I used to be a thin, scrawny girl who didn’t care much about food and found it difficult to finish meals at restaurants. Somewhere along the meandering path of my life, I seem to have become a foodie. I’m still not a voracious eater, nor do I consume copious amounts of food, but I have come to appreciate a wide variety of cuisines and developed a palate for the different. The different usually means it can’t be found at home. The different means restaurants 🙂
I come from a family that believed in going to a different restaurant every weekend and we rarely went back to a restaurant before 4 months. Fortunately for me, my friends are similar and enjoy going to different places every time. In fact the thought of going to the same place EVERY weekend seems almost nightmarish to me!
My restaurant discovery took a back seat once the family obtained two bratty little boys, automatically removing several fine dining places from our list of restaurants. But that has changed in Bangalore where I’ve had many opportunities to explore restaurants and indulge in some excellent food.
This is going to be an attempt to record my many restaurant experiences in the city of gardens (of which one lies close to a restaurant I shall talk about soon.)
Cafe Thulp
I started the gastronomic journey in Bangalore with Cafe Thump and so I have decided to talk about it first, even before some of my more regular haunts.
I first discovered this delightful eatery in Koramangala last year when I was in town for a friend’s wedding. With a completely nondescript board, tucked away next to an equally nondescript garment’s store, Cafe Thulp offers a delight to the true gourmand. The interiors have been done up in a simple but striking manner, with bright red Manga style sketches on the walls and simple tables and chairs. In one corner hangs a shiny red car, which had me as fascinated as my nephews will be when I take them to this place. Since the place is open through the day and attract youngsters, the owners encourage people to linger over their meals, reading from a selection of second-hand books stacked on a shelf in a corner or playing board games with friends, also provided by the Cafe.
Cafe Thulp has something for everyone. The menu offers an eccentric mix of salads, sandwiches, pastas and burgers. Burgers are their specialty as I have observed during my two visits, but have yet to experience for myself. On my first visit, I was introduced to their scrumptious nem (spring) rolls, which are available in chicken and pork. The spring rolls come with lettuce leaves, which you are supposed to wrap around the roll, and then dip into this amazingly heavenly sauce. Oh, how could I forget, before the spring rolls, I shared a gigantic bowl of Tom Yum soup: hot, spicy and delicious. I had tears in my eyes and was sniffing rather noisily by the time I finished my share of the soup and that’s the only time I’ve had something that spicy. I wouldn’t have, had it not been as delicious.
For the main course, I selected a Thai chicken salad, which was prepared in a delightful sauce with some pieces of raw mango thrown in. The mix of sweet, sour and spicy made it an adventure for my palate and one of the best salads I’ve ever had. The portions are very generous so by the time I finished my salad I was stuffed, as were my friends, but how could we end the meal without some dessert? My friends being complete chocoholics (and not as adventurous as me when it comes to desserts) chose some chocolate pastries, which left us all making semi-orgasmic sounds! It was time to pay the bill and I expected a reasonably high amount, considering the amount of food we’d consumed. Much to my surprise I paid less than 500 for the meal! Needless to say, I went back when I came back to the city 6 months later…and left just as satisfied this time.
Cafe Thulp should not be missed, especially if you are a foodie and have a good appetite.
Location: 998, 1st Main, 1st Block, Koramangala
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 (my only grudge being the music, which was a little too loud for my taste)
PlainGeets 