A magical place with a heart made up of Royal Enfield and with a mystic ambience to capture soul of Bikers!
Yes! I’m talking about this incredible Motorcycle themed pub of the north Bengaluru The Chug - Garage Bar. They have come up with the most suitable name for this themed pub “The Chug” which is a common word used by bikers to appreciate the exhaust note of any super bike.
This classic pub is located on the outer ring road junction of Nagavara. Google Maps has the exact co-ordinates to this place. So, just switch on the GPS and vroom your bike towards The Chug.
AMBIENCE
Being a hard core biker I just loved this place. But if you are an ‘Enfield Bhakth’ you will definitely worship this place. A brilliant garage theme with a decor of genuine Royal Enfield spare parts will stump you for sure. Every inch of this place has been crafted so carefully to give that raw experience to their guests as if they have walked into a mechanic’s garage. It may be the cemented floor with industrial boot’s footprint or the wall decals made out of machine tool and spares or the tungsten lights… Everything succeeds in convincing its guest that they are in a garage.
I know I’m writing more and more about the ambience, but I’m helpless as my biker heart wants to share more about this place. So, here I go;
Lighting: It’s a brilliant piece of art. They have used head lights of the different models of Royal Enfield bikes to light the different segments of their bar. Who doesn’t love the safe sense of spending dark hours under the ray of your own bike’s headlight? If you are an adventure tourer and if you have been stranded during night, you will understand what I meant!
Bar Stools: Only a biker can notice that their bar stools are actually made by Royal Enfield Bullet or Classic series seats. Sipping their wonderful strong cocktails by positioning ourselves on those stools is an adventure by itself. A salute to the one who came up with this fantastic concept.
Royal Enfield Wall Art: The first thing which grabs everyone’s attention at this bar and why not! Its an icon of this bar and it is meant to dig out the hidden biker in your heart. It is created by the vital spare parts of the Royal Enfield. The detailing of this art is really impressive. It also serves as selfie corner.
The whole ambiance is so realistic and raw, if this pub was situated in the ground floor, I would have driven my bike inside without any second thought!
SERVICE
Man! It never felt like we were attended by stewards! It felt like a bunch of friends are helping us out to get drinks and food! Yes! They are super friendly, super obedient and super talented. Especially the bartenders, they seem very compassionate about their mixology and they share the same with guests too. They do teach you some knowledge about the cocktails, they are very open for all kinds of suggestions and they wouldn’t mind trying it instantaneously. Result, you’ll get wonderful customized drinks without any side disaster!
Stewards are so cool and amazing that they full fill every order without any hassle and in time. They know their menu very well and if you want to customize your food and drink they suggest you with their expertise. Their friendly attitude with a genuine smile will surely win your heart and in our case we ended up sending them friend request over Facebook.
DRINKS
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| Spiced Liquor |
Rajanikanthistic! They were not just normal cocktails or mocktails, they were magical potion! Some of the drinks were tasted truly core south Indian with the right proportion of spice flavours which we are use to in our day to day life. It was really surprising to taste the same in a cocktail. So, we approached bartender to know the secret. The bartender was kind enough to open up his spice flavored liquor treasure. He explained about the basic spices they have used with vodka (like cinnamon, black pepper, clove, etc.) , its proportion and he allowed us to taste them individually! Upon tasting the different spiced liquor we came to the conclusion that the chief bartender is an artist of drinks!
Their bar menu is no different to their theme. Many cocktails has been named after legendary engines, bike models and tools name. Menu segments sounds just like common words used in any garage. Like; Hammer Down for Shots segment, Full tank for the pitchers, Horsepower for their signature cocktail segments. Its funny and makes sense too.
Some of the drinks we tried are:
Mofa: My favorite mocktail! Guava flavour was spiced up with tabasco and served with coriander. It was spicy and elegant at the same time. I ordered it twice and each time I asked them to make it as spicy as possible and they did exactly the same without hampering its original Guava flavor. Just amazing!
Retro Street: The flavour of nostalgia. This classic version of mocktail contained Strawberry Crush along with pineapple juice and as a south Indian twist they added Mint Syrup with Coconut Creme
Madrass Bull: A fully charged cocktail with the pure spicy essence of Tamil Nadu. I don’t have words to praise this drink. It has all the flavours you generally find in South Indian (especially in Tamil Nadu region) Rasam and other spice oriented dishes. In first sip itself I became a fan of this drink. It was Vodka based cocktail with precise portion of Murraya (Kaadu Kari Bevu), Tamarind, Fresh Chillies, Cumin Seeds with Tomato Juice. The presentation of this drink was as tempting as it tastes. It’s the father of all drinks and if I’m coming back to this Pub, this drink is one of the major reason.
Bonneville: A killer drink basically inherited by land of queen. It tasted strong, appeared strong and felt strong. Its basically a dare devil’s drink specially made for big boys like us. This drink was rum based with Flamed Orange, Peach and Blood orange syrup. A brilliant drink in deed.
Tan 500: This cocktail is categorised as smokey drink and yes! This was the first time I ever tasted a smokey drink. It needs a special skill to get this drink right as it includes the infusion of all four fundamental matters; Liquid, Gas, Plasma and Solid ice! And the bartenders of The Chug has mastered the skill overtime.
The preparation of this drink looks like a chemistry lab experiment as they flame the spices like cumin, sesame, cloves, cinnamon together and trap the smoke produced by it into a glass container. Then they carefully mix ice and different proportion of whisky, splash soda, citrus, passionfruit and mint leaves to the smokey glass. Its an absolute treat to your eyes!
Does this tastes better? Of course, this drink not only treats your taste buds but also treats your nostrils and respiratory system. It is a whole new level of experiencing a drink. I highly recommend this drink.
Mint 350 CC: In the league of such extraordinary drinks this cocktail felt bit mainstream. Just like a 350 CC engine’s performance in front of 500 CC. It doesn’t mean that it was bad, but it didn’t reached the high expectation set by other drinks. This drink was all about the taste of mint and lime. It was mixture of House infused liquor with splash of tonic, fresh lime and mint leaves. It tasted as it suppose to be.
Squadron Sangria: Red Wine with a strong statement of rum. Definitely a hurricane kind of drink with the mixture of lemon, cloves, cinnamon and fresh cut strawberry, apple and orange. Sipped a few drops and I knew that it will be difficult to handle if consume it wholly. So, distributed it among other foodies just like jesus.
Golgappa Shots: An out of the menu shot specially crafted for our bloggers meet. It looked so innocent with the Gogappa on its top and with its mint green coloured presentation. But it was as sinful as other strong contending shots with a mint and spicy twist. An absolute innovative drink.
FOOD
The menu seems to be chosen on a strategy. This pub offers food which is as equally tasty as their drinks and it pairs well with their out of the world drinks. Each and every dish surprised us with the perfect taste, texture and presentation. There was a pre designated menu for us and here is my experience with the food;
Creamy Mushroom Soup: Strangely they served it after the starters… Since I’m not a big fan of Mushrooms I just tasted it. The thickness of the soup was perfect and the flavour of mushrooms has been blended well. Though it was not spicy, I liked the way it was!
Crispy American Corn: We paired most of the cocktails and mocktails with this starter. In matter of minutes we consumed more than 10 servings. It was such a nice delicacy. The American corn was fried and tossed perfectly with yellow soy bean sauce and spiced up with perfect proportion of chilli flakes with generous citrus sprinkle by leamon. It was neither too crisp nor too smooth it was in that perfect gray area of brilliance. Just loved this dish!
Veg Nachos: Chef has succeeded in bringing the wild west flavour into this dish. The corn tortilla was so crispy and the texture was just amazing. The raw tomato salsa was equally awesome and it was cooped up with veggies, sour sauce to give out a true mexican delicacy. Well done chef!
Tomato Basil Bruschetta: This starter was awesome that I couldn’t able to get my hands on it for first three servings. Every time it use disappear as soon as it gets to the table. After a few attempts I secured a full portion for myself and found it to be the yummiest of all starters. It felt like an art for me. They have carefully crafted this dish on the base of a hard bread with mozzarella cheese topped with freshly sliced tomato, basil and whole dish was touched with olive oil. God! This dish was heavenly and I can eat it for my whole life!
Vegetable Au Gratin: Half boiled vegetables mixed with the tempting mornay sauce topped with lots and lots of cheese and baked to the perfection. It was amazing. This is the perfect way to make vegetable haters to consume veggies. It tasted healthy and fun at the same time. The cheese they have used was definitely out of this world. I forgot about my diet and enjoyed the dish.
Eggplant Parmigiana: Maximum number of people including me hate eggplant. When I read this item on the menu I thought of skipping it. But now I know, if I had skipped it I would have missed an unique delicacy. The eggplant was marinated so well with basil tomato sauce to change its basic taste and on top of it the slices of marinated eggplant was served with cheese. Now, how can someone resist anything which has cheese on its top! So, I just tasted tiny bit of it and I was flattened by its taste and completed the entire portion by myself.
The herbed rice on the other hand was nice and equally complimented the Eggplant Parmigiana.
Call it as witchcraft or art of taming eggplant, this was the first time in my entire life I was pampered with an eggplant delicacy.
Wild Mushroom Risotto: I had a very small portion of this dish as I hate mushrooms a lot. The mushroom was pre-prepared with companionship of Red wine. It looked like cooked to the perfection but my basic instinct about avoiding mushroom didn’t let me to judge this dish.
Cauliflower Mac N Cheese: Another cheesy dish to rise my calorie level. It appeared like fusion but tasted so true to its origin. Cauliflower was well blended with the pasta. They have added cheddar cheese generously along with decent number of fresh peas and smooth oregano bread crumbs. A mouthwatering dish indeed!
Mexican Style Pizza: Truly Mexican and most awaited dish of the afternoon! The crust of the pizza was very unique as it was crispy at the outer edge and soft in the inner circumference. They used mozzarella cheese along with tomato salsa topped with jalapeno, bell pepper, mushrooms and coriander. It was too good and in spite of fully loaded tummy I ate at least 3-4 slices of this.
Dessert: They just presented a tempting spread of desserts in front of us calling it as “The Chug’s Special”. Among them Checked Cake, Chocolate Walnut Brownie became my favourite followed by Apple Tart and Tiramisu. Desserts succeeded well in putting a glorious end to our dining experience.
EVERYTHING ELSE:
They do host lot of events like Bollywood night, live music sessions, karaoke nights and they will be more happy to host the community and corporate meetups as well. The music selection during our visit was just awesome.
It looks like raw and gives you the feel of garage but they have maintained a very high standard of hygiene throughout the pub. I visited the kitchen during the event and it is really systematic and clean. Limited parking space is available near the vicinity and I don’t know whether they offer Valet Parking or not.
There is a lot of scope for enhancing the ambience and the managing partner assured that in the near future this place will be more lively and rocking.
Pricing is very moderate, I can put it like this; for the whole experience of The Chug it will cost you amount equal to one full tank of Petrol!
FINAL VERDICT: Experience here feels like opening wings, the sense of freedom and being yourself will surely tempt you to visit this place again and again. One of the best pubs I ever visited and I highly recommend this place to everyone. Who knows, you might get inspired and buy a new motorcycle after visiting this place.
BAKASURA RATING
4.5 / 5
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Event Organised by:
52nd Bloggers Meetup by
Food Bloggers Association of Bangalore
Food Bloggers Association of Bangalore
GALLERY
AMBIENCE
FOOD & DRINKS
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