South Indies - A Struggle beyond borders

South Indies is a pure vegetarian restaurant set in Indiranagar and Infantry road. It is a south Indian themed restaurant with more of a Kerala touch to it.

     
 

South Indies offers buffet with some delightful south Indian delicacies. But would that be appealing or not at south Indies Indiranagar? Now that’s a million dollar question.

It was a get-together hosted by a friend for about 15 folks. The host who was throwing the party did make the bookings in advance. But upon arrival we realized that the restaurant reserved the seats for 15 but space made available was just for 10, now how do we manage? That’s our headache. It was still ok since people were not on time with few of them running late. It looked like we will be able to house all with the space offered.

In past few years I have learnt one basic rule that you must arrive at a restaurant as soon as it’s open to get finest food and supreme service. And same goes with south Indies BY FAR. When I reached at around 12:30, we were just three. Being the first batch I expect tables and cutlery to be spotless but there was unclean cutlery all over the table. From stained glasses till forks having soap between prongs, I hope that was soap!!

The expedition started from welcome drink, all appetizers (3 of them) and a soup. And while waiting for others we consumed almost 3 plates worth of starters which waiters were dishing out to us in no time.

After almost 30 minutes the fun part kicked off, soon it was houseful and servers were running from here to there. More people arrived and more friends arrived. And soon there was no place to move around and that's when we realized how congested the place is. Looking at the servers it was clear that they were way too understaff. Our folks who arrived late did not get any welcome drink or soup and got just 2 out of 3 starters. They served Parathas/Dosas/Appams on the table but with this bad service people ended up eating rice. It took them ages to bring what people wanted to eat.

Now coming to the food, the food was not bad but wasn’t outstanding or what it should be for the price. South Indian food is famous for least amount of oil. Yet there were couple of dishes that were showcasing a good amount of greasy layer which was kind of a turn off. Desserts too weren’t exciting and Besan laddu were as good as they can injure someone if thrown at.

I did not like the place even when I did not have to pay for the food. And it’s interesting to note that the infantry road branch is quite good but I visited that long back so not sure what are the standards now. I think there were only couple of good things at South Indies,

1.    The welcome drink which we ordered again as goodbye drink
2.    The best part of south Indies is its valet parking.

 

My report card for South Indies Indiranagar is,

Price – 7/10

Taste – 6/10

Service – 4/10

Ambience – 6/10

Value for money – 5/10

Will I go back – I don’t think so

Guru Palace – A Dirty Affair

Guru Palace is situated on Bannerghetta road, near Meenakshi mall. It’s that kind of restaurant where all young guys come for food + alcohol. It’s not at all a great family restaurant but have a reputation of serving delicious food. I have been going to Guru Palace from last 2-3 years with a regularity of like once in 3 months. I go here because its nearest restaurant I have. The food is reasonable but they do not pay any consideration to the hygiene and sanitation. Which is why my last visit became my last visit ever to Guru Palace.

Me and my friend went to have a good north Indian food. We ordered couple of curries and chapatis.

1. He took forever to come and clean the table we were sitting on.

2. Then he took ages to get the menu card

3. After taking the order down, he took almost 30 minutes to get the food

While I was sitting there, a group of 6 guys got their order. As they began eating one of them realized that the chapatis that were served to them are stale. He asked waiter to replace them with the new ones. I started thinking what if that waiter now dish out those returned chapatis to someone else. What’s the way to know if food that’s being served to you is fresh ?

Well we were served food and as I was about to take a first bite into my Roti, I was shocked to see that my chapati was already eaten from one side !! I soon grasped that my nightmare is in front of which I was thinking few minutes back. It was clear that the waiter had served me the same chapati that the guy took a bite in and returned !! As a composed person I showed this to the waiter who was serving me. That guy coolly took that chapati and got me a new one in a minute WITHOUT EVEN SAYING SORRY TO ME.

We finished the non-tasty and expensive food in few moments. Over the period of time the quality of food in Guru Palace has sunk with rise in price of the food. We went to pay the bill and I asked for Manager. Now according to the waiter and cashier manager was just here and now missing; it was clear that they did not want me to talk to the manager. Then cashier asked me what’s the matter. I asked him, “If you serve a Roti to a customer. He takes a bite of it and returns it to you saying that its stale. Then what do you do with that Chapati ?”

“Sir we throw that away”, cashier said

“Sir it was served to me”, I replied in anger

To my astonishment he was not at all stunned to hear that !! Cashier asked the waiter who was serving us. Seeing me talking in Hindi; they both started talking in kannada. They did not know that I understood Kannada and this is what waiter told cashier,

“I asked cook to make new rotis but a group of guys returned lots of rotis, hence cook reheated the returned chapatis and gave it to me to serve. But later when this guy found out that it’s a stale chapati, I gave him fresh one straightaway”

Immediately cashier asked me, “Sir what’s the problem, we anyways gave you the fresh one right ?”

I could not believe that someone would be so cocky and arrogant to treat their customers not less than dogs. In this whole incident no one asked me sorry a single time. The cashier was not even bothered when I told him that just because of this incident I will not return to this place again. I have self-respect and hence I will not go this place again in my life. Please avoid this place.

My report card for Guru Palace not just based on my last visit,

Price – 3/10

Taste – 3/10

Service – 0/10

Ambience – 0/10

Value for money – 2/10

Will I go back – I will not even allow my dead body to be taken there

In the Pink

Being a foodie I love to discover lots of food joints and being a complete lazy I frequently look for healthy and organic nourishment too so that I can compensate the food with no exercise

While going through a magazine I came across an organic restaurant nearby my vicinity called ‘In the Pink’, ‘In the Pink’ means “Healthy”.

‘In the Pink’ is set on Bannerghetta road with an upright neighbourhood. When we entered inside we were greeted with the organic bazaar where you can shop anything and everything organic. Next to that is the decent looking diner area,

We were quite hungry and wished to experience the freshness of organic food but as soon as we were passed the menu card we were little saddened. The menu did not have any authentic south Indian dish or any meal options, in fact the menu card was nothing but a collection of few dirty A4 sheets clipped together with some cryptic marks and symbols emblazoned by pen. Undoubtedly it looked like that the owner was sitting on one of the table on a gloomy day when there was no business and decided to cut down the menu,

		Rest of the Menu VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We ordered few regulars like Tomato Dhaniya Shorba, Mushroom Chilly, Bajra Roti, Peas Masala, Jeera Rice and Butter milk. It was little odd to notice that waiter was inexperience and to some extent chaotic because of the way we were served. Because after soup and starters we had to go look for him to let him jot down the remaining order. To be noted that this was Wednesday; just beyond twilight and there were only 2 people in the restaurant the blogger and his wife, hence it cannot be that he was busy attending other tables.

Well Dhaniya Tomato Shorba was nothing but Garlic Rasam which was very strange because it’s said tomato soup and tasted more of garlic, though it was great in taste.

Soon after we were aided with Mushroom Chilly, looking at which we were completely disheartened because it was very greasy and certainly not healthy,

The taste was no exceptional but the freshness of capsicum in the dish was worthy enough without any idea if it in fact was fresh or not.

Upon 2 unsuccessful attempts I could succeed to discover the attendant to takedown our rest of the meal order which was served in no time.

The Bajra Roti was blameless but Peas masala wasn’t, Jeera Rice had its true smoky aroma with a bit of extra oil and at the end the buttermilk was truly dreadful, have never had vilest buttermilk then that.

In the end it was evident that the price tag on the food is not at all worthy or for anything for that matter.

There was another alarming statistic we detected that for the whole time of around 1 hr there was not even a solitary bird that lay its feet inside the restaurant and that pretty much tells the true story.

My report Card for ‘In the Pink’ is

Price – 4/10

Taste – 5/10

Service – 6/10

Ambience – 5/10

Value for money – 4/10

I can find better taste and quality of street food for 1/5th of the price charged

Will I go back – Not in my current life, I might in next birth.

There is nothing apparent organic about it and for sure nothing healthy about the food either

For me its ‘In the Pink Disaster’