Vidyarthi Bhavan

It was a certainly a long wait this morning, just for the breakfast. After a wait for 45mins, we were called in at the legendary Vidyarthi Bhavan.

This place is best known for "benne masala dosa" as like MTR and CTR. Ordered the benne masala dosa (44₹), poori saagu(35₹), idly vada (50₹) and a kesari bath(26₹).

 

Butter masala dosa was quite different than the one we had in CTR last night. Looks like the flour had corn or some millet. Coconut chutney was the only accompaniment. Only thing we miss here is our tamilnadu-style sambar. However it was a lovely crepe.

Poori saagu had 2 big poori pieces along with some sort of veggie gravy(saagu) and coconut chutney.
Kesari bhat was a pleasant one with limited sweetness and few pineapple chunks and cloves.
Idly vadai was a sambar dipped one. Liked it more than dosa because of sambar.

Finally washed down with a cuppa filter coffee (16₹). Coffee was not bad though it was little bitter.
To be frank, I don't understand why such crowd is thronging this place even with such long waiting time. Food was good, but I don't feel much difference between CTR or MTR or Vidyarthi. One good thing is here they serve simple good food for affordable price. If you plan to go, then make sure you don't go on weekend to avoid crowd and remember friday is a holiday. They are closed for lunch.

Location: 32, Gandhi Bazaar main road, Basavangudi.

Meghana Foods

Yet another spicy biriyani. This time from Meghana Foods. We reached the Jaya nagar branch late by 2pm. Surprised to heavy crowd near the entrance. Had to give my name and count to one of the staff. After a wait of 40 minutes, we were seated.

My mind was preset to order just 3 items... Mutton Kheema biriyani (308₹), boneless chicken biriyani (243₹) and special fish fry (375₹). As it's going to be a spicy stuff, ordered a sweet lime juice(40₹) as well.

First came the fish fry. It was one big and one medium size king fish slices tawa fried with some powder (similar to chat masala) topping. Loved each and every bite of it.

Next came the mutton Kheema biriyani. Spice-level was too high. Quantity was large that a single person can't finish it. Raita was just buttermilk with 2 or 3 pieces of onion. Accompanied gravy was not much consumed as the biriyani itself was too spicy for us. Eating Kheema after several years, was heavenly. Certainly need the lemon juice to settle down the heat.

We were almost full when the Boneless chicken biriyani arrived. Just had some rice and softy chicken pieces and had the rest packed. Never to be missed if you hit the silicon valley of India.

Location: 52, 1st Floor, 33rd Cross, 4th Block, Jaya Nagar

CTR aka Shri Sagar

Shri Sagar, formerly known as CTR is an iconic landmark eatery in Malleshwaram. By default, one orders "benne masala dose" as soon as after getting seated. We did the same with 3 plates of benne masala dose(50₹ each).

After a while, butter dipping potato masala stuffed dosa had come. Crispy on outside, softy on inside the crepe was looking small when compared to the one that we get in Tamil Nadu. Here the dosa was bit thicker, has only coconut and cilantro chutney. Still we felt it was stuffy enough for a normal appetite.
 

At last, got a plate of Mangalore bhajji(30₹) and a cup of filter coffee(15₹). Mangalore bajji(golibhaje) was pretty tasty, looked like mysore bonda of Chennai, but smaller in size, came as 5 pieces a plate. Coffee was regular one.

It's worthy to visit just for the butter masala dosa and golibhaje. Happy thing is they have kept the price low, even though it is heavily crowded all the time.

Location: 7th Cross, 3rd Main, Margosa Road, Malleshwaram

Google Map:
 

Hotel Navayuga

Most people from Chennai complain about the sweetness on food served in Bangalore. But there are also eateries in this city serving super spicy food. Navayuga is one such eatery located just behind Majestic bus terminus.

As we are here only for few days, plans were made to cover from CTR to Vidhyarthi bhavan for veg and Navayuga to Meghana foods for biriyani. Today visited Navayuga for lunch just for tasting session. So ordered only a large mutton biriyani along with a boneless Chicken Kabab to share among us. Nothing much to rave about the ambience. It's a typical andhra-style restaurant, but a spacious decades old eatery.

Though large in quantity, biriyani was looking bland initially. After few mouthful of rice, we could really feel the spicy level. Lot of green chilly paste must have gone in that one to elevate the spicy flavour. Ohh man don't ever order a full biriyani if you have any ulcer or heartburn signs. We decided not to order more. However, I should admit that it was a tasty biriyani made of seeraga samba rice. And it had 3 large pieces of tender meat with bones.

As it is an Andhra-style restaurant, I never thought of getting seeraga samba rice here. So it was a surprise for us. Accompanied gravy was average, onion raita was too watery as like in any andhra-style restaurant.

Chicken kabab was tender and juicy as expected. It would be good if they have reduced the coloring substance. Lunch set us back by 365₹ plus tips. Only visit if you can handle spicy food.

Location: Aparna Theatre Complex SC Road, Majestic, Bengaluru

Velidis Andhra Restaurant

Happened to visit Velidis restaurant located next to DLF at Ramapuram for dinner with a colleague. As we already knew the food would be extremely spicy, we decided to have only limited meal.Not much to say about the ambience as it's pretty dark inside due to low lighting. Only problem I can say is the parking facilities. There is no space available for parking a car or even a two-wheeler. Mostly visited by the people working at the nearby DLF campus.

Ordered a chicken joint biryani(273₹) to share. It was a typical hyderabadi biryani with a topping of spicy gravy along with a leg and two chest pieces of chicken. Accompanied raita was too dilute, we had to drink it as a butter milk at the end of the meal. None of us touched the gravy that came as side as the biryani itself was too spicy. In terms of taste, the biryani rice was pretty tasty with a perfect blend of spices and is far better than "Paradise".

Wouldn't suggest this place for children or elders as the food is super spicy. However if you are really interested in spicy Andhra meal, then it is must visit eatery.

Location:

 

Pattukottai Kamatchi Mess

Happened to roam around Pondy Bazaar with a friend on a Saturday. He wants to eat some spicy traditional meal on the sunny day. Walked over to the newly opened "Pattukottai Kamatchi Mess" located at Singara velan street adjacent to Big bazaar.

Specialty of this eatery is the variety of gravies (called kolambu or thokku in Tamil) served along with the regular meal. First of this kind in Chennai food scene. Luckily we got seated immediately after entering the restaurant. Opted for a fish meal(300₹) for both of us.A big plantain leaf was placed on the table and few dishes like brinjal poriyal, snake gourd koottu, few peeled shallots and something like a pickle. Surprised to hear that it was not a pickle, but dried anchovies thokku. Also served a half litter water bottle which is included with every meal.

Karandi omlette (60₹) and a kari omlette (150₹) were ordered for sides. Both of them were made of shaloots...pretty hot and yummy ones. Kari omlette was pretty big, made of eggs and chicken meat along with some spices. Karandi omlette was 2 pieces in a plate, had to share among we two.

Initially my friend was disappointed to see only few spoons of rice was served and then a spoonful of chicken thokku. And then he turned at me and gave a "What the heck is this?" kind of look. Told him to wait and watch till the end. We finished the first round very quickly.

And then things have lined up for us. Served continuously with rice along with other gravy varieties like country chicken gravy, mutton gravy, prawn thokku, crab thokku, quail thokku, bone gravy, fish gravy. At one point, my friend started literally begging the waiter to not serve anything further. But still they served thick curd on a mud pot and a cup full of wheat rava payasam. Now my friend starts worrying on how he is going to finish all of this.

All these things went into our guts along with a big crispy king fish fry which comes along with the fish meal. One can opt for mutton chops meal, crab fry meal,...Good part is we also got few chucks of crab, nattu koli,etc.. along with the gravy. Waiters were happily serving rice and gravy rigorously with a big smile. That guy explained about the gravy before putting it on the leaf. Service is exceptionally great here. Hope they maintain the same over years.

I thought of finishing the meal with rasam, but had to drink the curd with no rice. At the end, had gulped few shots of payasam, but could not finish it. It was a hearty meal if you don't mind the large amount of stuff that goes into the guts.

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