Sattvam - A Vegetarian Delight

Sattvam is new and a distinctive restaurant, offering more than 75 varieties of sattvic food dishes including soups, shorbas, starters, salads, breads, rice, main courses with accompaniments and desserts in Indian and adapted world cuisines which is turning out to be a great food exploration among Bangalore vegetarians. The restaurant has both buffet and ala-carte but one way or another I found it puzzling to understand the ala-carte part of Sattvam because I could only interpret the place as buffet dedicated.

Sattvam is situated in Sadashivnagar off New airport road, Could not locate Sattvam identified as restaurant but its located just above Godrej Nature’s basket,

The interiors of the place are quite elegant, the seating area and cutlery adds to the fascination. The place offers an imperial experience that most mid-range restaurants these days fail to comprehend. They spend excessively but miss the mark to craft the mysticism.

Now let’s come to the food, as soon as you are settled; the soup and the starters are served on the table and as soon as you taste them; you know that this is going to be a fun ride,

The buffet spread is not ‘The longest Vegetarian Buffet’ or ‘The Biggest Buffet’ as others claim but it has limited dishes that do not compromise with the quality at all. I have been to many buffet places but always found quality a concern somewhere or the other, even in Barbecue Nation. Customer is offered 200 dishes but only 10 would make sense to taste buds. With Sattvam the dishes are right on money and everything is made with perfection.

The virtuous thing that Sattvam has done is that they have kept small cups that provide only a small serving at a time of anything and hence reducing the likelihood of any food wastage.

And last of all, the variety in dessert course is superior with refinement, pastries and cakes were very fresh. They were even considerate enough to offer Sugar Free Carrot Halwa with a very right extent of sweetness that my in-laws who are diabetic thoroughly relished.

Sattvam has reasonably decent seating capacity of about 140 people. But even with such large volume; the number of servers positioned is laudable. When we were there; it was a house full and for not even a second it felt that the place was mobbed or clogged or the service went from good to bad to worse. The service could well be comparable with that of Barbecue Nation (I am yet to see a restaurant matching service level of Barbecue Nation) but it was obvious that the man at work were under pressure. There were couple of instances where two different attendants dropped and broke the serving dishes because they were under tremendous stress to clean up hurriedly and were carrying back way to much cutlery then they can handle.

Last Thought:- Little Expensive for a vegetarian buffet but isn’t that bad knowing that Barbecue Nation is charging almost 800/- for vegetarian buffet !!

Here is my report card for Sattvam,

Price – 7/10

Taste – 8/10

Service – 8/10

Ambience – 8/10

Value for money – 7/10

Will I go back – Sure why not

Unlimited Pizza @ US Pizza–Last nail in the coffin

 

So here is the deal, how many of us know if there is another chain of pizzas that exists with the name US Pizza, I assume very less. In the times of Pizza Hut, Dominos and Pizza corner; US Pizza is trying hard to make its name known but getting nowhere. US Pizza outlets are located all around Bangalore, 13 of them apparently !! The one that I visited was located at 9th Block Jayanagar.

I personally love Dominos but what caught my eye was this enticing offer from US Pizza,

So I and my wife went for a brunch on Sunday to try out our luck with the Vegetarian offer. I read one review that said the service wasn’t great but food was good; experienced by a group of 4-5 bachelor guys. Still expectations were not high and we ordered 2 vegetarian unlimited pizza meals.

First Course was Salads, they have a complete salad bar with almost 10-15 different type of salads, dressings and fruits,

We tried almost all the salads in small bites and all of them were phenomenal for the price we were about to pay. And that led to a promising prospect to look forward to have something even better.

Then came the Soup, which tasted like salted tomato ketchup, it definitely wasn’t freshly made; to me it would have been perfect base for the Paneer butter masala gravy.

Next was the Garlic bread and Pizza,

So here is where all the beans were spilt, The garlic bread was good but the Pizzas were not so much. The problem was the crust and the issue was either of the following,

1. Either the Pizza base was old and hence was chewy, hard and dry, Or

2. They make a large size Pizza and serve a slice to everyone who opted for unlimited Pizza meal; they just heat up the leftover slices from previous batch made few minutes ago and serve again later.

So how much ever hungry you might be but will not enjoy more then 2-3 slices and might switch to Salads and Garlic breads.

Then arrived the last course, Brownie with Ice-cream, which was good for the money we paid,

First of all US Pizza is in no competition to Pizza Hut, Dominos and Pizza Corner but they are trying hard to get people with these kind of great deals BUT until and unless you do not provide and equivalent or superior quality; no one will return !!! The only thing I can think of is their targeted customers are college students and bachelors for whom quality is secondary !!

Here is my report card for US Pizza (Vegetarian Unlimited Pizza Meal),

Price – 9/10

Taste – 6/10

Service – 8/10

Ambience – 7/10

Value for money – 6.5/10

Will I go back – I don’t think so

Aroy – A Thai Delight

What is the dissimilarity between Thai and Chinese food ? In India; nothing. But yet there is a new place that does complete honesty to the food when its Thai. I am talking about Aroy, located in JP nagar above Crosswords,

Aroy serves both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food but strictly Thai in nature. They also have few dishes that are of Burmese origin.

Above Menu Pics Courtesy Zomoto – Visit this link for complete Menu http://www.zomato.com/bangalore/aroy-jp-nagar/menu#tabtop

Aroy is a rooftop restaurant where you can sit in an enclosed zone or in open-air. The only difference between inside and outside is mostly a glass wall. I have been here 2 times on a cloudy twilight and I must say that the ambience is just exquisite. The fixtures, the spotlights and the entire arrangement of fine dining excellence.

The only problem that I find with open air restaurants is that the food goes cold in no time but every time I have been to Aroy; I was ready to trade that with the charisma of outdoor cosmos.

The food served here is Thai which means lots of coconut based gravies. When I was here the last time; I and my wife were starving and jumped straight on main course, we ordered Ong Noh Khaw Swte (Burmese specialty which is Steamed noodles, Crispy noodles with curried broth served with selection of numerous add-ons), Coconut Rice, Green Curry.

Now it was only 2 of us who are moderate eaters; who ordered three dishes. I did not appreciate 2 things,

1. All three dishes were presented to us at the same time instead we should have been asked which dish we want to have first. But still staff understood the situation and took back the Green Curry and Coconut rice.

2. The portions are relatively generous here and one dish alone was adequate for 2 of us and yet the waiter did not recommend us to go for one dish and order later if required. So eventually we ended up with take-away for rest of the 2 dishes we ordered which could have been circumvented.

Where we could have certainly had dinner inside 350/-; we spent 1100/- and ate that fine dining restaurant dishes at home the next 2 days for breakfast. I did not realize it last time because we were 3 with pretty much the same order.

Overall I am not disappointed with the restaurant because the food is delightful and have lots of finesse in it. The team of cooks here unquestionably know how to make Thai food, of course indianised version of it. Prices are not too extraordinary for the class food is offered.

My Report Card for Aroy based on my 2 visits,

Price – 7/10

Taste – 9.5/10

Service – 7/10

Ambience – 8/10

Value for money – 8/10

Will I go back – Hell Ya

The Great Indian Thali

The Great Indian Thali is a pure vegetarian buffet restaurant on a similar concept as Rajdhani.

 

Similar to Rajdhani, here also you will be served everything to you on the table,

But not only that is comparable but the whole food experience is analogous too. The service is quick and the place is sparkling fresh. The restaurant is elegant and ambience is great. You get a fine dining experience which you might not find in Rajdhani.

Now let’s talk about the diverse aspects of the hero, the food.

The food here is good, it’s delicious but at the same time is very rich in nature. In Rajdhani the food is not that greasy and you can relish it for a longer period of time but at “The Great Indian Thali” food had lots of fat in terms of butter, Ghee and Oil which might not allow you to take pleasure from it for long. All the side dishes had heavy butter and cream, dals had a quite good coating of cream, something that gives it an edge on taste over Rajdhani. The bottom line is that within 1-2 Parathas or Phulkas or Bhaturas; you will feel that you have eaten so much that now nothing can go in anymore. Taste wise no doubt; I would say that it maybe is marginally ahead of Rajdhani but at the same time you do not get all that huge range of variety in here as you get in Rajdhani.

Another problem that I found was, as soon as I entered here I saw chat stalls and all of us were quite excited. Without noticing much we ordered for thali but then we came to know that the main Thali on which the restaurant’s name is based does not include chats!!! What a waste!! The menu does not make any sense at all if you are not taking their good old thali.

above pics, courtesy Zomoto

It’s a great place for people who do not eat rich north Indian food on a regular basis like my in-laws, they just loved the food here but I and my wife were not very impressed.

My Report Card for The Great Indian Thali based on my only visit,

Price – 6/10

Taste – 8/10

Service – 8/10

Ambience – 8/10

Value for money – 7/10

Will I go back – Not Sure.

Ek Khandani Parampara

 

5 kind of side dishes, 2 types of sweets, 2 varieties of rotis, 2-3 brands of starters and many additional things. A plate packed with Indian flavour and a place filled with authenticity and ethnicity, Where am i ??

I am in Rajdhani.

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Rajdhani is a pure vegetarian buffet restaurant which serves essentially ¾ Rajasthani and ¼ Gujrati food.

Rajdhani claims that they dish up to 32 items in one complete meal, sounds very fascinating right ? Well I have been to Rajdhani a couple of times and I can vouch for it that this is one place where food wins over man. You will be given so much to gobble that by the time you will conclude sampling those 32 items you will be far long gone into a sweet slumber.

The base location for Rajdhani is in UB city but you may find its branches in different malls like Forum, Mantri square, Bangalore central JP Nagar, and Infosys

The finest among all is UB City because of its neighbouring ambience in addition to the truth that the quality is much higher in UB city. At UB City, Rajdhani feast is around 325/- which is way more in contrast to its different minor outlets, around 115/- to 125/- (Mantri Mall and Bangalore Central outlets are also bigger but I have no info on prices about them).

I will mainly talk about UB City here. The look and feel of Rajdhani is pretty average and it’s very congested with a very small seating capacity which makes this place not so easy to get. There is no concept of advanced booking which I like, equal opportunity to everyone. This also results in lengthy queues and an excellent business to the adjoining restaurants. If you wanna grab food here then you better be here before they open.

This buffet is served on your table, even your hand wash …..

A well traditionally dressed up server greets you by putting Tikka to you.

All servers are from Rajasthan (As far as I have seen) and they serve with lots of love and affection. They sometimes will come to you and will keep extra serving in your plate even if you say no; they will say “Aray sir aap to kuch kha hi nahi rahey hai, ye extra lijiye chota sa hai” (You are not eating at all, please eat this extra, it’s a very small portion). They will keep coming and asking about what you want. When you tell them what you need then you will see a very innovative and a very unique style of calling the precise item. 

They hand signal (Do you spot it ?), everything has its specific gesture, no one shouts and calls for the certain item therefore you can anticipate ample peace while you eat.

I love the food here and a rocking place for vegetarians,

P.S – They have different prices for weekends and weekdays.

My score card for Rajdhani UB City, Bangalore

Price – 5/10

Taste – 9/10

Service – 10/10

Ambience – 8/10 (UB City)

Value for money – 8/10

Will I go back – Ooooohhh yaa