Bangalore meets New York, New York meets Bangalore. New Gastro-bar in
Bangalore so much lives upto their Twitter description. I paid this watering
hole a visit a week before for lunch and my verdict a BIG thumbs up. I will not
bother putting up pictures of food or drinks on this blog post as their website
does quite a good job with that.
Since I went there with wifey and my two year old Zyana, I walked in
very sceptically into the place wondering if they would be kid friendly. The
place was buzzing with young and restless of Bangalore.
The décor of the place as you can see from the pics on their website (http://mobar.in/) is quite young
as well. Walls are adorned with frames on monkies and a lot about monkey
business.They have quite a decent seating size but not a single table
available when we went there. I approached a smart young man who looked like to be running the
place for a table. 15 minutes I was told. They had a table vacant in the cellar
section. We climbed down the stairs and the cellar was loud with a bunch of
kids and few families playing around on the foosball and pool table. It was
definitely a relief to notice they welcomed kids.
We climbed back up and perched ourselves at the bar. Zyana comfortable
on the bar itself J.The seating across the bar is high stool and is smoking area with an
opening in the roof. So it’s not all that smoky on that side. Besides no
smoking allowed at the bar itself, so that was fine.
Again I won’t bother writing about their menu as their website has
enough links to reviews and articles that will give you details. I ordered
myself a “Mary Beer”. The menu says its beer and spicy tomato juice but I saw
my barman giving me a dash of vodka into it as well. They used kingfisher
premium and premade mixture of the spicy tomato juice which I presume is used
into their Bloody maries as well. Because it was premade, the drink was served
very fast well. And it had perfect balance of quantities of beer and the tomato
juice. Very refreshing. I ended up having 3 of them.
The most popular drink at the place seemed to be the “Mangaa” - vodka and aam panna served in nutella jars.
There were quite a few Sangria pitchers as well that I saw going out. Lot of
fresh fruits and ingredients in most cocktails. One unique thing I saw them
doing with some of their cocktails was using freshly pressed “Sweet lime” (Mausaumbi) that I know no bar in
Bangalore uses. Although my Mary beer was perfect I saw quite a few drinks come
back to the bar in the 2 hours we were there for some fix or the other. Don’t know
why. It could be the palate of Bangaloreans is still getting ready for the
Monkey.
We ordered the house specials – “Tikki Of Joy” – (fish cutlets) and “Peri-Peri”
prawns for starters. Both came with suggestions for paired drinks which
ofcourse we could not do as I had my Mary Beer running. Very few or almost no
bars in Bangalore have cocktail pairing with food, but since this is a
Gastro-pub, the guys at Monkey bar did well with this. I could not order
anything else but their cheese burger for the main and it was served with a
pickle on the side. I wouldn`t say it was the BEST I ever had but it surly was
quite decent. Well done, juicy and served with nice and crispy fries. You must
check out their pictures on the website on how they serve their burger, on a
wood plate. My wife`s grilled chicken was quite satisfactory as well. All food
is plated quite elegantly.I do want to go back and try almost everything on their menu.
The prices were reasonable. The mary beer was Rs.250 a drink. The lemon
soda that my wife ordered was just Rs.50. although when the 7% service charge ,
10 % service tax and 4 % vat get loaded on these rates, they add up quite a
bit. Can`t blame the bar for the taxes part.
The young gentleman who we approached when we entered the place came
around later to ask if liked the food and in conversation told us he was the creative
director of Olive Bar & Kitchen group of restaurants. Monkey bar is a
division of the famous Olive Beach just
a 100 meters down the same Wood Street road in Ashok Nagar. I am sure this
place is buzzing a lot more during weekend nights.
Good addition to Bangalore scene, I would say. We need more places like
these. Small, unpretentious, good food, great drinks, lovely music, good crowd
and gentle on the purse strings. Follow them on twitter at @MonkeyBarBlr
