The soup was pretty yummy, and I even managed to coax the snub nose into trying a few spoon fulls.

The abissini was accompanied by a salad, and was very tasty yet light. However, it seemed to be a little bit too much on the lighter side. Our fault, because me and my mom were sharing the pasta.

Note for next time: don’t think of sharing the food, as the portions are genuinely single portions.

K really enjoyed the spaghetti with tiger prawns. So overall, the dinner was a hit. We still felt a need for dessert, and would have preferred to have it in Herbs and Spice. However, because of the snub nose’s restlessness, we decided to make our way to Baskin Robbins where we all enjoyed delicious ice-creams.

Wah wahs : Great food, great ambience
Improvement areas : Quicker service

If interested, you can get more information about Herbs & Spice at : http://www.herbsandspice.in/