Restaurant Review - Cheers Coorg, 80 Feet Road, Indiranagar

I can go on speaking, oops writing, about this lazy Sunday afternoon, made lazier by our brunch (more lunch than breakfast) at Cheers Coorg. We were a group of six purely non-vegetarian starved folks and Coorgi cuisine seemed to be a good option. This place is a house turned into a restaurant on 80 Ft Road, Indiranagar and has a very warm and homely feel about it. A cozy ambiance is created by a lot of plants and pebbles on the outside and warm lighting and walls adorned by local pictures of various sizes inside. The eye-catching table mats are also to look out for which talks about Coorgi cuisine and culture.

Coming to the food, the hungry lot that we were, we dug into the menu card and ordered any and every starter that sounded interesting. And fortunately or unfortunately, it was difficult to stop! We ordered Kallu Pandi (Pandi means pork), Chilkana Pandi, Mutton Cutlets, Khaima Unde and Prawns Rave Fry.

Service was fast, staff was good and food was just out of the world! We were not able to decide whether to try out more dishes or to have a repeat of some that we already tried and again which ones to repeat. We were spoilt for choices! We particularly liked mutton cutlets, Khaima Unde and the pork belly dish. We ordered all the dishes multiple times except Prawns Rave Fry (it wasn't bad, but in comparison to the other tastier option, it did not stand a chance!). All the dishes were spicy to the right extent. Quantity might turn out to be a little less but there is a lot of meat in all of them.

We had decided to stick to starters only, but finally ordered just one main course, Pandi Curry with Akki Otti (rice bread). We had expected that the main course might not be as sumptuous as the starters but we were proved wrong. And again we could not stop ourselves at one helping! We were planning to make a sweet ending to our long lunch (we started before 2 p.m. and were done only by 4 p.m.!) with their dessert of the day, Caramel Custard, but it was already over by then.

The total bill came up to Rs. 8200 (out of which the food bill was around Rs. 5500) but we had ordered beer, whiskey and some cocktails as well. We also got a whooping 15% discount (on Citibank Credit Card) on the food bill. We left the place with a happy heart, a completely satisfied tummy and with the desire to be back soon.

Ambiance - 9/10

Service - 9/10

Food - 9/10

Overall rating - 9/10

Restaurant Review - News Cafe, 100 ft Road

Yesterday evening I was strolling on 100 Feet Road Indiranagar with my husband trying to find a good (and preferably new) place to satisfy our gastronomic cravings. We suddenly saw this place called News Cafe which we had come across several times before but had never thought of entering. On closer investigation we saw that it was a cocktail dining lounge and we decided to go for it.

News Cafe was on the third floor of a building next to Smoke House Deli. The lift door opened into an uber cool place and we were welcomed by a lady at the reception who took us to the table of our choice. There is an option for indoor seating, which is done up with cozy red leather couches and blue lights, as well as outdoor seating, with white cushioned cane sofas. Most of the tables in the open air part overlook 100 ft road below which gives a picture perfect view with all the lights at night.

The food menu was designed like a newspaper and the drinks menu had pictures of the different cocktails and drinks on each page. We started off with a stuffed mushroom starter and an Aam Pannatini, which was a raw mango flavoured Vodka-based cocktail. The Stuffed Mushroom was batter fried served with mayo sauce. 

For main course there were dishes from different parts of the world. We ordered a Chicken and Prawn Laksa and a Durban Bunny Chow. As informed by the steward earlier, the Chicken and Prawn Laksa was somewhat bland but had a slight pungent flavor. I liked it just because it was made of coconut milk. The dish had a lot of gravy in which the noodles, prawn and pieces of chicken seemed to be floating. The Durban Bunny Chow was presented in a very innovative manner with the breads forming four walls of a fort and the lamb curry imprisoned in it! But both the dishes tasted pretty average.

All the dishes were priced highly and our total bill came to Rs. 1700 for two without desserts and with just one cocktail! The quantity was not a lot and quality of food was quite average. The ambiance of this place is very classy but I think they should try to concentrate on improving the food taste and make it more value for money.

Ambience - 9/10

Staff - 8/10

Food quality - 6/10

VFM - 5/10

Overall - 7/10

Restaurant Review - Monkey Bar, Richmond Road

Monkey Bar, with it's highly interesting name and even higher hype created by Zomato and word-of-mouth of friends, had been on my to-be-visited list for some time. Finally we went there on a Sunday few weeks back and was kind of disappointed except for the food.

Monkey Bar is a tough-to-locate place, tucked in at a dark corner of Richmond Road with minimal lighting. The inside is warmly lit up though with an American pub feel and some nice music. But that's about it with the ambience! The place is small, over-crowded with long benches and tables to house the maximum number of people, and as a result gets cramped and claustrophobic. Needless to say,  when we reached there, the place was full and the steward informed us that we would have to wait for at least 30 minutes to get a table for four. However we soon got a table in the basement and we were shown the way through an almost unnoticeable, narrow, winding staircase.

Pic Courtesy www.thecityguide.in

Here there was a foosball and a billiards table and a lot of enthusiastic young people (what looked like college goers to us) playing. But this floor was even more crowded than the floor above and a table for two was conveniently used for seating four of us.


Coming to the food and drinks, there was good variety and options, but the prices were on the higher side. We ordered a couple of beers and cocktails for drinks. The Tiger Beef was a very tasty starter and we ordered it a second time. Tikki of Joy didn't disappoint us either. 

But the burgers just stole the show. It was a delight having them but four of us were not able to finish the two hamburgers and one chicken burger (Rooster Booster), that we ordered, because of the gigantic size!


Ambience - 5/10
Service - 5/10
Food - 7/10
VFM - 5/10
Overall rating - 5.5/10


P.S. - This place will be more enjoyable if you go with a big group of friends (provided they can make place for all !! :P).