Spiga, Bangalore

Being back in Bangalore has been altogether, a strange experience for me. Having lived in another part of Bangalore before and then having lived elsewhere for a whole five years, I now feel like I am back home, but living in a whole different city. Now living in central Bangalore, I am hearing of a great many places that my peers seem familiar with, but I have no clue about.

I have heard many a foodie rave about the old Spiga. The new Spiga though, elicited a lukewarm response from fans of the old Spiga and good reviews from some. Last night, the firm hosted a girls night out at Spiga, on the occasion of Women’s day, and I got to see for myself.

Conveniently located above Giovani on St. Marks Road, Spiga has a medditeranean feel going for it. Comfortable seating, very dim candle light, the cool breeze and the moonlight spilling over every smooth surface on the terrace, ups the romance quotient of the place.

Drinks were ordered – a variety of martinis, of course. The Thai martini, with lemon grass was quite spicy and tangy all the same. Though it tasted very interesting, it was too strong a taste and A could not have more than a few sips of it. While the peach martinis and strawberry martinis were nothing to boast about, the vodka chocotini ordered by V and me, got much love from the ladies. A thick concoction of vodka and
chocolate, with a topping of white chocolate shavings, it got better and thicker towards the bottom.

Of the vegetarian starters, H and I were quite excited about the spicy onion and corn hummus with pita bread, but it was a major let down. The hummus had no taste and the pita bread was chewy, at the best. A paneer tikka-like starter (I forget what it is called) suggested by the maitre d’ was really good, though.

The other D, had waxed eloquent about the non-cheesy pasta alfredo at Spiga. As long as it consists of white sauce and has mushrooms, I am a big fan. I really liked the pasta alfredo. The mushrooms were just right, the white sauce was light and delightful and the sundried tomatoes were poached from my plate.

For desserts, we ordered a blueberry cheesecake, an oreo cheesecake and a chocolate fudge cake. The oreo cheesecake found many fans, the blueberry cheesecake was monopolised by me and the chocolate fudge cake was uniformly neglected, in the ensuing grab-your-spoons-and-get-to-the-plate race. We called for a second round of the oreo cheesecake and the blueberry cheesecake. Enough said.

On the whole, it was really enjoyable evening out with the girls, at a beautiful place. I am loving Spiga and I am definitely going there again.

Shivam guesthouse, Jodhpur

After a long drawn out deliberation of ‘Should we-should we not’, D, the other D and I , finally decided to make our way to Shivam Guesthouse this evening.

Shivam Guesthouse is a tiny rooftop restaurant tucked away in one of those gullies near Ghanta ghar. One has to climb three floors to reach the top. You have an option of sitting right on the terrace, with a brilliant view of the Mehrangarh fort and the Ghanta ghar (which for those of you who are not familiar with it, changes colours at every hour) or you can sit at the tables on the floor below if like us, you aren’t wearing adequate warm clothing and prefer not catching a cold over a view of the fort.

We settled ourselves in the corner and placed our orders. D and the other D ordered the Pasta Puttanesca on the menu as I predictably scanned it for any mention of mushroom and ordered Pasta Ala Cream. The other D ordered Turkish coffee and I placed an order for a mug of French Vanilla coffee. We also ordered scrambled eggs and toast to share, as M had recommended.

The Turkish coffee arrived first, a little less warm than one could have expected it to be in Jodhpur winters, yet strong. The cup was tiny and the other D was disappointed that it wasn’t as big a mug as the one in which the French Vanilla coffee came in next. The French Vanilla coffee tasted every bit like good vanilla coffee should, with just a hint of cinnamon which got stronger towards the last few sips.

The service was quicker than one would have expected and the pastas were served at the table quite fast. While the red sauce pastas were only so-so, we all agreed that the cream pasta was the best. The mushrooms were salted just right and sauteed in butter. I have always had a thing for juicy, salted mushrooms. The best mushrooms I have had were sauteed mushrooms at a shack on Anjuna beach, Goa.

We the ordered a ‘Hello to the Queen’ for dessert. Also known as Shalom-e-malkha, it is a layered dessert of crumbled biscuits, chocolate syrup, strawberries, banana and vanilla ice cream on top. I wasn’t too happy with how the dessert tasted. They had used coconut cookies instead of the normal ones and had used the chemical tasting, fruity strawberry syrup instead of fresh strawberries. Not the best ‘Hello to the Queen’ I have had, for sure. The ice cream on top tasted good though, I suspect it was home-made.

Shivam Guesthouse also provides cheap Pushkar-type accommodation. D tells me there are rooms in there with mirrors on the ceiling. I am intrigued.

Directions :- Head to Ghanta Ghar. At the Omlette shop, where you would take a right turn for Pal Haveli, take a left turn instead. Then take the first right. It is the third building to your left.

Price :- For a starter, main course, coffee and dessert, it cost us Rs. 300 each.

P.S. Checked out the rooms. Beautifully decorated, view of the fort, quaint, romantic, perfect for girlfriend getaway. – March, 2011

Chocolate room, Ahmedabad

True to the name of the place, the menu is completely chocolate based. When the waiter came to take our order, I had to ask him to come back after five minutes. Only because I wanted to look through the entire menu before placing my order. I finally settled upon Chocolate pasta and a melting pot of white chocolate. Sadly, they didn’t have either. They didn’t have Belgian chilli chocolate either.

I then ordered ‘Our famous pancake stacks’ from their menu with whipped cream. I have a soft corner for whipped cream  and prefer ordering anything with whipped cream over ice cream, any day. And I ordered a Snickers shake for drinks.

The pancakes came with a generous amount of maple syrup, were topped with fresh whipped cream and were an absolute delight. The Snickers shake topped with whipped cream, while leaving one with the unmistakable peanut butter aftertaste that Snickers has, was too thin and watery for my liking.

J ordered a Caesar wrap and an Oreo shake. The Oreo shake, again, was thinner than the consistency of what one would expect of a shake and yet, it managed to taste quite nice. Very Oreo. It came topped with an Oreo. The Caesar wrap was well made, except that the cucumber in it was too bitter and because of the cucumber, the roll tasted inedible. The management was nice enough to replace it with a Salsa wrap instead, which  tasted quite nice.

G ordered Chocolate pancakes and a TR Open sandwich. The Chocolate pancakes, served with maple syrup and generous scoops of chocolate ice-cream was aptly named ‘Death by Chocolate’. No relation to the DBC though. The TR sandwich, sprinkled with oregano was a nice change from all the chocolate we had been filling ourselves with.

The hot chocolate comes in an innovative mug, with a candle at the bottom. We saw many people ordering the hot chocolate, but were too full to order one for ourselves.

The experience made each of our pockets lighter by Rs.400 for a drink, a main course and a dessert.