Decent roadside food or snacks???

If you are looking for a quick eat,and are not choosy about the venue, try eating off the street. It isnt as unhygenic as you would imagine, so you dont need a cast iron stomach to try this

• Shankar Bhel on Wheeler road: Good Bhel puri as the name suggests. INR 15 per plate, they serve in your car, or you can eat at the counter. Open from 6ish in the evening till 11PM.


• The American corn vendor in Jayanagar: Take a right Near Devi International (3rd Block) and go down. Opposite an HDFC Bank branch. You will find this vendor below a tree, after 7PM. He serves American corn with variety: Mango corn, Pineapple corn, Baby corn chat etc... A corn lovers paradise.


• The Gol gappa guy outside MK Retail, CMH Road: Excellent pani puri or gol gappa as they are called here. His Churmur is equally good. Weekend evenings are crowded, albeit he is there all evenings through the week. INR 15 for a plate doesnt make this a hard buy


• The Idli/ Dosa pushcarts in Ibrahim Sahib Street (Parallel to comm Street): After an evening shopping, go to the street parallel to Comm Street and round off your day with steaming Idlis and dosas from the two roadside vendors who setup shop outside Saravana Bhavan (Not the original of course). This place is crowded - weekday or weekend, which is expectable given the quality of eats and the budget price.


• Finally, a place we visited today: VV Puram's Eat Street. Approach it from Lalbagh west gate. Ask any auto fellow for Sajjan Rao Circle or VB Bakery. I had read and heard about this place for years. Today, finally visited it, and yes it is worth every bit of energy spent in getting there. Street filled with food vendors- all vegetarian!!! We loved the food. Recommend the Capsicum Bajji , i havent heard of this, nor did i expect to like it so much! Also try the Pheni and Gulkhand (available in 2 different stores). This quirky street has a joint called "Subramanyaa Chaineese" right at the beginning. And also has at least four American corn push cart vendors vending their wares towards the end.

So the summary:
Dent to the pocket - 20 bucks for a plate of anything anywhere...
Service- Can never complain about it in these places - self service mostly...
Tipping - Duh - not required...

Mexican Food in Bangalore???

Once upon a time there used to be a joint called Latinos on Lady Curzon Road. Served good mexican food. They ceased to exist quite some time ago. Then i discovered that Little italy has a decent Mexican menu. But that was discovered years ago, so obviously this post isnt prompted by that restaurant, though we will cover it as well. What prompted this post was our visit to a newly opened "Chili's" restaurant in Bangalore.


The husband was kicked to hear that Chili's had opened shop in Bangalore. Apparently they are a US chain. The outlet in Bangalore is on HAL Airport Road, right next to the ex-Kemp Fort (Now a Total Mall), and above a Papa John Pizza outlet (yet another import from the USA) . There is no seperate website for the Indian outlet yet.

The ambience is good. Decent service thus far. Valet parking is a boon, given the location! Seating is comfortable, and they also have "Chili's to go" which is their takeaway counter.

The bar specializes in Margheritas. It manages to retain a family restaurant look and feel, in spite of a very prominent bar occupying quite a bit of the floor space. We landed there at 730 on a sunday evening and we saw only one other occupied table. We were told Happy hours were still on, so took advantage!
The food... Well their starters are great. Their burger collection is good. I have my personal dislike towards the Indianizing of the food - They have an entire section of Paneer based dishes, which puts me off. And they do not serve enchiladas. Their Burritos and Fajitas look decent though.

So the summary:

Dent to the pocket - Veg Meal for 2 - range of 1200/- to 1500/- Quite steep i reckon
Service- So far so good. I think on busy evenings, you would be better off with reservations
Tipping - Avoid. They levy a 12% service charge on the bill. Steeper than most places.

The other place in Bengaluru which serves decent Mexican food is Little Italy. Ive only been to the one on 100ft road, Indiranagar, so cannot comment for the other newly opened one in Koramangala. The selection of food here is not large (For Mexican) as it is (obviously) an Italian restaurant. Their Nachos are pretty good, as are their enchiladas. Especially the corn ones! The ambience is superb. And service is surprisingly quick. They also deliver within a certain limit, so if you crave mexican and you live in the vicinity, feel free to call.

Dent to the pocket - Veg Meal for 2 - range of 800 -1300/-
Service- Excellent. Reserve tables during the weekend.
Tipping - Havent noticed a service charge, so tip as usual.

A quick weekend getaway

Try the Bannerghatta Zoo. If you have time to kill and dont have the mindset to be cynical i.e. Why the zoo? Well.

• For one, its presumably within a 25 km radius of the furthest part of Bangalore city (not counting the new airport
• It has a lion/ tiger safari... complete with buses
• There is a butterfly park
• Jungle lodges has a property there
• They have elephant rides

Now, the true considerations...

• 25km or not, Bannerghatta road at 130PM on a saturday afternoon is not a great drive budget at least 1.5 hours
• There are buses. There are lions, tigers - even the white ones. But the catch is that it aint no safari, not actually. The poor creatures (looking underfed) have been let into a seperate area, and the bus driver knows exactly where they are roaming about. Not a single other animal is in sight
• I like the butterfly park, or did so a year ago
• Have no clue about Jungle lodges there
• Elephant rides are there. But we got distracted by the visible wounds on the baby elephants feet which made it shift weight from one foot to the other consistently.

There are snakes a plenty, a lone leopard, one healthy zebra, A whole host of tortoises, A good smattering of peacocks, and best of all cute hippos. The conditions arent ideal, and one may feel that the animals are being neglected. But despite that you may catch a shot or two like we did, which will make the trip worthwhile...

So here goes our shots

The malnourished lions
If you dont feed me, ill start acting like a dog. See, i can scratch my ear with my hind leg already...





Philosophy in a zoo cage...


The king of the jungle i may not be, but im the master of all that i survey







Who said Hippos cant pose, saala?
I can stand on my own two feet and get your attention.




Noone cares about my boo-boo
I can shift my feet as many times as i want, but does anyone really care about my hurt right foot at the back?

What a tangled mess

We give the phrase "not knowing where to begin" a whole new meaning. By the way, how many of Us are there, you reckon?

Fighting tiger, hidden cameras
The beginning of another epic tale. May even win an oscar or two

The white tiger with a twist

Im bored of you trespassers and my friend here has decided to go veggie...