Band Baaja Barbeque

It’s been a long time since Snubnose and I visited our favorite restaurant – Barbeque Nation. And when I heard that there was a new food fest coming up, well, traffic-jammed weekday or not, we had to go. Band Baaja Barbeque is a wedding themed food festival, and the dishes served are popular wedding favorites. Post-Diwali is the wedding season in India, so it makes sense for the restaurant also to echo this festive spirit.

The North Indian wedding feast theme extends from the menu to the decor, to the waiter’s clothing even.

When we walked into the Barbeque Nation at Lido mall, it felt just like we were walking into a wedding – festive is a mild word to describe the atmosphere.

The food

While there was a festive menu too, the regular starters and grills are always available. Snubnose loves the table-top grilling, and so we always opt for the table-top grills when we go there.

We were pretty hungry after a long and stressful drive, and we walloped the grills consisting of paneer, mushrooms, and pineapples (in my case), and chicken, prawns, and fish (for Snubnose). These days, she turns up her nose at anything vegetarian.

The waiter also came to our table with a number of starters.

The hara bara kabab (kabab with greens) is also standard fare at Barbeque Nation, and I have eaten it umpteen times before. That doesn’t stop me from asking for more plates of it. Extremely delicious, and the taste and quality never varies. That’s one reason why I love Barbeque Nation – this restaurant chain is extremely consistent with the quality of the food, never mind which venue you go to.

In the main course, we loved the biryanis. Snubnose had her favorite chicken biryani. I tried the paneer biryani (which was new to me), and I recommend it highly.

About the festive menu

They have a lot of very interestingly named dishes. For vegetarians, there is the Pardesi Piya Ke Paneer Wale Tikke – chunks of paneer marinated and grilled to perfection. There is also the Taka Tak Mushroomi Mausi – mushrooms stuffed with garlic and chilies. Both were really good.

For the non-vegetarians, there was the Nawabi Jija Ke Ghost Seekh – minced lamb molded into skewers and cooked Mughlai style. For seafood lovers, there was Amritsari Fufa Ji Ki Machliyan – a kind of marinated fish. Snubnose is not normally fond of fish, but she really liked this one.

Some photos of all the food we ate.

These days I am more into simpler food, so I really appreciated the veggies grilling on the tawa. I helped myself to the lady’s finger and potatoes, that were quickly mixed up live in a tangy sauce for me.

There were other live counters serving Banarasi Dewar Ji ke Manpasand Aaloo – a very rich preparation of cashews, tomatoes, potatoes, and fresh cream. I could feel my arteries clogging as I looked at it. In the dessert live counters, there was piping hot jalebis served with rabdis, and brownies with ice cream.

Talking about dessert

No wedding is complete without eating massive helpings of sweet, and this concept was replicated in Barbeque Nation as well. While the food was good, it was the desserts that stole the show.

We tried a whole variety of sweets, and I give them an A+++. Everything was that good. Here is a shot of what was served up to us.

I can never resist a good rasagulla, and the ones served here were excellent – soft, spongy, and yum, yum, yum all the way. The rasagollas were my absolute favorite. I tried all these sweets in the photos and have arranged them in the order I liked them. Rasagollas being on top, and the peda last (never very fond of peda).

About the Band Baaja Barbeque food fest

This food fest is available at all outlets in Bangalore from October 26th – November 12th. A good period of time for you to go ahead and book yourself a table. Booking details are below.

Location: Outlets are in Indra Nagar, JP Nagar, Lido Mall, Koramangala, Kalyan Nagar, Marathahalli, Rajaji Nagar, Electronic City, and Whitefield
Reservations: Call 080 6060 0000/01
Cost for two: ₹1,600 (approx.)

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