Review – Sunday Brunch @ Big Brewsky

Recently Hubby went for dinner to this new (to us) place called Big Brewsky with his colleagues. We are still in the process of exploring eateries in our new vicinity, and this seemed like a good opportunity. Online reviews spoke highly of their Sunday Brunch, we planned to visit soon. Today is also my SIL’s birthday, so we decided to celebrate it for her! 😉 😉

On the outset, I must mention that it’s a great idea to make reservation for this place. We made it for 1pm, and walked a few minutes past 1. Within the next 30 minutes, the place was almost full! Reservation also meant that we got a seat at the poolside which was a great location…

The Sunday Brunch is essentially a buffet. But to say it as such doesn’t do it justice. Once we were seated, we were handed the food and drinks menus. We opted for the buffet and asked for a mocktail and a coke, and then headed to the buffet.

First off, we had the focaccia and assorted herb breads with butter, along with a nice salad. Here you have the option of getting the chef to make it for you with dressings, but we opted to just have it mixed up and plain. The spiced pears were definitely delicious…

On the sushi side, they had a couple of options for vegetarians which was great. One was a Californian maki and the other was avocado maki. I’d never tasted this cuisine before, so it was interesting, but I won’t comment more since I don’t have a frame of reference. There was also a chat counter where they served huge kulhads of chaas/spiced buttermilk. For an instant we regretted ordering the coke and mocktail..

In the next round, we took some Thai vegetables that were a disappointment flavour-wise. But i was able to dip them in the XO sauce that i got with the veg dim-sums. Which, by the way, were yumm!  We also stopped over at the pani-puri counter. The puris were huge compared to the commercial variety, and it was just perfect. However, I couldn’t have more than a few since it was so filling. We also had the makki-di-roti and paratha with the curry at the buffet (I forget the name), and later with the Dal Amritsari. We also had a bit more of the focaccia…

Hubby also managed to snag us a piece each of the woodfire veg pizza. They were getting over almost as soon as they were pulled out of the oven, so I was really happy to get a taste!

When it came to rice, there was only steamed rice available. We wanted something different, so we checked with the manager around. His question was simple: what is it you want, pulao or biryani? We said either was ok. He called a chef and asked him to whip up some biryani. 5 minutes later, hot steaming dum biryani was ready! It felt great that we were served the biryani (which was not on the buffet menu) and it tasted amazing!

Finally we were ready for dessert. The dessert counter had imarti which was freshly being prepared, semiya payasam, waffles served with maple and chocolate syrup and nuts and chocolate fudge with a chocolate fountain, and fresh fruits. In another area you also had gulab jamuns and peda (neither of which we tried) Of the things we did try, the imarti and the waffles were a let down. Neither had flavour and was pretty flat tasting. I enjoyed the chocolate syrup-covered fudge pieces the most…

What we did not try were the pav bhaji, chole-bature and grill sections. But hey, there has to be a reason for next time right! 😉

 

Review – Gokul Kuteera, Indiranagar, Bangalore

We’ve been trying to explore a few vegetarian restaurants around home. Some have been ok, and some not so great. So this weekend we decided to go a little further and check a restaurant that had great reviews.

This brought us to Gokul Kuteera, Indiranagar which had pretty nice reviews online, and the menu online was also pretty tempting.

We reached around 2pm and with a pretty good appetite. Parking was a bit of an issue and there is no dedicated space. We found space for the bike in the footpath/parking space of a previous building. But most people would need to pass the restaurant and park in the lane on the left.

The main entrance of the restaurant

Ambiance-wise, the restaurant is pretty ordinary. There was a small air-conditioned room inside the main restaurant, which was where we were seated. The place was pretty crowded.

For starters, we opted for the vegetable sheekh kabab and spicy sweet corn manchow soup. The soup was pretty loaded with pepper and was quite thick. In fact, with the amount of vegetables and noodles it had, it was more of a spicy stew. Though I must accept, it was very satisfying. The sheekh kababs were the perfect match for the soup. It was light and tasty and the chutney served with kababs was a delight!

Spicy sweet corn manchow soup and veg sheekh kababs

The main course was 2 butter rotis each with green peas masala and veg ginger masala. The servings of the curries was pretty large, and we felt that we could have ordered just 1 curry and it would have been enough. Both the curries were pretty mild and tasty.

Butter rotis with green peas masala and veg ginger masala

For dessert, we opted for the hot chocolate fudge with vanilla and butterscotch each. And it was YUMM! Both the desserts were topped with a whole lot of cashew nuts, which was a surprise given the pricing. The ice cream itself was of good quality, as was the chocolate sauce. The serving size was great, making this the ideal end for a great lunch.

Hot chocolate fudge with butterscotch and vanilla ice cream

Close-up of the cashews 😉

Murugan Idli Shop – Chennai

This is a very nice vegetarian restaurant at T. Nagar in Chennai. The reason we visited this place was that it was primarily close to place we were staying. But the piping hot and tasty food ensured we returned to it as long as we stayed in Chennai!

Murugan Idli Shop

Murugan Idli Shop is a chain from Madurai, and has opened quite a few restaurants in Chennai, at least 5 of which are in the T. Nagar area. We visited the one at South Usman Road in T. Nagar.

The first time we visited here, we ordered for a plate of idli and masala dosa. The food here is served on fresh banana leaves, South-style! The water glasses too are mainly disposable ones, but they are placed in small steel glasses to facilitate holding the glass. To prevent people from serving/drinking water from the steel ones, they are made with holes as the glass design. 🙂 Pretty unique, and definitely nice! Further, there are no bowls provided for serving sambhar. So if that’s what you want served, you can rest assured it will mix up with the rest of the food on the leaf…

While waiting for our snacks to be served we were approached by a waiter who was serving hot aratikaya (plantain) bajjis. A plate consists of 2 bajjis, so we opted for 1 plate, where Hubby and I  had one each. By the time our tiffins came, we were still trying to cool the steaming hot bajjis! 🙂

The hot bajji with idli-vada.. served on a fresh banana leaf.

The next morning we had a heavy breakfast of steaming hot idlis, pongal & vada and a hot onion uttappam, followed with a cup of strong coffee. It certainly did wake us up! 🙂

Pongal served with vada, various chutneys and sambhar

Lunch was a not-so-great affair though. There were a number of dishes served, but most of them contained garlic, which was quite a turn off for us. The lunch hall is located on the first floor, and one needs to pay for a lunch coupon at the door before taking a seat.

There is also a stall for “Jigarthanda” at the outside entrance. I’m not really sure what it is, but it looked like an ice-cream-topped milkshake. But I couldn’t get around to trying it though… 😦

In all, Murugan Idli shop is a nice place for a quick and tasty meal. The prices are reasonable, and it is definitely great value for money.