Getting HIGH on THAI - Dining at the White Elephant

Dining should be an experience. An experience that transcends into a memorable event. 

In my quest for such experiences I discovered one such opportunity at White Elephant.

An authentic Thai restaurant in Indiranagar, Bangalore.

When we spoke to the owner's about their concept, it sounded to me that they had the same thing in mind about dining experiences as I did.

Which is why they got many things just right. The ambience looks great, a large Buddha Statue adds to the tasteful decor, great service and most crucially an interesting and tasty dining experience.

Interesting  because of the insights we got from the owners who spent some time talking to their guests about their inspiration. 

Their chef has been specializing in Thai cuisine for over 9 years and has perfected his art and ensures you will get a fine dining experience. The service was good too with ever smiling servers.

The menu cleverly has limited variety for 2 reasons -  the 80-20 principle applies here in terms of dishes ordered and also helps the chef and management focus on taste, presentation, ingredient management and ensure each dish is cooked aptly.

The owners of White Elephant

Before I get to the food I also must mention about their table artist who has flown down from the US. Watching him perform illusions  right in front of your eyes  is an experience beyond imagination. We have seen guys like him on TV but to see it happen not 2 feet away from you is extremely mesmerizing. He comes over on fridays and saturdays so plan your dining experience accordingly.

DONT MISS HIM.

Back to the food - Being a group, yes i like to dine at new places in groups, helps us try a larger variety and get a better sense of the food, and that's what we did.

A picture of the interiors

Review of each dish is as follows:

The Khao Pod Naam Prik Pow = Babycorn cooked in thai chilli paste. Not very spicy and should suit most taste buds 

Khao Pod Naam Prik Pow

The Pla Yang - a spicy delicate basa fish satay. melt in the mouth stuff and my favorite amongst all that I had here. The raw papaya salad is a great combination. Comes with 2 Thai Chutneys to enhance the flavour.  

Pla Yang

The Kai Hor Bai Tey - have you ever had chicken wrapped in leaves? You normally would think this was a fish right? That is what makes this even more special, chicken cooked uniquely and accompanied with a sweet sauce to match the flavours.

Kai Hor Bai Tey - Chicken, not fish

The Manfrog Tod Samros, better known as the sweet chilly potato is  good choice for vegetarians and a dish you can never go wrong with.

Sweet Chilly Potato

Chutneys served with the starters

To help all these starters go down we had a great mix of cocktails and mocktails from. My Fav was the Mid night Martini which really got the evening going for me. I did try other varieties too like the Cosmopolitan and the Long Island Ice tea. Unfortunately the cocktails are not as good as the food here so you may want to stick to regular mixes if you do want to drink. Heard their wine selection is well paired but as I dont drink Wine I could not try it.

The main course had a big surprise for me. I normally do no like Red Thai Curry and always prefer Green. For the first time I had had a tasty, spicy Red Thai curry with Jasmine rice that really was cooked to perfection. To accompany this we had Prawns that was perfectly cooked and nice and juicy.

Thai Curry and Rice

Juicy Prawns

To end our stupendous meal we come to my favorite part - the DESSERTS. Yummyyyy.

Fried Bananas with ice cream. Delightfully tasty

Tub Tim Grob - Water chestnut in coconut milk. First time I ever had it and found it had a nice flavour to it

Chili's - The American way of eating... 

Like all good things, generally associated with America, Chili's is also a larger than life sort of experience.

One only needs to see their serving potions of  food to know how really larger than life they can be...

A good ambience, large screens to watch sports, and excellent service makes this a great place to dine out with family and friends and having visited the place twice over the past week I am in no doubt I will be going there often with friends.

A view from the floor above (the place is across 3 levels)

There are times when a place you visit often gives you great memories to retain.

It's then tough to re-associate that with something new (referring to the venue) 

Chili's is now also in Indiranagar.
For a guy who loves food as much as I do, one can't help but feel nostalgia when you visit an erstwhile place.

What Chili's managed to do was to trump that experience with great food and excellent service. Their cocktails are made to such perfection that one can't help but over indulge.

The bar on the top - excellent liquor collection

Over the week i headed out there with some friends which turned out to be a rather great strategy. What this helped us do is to not only try a great variety of their dishes which one can't resist but also do justice to the quantity.

Their portions are extremely large and if you go in as a couple you may struggle to finish your meal. The thing about eating out here is that you need to plan yourself a little.

As one friend suggested  its a great place to taste 2 dishes at a time of any combination as a couple and keep visiting frequently to try out their entire menu and i can tell you the menu is worth trying out indeed.

Being a group of 8 with large appetites we managed to try a lot but not enough. 

My fav dish was the boneless chicken wings. A great blend of spice and good taste, best part is it's boneless chicken.

Here is a variety of cocktails we tried with my favourites being the Mud Slide and the Spicy Mango custom made mocktail which my wife favours.  

The MUDSLIDE is the best I ever had and takes absolute skill to get it right. You will not be able to get this cocktail anywhere else that tastes as goo here. It was so good, I had to take a sip before I could take a click.

Mudslide

Spicy Mango mocktail - custom made for us

The Tripple sipper with Chicken wings, boneless wings and cheese balls. The 3 different sauces add a good flavour


What I missed is that they dint have a pizza on the menu but they do make up for it with this nacho and cheese based starter - also known as Classic Nachos.

We stuck to Pasta and Burger bites for main courses although I did try the Blackened Salmon which I was advise was extra salty and it indeed was and hence dint suit my palette.  Again the portion of the pasta was immense for 1 person to complete. 

No GOOD meal can be rounded off without dessert and hence we tried the Molten Chocolate cake and the ChocolateChip Paradise Pie. 

FINAL VERDICT - This is a must visit place not just once but multiple times over if you looking at having great food and a good dining experience.

Re-visiting Cup O’ Joe. With MORE FOOD involved

Serene. Idyllic. Quite. Peaceful.

Now adding – Great FOOD.

For those of you who read my earlier blog about how great my first experience was and what a lovey place this is would realize I dint get into the food details too much so we decided to go back to try out their fare and help complete the experience.

(for the ones who missed it – read it here - http://kunalgwalani.blogspot.in/2014/09/a-perfect-evening-my-visit-to-cup-o-joe.html )

It’ s rare for a place to get almost everything right but I think in time to come, most people will agree that Cup O’ Joe is almost there. Not just a great relaxing ambience and the right place to hang out with friends and loved ones but their food and pricing will add the icing on the cake.

This time we were 2 couples and had an opportunity to try out their drinks, starters and most importantly had our share of their heavenly mousse which has always left me spell bound. So much so that I threatened to kidnap the chef who makes the mousse.

The place is not overly priced and gives great value for money.

Because this is a first time initiative for the owners, the food is getting better with time, experience and feedback.

What I like about the food – HIGHLY CUSTOMISEABLE to your taste buds. They are very flexible to making the dish as you like it, more or less spicy and hence be sure to specify how you like your food. In today’s dining experience it is not common for a chef to cater to individual tastes buds but they do it here with ease.

Here are some pictures of the dishes we tried with our experiences.

We started off with some tasty chillers:

Oreo Chocolate Smoothie on the left and the Lemon, Orange and Pear on the right

I had the Oreo Chocolate cookie whiles the others ordered a Lemon, Orange and Pear smoothie.

As promised they customise food here for you and the missus wanted a spicy mocktail so the chef concocted one for her right here with the salt rimmed glass et al. 

Not in the menu but you can ask for it.

The customised spicy mocktail. Every sip set the taste buds on overdrive but delicious indeed.

For starters we went for their house special, the nachos with cheese sauce which is a must have here. It is supremely tasty and cheesy and 1 is not enough on a table for 4. Only because we liked it sooo much.

The other starters we had was the panner tikka and chicken wings.

The flavours were great but the chicken wings were not as spicy as one would hope so do remember to ask for it to be spiced up if that' s what you like.

Main course was a pasta which had the flavours just right.

Paneer on the top and the chicken wings at the bottom

And to top it all is the Chocolate Mousse. You will never believe that is eggless.

YES eggless. And because it is possibly the best I even enlarged the picture so we can all crave for it even more. 

I look forward to going back there again soon.

Do invite me if you go, I would love to have their desserts again and again!

A Perfect Evening - My visit to Cup O' Joe 

Serene. Idyllic. Quite. Peaceful.

Some of the words that come to mind when I think of my experience at Cup O Joe, a new restaurant in Koramangala, Bangalore.

Watched 2 groups a friends play board games, there were about 20 more on standby and a book cabinet to keep you company when alone.

Like to play the guitar and have your friends sing along with you, no problem. They have that too.

The origin of the name is interesting in itself and can be found here - http://blog.dictionary.com/cup-o%E2%80%99-joe-starbucks/

A new place opened in Sep 2014 is a great place to go to unwind after a long hard day. Whether its with some friends, or looking at spending some quite time with that someone special, there is something for every one here.

The food has a good variety of light eats, coffees and shakes ranging to mocktails and main courses of European nature.  So if you are looking for a quite coffee shop experience (unlike the noisy chains) in the evening or a romantic candle light dinner at night, there is enough fare to keep you hooked.

Click here for a full set of very realistic pictures -  http://on.fb.me/1m8jaSm

I personally dint get to eat a lot, but I did love the Nachos in cheese sauce and their chocolate mouse is out of this world. One of the best I ever had and believe me I have had a lot. The Red Thai curry we had was not as spicy as we hoped but presented really well.

The good thing about going to new places is that the food will only evolve and get better with time and the Chef here is very attentive and customer friendly.

A meal for two should cost you around 800 bucks for good eaters which is well worth the money. This includes mocktails too which was quite good.

The place is owned by 4 partners from the software world, who got a new calling in life.

It’s a must visit place and I will surely be spotted there on weekends gorging on their Chocolate Mousse.

Check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/cupojoe.cafe

P.S. – They currently don’t serve liquor but don’t let that deter you from going there.

P.P.S  - Very friendly management who are all set to provide you a very pleasant experience.