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

A Wonderful Pizza Gallery : Whooppeez Pizza, Koramangala

Pizza, it's one of my favorite food & been part of my regular diet from past 12 years. And when FBAB organized it's 16th Bloggers meetup in whooppeezz how can I say no! Winter's Sunday afternoon was just perfect to try out new culinary expertise on my favorite food.

Located in a prime location at Koramangala, whooppeezz offer almost everything a pizza lover would expect.

AMBIANCE: Once you enter into the whooppeezz premises, you feel like you have entered the word of pizza. Though their in-house branding is basic, you'll surely love it's beauty of simplicity. Some cheesy wacky words cover walls & particularly a decal with a group of characters makes you to think about yourself. It has a decent seating arrangements and can easily house weekend crowd. Service counter is located in the center and it has huge windows which provides a good glimpse of kitchen. Over all ambiance is like classic retro themed. Simple yet brilliant!

SERVICE: I must say, they have dedicated work force. There is a reason for using such strong description. During our meet up we spilled drinks and dropped pizzas on table/floor many times, but within seconds they use clean it in disguise. We never noticed how and when they managed to clean it up. Even they acted to professionally while delivering pizza from kitchen to table. Each time they delivered pizza on time without making us to wait. And they were strictly wearing head cap while entering the kitchen. In one word the service was delightful.

PIZZA: They have some exotic array of pizza in their menu which will surely bring out child in you. I'm sure because I grabbed slices from each and every pizza they offered and enjoyed it without minding about others :P

Nachos

But first it's about appetizers, breaking the conventional tradition they presented us Nachos with cheese & salsa dips. Nachos were extremely good and crispy and it went well with cheese. But salsa could have been better with little more tangy twist. Then comes cheese Garlic bread. It was nice. They also had option of mushroom topping for the garlic bread.







Then begins the festival of pizza...

Hawaiian Fusion: Aaah! It was pure tropical delight. This pizza had thin crust with moderately added cheese with tomato sauce. Fresh pineapple and jalapeño chunks with little twist of chili flakes created a wonderful experience to my taste buds. Just loved it.

Paneer Fanatico: True it's origin, this pizza had thin crust. Paneer used as topping in this pizza was slightly spiced with some kind of herbs I guess. It gave brilliant taste with its soul mate capsicum. I never tasted such a different taste of paneer before. Too good.

Eggizza: Here comes the surprise! To be frank, I'm not such a big fan of egg and rarely I taste egg. But I must admit, appearance of this pizza tempted me so much I ended up having two slices of it. In general egg tastes odd with cheese, but hats off to the inventor of this pizza it tasted so perfect with the side kick of black olives & cocktail sauce. It's not just a pizza, it's a fine art indeed!

THE veg WHOOPPEEZZOO: Clearly it's their Bazooka to hunt down the guest! I have tried many cheese burst, double chesse, cheesy delights, bla bla bla in many other Pizza restaurants. But Whooppeezz's WHOOPPEEZZO stands above all. They also call it as double-Decker in general, it has layer crust containing generous amount of cheese in between layers  on top with exotic veg toppings. No matter how hard you try you'll surely end up spilling cheese out of your mouth. It's a real adventure to have whole pizza by an individual!

Veg Explotica: Veggie lovers will surely love this pizza. It's full of vegetables like capsicum, olives, jalapeño, sundried tomato & onion with barbeque sauce. It's definitely a rich veg pizza.

BBQ Bonanza: Though it has similar toppings compared to other popular pizza, each topping has a different story behind it before being on top of this pizza, Panner has been barbequed to the perfection & capsicum has been roasted. It really enhances the taste entirely in a different way.

Tandoori Paneer: By the it arrived, we had lot of pizzas which had paneer toppings. Since paneer tasted differently in each pizza, I tried a small slice. Yes! It tasted more tasty and exotic than other.
I really admire the chef for his/her creativity and effort in giving different twists to taste of similar toppings each time. Truly a bravo!

Cremelicious Pasta

PASTA & DESSERTS: I got mixed feeling about their pasta. Some of them were too good but some were just okay. While "Cremelicious Pasta" tasted too good with its buttery buttery taste  mild flavor, "Arrabbiata Pasta" tasted just okay as I felt it lacked the tangy-ness and the flavor of tomato was too much. May be those wonderful pizza had set my taste standards too high to handle this pasta. ;)



When it comes to desserts, they have very few options. But each one will certainty justify the climax of your dining experience.

Tre Leche was a kind of Milky cake. I had it before in a Delhi restaurant with wine dip. But here it was more spongy and they serve it with condensed milk and cake is topped with lite layer of cream & choco chips. It's really nice dessert.

Chocolate Pizza, kids will surely love this. Got chocolate spread evenly across the pizza with the topping option of gems or almond flakes. Even the edge of crust is filled with chocolate. It's really hard to resist such great dessert even if you have diabetes!

Caramel Shots, nowadays desserts in the form of shots are getting popular and whooppeezz is definitely getting along with that trend. Layers of cream, chocolate & caramel was feast for both eyes and taste buds.






EVERYTHING ELSE: Hygiene has been maintained well across the restaurant. Since it is located in a busy street, parking could be difficult for both two & four wheeler. They have a selfie corner with many fun gears, just grab one take a wacky selfie!

FINAL VERDICT: This restaurant is great option for those who are tired of traditional pizza outlets. Once you taste their pizza for sure you will build up a fondly relationship with Whooppeezz. Hope they come up with more outlets soon.

BAKASURA RATING

4.5 / 5

FIND IT ON ZOMATO

EXPERTS VIEW

Naveen Suresh, Food Blogger

More Coming Soon...

Event Organised by:            

GALLERY:

Ambiance

Selfie Corner

Ambiance

Packaging

Cheese Garlic Bread

Cheese Garlic Bread with Mushroom Topping

 

Chocolate Pizza with Almond Topping

Arrabiatta Pasta

Romantic outdoor dining experience : Bayleaf Restaurant Bar, Koramanagala

I never thought that such an exotic place is located at ground floor of Raheja Arcade. In the recent times Koramangala has become hub of fine dine restaurants, breweries and multi-cuisines restaurants. Bayleaf is just another star among them.

Since Zomato awarded me with a voucher and as it was last date of voucher we made plans to visit this restaurant though it's bit far from home. We located it very easily and dedicated parking space in such a traffic bustling vicinity added extra delight.

AMBIANCE: Though it's located in a building which looks very old, they have completely given modern touch to their restaurant. In the whole building this restaurant part appears like it has came from a different time. However, ambiance is truly wonderful. They have open air outside seating and air-conditioning seating. Naturally cultivated green fence separates outdoor seating from the koramangala main road. Since it was week day evening it had only few guests. So, we decided to sit at outdoor without worrying about smokers! Our choice was great, we had complete privacy and enjoyed light drizzle!

SERVICE: Honestly, I didn't liked their service. At the beginning manager took great interest and helped out in choosing a seat, soon after I presented the voucher everything changed dramatically. First thing which irritated me was manager started to educate (literally) me about how to place order. I don't know what he was thinking. Second thing, they assigned a trainee / inexperienced steward to us. Our steward use to drop food all over table while serving. Also that manager enquired about the voucher twice in middle of our dining (like how & when you got that voucher, who awarded it, etc) Fed up with his questions I told him that I'm ready to pay the bill without any discounts. Thereafter he didn't asked any questions. Ill-treating a potential guest threw away all other good factors about this restaurant in my views.

FOOD: I must say, food was really great. At the beginning we ordered tamatar dhaniya shorbha which had true taste of its flavors. It's been a while since I tasted true tomato essence in soup and every sip of this shorba had true tomato puree in it. Just loved it.

We ordered corn pepper chat to accompany mocktails. It was not that much crispy as it must be. However taste was good and it went well with mocktails.

Then we jumped to main course by ordering Paneer Kurchan with Butter Roti & Naan. Paneer Kurchan was extraordinary. Paneer was perfect, the light sour taste in the background blended well with tangy taste of gravy. It was indeed a perfect harmony between spices. Butter Roti & Naan were good as usual. They must work on presentation of food in order to make food more appealing.

Purple Glaze

DRINKS: In between we ordered mocktails namely Cinderella & Purple Glaze. Purple Glaze is my all time favorite. But here it tasted quite lite. I never tried Cinderella before. It was too good or beautiful just like it's name.

EVERYTHING ELSE: Locating washroom is like a treasure hunt it's not easily visible, outdoor seating arrangement is bit tricky. Since space between the tables are not even, it appears like a maze of you want come out of it. Hygiene has been maintained well all over the restaurant.

I'm rating this restaurant considering the great ambiance & for excellent effort of chef. If service was good, I would have rated this restaurant 4.5!

FINAL VERDICT: In my views it's one of the best place to take your date with you... Provided if service factor improves distinctively in future.

Tamatar Dhaniya Shorba

Corn Pepper Chat

Cinderella (Mocktail)

Paneer Kurchan

Roti & Butter Naan

BAKASURA RATING :

3.5 / 5

FIND IT ON ZOMATO

EXPERT VIEWS :
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