August 2017 - Foodie Land Blog | Indian food and restaurant reviews

Chili's American Grill & Bar Launch | RMZ Ecoworld | Bangalore

Ultimate Bacon Burger (Top View)

Expansion is a necessity when there is popularity.

The above sentence is true for those establishments which provide its patrons with what they like & on the same page, in this post we’ll be talking about a similar chain which is very popular.

We were recently invited to the preview of the 4^th outlet of Chili’s American Grill & Bar in RMZ Ecoworld, Sarjapur. For all the craft burger lovers around, this is breaking news!

This was an exclusive preview and it was a total meaty affair.

Chili’s is famous for their burgers and tender pork ribs and they were some of the items we tried.

So, coming down to the items we tried: Ultimate Bacon Burger, Baby Back Ribs (classic BBQ sauce), Bacon Ranch Chicken Quesadillas, Southern Smokehouse Burger, Herb Basa and Ancho Salmon.

For dessert: Molten Chocolate Cake & Cheesecake.

Chili's American Grill & Bar Launch | RMZ Ecoworld | Bangalore

A mint & melon based cooler

Bacon Ranch Chicken Quesadillas

Ultimate Bacon Burger

The burgers were extraordinary and deserve the name “craft burgers”. The patty, the combination of sauces & the bacon on top, everything summed up to a delightful experience. The ultimate bacon burger has a thick buffalo meat patty topped off with crispy bacon & loads of cheddar cheese. Try it to experience happiness!

The other burger had spiced panko onion rings as the toppings on the patty along with crispy bacon. The onion rings did blend well, but we would choose the above any day!

The Baby Back Ribs were succulent & juicy & the original BBQ sauce is legendary. Almost 0 content of fat & tender meat is all it’s about! This is served with fries & corn on the cob.

The quesadillas were equally brilliant. They were baked perfectly and one can feel the cheese in each bite. The meat is tender as expected.

Both the main course preps were served with rice & steamed veggies. The salmon was really something. It was perfectly done, was mildly sweet & the quantity was just. The Basa on the other hand could have been better. The slice of fish was thinner than expected.

Baby Back Ribs

Molten Chocolate Cake

Cheesecake

Herb Basa

Ancho Salmon

The desserts are irresistible! The cheesecake was ok: spongy but taste wise at par, nothing special.

The other was different & very good! A spoonful of the spongy stuff & vanilla ice cream & it’ll make you close your eyes. This dessert is big in size as well so, it is better to share.

That’s our experience in a nutshell & it surely deserves a thumbs up!

It was great being a part of the preview & interacting with known faces.

Do give them a visit if you crave for any of the above ;)

We’ll be back with a bang soon.

Till then: Fantasize & bon apetit!

14:18
2 Comments

Flavours of Bengal Food Festival @ Nook | Aloft CBP | Bangalore

Aloft

Fuchka Shots

It’s time for another food festival & this time it’s our festival!

As you might know that we are Bengalis so, we are super excited to talk about the ongoing Bengali Food Festival at Nook, Aloft Cessna Business Park, Bangalore.

We have been to many festivals at Nook, but by far we found this to be the best! No bias at all as the food is what impressed us. The execution was brilliant and most of the items tasted as they should while some had a certain twist to it.

We were not disappointed with a single item to be honest.

Now, coming down to the food:

They have the festival menu & also the regular spread for customers who don’t want to try festival items.

Flavours of Bengal Food Festival @ Nook | Aloft CBP | Bangalore

Mutton & Veg Shingara

Dhaka style mutton kofta

Bengali vegetarian preparations

Egg Chop

About the festival menu: the spread is absolutely massive! There were almost equal options for veg & non veg. For veg, from Aloo Bhate, Kumror Chhechki to Begun Bharta & Aloo/Jhinge Posto there was a wide variety. For non-veg: starting with kebabs, Bangladeshi Mutton Kofta, Egg Chops to Ilish Bhaja, Ilish Bhapa, Mutton Dak Bungalow, Murghir Jhol & Daab Chingri & more! Now that’s enough to make a Bengali happy for sure. The food was exquisite & lip smacking. We loved each & every preparation.

Before we forget, they also have Mutton Shingara & Veg Shingara & Fuchka!

The Daab Chingri was partially cooked in the green coconut which most places don’t do. There was also Chicken Mughlai Paratha which was also the real deal.

Chicken Tikka

Aloo & Coconut Tikki

Ilish Bhaja

Daab Chingri

So, from our side we would recommend everything but if we have to filter out:

Veg: Aloo Posto, Aloo & Coconut Tikkis, Begun Bharta & Chholar Dal.

Non Veg: Daab Chingri, Mutton Dak Bungalow, Egg Chops, Bhapa Ilish, Mughlai Paratha.

That’s not all: Bengalis are known for their sweet tooth so the desserts this time were epic. Apart from the regular variations like pastries, cheesecakes etc. there was Nolengur Payesh, Kancha Golla, Raj Bhog, Patishapta, Malai Chomchom & Roshogolla. No recommendations as all of them were delightful.

The Main Course

Ilish Bhapa @ Flavours of Bengal Food Festival @ Nook | Aloft CBP | Bangalore

Bhapa Ilish

If you’re familiar with Bengali Cuisine, you shouldn’t miss this for sure! If you aren’t, do give this a try as most of the preps are pretty close to authentic & taste exactly the way it should.

Reiterating: This is the best festival we’ve experienced.

Kudos to Exec Chef Sandeep & his team for making us feel closer to home!

The festival is on, so don’t miss it.

We’ll be back soon with another tasty adventure soon.

Till then—Keep Calm & live to eat!

20:14
1 Comments

Premium Fitness Food @ 75 in a Box | Bangalore

75inabox

Grilled Chicken

From the last year, we saw a sudden rise in awareness regarding health & fitness food in Bangalore and the list of people who want to eat healthy is growing each day!

Although we’ve seen very few dine-in restaurants serving such healthy food, food start-ups on the other hand are focusing on this as this field is still unexplored.

Before we begin with the main content we want to focus on the difference between health & fitness food: Health food is something which is good for health (balanced diet, high fibre etc.) & well-being in general and fitness food is for those who are targeting something in particular, such as fat reduction/muscle gain/ stamina etc. Since our bodies run with what we eat, it is significant to understand what we stuff ourselves with. It is proven that 75% of the composition of the human body is based on what we eat & this 75 is the focus in this post.

Say hello to 75 in a Box, a food-tech start up focusing on premium fitness food and helping everyone achieve their fitness goals (if they have one!).

We have tried healthy food before and it was pretty much bland & tasteless and we lost faith in it. This time around, our faith has been restored. We had a LOT of food and even after that we didn’t feel heavy at all! We tried their “try out” menu, but they want more people to subscribe to their fitness plan as that is in line with their mission.

On 75 In a Box’s website, you can fill in the relevant details: whether you want to lose weight/fat, more endurance or gain muscle weight. Appropriately they’ll prompt for body weight, height, dietary preference, no. of meals/day etc. & finally give an estimate of the cost for one month. Now, this cost might seem a lot but just imagine: that is your fitness meal plan for 24 days in a month! The rest 6 you can consider as cheat days ;)!

They advise all their customers to stick to a disciplined regime as otherwise, things don’t work out as expected. The food they serve remains nutritionally intact up to 1 reheat in a microwave. Consequently, nutritional values do not remain the same.

Time for details of the food:

We tried 8 items from them and we are thoroughly impressed to say the least. The amount of quantity they give at the pricing is unreal and they also use a lot of micro greens to top off their food.

Egg Bomb

Couscous Chicken Salad

We tried their Egg Bomb, Couscous Chicken Salad, Grilled Chicken, Paneer Ala gremolata, Thai Curry, Chicken in Oyster Sauce, Sweet n Sour Chicken & Chicken Do Pyaza.

First up, the egg bomb was fulfilling. The concept is a boiled egg cut in half embedded on a boat made of minced chicken & herbs. The seasoning enhanced the experience. Loads of chicken involved and the combination tastes great. This is guilt free indulgence!

One of the best salads we’ve had till date, was the couscous chicken salad. It had loads of chicken topped off with cheese, almonds, couscous, raisins & apple. It was mildly sweet but extraordinary in terms of taste & balance.

The grilled chicken was perfectly done and stuffed with a delicious cheese and spinach filling. These come under the mains so they are served with sautéed veggies. The meat was tender & very flavourful. It was served with tangy penne pasta & it was a complete meal. The amount of chicken they gave at the price is really impressive.

The paneer ala gremolata is a very interesting preparation. It had baked paneer with breadcrumbs on top of a layer of sweet potato. The combination was super! The creaminess of the sweet potato & the flavour of the paneer matched brilliantly. With or without the sauce, it tasted amazing.

Paneer Alagremolata

Premium Fitness Food @ 75 in a Box | Bangalore

Grilled Chicken (Top Shot)

The Thai curry had a lot of lemon grass in it. The aroma & taste were spot on! The quantity of chicken is very impressive. The curry comes separately & the rice comes in a bowl with veggies.

The same goes with the Oyster sauce preparation. The sauce was so delicious that one can actually have the whole thing with the sauce alone! We suggest add some mushrooms in it as it will further enhance the taste. Apart from that, this was our top pick. This & the next item is served with buckwheat noodles. The noodles are very light, have a different taste & we loved it!

The last 2 are meal bowls which are packed to preserve moisture content. The sweet n sour chicken stood up to its name. So, what do you think of a low calorie & healthy sweet n sour chicken? Whatever you think, this will definitely change your mind! Very high on taste & one bowl is sufficient for a good meal.

The Chicken do pyaza meal bowl is equally amazing. Non greasy Indian food is hard to believe but yes, this actually tasted pretty decent. This is served with jeera brown rice . If you consider healthy food, this is as tasty as it can get.

Sweet n sour chicken @ Premium Fitness Food @ 75 in a Box | Bangalore

Sweet n Sour Chicken Meal Bowl

Chicken Do Pyaza @ Premium Fitness Food @ 75 in a Box | Bangalore

Chicken Do Pyaza Meal Bowl

Thai curry @ Premium Fitness Food @ 75 in a Box | Bangalore

Thai Curry accompaniments (curry with chicken served separately)

Chicken in oyster sauce @ Premium Fitness Food @ 75 in a Box | Bangalore

Chicken in Oyster Sauce accompaniments (chicken & sauce served separately)

Cooking without keeping health in mind is easy & turns out tasty with ease, but the opposite is very difficult. Kudos to the team for doing a splendid job.

For people with subscriptions, the services differ and they serve a variety of items (Salmon included). All their preparations are fresh and better consumed immediately.

Their packaging deserves special mention as they use imported sugarcane plastic for packaging which is 100% bio-degradable. So, they are doing their bit for the environment as well.

We loved their food & we will definitely try it again. We might even change our diet plan to fit them in, because they are so good!

We generally don’t say this, but we highly recommend their food, if you are a fitness enthusiast (or not). We are sure that you’ll love it! The best part is, let them focus on the nutrients & you can focus on your regime.

That’s all from our side!

We’ll be back again soon with more grub info.

Till then—stay tuned, exercise & bon apetit!

23:02
2 Comments

The Irish are now in Bellandur | Bangalore

bangalore

Does the thought of alcohol & good grub excite you?

If so, this post is definitely for you!

So, this post is all about the launch of The Irish House in Bellandur, Bangalore which makes it their second. If you know us personally, you would know about our previous Irish House encounter. To check out that post, you can click here.

The experience reminded us of the fun we had the last time and we missed the previous company to be honest. There was a separate try-out menu for us from which we tried a decent variety.

The Irish are now in Bellandur | Bangalore

Irish House is always expected to be full and the expectations turned out to be true.

The Irish Trash Can has always been our top pick and things were not different this time around too! It has Vodka, Gin & Rum and has an overturned Red Bull so, people this will definitely give you wings. Apart from these we tried the Whiskey Sour, which was a mixture of whiskey & fresh lime and the Twisted Old Fashion: A combination of bourbon whiskey & espresso. All the drinks were well balanced and went well with the paired snacks.

Now, for the food which we tried:

The Mushroom/Chicken Burger, 2 Face Chicken Skewers, Headless Chicken platter, Skewed Cottage Cheese, Great Irish Fish n Chips, Peri Peri Cottage Cheese Bowl & the Sriracha Veggie Skewers.

Irish Trash Can without the Red Bull on top

Irish Fish n Chips

Skewers Cottage Cheese

All of them were palatable and for veg, the best appetizer was the skewers cottage cheese. It was hot & sweet and the cottage cheese melted in the mouth. For non-veg, the 2 face chicken skewers & the Fish & Chips were delightful. The fish was a tad bit oily but tasted great. The chicken skewers were pretty interesting: the 2 faces are that of chicken sausages and normal chunks of chicken. They are a perfect accompaniment with drinks.

The chicken platter had many chicken variants but mostly fried. The seasoning was good and this is best enjoyed with beer.

Now for the main course items. The best of the lot was the Shroom Melt, without a doubt! This mushroom burger was out of the world with a 4 cheese melt. We’ll go back just for this people!

Sriracha Veggie Skewers

Headless Chicken Platter

Shroom Melt Burger

Jager Bombs in line

The chicken burger was decent, but nowhere near the mushroom. The peri peri cottage cheese bowl was perfect & whole meal after heavy drinking. It was light on the stomach and high on taste. The Paneer was perfectly done and served with sautéed mushrooms & rice. The sriracha veggie skewers by themselves taste decent but we still can’t understand why they are served with rice. Must be an Irish thing ;)

Anyway, that’s all about our Irish House experience this time. Unlike the previous encounter, we decided to behave like civilized individuals. No desserts this time as after drinks we don’t indulge in sweet stuff ;)

A memorable experience for us involving a lot of drinking, dancing & meeting new people.

A must visit for those who prefer good food with their drinks and a lot of fun of course.

Do let us know about your experience if you visit.

Till then—Keep calm & keep reading our posts!

21:32
1 Comments

Persian Pop Up @ SodaBottleOpenerWala | Bangalore

bangalore

The Persian Pop Up menu in a thali format

So do you guys have a favorite restaurant?

We all have favorites be it one thing or the other. Favorite food is pretty common but how many of you actually love visiting a particular restaurant?

Do let us know in the comments below, but now let us tell you about one of ours!

The best part is we were recently invited for a unique food festival and as expected we had an amazing time.

So many restaurants organizing so many food festivals and yet this one is unique. So, this post is all about one of our favorite restaurants: SodaBottleOpenerWala & the ongoing Persian Food Festival.

The festival goes by the name “Persian Pop-Up” and the festival menu is co-created by Anaida Parvaneh & the chefs of SBOW. Anaida, a famed singer who has her roots in Persia, specially curated this menu to showcase the rich, traditional Persian Cuisine using ingredients from Iran.

There are a lot of items involved and since we visited separately and not in a group, we tried portions of some of these items in the form of a Thali.

People of Persia indulge mostly in non-vegetarian food so, if you are a vegetarian: not many options for you.

Most of the items were lamb preparations and thinking of lamb, people generally get the idea that the food is heavy but in this case even after a full meal we didn’t feel uneasy at all. The preparations are very light, flavorful and gives a sense of satisfaction.

Anaida's Jadooei Soup

In the thali we tried the Bagali Pulao, which is rice cooked with mutton keema, Chicken Jujeh Kebab, Mutton Haleem, Cucumber and Dried Mint Dip, Mutton Fesanjan & a Lamb Shanks prep with chickpeas. We also tried Anaida’s Jadooei Soup.

The soup was heavenly! It had a homely touch to it & had loads of chicken, mushrooms & veggies. The broth tasted so good that we could literally survive on that.

From the thali, we loved almost everything! The aroma & taste boasted of fresh ingredients. The Mutton Fesanjan is a mutton preparation made with pomegranate molasses. It is pungent in nature and sort of an acquired taste. It had a tangy tasty to it and many might not like it the first time. The same goes for the lamb shanks preparation which was sour. It was soupy & flavorful with perfectly cooked meat but the taste was a bit harsh up front.

The only chicken preparation in this meaty arsenal is the Jujeh Kebab. It’s a very simple kebab which brings out the natural flavors of chicken. It was char grilled to perfection. The Haleem is a must try. It is served with a pav and is the best dish of the lot! The richness of the mutton & ghee, the aroma and sweetness of the caramelized onions stood out.

Haleem

Dessert

The cucumber and dried mint dip had the characteristic flavors. The special thing about it was the inclusion of dried rose petals from Iran which gave it a longing aroma. The Bagala Pulao summarized would be: Keema in each bite. The cooked rice retained all the flavors and that’s all we need ;)

Lastly, for dessert we tried the Halwa and Shole Zard. They were rich and delicious but kind of overshadowed by the above!

That’s our short & sweet experience of this delicious festival.

This is on till the 16^th of August, so still some time before you miss out!

We’ll be back soon with great news.

Till then—keep stuffing your faces & be happy because you live only once!

23:33
4 Comments

Pages

Chili's American Grill & Bar Launch | RMZ Ecoworld | Bangalore

Flavours of Bengal Food Festival @ Nook | Aloft CBP | Bangalore

Premium Fitness Food @ 75 in a Box | Bangalore

The Irish are now in Bellandur | Bangalore

Persian Pop Up @ SodaBottleOpenerWala | Bangalore

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