Last weekend, Soumya a blogger buddy invited me to lunch at The Whitefield Arms in VR Mall on Whitefield Road.
I have seen this place several times when I visited the mall, but never actually ventured in. I am usually accompanied by my kids, and I didn't think it was a kid-friendly place.
But last Sunday was relatively free, and so I fed the kids some lunch, strictly instructed them to play with each other, no fighting, and then trotted over to the mall to get some once in a blue moon kid-free time with friends.
So, I walked into the dark bar at noon, only to be told that they had a table waiting for me outside. And then I stepped into the lovely, bright sunshine, and wondered why on earth I thought this was a dark, smoky bar.
The outside is simply beautiful.
All the tables are neatly aligned in the shade, and with a row of flower beds on one side to keep you feeling totally relaxed. There is also plenty of open area around the tables, and it was filled with kids running around doing their thing, while their parents chilled out enjoying a drink or two and some excellent food.
We started off with the drinks naturally.
The vodka cocktails were good, but I thought the two whisky cocktails we tried - an Old Fashioned and a Mountbatten were OMG excellent, and if you like whisky these are what you should try. Heck! Even if you don't like whisky try these drinks - so tasty and just the right blend of alcohol and juice.
The Mountbatten is a mix of Scotch whisky, pamplemousse, strawberry, lime, and bitters.
The TWA chips, cheese, and gravy was simply a dish of french fries topped with cheese, onions, dal makhani, and jalapeño.
I liked this all right, but the dish was totally overshadowed by the next set of plates to come to our table.
These platters were given to us for sampling. All the starters were good, but I give two thumbs up to the onion rings. They were simply sublime, and I could have happily ate multiple plates of them. The Suzzie's Bangles as they were called were perfectly crumb-fried and served with delicious garlic mayo. Love! I also recommend the TWA chilli cheese toast highly.
I didn't try the non-vegetarian dishes, but my buddies loved them, and recommend the Grilled Prawns and the Barrack's Special (grilled chicken thigh marinated in coriander and mint).
I am a vegetarian but that pork belly on the right looked very well cooked and luscious. I was really kicking myself that I hadn't brought Snubnose along to the lunch. She would have really enjoyed all the non-vegetarian dishes. The place was perfectly child-friendly too (at least during lunch hours).
Next to come was the main course, and we were almost groaning - we were so full. The next dishes were rice-based - delicious but extremely filling, and unfortunately we were too full to do enough justice to it.
My dish of spinach, cheese, and potato dumplings was simply sublime. The basmati rice was cooked just right and sprinkled with saffron, and paired perfectly with the dumplings. I so wished that I had taken it lighter with the earlier courses.
And last - the dessert.
We sampled the carrot cake, the sticky toffee pudding, and the barboosa. All desserts were good, but if I went again, I would go for the sticky toffee pudding.
In short:TWA chips, cheese, and gravy
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