Hakuna Matata - No worries, No problems Restobar

JP's Score Card: Taste - 4/5, Service - 4/5, Ambience - 4/5, Value for money - 3.5/5

Hakuna Matata - Resto bar

'Hakuna Matata' is a phrase from swahili language and means 'no worries, no trouble'. The phrase 'Hakuna Matata' got popularized from the movie 'The Lion King 1994' Youtube Hakuna Matata song from Lion King.This name is what that attracted us to try out this restaurant. 

We were 6 people and it was get together of colleagues after a long time. We decided to meet at this place around 6pm. I called up the restaurant for booking, they told us we could walk in. All of us reached by 6:15pm, we were offered a table in the first floor terrace area. People had just started coming in. Found the place to be pretty huge, I guess it could seat about 500+ people at a time, it has ample parking area for two wheeler and cars as well.

Ground Floor seating area

1st floor Terrace seating area

Now let me talk about whole experience right from ordering to till the time we left.

Drinks (4/5)
We started by ordering mocktails, cocktails and starters, cocktails was prepared well. We ordered Singapore Sling,Tequila Sunrise, Pinacolada, Mojito, Margarita, Budweiser beer

Starters - 4/5
For the starters we ordered Prawn ghee roast, Tangdi Kabab, Chicken Tikka, Lat-Mei Kai, Veg kabab platter, Paneer Manchurian, Gobi Manchurian, Masala papad, groundnut masala. Starters was very tasty, we ordered some of them based on the service team recommendation. Some of them had enough quantity, while some of  them quantity was very less. I liked Prawn ghee roast but the quantity was less, Lat-Mei Kai, one the Chinese starters was very tasty and had enough quantity. Quantity of chicken tikka was less while rest of them was good.

Main course - 4/5
We then started ordering our main course like 1 hour later into our get-together. By now we were almost full. We ordered 4 Garlic Naan, 2 Tandoori Roti, Dal Fry, Kolapuri Veg Masala, Jeera Rice. I liked the Garlic Naan, one of the best naans and Jeera rice was our favorite with Dal Fry

Desserts - 3.5/5 
For the Desserts we ordered Deep Fried ice cream, Buttermilk, Kulfi. Deep Fried ice cream had a very thin layer of fried bread crumbs, it had vanilla ice cream.

Overall drinks and food was satisfactory experience...

Service experience Now talking about service, service was pretty good, our orders came pretty and think, the service team served us well. They have enough people on the service team to take care of your orders, serving, clearing up your table.

Ambience The resto-bar is massive, they seem to cater to all kinds of settings, there is open terrace area with candle-lit dinner tables, ground floor covered area, terrace area. Music was not great, wish they could good get some good collection of music. They could add live music and DG could make it much more happening, TVs were missing as well

Value for money Found this place to be little on the costlier side, sometimes there was enough quantity and price was justified but some items quantity was less and not enough for the price like chicken tikka had only 4 pieces. Jeera rice was enough.

Overall it is very good place, recommend this place to hang out with friends, colleagues and family. Nice food with wide variety on their menu, bar menu is good. 

Mylari Dosa - Legendary Dosa

(By Jayaprakash)

History – 5/5 Taste – 5/5, Service – 3/5, Ambience – 3/5, Value for money – 4/5

Great History: I wanted to find out the origins of Mylari dosa and what is the history behind it. I am always intrigued by history of food, any great food is always associated with great history and goes through test of time before gaining legendary status. Mylari dosa is one such dish. For any Dosa fan, Mylari dosa is kind of legend. There has always been the question as to which is the original Mylari. I did bit of my research and following is the summary of my findings. To clarify, there are actually two Mylari hotels in Mysore. One goes by Hotel Mylari and other is called Original Vinayaka Mylari. Both claim to be the original Mylari dosa points and that there are no branches.

Mylari hotel is supposed have 80 years of history. It seems the world famous Mysore Masala dosa has its origins from this place. Hotel Original Vinayaka Mylari’s owner Mr. Chandrashekar says this hotel was started by his grandmother and he is continuing its legacy.

Hotel Mylari, Old Original Mylari’s owner Mr. N Rajashekar says, his father N Mylareshwara Swamy started Mylari hotel about 80 years ago and he was original inventor of Mylari dosa recipe. It seems both are brothers. The dosa recipe has been family guarded secret for over 80 years now. The place is also known to be frequented by celebrities & politicians. My research is based on the literature survey of articles, media report and videos published so far, enclosed in the references section.  I have not personally interviewed the current owners. Would like to do so in future. If any readers have more details about history, please feel free to comment on my blog with reference. I would be happy to make revisions. This non-descript place has had its fair share of media attention, it has got mention in BBC, NDTV, India mirror, Deccan herald etc. It is highly rated in zomato and TripAdvisor. Original Vinayaka Mylari has higher rating compared to Hotel Mylari.

Taste: They serve only Masala dosa, Idli and filter coffee. There is no menu card. I had been to Hotel Mylari earlier and this time I wanted to try the Vinayaka mylari. I had my mum and dad with me. All of us ordered Masala dosa in our first round, Masala dosa served here is very different from the Masala dosa that we are so used to with red chutney, aloo palya. Here Masala dosa is served folded with vegetable sagu inside, with a daloop of butter on the top, alongside coconut chutney. The dosa is crisp on outside and soft on inside, it just melts in your mouth. You just cannot stop at one, we ordered another round of dosa for myself & dad and Idli for my mum. Idli is fine as well, but dosa is the king. Finally we finished our breakfast with filter coffee. I could see that they cook on wood fire, I guess this could one another reason for the authentic taste. Wood fire with its smoky flavour is always known to enhance flavour of food in its own unique ways.

Service: Food service is quick, there would be one guy asking around for order and pat comes the dosas. This place does not have a proper rest room, we were asked to go upstairs behind the hotel which is actually house attached to the restaurant. Hand wash is a small basin inside the kitchen. The place does not score very high on hygiene and cleanliness.

Ambience: Not much of ambience, it is small place which can seat about 20 people at any time.

Value for money: Each dosa cost about Rs. 40, our final bill was about Rs. 300 which is real value for money for decent breakfast.

Final verdict: This is much visit place for any Dosa lovers. I highly recommend for any dosa lover and even for not dosa lover to get converted into one from here. However owners could do bit more to improve the hygiene and cleanliness. Coming to who is original Mylari, I have tried both the places. In terms of food taste, they both are same. Considering both belong to same family, you can try either and claim to have had mylari dosa. It is norm to tell people that we had mylari dosa at Mysore. Happy dosa eating, while I find another restaurant with great history to blog about.

References:

http://www.indianmirror.com/culture/indian-specialties/Mysoremasaladosa.html

https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/mysores-mylari-dosa-is-not-what-youd-expect-1754252

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/86899/brand-mylari-simple-cripsy-dosas.html

https://www.quora.com/Where-do-we-get-best-dosa-in-Mysore

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36891435

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx8tUpCSp5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90PUOS3-SJA

Iyer Mess - One which Stood Mess of Time

(By Jayaprakash)

My rating: Taste - 4/5, Service - 4/5, Ambience - 4/5, Value for money - 4/5

Prelude

When I last visited Iyer mess, it was way back in 2004, nearly 13 years back, since then it has stood the test of time and umpteen other eateries that has mushroomed. Malleswaram is the home of many legendary vegetarian restaurants and Iyer mess is no less legendary. It is located in one of the non-descript residential buildings Near Devi Prasad Home Appliances at 7^th cross near the market road. It is can be easily missed if you are not looking for it. Enter the Iyer mess, it gives you feeling of home. It is actually a residential house with the hall serving as the dining area. It does not have much of ambience to offer, but I really liked the place since it gives the feeling of eating at home or marriage hall. I am fond of places were food is served on banana / Plantain leaf like in south Indian marriages. Hence I have rated the Ambience as 4/5. It has steel tables just like in marriages as well.

Service - 4/5

Let me talk about the service, we were two people myself and my dad. I choose a table for two, it had two long banana leaves placed and steel tumbler. The service started by first serving water, service is quick. It is handled by one elderly gentleman, the owner lady and two service boys. This elderly gentleman usually comes and pokes you on the shoulder and asks if I need anything…now don’t you think that is how you are served at home… I liked it, I like these places where people serve with love and not just because they want to make money.

Food / Taste - 4/5

About the food, pickle was served followed by beans and cabbage palya, curd, veg curry and chapathi is optional, paruppu vadai, big appalam, white rice is served like shape of cake and kumbalkayi iyer sambar (pumpkin)..now that is the typical tamil iyer meals. After sambar you are served with iyer rasam. You can ask for extra servings of palya, veg curry, sambar etc if you want extra vada/curry i think it is charged extra. It was sumptuous meal. I felt contended.

Banana leaf ready for serving....

Iyer Veg meals - vada, rice, veg curry, beans cabbage poriyal and appalam

Rice and kumkumbalkayi sambar

Value for money - 4/5

Each meal cost me about 70 rupees that was 140 rupees for two wholesome meal. I would any day go for this traditional Iyer meals served on banana leaf then the usual, the heavily commercialized south and north Indian meals. I wish we have more such places like Iyer mess, which not only preserves the culture of Tamil meals, but served with love. I am not sure how long Iyer mess would survive the urbanization demon. I wish there is really some effort made to create such an atmosphere. Our next generation is definitely going to miss this.