All posts tagged: Lounge

Cocktails and Conversations @ Drinks (MG Road)

The old maketh way for the new and Bangalore sees ‘Drinks’ occupy the space that was the erstwhile Couch, on MG Road. The elegant and comfortable lounge is spread across two floors and you will see floor to ceiling paintings of gentlemen in top hats and ladies in snazzy gowns invoking the gangster vibe from downtown New York or Chicago in the 60’s. Encouraging you to play catch up over expertly fashioned cocktails by award winning bartender – Alfonso del Portillio, Drinks is a place that will appeal more to the suave office goer than the teeny boppers that litter Church Street. If Classic is the vibe you are after – Drinks is the place to be. Considering they named the place ‘Drinks’, it is only fair to expect a heightened focus on the liquid menu! Thankfully with Alfonso manning the bar, that’s not a problem. The extensive cocktail menu has separate sections for concoctions with Vodka, Rum, Gin, Tequila and Whiskey. You can also skip the cocktails and pick straight from their lineup of …

Zen and the Art of Lounging @ Tao Terraces (M.G. Road, Bangalore)

After reading mixed reviews about the Tao Terraces, it was time for me to check it out myself. I have always visited their gorgeous terrace lounge bar for a couple of drinks and to enjoy the best house music in Bangalore. Even through the restaurant on the 1st level looks like a setting out of an opulent Thai mansion, I’ve always headed straight up for the views and the wonderful Bangalore weather. This time I was determined to give their Pan-Asian restaurant a try as well, especially since I realized that they served Japanese, as well as Burmese cuisine.   Situated on the 5th floor of the 1MG mall, it’s not hard to find. The hostess will guide you to the big red door that opens into the lavish and distinctly Asian setting. We headed up to the lounge first for a couple of drinks before our dinner reservation downstairs. One thing the Tao Terraces can boast of is having space! The terrace is made up of Thai style open cabanas, water bodies and little …

Feeling Blue – News Cafe (Indiranagar, Bangalore)

News Café is like the poor cousin of Smoke House Deli. They opened pretty much the same time on 100 ft road in Indiranagar and both have a similar cafe/ all day dining format. SHD created quite a buzz in the Bangalore food scene, whereas News café failed to garner anything newsworthy. The reason we ventured there was also because of SHD – they were full one Saturday afternoon and could not accommodate us. We were hungry and had already parked our car close by and it seemed like too much of an effort to drive again. So we walked next door to News Café and zoomed up the elevator to the terrace. (Seems like the trend in Bangalore to have restaurants and café’s on the terrace – is the rent cheaper?) News Café is a South African chain of restaurants and boasts of having 50 outlets with two in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. (Concentrating on the IT hubs, are we?). Their website claims that they have won the ‘Best Cocktail Bar’ 11 years in a …

Smoke House DELI in Bangalore! (Indiranagar, Bangalore)

I don’t want to be biased…no I really don’t. But I couldn’t help doing cartwheels when Smoke House Deli finally opened in Bangalore a week ago. I remember driving down 100ft road and doing a double take in Feb, when I saw the huge glass façade with the black and white writing that said ‘Smoke Hou’ (the rest of it was covered, but I knew in my heart, that it was Smoke House Deli). For all practical purposes we are going to refer to it as SHD in the rest of the post!. “Smoke House Deli is an all-day café and delicatessen. This award winning brand serves everything from pancakes to noshes, pasta to burgers and dessert to cocktails.” – SHD After wowing patrons in Mumbai and Delhi SHD decided to grace Bangalore!! I was invited for a Bloggers Table a day after it opened (yes, I have some perks) and boy was I raring to go, even though it was a Wednesday night. And what a night it turned out to be –chatting with the …