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

The Beach

The Beach is the restaurant which is located in Indiranagar, Bangalore,

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I have heard a lot about The Beach but never got an opportunity to be there until yesterday when 2 of our friends decided to throw a party for 10 of us . They have actually put sand on the floor to provide a fell of a beach. The place is decent, if you get to sit on “Couch” but if you get small stools you may get annoyed after sometime because they are very uncomfortable. At lunch time we were given 2 selections, 499/- limitless Soft drinks/Mocktails/Beer and 699/- unlimited Vodka inclusive of everything in 499/- batch. With all this you will be supplied with infinite Vegan and non vegan starters . There is no Buffet but you can choose what you want and order, it will be served to you on your table.

Now if I go to a place where I am asked to shell out 500/- I look forward to get at least a decent food and an upright service which were absent constantly. We were not given any menu cards but the server made us aware about what all is offered. We were given choices of 4 vegetarian starters and 4 non vegetarian starters. The food quality was under standards in comparison to what was I being charged for. Also, it was very annoying that every time a starter gets over we have to order over again instead we getting served all the time.

When we were done with the starters and demanded for the main course, the attendant offered us a menu card, trust me if I tell you this that the menu card was nothing but ONE A4 sheet!! The menu had the starters which we ordered and also something which we were not told of. It looked like that they wanted to supply all non-expensive food and saved themselves a tiny fortune. Main course also did not have much of a selection, overall it was a below average experience food wise.

Since we were 10 of us we had a blast and we had loads of fun, mind you that we enjoyed because we were a group. I think we had around 15 rounds of beer and 9 Tequila shots (Which were billed separately) in total with limitless starters for which we were billed around 7,000 rupees which was way beyond what it was worth of.

Verdict:-

My opinion, please skip “The Beach”, it’s not at all worth for what it puts forward (For lunch time, I do have any idea if it’s the same in the late afternoon) until you are intense drinker and can make your money count by unlimited liquor. I would rather advise “Barbeque Nation”, just next to “The Beach”, where you will get AMAZING food and even if you drink as much as we did, you will not cross that 7k mark.