Woodstok - perfect for a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon

 Gloat alert - This was one of the featured reviews of the week on Burrp.com. Right here!

Woodstok had been on my wishlist for a very long time. I am glad though that I went there only yesterday. The weather in Bangalore these days is just right for a place as pretty as this. Woodstok is cafe restaurant cum patisserie in a bungalow in the middle of a residential colony in Domlur. The location is perfect, easy to locate and yet in a quiet corner in the middle of lush greens.

We had booked a table on the terrace. But the rest of the restaurant seemed so pretty that we eventually ended up sitting inside, also because the music was great. Mainly pop rock. The decor is very contemporary with a little bit of bistro feel thrown in. What surprised me a lot was how a single restaurant had a little bit of alfresco, some inside seating, tables on the terrace - there is no lack of options. The menu is equally eclectic.

They have happy hours during lunch and it brought us a lot of happiness. Obvious pun intended. We started our meal with Fosters and Vegetarian Woodstok Platter - baked jacket potatoes with cheese, onion rings, and what they call cheesy soldiers, served with three different kinds of sauce. The platter was mindblowing, like most unhealthy things are. Am I complaining? Not really. For maincourse we ordered a chicken steak caroline sizzler (the order or words may not be accurate) and a smoked wood oven pizza. The sizzler came with the option of mushroom or pepper sauce, and French Fries or mashed potatoes. We chose pepper sauce and fries. The sizzler was brilliant. Every flavour stood out and how! I would suggest  steering clear of the pizza, in spite of the hype. The base was not soft and had very little sauce on it. Avoidable, because it is definitely not worth the price.

We obviously couldn't even think of dessert after a meal as huge as this. But we did get some mud cake packed from the patisserie downstairs - Cream & Crust. And it was sinful. That says it all, doesn't it?

The restaurant needs to work on the speed of service and the quality of pizzas. But for most part, the place is perfect. There was not much I did not like about Woodstok, including the 'men' and 'women' sign on the loo - classy hats and shoes! And on my next shopping spree I am going to hunt for beer mugs like the one I saw in the restaurant today. On the left is the only picture I could click before I got extremely engrossed in the food.

The entire meal including mud cake set us back by Rs 1585. Well worth it, especially the ambiance, the location, and the Woodstok platter. And the happy hours. And the sizzler. And dessert. Woodstok gets a 4 on 5 from me. -1 for pizza. A word of advice to people going to this place for the first time - book your table in advance. The place was full even after 5 pm when we crossed that part of the city again on our way back from some shopping.

Cafe Masala - once is not enough!

My mum and sister are in town, and last night we frantically looked for a good buffet lunch option in town. My sister, for someone whose second visit to Bangalore is happening only now (the first one was when she was 2 and remembers only caramel popcorn at Kids Kemp - yes, our collective memory consists mainly of food and yes, it runs in the family!), knows enough about Bangalore to scare me a little. She mumbled Cafe Masala and we all agreed because I had read about it some time back and the name had stuck with me.

The 4 of us reached Cafe Masala 20 minutes later than the time we had made our reservations for, but we promptly got a table of four after we gave a few dirty looks to the slightly rude manager who almost rebuked us for being late (defence mechanism I guess, because he assumed that there were no free tables) and hence paid more attention to a customer (or someone else, for all I know) on the phone than he did to us. Unfortunately the tables in the sit out area were all taken and we had to make do with one in the airconditioned part of the restaurant. What followed was sheer pleasure, to put it mildly!

As a family, some of our biggest kicks come from good food and today was no different. We decided to go for the huge Sunday lunch buffet spread, but of course, and our starters were served on our table. I must mention here that I have had terrible luck with seafood, especially prawns, here in Bangalore. But the golden fried prawns served as one of the starters at Cafe Masala was mindblowing. Succulent, well cooked, and delicious. The chicken too was absolutely brilliant. The wide variety of salads and main course was to die for. I generally don't get anything above mediocre biryani at most North Indian buffet spreads and I was not expecting much from the mutton dum biryani here too. But I was wrong. Let me just put it this way - the food was really, really good.

The desserts were to die for. Chocolate was actually chocolatey and not just loaded with sugar, the pastries were very well made. I can't name a lot of the desserts I ate at Cafe Masala today, but for someone for whom dessert is the real main course, I can tell you I was "extremely satisfied". The jalebi could have been better, but I am not complaining. There was gajar halwa too, but sometimes, just sometimes, I get too full to not want to look at food too. Unfortunately, this happens only at buffet outings :-)

At Rs 375, the lunch outing today was worth every penny. Let me warn you that they charge both service tax and VAT, so please don't come running after me if you find the place a tad bit too expensive when the bill finally arrives. Happens. The feel good factor in this place was enough to leave me very happy with my Sunday! Perfect 10 for me!

By the way, has it ever happened to you that you spend years reminiscing about a certain sinful chocolatey delight but when you finally get to eat it, it leaves you wondering why you liked it so much in the first place? It happened to me yesterday. After 4 years of fantasizing about Mocha's Chocolate Avalanche, when I ate it again yesterday, I found it just plain brown, gooey sugar, no chocolate! Either Mocha at Koramangala didn't know how to make those brownies or I have grown up beyond Mocha's target group. I hated the place - tacky, dirty, and extremely pretensious. It left me very, very queasy!

The salon story

After 1 year of long aunty-like, plain, straight hair, I hunted online for good hair dressers in Bangalore. Don't start rattling off names like Loreal Salon. Because they have 3 standard hair cuts that they do, no matter what you ask for and what they say. That is true at least for people with hair like mine.

I managed to find a salon called Chrysolite (080 25592957, Commercial Street, Bangalore) , although more people know the place by the name of the owner, Tracy. There were brilliant reviews about this place from 2003 all the way to 2010. I went there for a hair cut today, and I have come home feeling absolutely ecstatic. And I don't often feel like this after a hair cut.

Tracy's place is small and basic, but their service is absolutely brilliant. Tracy really listens to what you want, makes her suggestions, and then goes completely scissor happy, all the while happily talking to you about everything under the sun. It is not just the brilliant hair style that makes you happy at the end of a session with Tracy. It is her liveliness, friendliness (and not the shrewd type that most salon owners have when they want to fleece you off a few extra hundreds) and absolutely perfect customer service. Watch out for the tips she gives you to keep the bounce in your hair (or whatever hair gyaan you may need I guess). My new hair cut is fairly easy to maintain too. So I am quite sure it won't be flat and plain all over again tomorrow.

If you are looking for a good hairdresser in Bangalore who will not charge you the moon and yet give you a hair style that is much better and more personalized than the plush international salons, I totally recommend Chrysolite. And you will come back generally happy and not just because of the hair cut.

Tracy, you get a 10 on 10 from me :-)

Liquid@Ista

Gloat alert - This was one of the featured reviews of the week on Burrp.com. Right here!

We had gone to Ista for my birthday dinner in January, and had taken a quick look at Liquid@Ista from outside and we had decided to go back there for a few drinks some time. But we never got around to doing it. We finally went to Liquid yesterday, and I have come back absolutely in love with the place. I am not sure about others, but I had a picture of the "perfect eat out" in my head, and every place that I have ever gone to, even the ones I have loved, hasn't been as good as that imaginary restaurant/ lounge I had in my head. Liquid is that. And more. No wonder this place recently won the Times City award for the best lounge bar in 2010. (Or was a nominee, I am not sure. I can't seem to find any link on the net that says anything about the award but they had a certificate proudly on display at the entrance at Liquid, but I never really read it completely. I thought I would on my way out, but I had had way too many Iced teas already, which brings me to another recommendation - (*sophitstication anti thesis alert*) I am NOT a cocktails person, I don't get why people would drink Mojitos when they can just have a rum and coke or even beer, it's cheaper too after all. But nothing beats Long Island Iced Tea. 'nuff said.

Coming back to Liquid, if you are planning a romantic evening out, planning to celebrate a birthday/ anniversary, or a girls' night out and want to talk nineteen to the dozen and it is one of those nights when drinking is more important than what you eat, look no further. Here's why-

Food - Probably the ONLY not so great thing about Liquid is that they don't serve main course. You will only get a small list of finger food in the name of food menu. That said, the menu is pretty good. Multi cuisine, to say the least. We ordered chicken 65, some French Fries, and Lalbagh Ka Paneer, and they were all brilliant. The pieces of chicken were so succulent and soft that at first we were first afraid they had confused our order with sea food (R being allergic to sea food and all). Lalbagh ka Paneer was equally good. The fries, not so much.

Drinks - Pretty much the regular cocktails and drinks - Long Island Iced Tea, Mojitos etc. There was Belgian beer too, which I think I will try the next time I am there. The wine menu was one of the most elaborate ones that I have ever seen.

Service - fairly quick.

Value for money - Now that's a tricky one. It really depends on your perspective. If you are going out strictly for food, Liquid may not be the best choice. But if you talk about a pleasant evening, a few drinks, great conversation, and the feel good factor, Liquid really and completely takes the cake.

Ambiance - I was saving the best for the last. Liquid is apparently Bangalore's first alfresco. First or not, it was the best that I have seen. Dim lights, extremely comfortable understated seating - both couches and cane chairs, pretty white curtains, glass roof in parts, and the magical Bangalore weather - it was the perfect setting for a romantic evening. Even the smoking area, which was in one of the corners, open on one side like a balcony, was exquisite. If only the view had a little more to offer than a huge tree and the Lido Mall. But who asked me to hang outside the glass wall for the view? If you don't do that, you see clouds, trees, and the late evening lights of Bangalore. The music at the restaurant consisted of an amateur band singing unplugged versions of classic and alternative rock. The band wasn't the best - the guitarist was inconsistent, the singing was far from brilliant. But it somehow added to the rawness of the alfresco evening. I am not trying to justify any weaknesses in Liquid, because for me, last night, it had none. The crowd too was unbelievably good - nothing outlandish in terms of sophistication or the lack of it. Imagine. A glass of long island iced tea, the company of your favourite people/ person in the world, and a chilly monsoon evening in Bangalore - it was all there. It was a beautiful night.

Liquid was a complete 5 on 5 for me, just make sure you go there with the kind of company you really, really enjoy and you don't feel the need to feed your face because of sheer boredom. What? It happens with me all the time! Yesterday was different :)

Of Croma and materialistic pleasures..

I have always loved Croma, but hadn't gone to any of their stores in Bangalore yet. Today I did. And the place impressed me all over again - literally! Service - perfect. Associates - perfect. Merchandising - perfect. Stock - perfect. Pricing - perfect perfect perfect! I absolutely love the place, it's good enough to give any other electronic retail chain a run for their money. E Zone and Sony exclusive stores included. But what really gives me a kick is that once upon in time, I had a part to play in how awesome Croma is today.

So a large part of our Sunday was spent... errr.. Spending. And we are now very proud owners of a digital photo album (my anniversary gift - more on this later) and a blu ray disc player. And guess what. I can actually figure out the difference between our old DVD player and this player. Listen up ladies and gentlemen, this is a HUGE step for me! Here's to many more nights spent watching Jack Bauer and Frasier Crane and Shah Rukh Khan and Morgan Freeman in action!

Coming now to the digital photo album. I am surprised at how much I am loving it, considering I am all for paper prints and the traditional way of storing pictures. But this small thing has extendable memory and can store nearly all of our holiday pictures. And videos. And a sexy screen to display it. It's super cool! I am going to have some fun with my little digital album that I can carry around, and no memory will ever be far from me.

Ha! Now if only someone bought me that SLR. And honest to God, I am really hoping this time I will be lucky and R will read this other blog too (and that's asking for a lot, because I am not so sure if he even reads Peaceful Easy Feeling :P)

P.S. R noticed I was blogging, and he wants me to recommend his new player on the blog because he is obviously madly in love with it. So if you are thinking of buying a blu ray disc player any time soon and you don't want to spend too much money (not more than approx 10K) and if you want a player that plays DVD formats too, consider this option - Sony BDB - S370. Edited to add - it plays internet content on Wifi. I have positively never seen anything cooler than this player. And this one comes from me, not R :D

Bring on the summer!

Natural's Ice Cream. Tender Coconut and Mango.

Enough said!

P.S - Bangaloreans, if you haven't visited the new Bangalore outlets in Koramangala and St Marks Road, you are missing something!

रोज़मर्रा की बातें

YLG Home Salon is the best thing that has happened to womankind of Bangalore. Super service, chirpy, happy associates, and complete value for money with their million schemes. What else do you say when you get vouchers worth your total bill amount for the entire session? I say waah waah! :P Highly recommended. Give them a buzz on 080 43550000 and get pampered ASAP! Their massages are die for - made the bhag daud of the entire last month completely worth it!

Also, I haven't been cooking of late. In the new work set up, we have 2 options - a cook or meal delivery service. Cook is out because after work, we need some peace and quiet and not another person banging utensils in the kitchen! So meal delivery it was. I had noticed a pamphlet around my house in Wind Tunnel Road advertising their "Bengali home food" and dismissed it as another one of those many home style aunty food advertised in our metropolitans for the benefit of the likes of us who don't get Ma ke haath ka khana. But we decided to give it a try - and all of last week we have been eating super awesome dinner. It's really home made Bengali food, it reminds me of the cook at my aunt's place in Calcutta and our Bengali neighbour in Bombay! It is nothing like the usual oily, tasteless tiffin food. This is ghar ka khana... I am sure with this kind of food and the courteous owner and staff, this one is going the Mom's Kitchen way. People who stay in Airport Road, Bangalore, call them. At Rs 40 per meal, their food is a steal. especially when you are so far away from the real home food! Their number - 9901 550 698.

Hope this helps :-)

P.S. - Yes, I have fallen in love with hindi script and how it looks on both the blogs :-)