Empire Restaurant

Following review is based on multiple dine-ins and takeaways.

Our visits to Empire were always a relaxed time-taken procedure. Be prepared if you want to have quick meal. Initially a cup of complementary hot & spicy chicken soup was served after taking order. It was so spicy that only me in the family had to drink it.

Empire Kulukki Sarbath(50₹) - Refreshing drink with shabja seeds floating on top. Best one to have along with lunch during hot day. They also have several other drink options which is not mentioned in the default food menu card. But it's given on the other menu card made just for drinks. By the way, liquor is prohibited here. So don't think of ordering any beer.

Tandoori Chicken (half for 200₹) - Four medium to large sized pieces of juicy tandoori roasted chicken. Accompanied mayonise was quite different, but not the best.

Kalmi Kabab (150₹) - Three chicken leg pieces perfectly tandoorified with less amount of spices. Was heavenly to have it hot along with the onion slices. Mayonise can be made better.

Steamed Rice (60₹) with Chicken Masala (170₹) - As I was tired of eating biriyani, wanted to have some regular rice for a change. Hence opted for this. Chicken masala gravy was quite different, had 4 medium-sized pieces with bones, was a nice combo when mixed with rice.

Boneless Mutton Biriyani(290₹) - Non-spicy biriyani with 5 to 6 fatty mutton pieces. It may taste like ghee rice for some. But it was much needed for us as our kid won't take spicy food, but loves to eat biriyani. Accompanied gravy was good in elevating the spicy level on the rice. Onion raita was very much dilute as like regular hyderabadi. If I go alone, I wouldn't have opted for biriyani in Empire.

Prawn Biriyani (240₹) - We took this as take away. Parcel was neatly done and given in a paper bag instead of plastic. Rice was less spicy as like mutton briyani, but had good amount of tawa-fried prawns. More than 10 prawns were found with spicy masala attached to it. Found it weird the tail was still attached to the prawn. Had to hold the tail and bit the head. At the end, masala attached to the prawn made the rice spicy. Not sure why they have given pickle along with the briyani 😁

Location: Empire, SC Road, Gandhi Nagar, Majestic, Bengaluru

Ashok Ahaar

Never thought of visiting a vegetarian restaurant more than once in any of our trips. But we have been forced to visit Ashok Ahaar located in SC Road (behind Majestic). All for one reason...simple, but quite delicious and nutritious sambar dipped idly and vadai. It was the best sambar we had in Bangalore.

It was a self serving eatery. That means you need to select the dishes you want to eat, pay first and get the bill. And then show that to the food serving counter and get the stuff.

 

A plate of idly and vadai dipped in sambar was just 25₹. Sambar was very similar to the one served at Chennai's Ratna Cafe & Welcome hotel. But in Chennai Ratna Cafe, a pair of idly costs around 50₹. Not sure why idly costs so much in Chennai.

Finally paid for a full coffee (10₹) which was served in a glass. Heard that they even serve half coffee for 5 bucks. Bangalore is one such place on earth where good yummy food is so much affordable to anyone.

Location: SC Road, Gandhi Nagar, Majestic

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.