The Grill House, Bangalore

It’s been long since I wanted to visit the much heard about ‘The Grill House’ and finally on one weekend of April, 3 of us decided to visit the restaurant for a Tex-Mex dinner.  The restaurant has a very rustic feel with a lot of wood used in its décor. Thought being located on a very busy road, being inside the restaurant seems like an escape from the city’s traffic filled noisy roads.

Menu:

Specializing in Tex-Mex food, the menu was vast with a very good range of starters, salads, steaks, sizzlers, Mexican delicacies, burgers, sandwiches and desserts to choose from. The menu has separate sections of listing and caters well to both the vegetarians and the non-vegetarians. The Grill House also boasts of a well-stocked bar which we did not explore on this night.

What we ate:

Our food comprised of one vegetarian – Cottage Cheese Shashlik, non-vegetarian included a chicken steak and a king fish steak; both of which were requested to be served as a sizzler.

All sizzlers come plated with butter-boiled veggies, Mexican flavored rice and mashed potato. Both fish and chicken sizzler arrived on our table at the same time. At first, the lack of/minimal sauce on both the sizzlers took us by surprise leaving a puzzled look on our faces. The restaurant staff was quick to answer the puzzle. The very next moment, the pepper sauce for the chicken steak and an herbed lemon butter sauce for the king fish steak was brought in sauce boat (meant for serving sauces). Apparently, this is how it is served at The Grill House.

The chicken steak sizzler was quite nice. The sauce had a nice flavor, the rice was mildly flavored with Mexican herbs, mashed potatoes and boiled veggies were fresh and moist.

The King Fish steak sizzler was 2 big pieces of sear fish and rest of the works. This dish was quite disappointing for (1) the herbed lemon butter sauce was quite tangy to taste with an over powering flavor of lemon, (2) the fish which per the information from the staff was supposed to be boneless had its fair share of bones and (3) the fish didn't seem fresh and was also quite dry possibly due to over cooking.

The cottage cheese shashlik too failed to excite our taste buds. O.M.G! An overdose of vinegar in the barbecue sauce smothered over the cottage cheese cubes.

Verdict:

Apart from the initial glitches in service; I must admit that the service was quite nice. The staff was quite responsive, attentive and prompt in service. They were knowledgeable about the food being served and willing to help with suggestions.

While the portions of food are humongous the taste was fine but far from the WOW Factor!! Some interiors required attention to address the wear and tear; especially the sofas we sat on.

With no sign board visible, we parked the car ourselves. Only after dinner did it come to our knowledge that valet service existed with the sign board placed on the side of the building. Poor placement I must say.

For what we ate; accompanied by a non-alcoholic beverage we ended up paying around Rs. 1200.

Quick Tips:

Go if around Ulsoor.

Address: 8/6 Kensington Point, Ulsoor Road, Opp. Gurudwara, Bangalore

Phone Number: +91 80 40977011

10 Downing Street, Hyderabad

We were on the final day of our holiday at Hyderabad and after lazing around in the morning we drove down to 10 Downing Street for lunch. The plan to visit this resto-pub for lunch on a Sunday had always been on our radar since the time we decided upon going to Hyderabad. 10 Downing Street is a resto-pub/night club with its footprints spread across 10 cities of India. Does the expansion stop at the number 10? I hope not..

Menu:

Sundays at 10 Downing Street are special. They have a special a la carte brunch menu which includes Indian, chinese, Italian and continental classics. What makes it special is what it has to offers – every main course dish ordered comes paired with a beverage of our choice and is also followed by a dessert of the day. Of course; the beverage selection offered as a part of this brunch combo is limited to a select few alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

What we ate:

My wife and I having arrived there early decided to get started with a drink. As we waited for the rest of the group to arrive, my wife sipped Cherry Martini and I settled for a pint of beer. 

Not too long later, the rest of our group arrived and with the order placed; we were on our way to a culinary feast. Drinks were served on our table. We sipped our drinks while conversing rather planning about where and when our next trip would be. 

‘Kung Pao vegetables with shezwan rice’ was the first to arrive; with the rest following in quick successions. The Kung Pao vegetables was delicious and was all cleaned up with the accompanying shezwan fried rice. 

The next two preferred dishes were Chinese too. One was shredded chicken in hot garlic sauce and the other was chicken in Hunan sauce with veg. fried rice and butter garlic noodles respectively. Both of these dishes tasted good.

Shredded Chicken in hot garlic sauce served with veg. fried rice

Chicken in Hunan sauce served with butter garlic noodles

Moving on from Chinese, we had fish & chips on our table. Fried fillets of fish came along with a slice of toasted garlic bread, tartar sauce, boiled vegetables and potato wedges. The fish tasted fresh and the batter coating on the fish was nice and crisp. 

Next arrived, a chicken steak drowned in mushroom sauce and garlic bread and boiled veggies on the side. The sauce was nice and flavorful and the chicken was succulent and tender. The bread was just toasted and had no hint of garlic flavor while the boiled veggies were fine.

The vegetarians on our table also called for an Italian dish, the name of which I do not seem to recollect. I did not try this either but the buzz on our table was this dish tasted heavenly. Heavenly; is what it seemed, going by the pace with which this dish was all cleaned up.

In desserts we were served a scoop of vanilla/strawberry ice cream each.

Verdict:

On the service front, there were both strengths and weak links visible. Their strength was in quick service. In spite of being full house, our order was brought to our table in about 15 minutes. The food was served hot and fresh. The biggest disappointment for us on the service front was being serving an incorrect dish in the name of another; yet not accepting this mistake. 

10 Downing Street had a nice ambiance, plush interiors, and lots of polished wood; giving its patrons a feel of an English pub. The bar counter looked elegant. There was a good mix of crowd which included groups of friends, families, couples and business associates. In all, we had a good time listening to some good English numbers, sipping the well made drinks and not going by authenticity, the good food that’s for sure to leave you satisfied. I definitely look forward to coming back here when in town again; not just for Sunday brunch but also for their weekend night events. 

Though located in a shopping complex, the restaurant provides for valet parking which can be availed by driving up to the valet counter placed by 10 Downing Street. 

We ate all this and paid just a little less than Rs. 2000 which is a steal for a place like 10 Downing Street. Bangalore... Take Note..

Address: 10, Ground Floor, My Home Tycoon, Lifestyle Building, Begumpet, Hyderabad

Phone Number: 040 - 66629323

Millers 46, Bangalore

2 of our friends were relocating bases in a gap of 2 weeks. One was relocating to Mumbai and the other to Vancouver, Canada. We had one meet up at Boca Grande for a continental breakfast and this time we met for dinner and our pick was Miller’s 46. Being a weekend, and since the restaurant runs full house, we decided to make a reservation over the phone while we headed there. In spite of being given a heads up that we might end up waiting, we did not change our venue. While we waited, we looked around the place which is spread across 2 levels. The ambiance is really nice and has a very Texas feel to it. 

Menu:

We were seated by the bar and provided with an option to place our order if we wished as steaks and sizzlers take a good 20 minutes to arrive. Fantastic! We were anyway getting hungrier with every passing minute. The menu was presented to us in a cow boy hat shaped card. We get a lot to choose from – burgers and sandwiches, Tex – Mex starters, steaks, sizzlers, desserts. The menu was very impressive with a lot of options available for vegetarians to choose from and I must say; the non vegetarians will drool as they glance through the menu.

What we ate:

On this night, vegetarians outnumbered us non-vegetarians. The score stood at 4:2 and for this reason, I will begin with the 3 items on the menu that grabbed the attention of my vegetarian friends. One was Grilled Veg. Ratatouille, another was Millers Mix veg. Grill and the third was grilled veg. Steak. For non-vegetarian, I placed an order for both my friend - who joined us late but well in time for being seated on a table and myself. So, Jamaican jerk steak and much heard about 46ers half pounder chicken burger it was.

Once seated on the table, hunger could no longer be pacified. We were almost immediately served complimentary baskets of assorted breads with delicious herbed butter. What must I say? It only whet our appetites for the scrumptious food that was to arrive soon.

Millers mix veg. Grill came sizzling; piled with a variety of ingredients. This sizzler was a mix bag of velvety smoothness of the spaghetti, crispiness of the veg. fritters, creamy croquettes, the soft cottage cheese/paneer with a crunchy coating and the lovely butter-boiled vegetables.

Grilled veg. Steak was platted with herbed Mexican rice and butter-boiled vegetables, a nice big patty put together with minced vegetables and mashed potato; topped with mushroom sauce. Rice flavoring was perfect, spice levels of the mushroom sauce and veg. steak was well balanced and the portion was more than sufficient for one person.

The grilled veg. ratatouille was not of the most impressive looking dish; but someone has said it right, “Looks can be deceptive.” This dish was totally fabulous, packed with a lot of flavor and arrived at our table with toasted garlic bread. Superb!

Coming to non-vegetarian, a humongous ‘46ers half pounder chicken burger’ as it is called made itself available with a side of French fries and coleslaw. Just a look at it and a friend asked in astonishment, “How the hell does one eat this big a burger?”  In between the bun was, lettuce, sliced cucumber and tomato, sautéed herbed vegetables like green peppers, onion, grilled, juicy and succulent chicken breast topped with a slice of cheese. 

The Jamaican jerk steak was a fantastic looking chicken breast drowned in pepper sauce served along with herbed rice and boiled-buttered veggies. We missed mashed potatoes and without wasting any time called for a portion of it. The chicken was nice and moist. The sauce was spicy and flavorful (just the way I like it). While the herbed rice was really nice, I would any day choose mashed potatoes with the meat when having it from a sizzler plate.

A Chilled bottle of ‘Miller High Life’ beer was a perfect accompaniment to the awesome food that was being devoured by us.

Verdict:

We were a good mix of first time visitors and frequent visitors. In no time, we were pitting this restaurant against other steak houses in Bangalore. No surprise, each of us loved the food so much that we declared it as the finest steak and sizzler place in Bangalore.

The service was excellent. The staff knew their menu well and was very cordial in their communication. Even with the restaurant being packed full house, there was not a moment we felt we were unattended to. Food, as must be; was brought sizzling hot to our table.

Parking is our own responsibility; the restaurant does not offer valet parking. Finding parking on Millers road can sometimes be a task. However, the by-lanes always come to our rescue.

An average meal for 2 with a couple of drinks, 2 mains and a dessert to share comes at about Rs. 1500.

Quick Tips:

A good idea would be to verify the waiting period over the phone before heading to Millers 46. On weekends, be prepared to wait to be seated especially if you happen to visit the restaurant for dinner post 9 PM.

Address: #46, Millers Road, Vasanthnagar, Bangalore

Phone Number: 080 - 41148022, 41131740/6