Saturday, April 25, 2009

Cable Car - CARving Cravings...


After restaurants with themes like forests, trains, metros etc, it is time we welcome cable cars too.
Cable car, a restaurant serving Indian and Italian food, opened less than a week ago. The theme of this restaurant has been to replicate the famous and reliable means of transport
which is the San Francisco cable car system.
The building facing the main road indeed grabs some attention with its tall and gracefully done architecture. There are two doors, the one on the left leads you to the restaurant and the other makes way to a beautiful white spacious reception hall. On the white wall to your left, you’ll see the monuments and a brief story of San Francisco. The reception desk also depicts the famous golden gate bridge. I had a look at the rooms and they were of some good taste, very tidy and fragrant.

They are priced in the range of Rs. 3500, 4500 to 6000/- On the corridors they have hand paintings and depictions of San Francisco and some beautiful photo frames collages. A picture with the night view of San Francisco was beautiful!

The staff is more than glad to offer valet parking and welcome you into their newly built cable car. In to the door on the left and you are in the restaurant- Cable car. I must say that my journey in the cable car was a very pleasing experience!

The interiors are nicely done with light wood, the floor, the
ceiling everything is out a wood. The hall is small and accommodates not more than 10 midsized tables.
The place is doing well and was over crowded on a few days. They had to send a few guests because of unmanageable numbers. Nevertheless they are prepared and are more accommodating with a bigger floor on the first level. I did take a look at it and it is indeed quite spacy. They also have a corner dedicated for the children’s play area. Both the halls are designed in such a way that you have look-alike cable car at the end of the hall. There are two mid-sized tables placed inside this replicate.

The staff dressed in denim and T-Shirts with a stamp reading San Francisco Municipal railways, the menu which is a 4 folded sheet with offerings of the Indian cuisine on the facing and Italian on the back do have the taste of rustic cable car theme on. The menu has sketches of the cable-car, people travelling and compliments the theme well. The Italian menu is categorized into beverages, Antipasto (Appetizers), primo (main course) and Dolce (Desserts). I didn’t really taste anything Italian, my preference was mostly weighted towards Indian cuisine.
I quickly turned over the menu and decided on starters. The Hara Bara Kabab and the Tandoor Dingri were my picks. Before this arrived some complimentary roasted crispy papads with some green mint chutney, was hungry when I reached there and they were over within no time! The Hara Bara kabab good but something that was more appealing was the button mushrooms equally sized chosen carefully to soak in the perfect Tandoor masala were mind blowing!! Button after button, they just melted in my mouth!!
I totally relished and loved this with the chutney and salad it accompanied with. These tandoori items never fail to steal my heart away! For the main course it was some kulchas with paneer lababdar!! No clue why I chose this, but I so made the right choice, this was spicy and had an amazing flavor, every bite was so sumptuous and we just kept appreciating that with some unending Mmmmm….mmmms.

One of the partners spoke to guests and checked on their opinions. He recommended we have desserts and exclaimed they were equally good.
Without much thought I chose Tiramisu but unfortunately it was out of stock and so chose the American Mud pie, this was frozen and didn’t really have cake in abundant that it is originally suppose to have. However the chocolate, walnuts and vanilla are always welcome and did sooth me on the hot afternoon!
The prices are reasonable and meal for two would cost you approximately Rs. 600/- A lovely place with some delicious food and a distinguishing ambiance.
I am sure to go there again and again!!


This review is also available on Burrp

Address

483/27, 46th Cross, 5th block, Jayanagar, Bangalore-41
Phone: 42977777

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Sea Rock - Awesome Neer Dosas....

You do something nice to others and it sure does pay back… One of the nice deeds did pay back and got even better when it was returned with a treat at sea rock!

A hot sunny afternoon and we walked to Sea Rock, which was very close to our workplace. It faces the main road next to The Bangalore Hospital and is easy to locate.

They have restaurants in the first and the second floor, we chose to seat at the second floor, a huge aquarium with an elegant Arowana and a red flower horn fish, sure catch attention. It was a treat to watch them move in the well defined aquarium and this is definitely something that is more exciting than the fish on plate! ;)

The dim hall had closely placed tables with white and pink cloth and white cutlery. There is a bar in the corner of the hall, the music was on had some old Hindi numbers. There was no need for a menu since we had decided on tasting the much talked about Neer Dosa. This was tried and tasted by quite a few colleagues and they insisted we try the place. Majorities were vegetarians and so we quickly placed an order for 2 plates of Neer-dosas and Mangalore vegetarian curry. In a plate, they give you 5 neer dosas, which are extremely sumptuous, I just loved each bite! The stew with the dosas made an awesome combination. We also ordered another plate to quench the drooling lust for dosas! Then came the rotis and kadai Veg. The kadai veg also made a good combi with the dosas.

Neer Dosa is a Mangalorean Delicacy and is made of a batter with coconut milk and flour, they are extremely thin and are spread on the pre-heated tawa with a cloth, not very rich in calories, they just bowl me over on every bite I take.

The butter milk was cool and refreshing.

The other customers were mostly from my workplace, Our conversations were interesting and involved subjects about men at work, cute and handsome men, men in our lives. It was a memorable afternoon with some amazing Mangalorean cuisine!!

We waited for the bill and something that made us smile was the 10% discount we get because we are sonatians… Cheers!

I took a couple of other friends recently so it was 2 visits in 4 days! The prices are reasonable with a meal for two costing you around 300/-. With great food and warm staff, Sea rock certainly a place you would want to try, continue to try and appreciate!

Address:

22/A&B, Lakshmi Towers, RV Road, Near South End Circle, Basavanagudi, Bangalore

Phone: 9243404274, 41314376

Thursday, April 16, 2009

24th Main - Very Veggie!

It took us some time to locate 24th main after a long day. Though it is on the main road at JP nagar, the road that leads you has been dug and there is a round about way to reach this place. A board with Cross roads Inn and a shady tree with pleasant lights rolled around its bark is what will catch your attention.
We chose to dine here after some praise from common friends. A lady greets and welcomes you at the door. Tables for two weren’t available and so we were asked to wait outside the restaurant and I couldn’t see any chairs. There was a place to accommodate an upcoming water body and the lady expected us and also gestured us to sit on the wall that formed the boundary of the fountain!! I insisted on getting some chairs, on demand got them. The others who had to wait had no choice but to stand, however the wait was not long.

After entering the place, I felt good. It gives you a pleasing feel with some deep dark wooden furniture, illuminated ornamental lights, spacious floor, fine paintings and pleasant walls. We ensconced in a table that was in the middle of the floor. We had some smartly dressed men with the menu. They offer quite a variety belonging to multi- cuisine.
Service is pretty quick and the portions are generous, unfortunately both the starters that were ordered were on the blander side. It was no fault of the chef, but a wrong order for pungent chilli lovers like my husband and I. However the malai kababs with the sauce did make quite an impression.
The next to come was some Rotis and curry, this is was delectable.
It would make an decent hangout for those vegetarians in south of Bangalore. The prices are reasonable, they take your feedback and send you a thanking mail. I also noticed a lady checking the comfort of a few customers.
Vegetarians, this is worth a try!
This review is available on Burrp
Address:

Cross Roads Inn, 24th Main, 12th Corss, 2nd Phase, JP Nagar, Bangalore
, 26588620

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Macros!!

It was appraisal time, I was proudly a part of the Team HR and more specifically an HR partner for one of the largest delivery groups.
It was time to communicate the KRA (key result areas) and CSFs( Critical sucess factors) to each and everyone employee and after a round of who's eligible, who's not, why? etc. we had a quite an enormous number, close to 1800!
We were not still geared up for an ERP and so doing this manually was quite a task.
We spoke to one of the teams here, who helped us with an intranet application. This application was shortlived with it's life begining from the HR admins uploading a KRA onto the system against the respective employee and the employee downloading the same. The problem came when we had to do this to employees who were onsite (other locations where intranet applications do not work)
After looking at the number of people who were working OF and Onsite, we had to think of a way to do this automatically, We first thought of mail merging, but with attachments it would not be possible.
we figured out that, it is possible to send mails with attachments with the help of Macros.
With the help of Google and a colleague, we got this in place and when this worked, I was overjoyed!!
we had found a way to send attachments to approx 500 people within minutes.
To help those in need, a detailed list of action items to code Macros to send attachments.

Step 1: Open an excel sheet and define the basic colums such as the name, Email ID and the exact path to the attachment and save this.
Eg:

Emp ID

Names

Email ID

Path

1111

ABC

ABC@PQR.com

C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\ABC_1111.xls

2222

XYZ

XYZ@PQR.com

C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\XYZ_2222.xls


Step 2:
Go to Tools>Macros>Record New Macro
This options opens a window where one has to name a macro, give a relevant, unique name

Step 3:
Once you have names the Macro, again go to Tools, and hit on Macro (The option above Record new macro)
A click on the relevant would lead you to a small window with option such as Run, cancel, Step into, Edit, Delete, Options and more. Hit on Step into

Step 4:
Quite a variety of these codes are available on the net. a few of them work and a few throw an error. However after some editing this seems to successfully work. I am pasting the exact code here below

Macro Code to email Customized Attachments
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub Macroname()
Dim intRecCount As Integer

Dim intCounter As Integer

Dim strEmailID As String

Dim strPath As String

Dim OutApp As Object

Dim OutMail As Object


For intCounter = 2 To 1000

If Len(ThisWorkbook.Sheets(1).Range("A" & intCounter).Value) > 0 Then
strEmailID = ThisWorkbook.Sheets(1).Range("C" & intCounter).Value
strPath = ThisWorkbook.Sheets(1).Range("D" & intCounter).Value


Set OutApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")

OutApp.Session.Logon

Set OutMail = OutApp.CreateItem(0)


On Error Resume Next

With OutMail
.To = strEmailID

.Subject = "Mention your subject here"

.Body = "The body of your mail"

.Attachments.Add (strPath)

.Send 'or use .Display

End With

On Error GoTo 0


Set OutMail = Nothing
Set
OutApp = Nothing

Else
Exit For
End If


Next intCounter

End Sub
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 4: This code should be saved and closed. Get back to the excel sheet and save it with this formula.
Follow step 3 and choose run.

Step 5: Ensure your Outlook is open. Once you click on run. There is an alert message click yes to continue.
Soon after the mail is sent to all mentioned in your reference sheet. The process ends.

When i was in search of a solution to this, i found a relatively large amount of queries on sending attachments as a mail merge. I am not sure if there is a better way to do this. However i firmly think i found one step better if not the best!

Friday, April 3, 2009

Barbeque Nation - A Barbequlicious nation!!



This review is also available on Burrp
A week before last week, my husband and I took a break from work and made it to this place for a weekday lunch. Barbeque Nation sure has an attractive aura around it. Thi
s place is in a big complex that faces to a road really narrow. There is hardly any place parking. We were lucky enough to find a shady place for our coupe on the scorching afternoon.

We took the lift to reach Barbeque nation on the third floor. Since it was a weekday afternoon, we didn’t reserve a table. The place was half full. We, and I am sure every customer is received with at most courteousness. It is a cool place, with mostly beige and white interiors. It is not too crowded with too many ornaments. Very simple and attractive warli art structures are neatly arranged on enclosures inside the walls. The seats and tables are of woos and light in color to match the beige walls and flooring. Very well lit with the natural lighting, all in all it gives you a very pleasing feeling. We had some nice comfortable leather cushioning on the low placed sofas.

The dining experience at Barbeque Nation was extremely pleasant. They strikingly distinguish themselves from the other restaurants.
Firstly it excites you with the cook and dine experience. The non-vegetarian barbeques are even more attractive. We chose the vegetarian option and The waiter gets a miniature steel barbeque and skewers pierced with the most colorful vegetables. They are brought to you after 90% cooked in the kitchen and the 10% is all your choice, Incase you overdo it then it’s purely your fault! They compliment this with the green mint chutney which is just too delicious. They have cute wooden holders and have 6 little bowls of essence (sauces/oils) 3 on each side with the likes of chilli sauce, mayonnaise, mango sauce, lemon, onion etc.

Secondly, it is the unlimited starters. Yea… unlimited in its true sense. A flag placed on the table with the pole straightened means you are ready for more. Once your tempting affair is quenched you can tilt the flag downwards. They have a variety of 5 Sumptuous starters. For the day, it was thai fry potatoes, something out of unripe banana, Spinach and corn tikkis, baby potato patties and more. They change their variety on the fabulous five everyday. I, being more of a starters person, totally buy the idea of having different variety of unlimited starters! If it is a lunch on a weekday, one gets are a complimentary drink. This could be a beer or an attractive mocktail. Ginger lady, strawberry splash and the aqua blue are delicious and energizing!

Thirdly, it is the degree of consciousness that they portray. This is evidentially higher when contrasted with the other restaurants of the same star. Very warm people genuinely concerned about you and go all-out to make the dining experience the best one. When they place the barbeque on your table, they definitely generate some heat, however the hosts have been thoughtful enough to make sure the air around is cooler, so that it creates the ideal atmosphere to enjoy a meal.

They have a buffet spread with some really good food. You have many salads, a Chinese corner with either fried rice, schezwan or hakka noodles with gravies, the breads are brought to you on the table, to go with the breads they offer 4 varieties of curries, Dal, rice, Curd rice, raita, they also offer to serve you some vegetable biryani to the table. and last but never the least the desserts. The desserts are Gulab jamoon, Vanilla Ice-cream with some vibrant sauces, chocolate fantasy, almond maple pie, Phirnee, cut fruits and a cheese pastry. I relished the combination of the hot jamoon amid chilled ice-cream!

Once you enjoy the starters and the barbeque, it is hard to accommodate the main course.
The charge you 275/- per person on a afternoon on weekdays, for dinner and on weekends it cost around 500/- per person.
All in all, it made a wonderful experience that afternoon. What’s more? We went there again 4 days ago and thoroughly enjoyed the feast!!
This place is a Super Super hit and I am sure that’ll continue to shine!!

Address:
67, 15th cross, 6th B main, JP Nagar, Bangalore
Phone 40919191

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Silver Metro - Complete VFM and Delicious buffet!

It was from a colleague who complimented Silver Metro for their variety buffet and a distinguishing ambiance that made it my choice to celebrate a special day with my family.

Silver metro is in the Total mall on the third floor. At the entrance, they have two engines of a train each on either sides. There is a table with refreshments and a bowl to drop your business cards, do take a minute to do this, you could be the lucky one to win the daily draw!
You enter the restaurant to find a long unending row of delicacies lined to your right. There are the tables with chairs arranged to the left of the hallway and to the extreme left is a train with tables for four making the rest of the restaurant, a platform! This whole set up, definitely amuses the kids!
Once we seated, we found a cockroach on the serviette! We politely called the manager and showed the gross pest. He apologized and replaced the serviette and plate. What was shocking is that, the man standing beside the manager, very conveniently told us we got the disgusting pest with us!
The manager kept gesturing and signaling to the man that he was wrong, but this man evidentially unclear and obviously wrong just argued, but miserably failed to make his point. His name too is fresh in my mind. Did I just call this a ‘platform’ in my earlier lines?

After some serious ‘checking out’ of the place, we got on to the menu. It is quite exhaustive. The place was crowded with mostly large groups.
I do not remember the non-veg delights for the day, but i will sure pen down the vegetarian menu.
I started with the Salads, they had the pasta and corn in Béchamel sauce. I simply loved this. They had loads of other grams boiled with colorful, cut vegetables.
A lil bit of all of them and I was already feeling full! There we quite many starters, Hara-Bara Kebabs were my favorite. The Chinese varieties with the noodles, fried rice and sauce were a sure hit with my mother! The Jeera pulav with the Dhal Makhani made a wonderful combo. My family surely did enjoy the Dum Biryani and chicken starters. For the desserts they had two types of pastries, nothing very extraordinary with their taste. They had the kesar, Bengali sweet, this tasted fine.
The hit on the sweet list was the Mawa Halwa, Very rich and simply delectable! There were three flavors of ice creams, some vibrant sauces including strawberry, chocolate and crushed peanuts that could sprinkled on to the ice-cream.
If I were to comment on the personnel and service of Silver Metro, It would be nowhere close to a positive one. Man, they definitely need some serious service orientation!
A heavy and delicious buffet which costs you 280 inclusive of tax, Silver Metro is a place with distinguishing ambience and good food with no complaints but deserving compliments. However, a strong suggestion definitely on cleanliness needs to be sent out!
Address:
Ohri's, Level 3
The Total Mall,
Madivala,
Koramangala,
Bangalore
Phone: 40003333
This review is also available on Burrp