Grub Tales-1

Underrated food spots across Bangalore where my wife & I have had the best dishes!

1. Ode

Tucked away on the 3rd floor of a nondescript building in Hosa Road, this joint is easy to miss. We came here searching for a restaurant but we got was more of a laid back cafe. Or actually a cloud kitchen with a few chairs and tables that seemed to have been picked up at a garage sale. With half a mind to walk away, we gave in to the other half that wanted to try the interesting dishes on the menu placed on the counter, which literally was like a Rolodex of food items!

We started off with a Basque Cheesecake slice, while we waited for the main dishes to be prepared. The minute the first bite went in, we were hooked! So good, we ordered a second slice and a Pavlova with an amazing meringue. The restaurant, pronounced Odi bdw, has very obvious European influences in its dishes. Next up was Khachapuri, a Georgian boat shaped sourbread. My wife loved the fresh sourbread, while I enjoyed the egg topping we chose for it and the cream sauce filling. We finished off the meal with a fresh veggie pizza, which was alright.

The overall experience was good enough to warrant two more visits on other occasions!

We tried their Korean buns which was oozing with cream cheese, yummy Poached Turkish Eggs, Cajun pasta and delicious hot chocolate. Of course, the Basque Cheesecake made its way to our belly on both occasions!

Give it a try and let me know your review!

2. Spettacolare

The word means Spectacular in Italian. Pretty apt for an Italian restaurant with fab food, I'd say!

If you are a food noob like me, the menu can throw you off. The only Italian dishes I knew of were pasta, pizza and spaghetti and a few variants of course within these categories. Spettacolare introduces you to a whole universe of Italian dishes like the Gnudi, Gnocchi, Risotto and much more and each of these comes with a few additional options, enough to confuse you further! But the food, oh, let's just say is Che buono!

The restaurant features an open pasta making bay besides the seating area. The view of the chefs making the pasta or kneading the Pinsa (pizza) dough is enough to salivate you and make you hungry. The ambience otherwise is pretty busy, with a long queue of hungry folks peering at you from the glass walls, while they wait for their table and a ton of background chatter from other tables which are all just a few steps away from each other.

As is customary with my wife, we started off with Dolci, which literally means sweets. In other words, dessert! The crispy Cannoli and coffee Tiramisu blew our minds. We then had a classic Bruscheta and Gnudi with sage & brown butter sauce for the Antipasti, appetizers for us noobs! The fresh Ciabatta bread of the Bruscheta with varied toppings and the delicious Ricotta cheese of the Gnudi set us up well for the main course, which was a Carbonara pasta. The fried mushrooms, eggs and an amazing creamy sauce meshed well together with the hand made pasta. The aftertaste is something you will carry long after you have left the restaurant.

Next time you are in Indiranagar, pop over to Spettacolare and let me know what you think.