Bubble Tea Festival at Tea Trails, HSR Layout

Tea - a drink which is a tradition in some part of the world, it is considered as national drink in some western region and it has been a part of healthy diet for millions of people in day to day life.

“Tea Trails” is an unique chain of cafes which solely concentrates on bringing up different kinds of popular teas from different regions of the globe under one roof. Whether it is Regional Tea like Uttar Pradesh’s Kullad Chai, Ooty’s famous Nilgiri Tea or Internationally popular Japanese Sencha, Russian Caravan… It has it all.

Not just Tea, they have a decent collection of multi-cuisine breakfast and snacks in their menu to pair with their awesome Tea selections.

Recently I was invited to try their newly introduced Bubble Tea as they were celebrating Bubble Tea Fest. It was a rainy evening but the biker in me thought of giving it a try by riding all the way from Hebbal to HSR Layout in heavy down pour. Was the risk and adventure worth it? Absolutely yes! 

BUBBLE TEA

It is a popular drink in China & Taiwan which is generally blend of fruit flavors with milk or aerated water. Traditionally, Tapioca Balls which is made by the starch extracted from the Cassava Root is dropped inside the drink to give that bubbly twist. But, fruit & chocolate jelly balls are also used for the same purpose.

Tea Trails have collection of 6-8 bubble tea and also they have curated pairing menu for the every bubble tea. 

Fruit Pearl Bubble Tea: As per the suggestion of Manager, I opted for Fruit Pearl Bubble Tea. It had the traces of Lychee and tasted brilliant as it was moderately sweet. The thickness of the drink was really decent. Best part was gulping the chocolaty bubbles in between through the straw. Felt like I’m living my childhood days back. 

Mediterranean Veg Sandwich: The Fruit Pearl Bubble Tea was paired with this sandwich and believe me! It was the best sandwich I had in recent times. The bread used was nice and of superior quality. The bread was embedded with slices of assorted veggies like capsicum, red paprika and it was grilled well. Vegetable filling was decent with fresh cheese. It was served with potato wedges and raw vegetable salad. A totally tummy filling package.

Detox Latte Bubble Tea: It was an awesome combination of flavors which I had never tasted before. The flavor of Latte was twisted with a little sour and sweet taste. On top of that joy of gulping bubbles. Seemed like my evening couldn’t get any better beyond this drink. Just lovely...

Tea Pancake: When I ordered this dish I had greater expectations as I tasted Tea Pancakes before in Delhi & Mumbai. But when it was served I realized that my expectation was too much. Because, the pancakes were normal without any infusion of Tea flavor. They served it with honey, fruits and Tea Jelly. For an extent Tea Jello compensated the flavor of tea but I didn’t get that natural tea infused flavor. However, if I just ignore that infused pancake factor, it was nice. Honey syrup supplied with it was nice and totally this dish was worth ordering.

AMBIANCE

In the era of Coffee Oriented cafes, this Tea promoting cafe has left no stone unturned in creating a perfect ambiance for tea lovers to have a long conversation and to indulge in their activity just like any other cafe. A beautiful green wall welcomes you into the cafe and upon entering, this cafe opens up a cool gallery of Tea Culture on its wall. They serve on both ground floor and first floor. First floor has more seating capacity than ground floor and it also offers good view from its balcony kind of portico. Upholstery are elegant and comfortable for spending long time.  

SERVICE

Since it is a new cafe, stewards and managers seems inexperienced. But they are trying hard to keep their guests happy. In my case they served every dishes on time and precisely. They are quite friendly and offer you complete privacy. Little bit more training about handling cutleries and addressing customers can do wonder.

EVERYTHING ELSE: This outlet is located on the 27th Main of HSR Layout. Google Maps has exact co-ordinates to this place. It is bit difficult to locate this place from fast moving vehicles as it is above the road level. There is a decent parking space available near the cafe. Hygiene has been maintained well all over the place. Just mind your steps while entering the cafe as the floor is bit rough & uneven.
It also offers free Wi-Fi

FINAL VERDICT: I would like to call this cafe as a tribute to the Tea. If you are a tea lover, then this place definitely made for you. Enjoy your Tea sip by sip while glancing the Tea Gallery on the wall!

BAKASURA RATING

4.0 / 5

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GALLERY

A ride to refuel the foodie in you : Naani Hotel, Vijayapura

“Aaaha… It was totally worth it buddy…” When I heard these words from my friend, there was a pause for a moment and then a sense of relief. It literally felt like a gamble as I convinced my friends overnight to ride early morning to this place and waited almost 2 hours at the door step of this restaurant to open. So, you might get the idea how relieved I felt when I heard those words.

Facade of  Naani Hotel

You might be wondering which restaurant it might be, you need to prepare yourself to ride or drive to the outskirts of the Bengaluru to experience their awesome breakfast delicacies. I’m writing about Naani Hotel, located in Vijayapura a 50KMs drive from Hebbal towards Chikkballapura.

HOW TO REACH THEIR

Stone Wheels of Chariot, Near Temple Complex, Vijayapura

You can depend on Google to reach Vijayapura but upon reaching Vijayapura depend on local guidance to reach this restaurant as the location of this restaurant on Google Maps keeps on changing every 3 months or so on. 

Or after crossing Devanahalli Junction, there is one more junction just few kilometers before to IPC (Indian Paratha Company);take right in this junction and head straight till you reach Vijayapura By-Pass road. From their you seek local assistance.

OUR EXPERIENCE

Waiting outside the restaurant!

Our initial plan was to visit Nandi Betta to witness the sunrise, but as I’m a foodie freak, I convinced everyone to visit Naani Hotel first and then to head towards Nandi Betta. We gathered near Veterinary Hospital at Hebbal with our motor cycles and after a short brief we hit the road by 5.30AM. Though we maintained slow pace we reached Vijayapura by 6.45AM and then we found out from locals that Naani Hotel will open by 8.30AM. I was the culprit among the gang as I convinced them badly to visit here so early. We parked our bikes near the temple complex and went for a walk in order to kill the time. Upon returning, shutter of this restaurant was slightly open and cleaning process was going on. We waited at its door as if they are offering free breakfast. And yes, when they finally opened the restaurant at 9AM we were first to enter in and order. 

FOOD

All I can say, it saved me from getting beaten up by my friends. It worth for all the sacrifices we made and patience we had. They serve their dishes on ‘mutthuga’ leaf backed up with a newspaper - Tricky to use, easy to dispose. Most of the dishes like rice bath, vada are prepared somewhere else and served here. Our food experience goes like this;

Bisibele Bath: Freshly out of their catering utensils, it was piping hot and very difficult to hold in hand. Upon tasting tiny first bite everyone's eyebrows raised and started mumbling Mmmmm unknowingly. In short - Bisibele Bath tasted like it came directly from heaven.

Masal Dosa: Every time I eat Masal Dosa, I usually compare it with legendary dosa restaurants. But in here, their Masal Dosa is completly from a different league. Even today when I remember it, I get mouthwatering feel. It was crispy, tasty and had an elegant texture. Aloo Palya was too good and the chutney provided a perfect combination. The taste was so good, I ended up having 3 dosas despite of my stomach’s plea to stop.

Masal Vade & Uddin Vade: After a long long time I tasted such perfect Uddin Vade, the ingredients were perfect and crispiness was worth a salute. On the other hand, Masal Vade was crunchy and the spice level was accurate. Loved these two snacks to the core.

Kesari Bath: It tasted good but not as great as other dishes. Four of us shared this dish as we were already full by other delicacies. I felt like sweetness of this dish is little more compared to standard restaurants in Bengaluru.

Chitranna: I just tasted few bites of it, I really regretted for not having enough space in my stomach for it. Though its commonly available dish in each and every corner in Karnataka, in here it felt so fresh and special. Aroma was nice and the sour and spiciness was balanced perfectly.

We really felt very happy and suffocation at the same time. Happy because we had such great delicacy & suffocation because we ate twice the limit of our tummy’s capacity like this is last breakfast we are getting before the world ends. Crazy but the quality of food justifies it. 

AMBIANCE

Its very very basic, you can’t expect any comfortable seating here. There are couple of wooden benches at a corner for those who like to sit and eat. Generally here people prefer stand-eat option. Whole place is not that huge but it can hold a decent crowd. At entrance, there is a cash counter and opposite to entrance they have food serving area.

SERVICE

They will be more than happy to serve you especially if they get to know that you’ve driven from Bengaluru to their Hotel. Sometimes they will suggest you to choose the dish. However, when it comes to billing, the things gets little messy. If you have a large gang, they miscalculate the number of items you ordered and they charge you more. So, you need to be clear and keep informing them as and when you take new dishes. 

Complex where Naani Hotel is situated

EVERYTHING ELSE: There is a huge space around this hotel which serves as a good parking space. Most of the customers to this restaurant are local villagers only and they start pouring in after 9AM. So, I would suggest you to be there by 8:00 AM and taste first bite of piping hot dishes. Apart from Dosa and Uddin Vada, they change their menu every day. They generally offer 2-3 extra special dishes on Sunday and during village festival season. Hygiene factor is satisfying considering  the fact that this hotel is situated in a village. There is no restroom here. They don’t serve coffee or tea, but there is a tea shop nearby which serves good coffee and tea.

FINAL VERDICT: Every mile you drove towards this hotel seems worthy once you taste their delicious hot Bisibele Bath and crispy Masal Dosa.  

BAKASURA RATING

4.5 / 5

EXPLORERS ACCOMPANIED ME:

• Sujay Krishna, Deepthi (Yamaha Fazer)
• Praveen, Sukrutha (Royal Enfield Bullet)
• Sudhakar, Dharani (Royal Enfield Bullet)

NEARBY PLACES TO EXPLORE:

1. Jain Temple, Devanahalli

2. Nandi Betta (Nandi Hills)


3. Sri Kailasagiri


4. Devanahalli Fort

Dock yourself for a Pirate themed dining experience : The Black Pearl, Koramangala

"Yes! There are pirates in here, but they serve you the tastiest food. Yes!! there is a ship here, but it will sail you to a great dining experience."

Ahoy! I’m writing about the best theme restaurant of Bengaluru -  “The Black Pearl” situated in the Koramangala 5th Block. It was an absolute pleasure to attend this pirate themed restaurant as a part of 48th FBAB’s Food Bloggers Meetup and to experience the most appreciated ambience in Bengaluru.

LOCATION: This restaurant is located at the heart of Koramangala on Jyothinivas College Road. Google Maps has the exact co-ordinates to this location and this restaurant is so popular it’s name pops up as first search result on ola & uber apps.

AMBIENCE

One of the best theme ambience I ever came across till date. The entire restaurant design has been inspired by the “The Black Pearl” -a fictional pirate ship filled with undead people from disney’s famous adventure series Pirates of the Caribbean. They have embedded the concept so perfectly to the restaurant that each and every corner speaks pirate language. May it be the furniture, vintage chandeliers, wall arts, bar crafted with bones or the buffet area everything has been crafted so well to give that feel of a pirate ship.  They have a mezzanine kind of place which is above the kitchen and called as ‘Captains Deck’, literally you will feel like you are at the top of the world once you enter this place. It's kind of open to air space. In here occasionally you might experience strong blast of cold wind from the large window which will literally make you to feel like you are on Ghost Ship and if you are weak hearted, you might get goosebumps too.

Upon entering the restaurant the reception area will grab your attention as its filled with many theme articles, photos, certificates of awards and wall decals. Then a minibar will welcome you to have a drink with bunch of undead pirates as your company. There is a live kitchen & salad with private seating arrangement on the other side of the bar. The main dining area has been divided into 3 sections; one for larger crowd which is located in the center of the restaurant and it has the buffet area, one for family & small groups which appears like pirates quarters with a small ship windows and the last but not least Captains Deck which is good for all kinds of crowd and it also holds desserts buffet.

Ambience will definitely convince that the perceptiveness of the management is very high and they have succeeded in creating a wonder. This restaurant has been awarded the International Star Award for Quality (ISAQ) by BID Group One in Geneva, for Business Innovation & Competitive Strategy during last september and they totally deserve it.

SERVICE

Very Very courteous… Their service is as good as their ambience. All stewards and managers were dressed like pirates. Their smiling attitude, quick response in addressing the issues, knowledge about the menu and of course caring kind of hospitality will definitely win your heart. Along with a great training it seems like they have learnt a lot from the experience. They encourage you a lot for the celebration and it never feels like they are intervening unnecessarily. Believe me, the stewards and managers will be an integral part your dining experience in here.

DRINKS

They have some decent collection of cocktails and mocktails. But the presentation of the drinks are too normal. I wish they would have served the drinks in such a way that it suits the ambiance. However we gulped the following drinks;

Screwdriver: One of the classic drink and first to make up to my table. This was Vodka based drink mixed with generous portion of orange juice. When I say ‘generous’ I literally mean it. Because the trace of vodka was too light. It was nothing more like a strong orange juice. However as I was not in mood of boozing I felt okay with this drink.

Daiquiri: It was rum based cocktail with perfect proportion of citrus. Just had two sips of this and I became a fan. It was really good.

Whiskey Sour: This whisky based cocktail was indeed Gulpers Pride. Generally, I have seen many restaurants and pubs adding egg white to this drink but thank god it was pure vegetarian here. Since I’m not a huge fan of whisky I just tasted it and I’m sure that it lives upto its name.

Tom Collins: An old school Gin based cocktail which is originated from America. Hardly I’ve seen this cocktail on the menu of many contemporary pubs in Bengaluru. However, it tasted as good as other drinks. I had a high expectation for this drink but yes, I think this is the best Tom Collins I ever tasted in Bengaluru.
Mocktails were equivalently nice. I had virgin mojito which was refreshing and felt heavenly. I also tried some litchi flavored drink which was brilliant.

FOOD

They offer a decent spread of buffet. I was quite happy with the factor that they have given equal priority to the vegetarian food as well. The centre of the attraction was their huge Masala papad, Tandoori Rotis and Naans. One Roti can easily satisfy a family.  Beside the huge Rotis and selfie attempts with those rotis they have a very good array of starters and main course;

BBQ Fruit Chat: They have grill pit on every table, exotic fruits like pineapple, watermelon, apple made upto our grill pit. They didn’t impressed me a lot as slices of fruits were too big and it didn’t burn well. On every bite juice use to come out of the fruit and use to ruin the BBQ taste. Still I tried to use pepper to compensate the taste but sadly it didn’t workout.

Kastoori Paneer Tikka: Sounds like a November special in Karnataka :-P Its texture was too good and the panner used in it was really soft. But the Kastoori Masala spread over it was not upto the mark. It was uneven and didn’t appealed much.

Methi Corn Tikka: It tasted great. The flavour of fenugreek (methi) was well blended with mashed corn. Not too spicy but perfect.

Potato Cheese Roll: Everyone's favorite of the evening. It was crispy and the vegetable fill with right amount of cheese was an invitation for temptation. I don’t know how many of these I managed to eat. Just loved it.

Sandhya Aloo: Its a version of cheese potato with generous portion of cheese. We ordered it couple of times as it tasted yummy.

Crispy Corn: Not so crispy! I liked the flavour but it didn’t appealed much of my taste buds as the crispiness of the corn was not up to the mark.

I was flattened by the taste of their main course dishes. Whether its Paneer Jahangiri, Kashmiri Kofta or Dal Makhani they were just perfect in terms of ingredients, quality and spice level. Star of the main course was ‘sarson ka saag’. OMG, it was brilliant. The smoothness of the dish was mind blowing. This is one of the fewest places in Bengaluru which serves tastiest Sarson ka Saag. Chef has been mastered in this dish.

If you are a diabetic better not to look at their Dessert buffet, you’ll end up grabbing each and every dessert like a kid. They have huge collection of desserts namely; Gulab Jamoon, White Chocolate Pastry, Butter scotch swiss roll, saffroni phirini, rose rasmalai, malai chocolate, papaya halwa, sweet lolly pops, vanilla lolly pop, fruits and ice cream.

Their Pirate Chocolate and Pirate flower desserts became my favourite. If you wish, you can end your dining session with Pan Pudding which is again a great art by itself. Each and every dessert is worth prising but it would be better if you experience it by yourself.



EVERYTHING ELSE: They do have live music, at first I thought it was karaoke later I realized that some professionals were singing. There is no dance floor in here, so you must limit yourself to your table surrounding if you hear a great song.  They have valet parking and decent parking space for two wheeler. Hygiene has been maintained well everywhere.
They offer you the pirate caps and believe me, you can have loads of fun posing for selfies with it. We made lots of videos and enjoyed being pirate in the Black pearl.


FINAL VERDICT: Ambience is the major factor for which I recommend this place. As an added pro their food and service is equivalently fantastic. Just visit there to experience a great evening in pirate style. AHOY!!!

BAKASURA RATING

4.5 / 5

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Event Organised by;

GALLERY

        Gulab Jamoon

Paan Pudding