Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Highnote

Highnote is a part open-air restaurant on 100ft road of Indiranagar.

I and my husband were having some nice paani puris at a road side place last Thursday when some of our friends called to meet up. We had just come back from office, were really tired and the idea of having a couple of drinks did not sound so bad.

We left for Indiranagar. The traffic was bad. It took us about an hour to go from HSR Layout to Indiranagar, but when we reached the place...

At the first glance, you will see nicely done interiors, dim lights, open space, lots of plants. At a second glance, you will however realise that the place is too cramped up. They have put too many tables in a small place. The table in front of the bar (yes an ordinary sort of a bar) is so close to it that you cannot put chairs in front of each other - So people can sit in one direction only, looking at the bar.

We reached there early (!) and while waiting ordered some drinks. We were quite stuffed with the chaat so we did not care for any snacks. I got myself a lime margarita and my husband ordered for some whisky. The margarita which costed Rs 275 was amazingly strong for that rate and I enjoyed it.

After some time, our friends started pouring in one by one. We were ten of us by late evening and the drinks and snacks were ordered non-stop. One thing that I noticed was that my margaritas became lighter and lighter which was not very nice. Also, once there was some green stuff in my drink. The bartender said it is open air and something might have fallen from somewhere (but I know it was not the case). He did replace my drink though.

We got quite late and ordered food at around 11.30, which was very nice as they were still taking orders (though they had switched off all the lights for some reason). Maybe the new 1 AM deadline extension has already begun or....

I was not too hungry so I cannot comment on the Thai food that came for dinner. The bill came out to be around 12k.

We did have a small parking issue with the valet. We lost the valet coupon and the bugger was actualy trying to imply that we were thieves :-P

Well, I doubt I will go to this place again. Highnote had a just-another-place feel to it and I did not find anything special here.

Anyways, my ratings out of 5 -
Ambience - 3
Service - 3
Presentation - 3
Taste - Cannot Comment
Drinks - 3

Value for money - 3.5 if the food was good, 3 otherwise.

Parking Tip - Valet Parking available, but be sure not to use your valet coupon.

Location - 100ft road, Indiranagar - When you are coming from Koramangala, the place is on your left and is right after 100ft restaurant an Sony showroom.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Legend of Rock

Legend of Rock - An excellent pub in Koramangla, playing amazing rock music and has great crowd.

I went there yesterday, with my husband and one of his friends. LOR is know for its great music. They had a special event going on yesterday - They were playing live music after months.

We made a reservation for 7.30. The place was partly filled when we reached and the waiter showed us to our seats. I have to tell you this, we had the best view! We were sitting right next to the band and we had elevated seats. The next time I go there, I am going to ask for the same seats. The only seats better than ours would be two bar stools, right in front of the band.

When we reached, the band was just getting ready. They were checking the speakers, adjusting the volume and putting up more cables. While they did that, we ordered for Fries and Chilli Paneer. We were really hungry so I cannot comment on the taste much. The Paneer was ok, but the fries were average. The portions were too small. We also called for a pitcher of beer (In draught, they have only Fosters). The pitcher was for Rs.275, which is very decent. They also had an option to call for a 3 litre can which was for Rs.550. We did not go for that, but we saw it on another table and it was really interesting. It was plastic tower, looked like a smoothie machine and had a tap on the bottom - How cool is that!

Ashish, the owner of the place introduced the band - The Bourbon Street. The lead guy was Fidel, who was on the base guitar. The lead guitarist was Chester and he was really good. On the keyboard was Bharat and he was Oh-My-God amazing. Finally Sudhakar was playing the drums. They were playing at a pub for the first time - And believe me, they were unbelievable! They played Jazz, which included a few originals. After a while, a female called Sangeeta played classic Carnatic music on her Violin and the Bourbon Street mixed it up with their music. The fusion was mesmerizing. The Bourbon Street continued with there songs later on. It was 9.30PM, when they stopped playing and they rocked the crowd! We ordered pitcher after pitcher and also a plate of Non-Veg Platter in between (The platter sucked!).

The bill came out be Rs.1601 which was really really cheap for the refreshing music and the non-stop beer.

LOR is going to have more Live Bands every Sunday evening now and I am going to try and not miss many!

Out of 5, Here's how I would rate the place
Ambience - 5
Service - 4.5
Presentation - 3
Taste - 3
Drinks - 5

Value for money - 5

Parking Tip - Take a left after the LOR building and go into the small street. You can drive for a few meters and find a parking space, in front of the shops. Koramangla has a lot of small alleys and taking a quick turn would always help to find a parking place.

Location - Koramangala 80Ft Road, in front of Petrol Pump next to Pizza Hut
On the Map - Legend Of Rock

Athena, The Leela Palace

Athena is a lounge bar in the basement of The Leela Palace on Airport Road.

I have no words to describe this awful place. I have been here before but Saturday night was horrible.

The entry is Rs.1000 for a couple. Out of this, Rs.200 is cover charge and Rs.800 you can spend inside. We wanted to pay by our American Express Card, which they surprisingly did not accept. We paid the money and asked the guy on the front desk that how the crowd is as we could not hear any noise from inside. He said, 'It's Good'. We went inside and Whoa! The place was almost empty, with hardly 6 people inside. They were playing some lounge music and we decided to find a place for ourselves. We sat on a couch and a waiter came running towards us saying that the place was reserved. We went to the next couch and again the guy told us it was reserved. We asked him to take us to a place which was not reserved and he said all the places are reserved and showed us to two small stools in a dark corner. That really pissed me off. I told him that if there's no place inside, why did they not tell us so at the entry itself.

They had a separate area for members (which was obviously empty). We asked them about how to get the membership and they had no clue!

We wanted to leave, but not without spending the 800 bucks. We went to the bar, I had a large vodka with cranberry juice and my husband had a 100 pipers with coke (they did not have thums up). The drinks cost 1000 in all, and we had to pay another 200. Again surprisingly, they took Amex inside!! Part of the same hotel, takes Amex at one place and does not take it at another. We paid the money, gulped our drinks and left.

That was Rs. 1200 spent in 10 minutes. Athena sucks!

Hence, the ratings (out of 5) follow
Ambience - 1
Service - 0.5
Presentation - no clue
Taste - no clue
Drinks - 2.5

Value for money - 0.5 (this 0.5 is because you can tell your friends you went to The Leela (Grr!))

Parking Tip - Valet Parking

Location - Old Airport Road