Spiga - Romance with Food

Spiga serves European and Mexican cuisine and is located on St.Marks road. It is a classy roof-top restaurant, which makes you feel like you are in Greece. This is a perfect place to take your girlfriend (or boyfriend) out for a romantic dinner. Unfortunately I have never been to Spiga's for dinner, but have heard that the light up the entire place with candles.

Now coming to the important part - the Food. I have been there twice and have found that one should try the sea food there and steer clear of the Indianised dishes. One of the starters worth mentioning is the spicy hummus starter. Amongst the choice of main course dishes, I would recommend the Fish in Lemon butter sauce. The portions are pretty big and it requires a good appetite to finish off a main course on your own.

Spiga is a bit expensive for the food it serves and a meal for two without drinks would make you poorer by around Rs1000. But, if you are going out for a romantic dinner and want good food along with it, Spiga is one of the best places to go.

Spiga

9, Halycon, 4th Floor

St.Marks Road
Bengaluru

Phone: 080 42110469

Annachi: My first Chettinad Experience

Annachi is a restaurant dedicated to chettinad cuisine located on the 100 feet road, Koramangala. Annachi is completely devoted to chettinad cuisine and this is reflected in their decor and as well as in the ambiance. The decor is tastefully done up with built-in courtyard seats and with traditional south cotton saris decorating the wall.

Chettinad (as I found out later is a region of the Sivaganga district of southern Tamil Nadu and is famous for it's spicy cuisine. Even after living in Bangalore for almost four years now, I had never tasted the famed Chettinad cuisine. So, I googled for a good place to enjoy Chettinad food near my home and came up with "Annachi".

Feeling adventurous I drove to the place and ordered Chettinad Meen Varuthathu (Seer fish fry), Eratchi Chops (Mutton gravy) and Annachi special Parota. Going through the menu while waiting for my order to come, I suddenly felt adventurous and ordered Moolai Melagu Varuval (Brain pepper fry) and a local drink (I forgot the name). The Fish fry was brilliant and the brain fry was well cooked, but according to me the brain is not the tastiest part of the goat. The combination of the mutton gravy with the parota was heavenly and should not be missed at any cost.

On the whole, my first tryst with Chettinad cuisine was totally worth the three and a half year wait and I am eagerly waiting for the huge list of undiscovered delicacies that this cuisine has for me in the near future.

Annachi is a tastefully decorated restaurant and is decently priced, where a dinner for two would cost you around Rs.600 (without drinks).

Annachi:

54, MSK Plaza

100 Ft. Road, Above Coffee Day

Indiranagar, Bangalore

Phone: 41261181, 41261182, 41272197

Fujiyama, A raw fishy affair

Fujiyama is a posh looking restaurant situated at 4th Block, Koramangala. It is one of the worst marketed restaurants of Bangalore. You might drive past the place dozens of times without even noticing the restaurant. The place is well decorated with it's wooden flooring and looks like what Titanic's dining room might have looked like.

I have been to this place twice, the first time was disappointing as no sushi was available. The second time however we got all the sushi we wanted. I ordered red snapper sushi for starters and crispy pork as the main course, I found both to be very tasty. We also ordered buck wheat noodle soup and that was delicious too. I would highly recommend this place for food-lovers wanting to indulge on japanese food.

Fujiyama is a bit expensive, and a dinner for two will leave you dearer by around Rs.1200.

Fujiyama

#423, 8th Main

4th Block, Koramangala

Bangalore-560034

Landmark: Ooty Chocolates


Phone: 9972572310

Cafe Leopold

Leopold Cafe has been on my places to visit list ever since I read "Shantaram". It has probably become more famous nowadays because of the Terrorist attack, but from the locals I found that it has always been a popular place. But, now tourists who don't like Cafes and Continental food visit the place too. Leopold Cafe is a restaurant cum bar located in Colaba market in the heart of the Posh South Mumbai. It is located behind Taj hotel and is an easy place to miss, unless you know where it is. The best way to locate it is to stop wherever you find a hungry looking crowd waiting on the footpath and look around you.

The Ground floor is almost too crowded to sit, but somehow the waiters manage to reach your table with the dishes and drinks you order. First Floor is probably a better place to sit (and a bit more expensive too). Though it is still crowded with you almost sitting on the

lap of someone on the next table (If they happen to be pretty young things you should probably tip the waiter well). The Cafe has a nice

Old Authentic ambience and when I was having my dinner nice Classic Rock and Oldies were being played in the background. The volume of the

Music is not as loud as of the New-age pubs and you can probably manage to have a chat while enjoying the food, drinks and music. The best thing about Leopold Cafe is that you would find people of all ages and races enjoying themselves, there was a group of fifty year olds guzzling

Beer on my right and a pretty young lady sipping cocktails on my left.

Now coming to the most important thing, the food and drinks. I found the cocktails to be well made and the Pasta perfectly cooked and seasoned. We had ordered one white sauce based pasta and one with Red wines sauce, the white sauce based pasta was really tasty. We had also ordered a Beef Steak, but I wouldn't recommend it.

The quantity of the dishes is adequate and the cocktails we had were also well mixed. I would highly recommend this place to anyone visiting Mumbai and love eating at the Old places which have managed to retain their character over the years.

Average Cost for a meal for two (with drinks) : Rs. 1000

Advance booking: Not entertained

Cafe Leopold

Colaba Causeway, Bhagat Singh Road

Next To Regal Cinema

Colaba, Mumbai