Aug 23, 2006 05:30 PM
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“Aaja Gufaon mein aa… Aaja Gunha Karle”
Well, I haven’t changed into some tribal cave woman or something (just in case you did notice that I was missing in action for a week plus and you wondered what if?). I know there is NO reason whatsoever for you guys to think that I have, but then just making sure.
The song is just a residual effect of my latest visit to a theme restaurant inBangalore called Gufha. Located near 3rd Block circle, Jayanagar, it is this area’s first hep Non-Sagar restaurant. Gufha is one of the restaurants at President Hotel owned by Pai Viceroy Hotels which are popular in Bangalore.
I recently went there with DIL (dad in law), a pal and her 5 year old son for an early dinner since the over active kiddo burns out his energy and tends to get sleepy by around 10pm tops. Located on the 5th floor of the hotel as you move from a brightly lit lobby to a fairly lit elevator the impact on getting out at the dark landing is tremendous.
The interiors are as the name suggests, like a cave with low and uneven ceiling that looks like stone. As soon as get in, you see a statue holding a simple hurricane lamp showing you the way in.
The entire interiors go along with the gufa theme with tiger print upholstery, elephant shaped tissue holders and waiters dressed like jungle ward officers with khaki uniforms, hats and knee length boots. The cutlery and glasses are copper adding to the rustic touch. If you look around you will see scorpions on some walls, a bee hive hanging from another and then you might just hear a bird chirp somewhere. Kids just love this ambience and the kiddo with us went ballistic too. As soon as we were seated, got the regular paani and huge menu cards to choose our food from.
The restaurant serves North Indian food that has kebabs, tandoori stuff, subzis, ghost and rotis and parathas. We ordered a regular sweet corn soup for the ghaas-phoos eaters and lamb paya for the carnivores. The lamb paya here is a must have with its fiery taste a succulent lamb. For starters they have a fairly large variety of kebabs and salads. We ordered a simple tandoori baby aloo which tasted yummy with the green chutney and a chicken salad which with its sweet n spicy taste was perfect!
The main course was simple with makai-palak, aloo-chicken and dal-makhni. The quality of main course was just about average. The palak was a tad sour, the chicken too bland (though accompanied with another spicy dish, it will do just fine). The dal was really good and kind of made up for rest of the fare.
We had no appetite for desserts, so no idea about that. They also serve alcohol and some creative mocktails that look as nice as they sound.
A meal for two including mocktails, starters and main course should set you back by around Rs.600-Rs.800.
The place is definitely on the more expensive side and the quantity of veg starters compared to prices is too less (the tandoori aloo cost us 115 bucks and had like 12 tiny aloos in it!), but their quality is definitely a plus. Where as it’s the reverse for the main course, the quantity really good, but the quality needs to be worked on. They also need to reduce the number of tables, since they are placed too close for comfort and privacy. The service is warm and quick.
Yet all in all, the ambience and the spread definitely makes it a MUST visit place. Please make sure you make reservations before you go since it’s really crowded throughout the week also. You can call 41808777 for reservations.
And if the entire thing makes you go wild, just blame it on the caveman in you!
