Southern Heat at Barbeque Nation

On Monday, Snubnose and I did our regular stop at Barbeque Nation to sample some of their special edition Southern Heat food festival that focuses on South Indian foods.

Barbeque Nation always does these events in a big way – so when you go, you can expect a humongous variety of dosas, idlis served table side, live counters serving food prepared to your taste, and tons more food in the main buffet. You never leave hungry from a Barbeque Nation.

There was heavy traffic (so what’s new about that in Bangalore) all the way to the restaurant, and Snubnose and I entered ravenous and ready to do justice to all the food on offer.

We started with icy cold mocktails winter be damned!

The usual plentiful array of starters, and table-side grills were available, and I have visited this place often enough and raved about the delicious grills often enough in the past not to repeat it here. Check out my past posts on Barbeque Nation here.

After gorging on the grills, we wandered off to the dosa counter to see what was on offer. There were a number of dosas and uthapams on offer. I went for a plain podi dosa, which was nice, and Snubnose went for a chicken uthapam, which according to her, was mind-blowing. She went back for seconds at least twice after that.

Apart from the regular biryanis, pulaus, and gravies on offer, there were a number of South Indian delicacies in the main menu.

Here is a list of just some of the things that we saw in the buffet:

• Ennei Kathirikkai: Stuffed fried whole baby brinjal simmered in tangy South Indian gravy
• Karuveppilai Poondu Kozhambu: Spicy garlic and curry leaf gravy. also be an accompaniment for curd rice
• Mangai Vendakkai Masala: Crispy Dry Okra Tossed With mango powder and spices
• Sambar: Arai keerai masiyal is a mix of yellow daal and country spinach
• Vegetable Khuska: Biryani dum in rich coconut milk n ghee
• Urulai Kothamalli Roti
• Manglorian crab curry: country-style crab preparation with smoky flour
• Meen Manga Curry: Hot and tangy fish curry cooked with chunks of fresh raw mangoes
• Ambur style Chicken biryani: Special Dum Biryani cooked with special chettinad spices with long grain Basmati Rice.

Plenty of food as you can see from the menu. Unfortunately, I could not take too many photos of the buffet as the place was absolutely packed (on a Monday night, can you believe it?).

I did take a few shots of the food on my plate and on the table though.

Even though there were plentiful South Indian options, I can never resist their buttery kulchas, with their fabulous daal. It’s so mouth-watering and light that I a rather poor eater managed to easily pack in three and still drooling for more.

But of course, we have to make room in our tummies for dessert. So we did a round of the kulfi counter – their chocolate kulfi is mind-blowingly good. And the variety of kulfi topping options they have is bewildering at times.

Snubnose did brownies with ice-cream, and I filched a bite or two from her bowl.

Their dessert options were also pretty interesting:

• Elaneer Payasam: Tender coconut payasam shots
• Double ke mitha: Hot payasam made from rice dumplings and jaggery.
• Kaapi tiramisu: Tiramisu ready with freshly ground coffee powder
• Jigarthanda : Arai keerai masiyal is a mix of yellow dal and country spinach

I tried the kaapi tiramisu, and it was excellent as well.

While dining, I saw this interesting offer they had up. If you pay with Mobikwik you get Rs.500/- back as cashback. Quite a decent offer I thought.

Overall, I thought the Southern Heat food festival packed quite a bit of heat, and both Snubnose and I enjoyed the dinner a good bit.

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