Showing posts with label south indian food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label south indian food. Show all posts

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Currying favour at 360°, Vikhroli with South Indian FPSM

Fixed price set menu of Rs.99! (Check earlier reviews for details of the location, ambience, details, etc.)

Overall rating: 3/5 stars Good!
Value for money: Rs. 200 for Rs.99!
Nice experience of a south Indian lunch at a very affordable price in a good setting.

Lentil Soup -- Good
This was a very good dal soup. Quite thickish. Made of tuar dal mainly.

Banana Tadka Salad -- Good
This is what I mean by creative. Ever imagine making a salad with ripe bananas? Well, slice the bananas into roundels and pour a tadka over it. You can make the tadka with a bit of oil, thinnish tamrind paste, salt, chat masala and lots of curry leaves. Recipe is my invention. I liked it.

Lemon Rice -- Good
Mostly I have had lemon rice with regular fluffy fat grains of rice and not dainty basamati. The rice was nice and fluffy. Could have done with a bit more lemon and more masala.

Sambhar -- Good
This was a fairly decent sambhar with drumsticks and squash/pumpkin. Sort of felt that it could have done with more tomatoes and more tamrind.

Vegetable Porial -- Excellent
This porial was somewhat like a veg kurma and a veg jalfrezie. It really did not have a very south Indian touch. But it was very tasty with its tang and sweetness. Beans, carrots, and other vegetables but in slivers. Bit oily for my comfort.

Payasam -- Good
This was a rather thinnish payasam with moong (?) dal, milk and sugar.

Overall -- Good
Really nice set meal. For Rs.99, it is a steal.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Again -- KOMALA'S -- South Indian Fast Food

Food 2.5
Ambience 3.0
Service 3.0

I was phoenixing today! Phoenix Mill is the happening place (they have a nice slogan -- will note it down and share with you next time). PVR there is also pretty good!

I remembered the decent coffee at KOMALA'S and went there. The place looked much brighter and more cheerful! Yes, having 6 seater benches is rather like an industrial canteen -- but it was OK. They have a decent Gents/Ladies. I like their quaint wash basins -- a big round basin with a circular hole all around for the water to seep in and a big tablet in the middle.

This time the coffee was served right with a 1 cm gap at the top! Surprise, surprise -- the coffee was not too thick and just right. Today, it seemed more dark brown and rather black. Earlier, it had the hue almost matching that of tea (which I liked)! The taste today was again slightly different. It was pretty good! Not by Bangalore or South Indian standards -- but for a fast food joint, it was good.

Onion Uttapam -- This was served on a large tray with half a banana leaf, with a bowl and a small chutney container with two parts (red and white chutney). The onion uttapa looked really good. It was golden in colour with shiny bits of onions peeping out every where. There were plenty of fairly largish onion pieces (almost half inch) -- unlike other joints were they skimp on onions. It is one of the thickest uttapas that I have had, but the size was regular, say the size of a six-inch plate!

The consistency was good and it tasted well too. The sambar which was full of broad beans (a surprise inclusion for me, never had it anywhere)was average -- nothing to complain about! Chutneys again were average -- as I mentioned, in such places, I expect it to be a notch better.

A major grouse with fast food joints is the plastic spoon. Imagine I was given one reasonably firm one. Can you tear a masala dosa with it? I have my doubts. There are issues of washing and more than that stealing! I have been meaning to carry my own spoons -- but with all security checks, I would have a tough time!

Uttapa is now synonymous with sixes! While the uttapa itself was a lovely six, the sambhar -- 3 runs, the chutneys, 1 run each! The coffee today (3 runs), last time (4 - chouka!)

Going by the last 2 matches, I think we should appreciate how difficult it is to get 4's and 6's!