Eating Out at One of the Old and Authentic Restaurants

Eating Out: Bangaliana, Koramangala, Bangalore

Saturday, May 09, 2009


Today being a working day in-lieu of the holiday given on polling day, the strength at office was very weak and by 11.00 a.m. everyone at work were tierd of coming to office on a Saturday. Me and my companion had decided that we will meet up for lunch and I had thought of few places which I wanted to try for sometime. We met up near office, reconciled the eating preference and made a phone call to locate this place called as 'Bangaliana'which serves authentic bengali cuisine as my companion wanted to eat fish. Landed at the restaurant and the place is small with approximately about 8 tables and most of their patrons were either bengalis or from north eastern India. We sat down at a table and in 2 mintues we got our plate meals with rice and two gravys, we then had to read the menu of the day from a white board on the wall and order for fish (Boal Fish) and Aloo Bhaja. The meal was good, the fish gravy was also good, but my companion did not like the fish flesh, may be it is not fresh. I was eager to place the order for desserts and so ordered for Misti Doi and Rasagulla, but of them were just average. I had had better rosagulla's and misti doi in the past. Finally settled the bill and left the restaurant. We both did not like the place and food much, we rate it just average and nothing lost if you haven't had a meal here.


Eating Out: Udupi Sri Krishna Bhavan and Sri Venkateswara Sweetmeat Stall, Balepet, Bangalore

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Another lazy Sunday, had plans to go to Manchinbele, got dropped as my companion had some work previous evening. My dad was hungry and wanted my inputs for breakfast, I asked him to be patient for 10 minutes and I quickly figured out this classic old time restaurant in Balepet and my dad become very energetic and happy to learn that we are going there for breakfast. We started at 9.15 a.m. and reached the place by 9.50 a.m. I was amazed at the large size of the dining hall and at this later hour for breakfast the place was crowded, luckily we got a table and settled down. The next 10 minutes were spent in absorbing the interiors of the place and noticing what other tables as to what they are ordering. When our waiter came to the table, we ordered for idli vada, in 5 minutes we got our food and the sambar was tooo good and so were the idli and vada, next we orderdered for masala dosa, the arrival of dosa was a delightful sight, as the waiter managed to carry eight masala dosa in one hand and other one was carrying chutney in a tray. The dosa was tasting good, i would prefer the same dosa with 200% less oil I did not enjoy the dosa, but dad was happy eating the crisp outside, soft inside dosa. We saw others eating a yellowish looking thing from small glasses with spoon, dad enquired with the waiter he mentioned that it it savige kheer and we asked him to get two for us. The savige thing was just average, my mom makes it better. So we finally asked for the bill and settled it at
Idli vada @ 24 rupees per plate
Masala Dosa @ 25 rupees per plate
Sevige Kheer @ 12 rupees per cup

What I liked about the Udupi Sri Krishna Bhavan is that its been serving the same menu since 1926 from the same place and I can make out that many of their patrons have been having few breakfasts in a week for the last couple of decades, their set up is simple, very old ceiling fans, black granite table, wooden chairs and the locality is a wholesale business area.

We stepped out of the restaurant and in less than a minutes drive, dad spotted the most famous "Sri Venkateswara Sweetmeat Stall" and we stopped there to pick up the world famous Mysore Pak. I fondly remember the taste of this sweet, as I have been eating this from an young age onwards and it was more of a routine that whenever dad visited Balepet, Bangalore for business he will carry this sweet for home. The shop was small and bustling with a lot of activity, everyone was buy Mysore Pak for sure along with other sweets and mixture items. I ordered for 250 grams of mysore pak and 250 grams of Dumroat, As we left the shop me and dad took sample pieces of Mysore Pak and ate them, it was tasting heavenly after a filling breakfast. Sri Venkateswara Sweetmeat Stall, Balepet, Bangalore is been in business since 1950's and they sell on an average about 50 kilos of mysore pak a day and it seems they have celebrity clientele.

I learned about this wildly famous eateries from Banglore's Times of India Sunday column 'Whats Cooking' and thankful to dad who knew the locality and how to reach there from my residence. We reached home by 11.15 a.m. and I noticed that the place was 15 kilometers away from my residence and the first thing I did after reaching home was to eat few pieces of Mysore Pak and Dumroat and browsed the internet for a while, before I slept off around noon.