Harima, the Japanese Restaurant.

With a manager, not interested in Indian food, what can we expect than an exotic Restaurant. This time it was Harima, the fine Japanese Restaurant (4th Floor, Devatha Plaza, same building as Casa Picola and Reebok Showroom. Near St Mark road/Residency road Junction, walk able distance from Office). The occasion was the dinner hosted by my US manager on his "twice a year" visit. Last dinner on a Chinese Restaurant still afresh in mind, I expected a decent dinner. But to my surprise, the menu had only Japanese foods starting from Sushi’s to Tofu, Japanese beer to Meso soup. I had to contend with very few veg items.

Few of my colleagues ordered Japanese beer, Asahi. Others ordered fruit mock tails and fruits juices. First to come was the Meso soup. The starters were Japanese sushis. Sushis are live fishes/prawns/crabs stuffed with rice and consumed as such. We may not like it as it is not fried or baked; our American was all praise. I had to watch all eat as there was no veggie items on the site!!

Then the main course had all types of Teriyaki’s. These are some fried dishes which we can digest! I ordered Tofu Teriyaki. It had a 2x2 inch fried Paneer at center with Baby corn masala spread across. The real delight was eating all these with Chopstick. Others had Teriyaki’s with different flavors like chicken, fish, prawn and all..

The dessert was a Wasabi ice cream. I was surprised to have a spicy ice-cream. It was like freezed south Indian chutney or a vanilla ice-cream with spicy flavor. With only half stomach full, I had food once again in my room.

The experience was nice, but may not try it again. One thing to note is, the food were very limited. May be Japanese eat less. Less spicy, less oily, all live foods, less fried/baked. May be that’s the reason, Japanese live longer.

Obtaining, one chopstick as memorabilia, we bid Sayonara to the restaurant

Samarkhand, the Afghani restaurant...

To celebrate our project completion, the company planned a lunch for our team at Samarkhand (7th March, 2008) Restaurant, on the infantry road. Our product line Manager from Beaverton was the host and the entire Quality team, one each from the documentation team, software and a manager accompanied us.

The ambiance of the restaurant had the touch and feel of Afghanistan, with low chairs/tables and paintings on the walls. Added to this are the Pathani style pajama outfits of the waiters/captains and the Afghani style utensils.

Much of the dishes were delights of non vegetarians, I had to be contended with few veggies ;( As it was a Afghani restaurant, dishes were a bit spicy and rest everything seemed to be a normal North Indian restaurant menu. We ordered for a Buffet Lunch(Rs. 750=00 per head) and ordered fruit juices (Fruit Punch Rs. 170, Lime Juice Rs. 120!!). The starters were so spicy, that the US manager started "sweating" (with face becoming red) with just two bites of Baby Corn Manchurian and Paneer Fry!!

As it was full buffet with unlimited food, there was more food than we could have consumed. The lunch ended one hour late at 3 pm and we were back to office by 3:30pm.

The Experience was multiplied, with half of the restaurant occupied with good looking chicks!!