There are sometimes I wish I had my camera with me, but there are times when I am absolutely kicking myself for not taking an extra step and borrowing a cam for shooting food. Caperberry, tucked away inside Fava, inside UB city terrace, is one such place. Ranked the No. 1 restaurant in various ratings for a few years and taking a huge shot after Garry of Masterchef Australia fame visited, this has been on my wish list for quite sometime. Missing out on it in the last restaurant week when an affordable version is available, four of us landed on Sunday for lunch when we had nothing to do in Bangalore! A bill of Rs. 6500 for four did not leave us disappointed. If four people ordered four desserts without sharing, that is quite something!

So, we started off not so good, though. We saw two interesting soups and two of decided to split the Chicken, walnut with celery soup. This was the molecular gastronomy types, aka, minuscule portions of the solids with generous broth. The flavour did not make it, mainly because the chicken in a microscopic sausage form wasn't enough for the plate. Maybe if we didn't split the soup, the solids might have been enough for the broth.

But then on, the food was going from good to great! The first to arrive was the lamb shank with tiger prawns, called the Surf n Turf. While the surf n turf, in places like Miami denotes Beef with Lobsters, lamb and prawns were not a bad combination. The lamb was literally pull apart with fantastic flavours while the tiger prawns were kick ass!!! Thats the dish I was eyeing, but our friend took it and gladly for us, she shared! Then my dish came - beef cooked medium with asparagus, sauce, spinach and potato parcels. The beef was also pull apart really. It was cooked medium and just kept tearing off. Then my adventurous friend's rabbit! Whoa. Lovely would be an understatement, but the best dish was my temporarily-vegetarian-friend's saffron ravioli! Dishes like these show us that vegetarian food is not being done good justice in India and there is so much more to veggie food.

And then all four of us wanted dessert. Each. So we had our way and had one. Each. The minute I saw churros on the menu, I wanted it, but the waiter said that it was a deconstructed churros. I wanted it even more. And loved it! It was powdered and flat churros with the perfect flavour with lots of chocolate sauce to dip. The live tiramisu was even more awesome. Belgian chocolate with orange mousse was excellent, but the best dish again went to my temporarily-vegetarian friend, a dish whose name I forgot, but flavour will linger along forever!!!!

Yeah, the bill was Rs 6500 for all of us, but it was better than most 2k plus buffets available all around Chennai and Bangalore. I would rather have this than have unlimited mediocre food!!!!

Caperberry is on the terrace at UB City Mall, Bangalore, with access from the Fava Restaurant. 

Doing business while eating is nothing new. Asking the host to take you to Hyderabad House may not be old. But driving around for 30 minutes and not finding a Hyderabad House in Hyderabad is definitely new. We ended in Sarvi with my host promising me that their food is great, while I've not heard of them before. But any new place and as usual I am game to try. P.S. I have not been to Hyderabad House before and thus the craving.

He said he will be happy to place the order on my behalf and I let him. Mutton Biriyani. Chicken Bhadshai (I believe I got the name, or at least the phonetics right). Galouti Kebab. He did not even blink before ordering any of these. He was as confident as ever. We restarted our discussions and waited about 15 minutes for the food to arrive.

I was appalled when I saw the biriyani, white in colour. The Galouti was blood red. The Chicken Bhadshai was the only one that looked half way appealing. Reluctantly, with the image of Hyderabad House in my brain, I took a spoonful of the biriyani and immediately stopped. I don't know if it was because my expectations were dropped or because of whatever, there was a flavour explosion in my mouth. The biriyani was fabulous. I will no longer judge a biriyani by its colour. The chicken bhadshai was fantastic. It was rich, full of flavour with I think some almonds and saffron adding to the rainbow of flavours. While the galouti was nice, I believe there was added colour to it, but otherwise I missed the little roti to smear it on. It wasn't great, but certainly not bad. The quantity was amazing. "We eat a lot around here," my host joked.

I was a satisfied man. While in Hyderabad twice earlier, I missed having great biriyani and this time I got it. No chicken 65 with biriyani, but no regrets.....when in Rome, eat what the Romans eat. Its better that way. Hyderabad House will have to wait, but I wasn't too unhappy with Sarvi. Oh yeah, on your way out, take some Irani Chai from the ground floor!!! 

"Yemma"

The same look that was on the guy who acted in the Tata Indica ad! If you are still gaping, you are forgiven! And yes, that was 1 plate!

5 minutes back, the same mountain that arrived in our neibour's table had us laughing! Why did they order a family pack for three people was our thoughts! Till the same mountain landed on our table.

There are some things in life that are not important. Cleanliness. Politeness. Etc.

Green Bawarchi is a place that gives you only what is important in life - Biriyani!

"1 plate chicken 65 and half plate mutton biriyani," was my order seating in a table for four and sharing it with my friend and two strangers. The place was packed!

"No chicken 65," was the first part of the curt reply, followed by "half plate for two people. No. 1 plate. Chicken kebab, same taste. 1 plate," he wrote and walked off. Did I want chicken kebab? No. Did that matter? No.

The chicken kebab came first. We started eating that succulent kebab and realized that maybe the lack of service got us this nice juicy kebab. And then the biriyani came! I mean the mountain. Hyderabadi Biriyani has that unique taste and this had a hint of it too.

I guess this place is all about the serving size! If you look past the cleanliness and service and if you're a girl, the oogles and stares that you will get, this is enjoyable. If is the operative word here! Next time we play Truth or Dare, dare me to take my DSLR here and shoot photos! You can consider yourself the winner!

Biriyani is priced around Rs. 250! And yes, this is Hyderabad, not Chennai!

When I saw the airline ticket price for a one way from Mumbai to Chennai, my eyes popped out! Rs. 27000. Thats almost twice the price of a return ticket to Dubai! Or I could stay in a 5 star hotel and take a flight the next day and I would still pay much lesser. But I had to be here for the following day and I had to take a flight. Then I saw a flight at 3 am. Quite unearthly.

And that is when my friend came to the rescue. You can easily while away time in Mumbai till 2 am boss. Thats normal hours for us, he said. I'll take you on the best Mumbai culinary street food fest from South to North Mumbai! And that is how I booked the 3 am flight, finished my work in Mumbai at about 7 pm and waited till 8 for him to pick me up from Colaba. And by the time he dropped me at the airport, it was 130 am. This is what happened!

Stop Zero: 730 pm. While I was waiting for my friend, I stepped into Olympia Tea house in Colaba, eagerly waiting to try their Kheema Pav, only to be told that it is served only for breakfast! Sad faced, I walked out and walked the streets of Colaba while my friend waded through Mumbai traffic.

First stop: 8 pm. Bademiya.

Located in a quiet street off Colaba, this place was nothing more than 2 stalls, but with a huge line of cars waiting to be served food. An empty warehouse serves as a make shift sit down place for those who don't want to eat within the four doors of their cars. I had a chicken tikka rolled in romali roti. Soft and juicy. And a little spicy too. Loved it. Going by the hordes of people there, looks like it is loved by loads of people.

Next Stop: 930 pm. Chowpatty

Located on the Marine Drive, this is like a full time festival, boss, he said. On a weekday, to see people sitting on the mats on the beach sand and enjoying pani puri and pav bhaji was a feast. I wanted to try the pani puri. There are two things that stood out from the pani puri in Chennai. 

1. The puri did not leak.

2. The filling had more than just potatoes. There was corn among other things and was a lot more flavourful.

But beyond pani puri, we ended up eating ragi pattice and also gulping down one ice gola. Kala Katti. Slurp Slurp!

Next Stop: 1030 Vada Pav - Doc, this is not the time for vada pav. I'll take you next time, he said, much to my disappointment, but yup, I didn't get to eat vada pav that night.

Actual Next Stop - 1030 pm, Cafe Gulshan.

While this may not be as good as Olympia for keema pav, this is quite good, he said. I don't know how good Olympia would have been, but the kheema here was fantastic. And bun maska. Well, folks in Chennai have always dipped biscuits and bun in tea, but the concept of adding butter, slightly toasting the bun and dipping in tea was, well, delicious. All this while reading newspaper articles about this place being covered in the media! And a request (more of an order) to customers, not to use the limited space for conducting meetings, but to eat and get out! 

Next Stop - 1130 pm, Part 1 King's Circle Pav Bhaji.

As he drove to King's Circle, my eyes popped out more than it did on seeing the 27k flight ticket. Close to midnight, what was this crowd doing on the road? I was searching for the 'food shop.' My friend was laughing. There is the shop, he pointed out. Till we parked the car and walked to the 'shop,' I couldn't see it. The shop was just as big as 'Rangoli' pani puri. One vendor, one tava, one table with the pav, butter and the likes and he was turning around pav bhaji like it was a factory. Easily the best pav bhaji I've tasted, ever. We had a lasooni pav bhaji and a masala pav and inspite of my stomach crying, my tongue kept asking for more. As you can see in the picture, when we ordered our pav bhaji, the tava was empty and I thought he was going to wind up for the night, but as we took our dish, another guy emptied a big bowl of bhaji onto the tava! Eyes popped out again! 

1130 pm, Part 2 - Kings Circle Juice Shop.

Right next to the street is a Juice shop that apparently serves great juices and Bombay sandwiches. I resisted the temptation for a sandwich and asked for a pineapple juice, something that my friend thought was outrageous.

'Dude, are you crazy?'

'Why?'

'Let me do the ordering, you do the eating,' he said.

When the juice came, it was refreshing, cool and fantastic. It was a paan masala juice and it felt like eating paan. After a heavy foodie outing, I am glad I allowed him to order the juice as it cooled down my stomach. 

130 am 

As we reached the airport, he offered to roll me into the check in counter. For some reason, I was upgraded to business class and they woke me every 30 mins to ask if I wanted something to eat! Sigh. 

Being a foodie, I had to visit this restaurant when in Dubai. It is the world's highest restaurant in the worlds tallest building and all that hype surrounding it. After struggling to get through security because we did not have print out of our reservation, we finally got through to the Armani Hotel and my god, it was beautiful. Once inside you are treated like a king and the place does feel like a modern palace.

We were lead to the elevator that goes super fast from 1 to 123, with some ear popping and then you have to walk down one floor to the restaurant. After exchanging pleasantries, we are given a window seat and the view, needless to say, is yet to be matched anywhere else, and unless they build a taller tower with such a wonderful base and the city has other high rises, I am not sure there will ever be such a view from any restaurant.

We got ourselves a drink each, a vanilla iced tea and a raspberry mocktail, and a snack each, an atmosphere fried chicken and a portion of falafels. The vanilla iced tea knocked me, literally. It was a superb iced tea and I have not had this flavor anywhere so I thoroughly enjoyed it, while the raspberry stuff was decent. The atmosphere fried chicken was scrumptious, juicy, soft and fried to perfection, while the falafels were super tasty too. You can also go there for a afternoon tea package which will give you more food, but we wanted to just see the place and taste a few dishes.

Ambiance is superb, but the window seats can get a little hot during lunch hours, while the service is first class. Had a wonderful late afternoon snack and a wonderful day after that. Definitely a must visit for any foodie who wants to be a part of something as grandeous as this. Prices are on par with the Dubai oil rates, pun intended.

Food 9/10
Ambiance 9/10
Service 9/10
Price 8/10

You will find this, but try to get dropped off at the Burj VIP entry rather than going through the Dubai Mall and do have a print out of the reservation.


- And hey people, if you enjoyed reading this, please share it.

When I travel I try and do as much research as possible to find the best places to eat. So when some of my friends and readers were asking me to post those too in chennai foodie, I thought why not and so here were are beginning the year with my eat out at the iconic and the one and only Burj al Arab, Dubai. I am pretty sure everyone has heard about this self proclaimed seven star hotel, but one look inside and you start to wonder if seven stars were enough. Everyone talks about the high tea at here at the lobby restaurant calle Sahn Eddar, but a little bit of probing will tell you that the Junsui, an Asian restaurant is probably their best. The burj itself calls Junsui, its "best kept secret" and so I got myself a reservation here. Remember, you have to have a reservation to enter the property.

The best time to visit will be at around 5 pm. You will be able to we the beautiful palm islands from the 27 th floor of the hotel for which you have a free access, and the view from the Junsui lounge is pretty breathtaking. We got ourselves the lounge package which gives you two snacks and a drink each. The wife ordered a raspberry mocktail and I got myself a berry blast milkshake. We ordered a lamb grill, a beef and potato croquette, a tuna sushi and tempura fried prawns. Except the berry blast milkshake, everything else was brilliant. The prawns were tiger, super size, thinly coated with tempura and tasted perfect. The wife who does not eat prawns went gaga over it. Neither of us are sushi lovers, but we went with it on the recommendation of the waiter and it turned out to be just awesome. The sauces, the wasabi and the sushi together were a super combination. The best dishes were however the beef croquettes and the lamb. Both were brilliant, perfectly cooked and super tender meat. The raspberry mocktail was perfect to wash down the food, but the berry blast milkshake was more banana than any berry and was a let down.

Service was needless to say amazing. Extremely attentive and the slightest look up at someone and you were attended to. The ambiance was super classy, after all it was adorned with Swarovski crystals and apparently the restaurant alone costed them a million dollars, so........

Its the shopping festival now, so if you hit Dubai and you want to visit the Burj al Arab and do not want to spend 350 dirhams per person for the high tea, Junsui lounge is your best bet. As always in a seven star hotel, you are paying for not just the food. The above cost us 370 dirhams for both of us together.

Food 9/10
Service 9.5/10
Ambiance 9.5/10
Price 8/10 -

My take on eat outs around the world

Coming soon..........