Baisakhi — Restaurant in Bengaluru

Nice stuff

We had tried the thali at the Baisakhi restaurant in Gandhi Bazaar & were quite happy about it. While going through the menu card we learnt that the vegetables are organically grown at a farm. So farm fresh veggies tempted us & we headed to the restaurant to check out the a-la-carte menu. We began the meal with a nice tangy tomato & mint shorba, a mildly spiced one & ideal for a cool summer afternoon. People kept coming, some ordered thali, others like us opted for a-la-carte food. Anyway, coming to starters we ordered baby corn satay. I must say a baby corn with a stick looks good. The taste, umm… yum, that’s because it’s crunchy corn floating in nutty peanut sauce. My co-diner loved it. Then we saw something in the menu called reshmi paneer tikka, which is a soft but gently marinated paneer tikka. As the meal progressed we felt it was time to gulp down the food with a cool refreshing thandai. Thoroughly enjoyable. Ok, coming to main course, we chose our favourite dish, Dum aloo Kashmiri. You know there’s something nice about baby potatoes simmered in gravy, lovely especially with kadak rotis & soft naans. Even the Amritsari Shahi kofta or creamy dumplings was just amazing with Indian breads. Then we rounded off the meal with a juicy sweet gulab jamun. Since food is served in a copper-steel plate, it gives a Punjabi home feeling. Somewhat antique looking maroon lamps overlook each table. Worthwhile, I must say.

Kavitha

Delicious Punjabi food Our neighbours got food from the Baisakhi restaurant, it was home delivery & we sampled a bit of the food. It was so nice that we decided to do lunch @ the Baisakhi restaurant in Gandhi Bazaar. We went on a weekday; even then the ground floor was already full. So we went upstairs. We decided to try a deluxe Punjabi thali. We began the meal with a nice cool sweet lassi. It was thick, but not so thick to make you feel uncomfortable. Then came the tomato soup, a nice tomato soup with crunchy breads in it. I liked the contrast. My co-diner & I waited patiently as the thali arrived @ the table & that’s a plateful of food. Soft butter naan, generously sized ones. It was a basic one without garlic, but done very well. Though they were big, still they were so soft & easy to bite into & with nice thick paneer gravy, it was so enjoyable. My co-diner felt that the kadhi pakoda is also delicious. Obviously because the Punjabi kadhi is creamier than other kadhis and with deep fried pakodas, it’s just great. There was also a dry karela subzi. Pulao and raita added to the overall feel, a sweet & delicious gulab jamun completed the picture. There’s something nice about this veg Punjabi restaurant. It’s got to do with the fact that the food is authentic, though the food contains butter & ghee, yet it blends well with the spices. This fine balance is something which clicks with guests. At Rs 145, this deluxe Punjabi thali is value for money & is a must-try. Moreover, Gandhi Bazaar needed a nice Punjabi restaurant like...

With all do respect to previously reviewed foodies, I feel this place is just over rated. Either this restaurant has lost its previous quality or I visited this restaurant on a wrong time.

RESTAURANT: This place is located in Gandhi Bazaar main road opposite to Levi's. Finding the restaurant was easy. This restaurant serves in both ground & first floor. Ground Floor is Non-AC and First Floor is AC Service (though AC was not working). Ambiance is quite good but not best. They have maintained good Punjabi theme by covering table, menu in stick mat texture and with punjabi style Flavor bowl, silver thali & copper glasses.

SERVICE: In the first floor we found only single service manager who takes order for all tables. His attitude was bit arrogant and his appearance was like a ghost priest in formal dressing. Our Punjabi feel about this restaurant died there itself. And this manager use to rest next to our table for every 5 mins which was really awkward. Even the server appeared like unprofessional and use to drop spoons and forks all the time.

FOOD: Since it stated "Flavor of Punjab" we decided to order core punjabi food. First we ordered "Mint & Tomato Shorba" which was good. Then we ordered "Amrithsari Baby Corn" for starers: which was just average, it was not even properly fried and no seasoning was done (least they could have seasoned it with pepper and salt) They served it raw with ketchup. For main course we ordered Paneer Alishan and Butter Naan which were deeply disappointing. Paneer was over roasted and burnt. We couldn't able to take a single bite of paneer as it was dead hard. Even Butter Naan was burnt and bit hard to chew. Utterly worst main course. We were not able to eat over a half butter naan. Just to get rid of that burnt paneer flavor we ordered "Lassi Amrithsari". There was nothing special about lassi, they just mixed sugar to curd and kept it on our table. Not even flavored or topped with Malai. 50 bucks for 150ml curd and 30grams of sugar was really appeared like scam after going through 35 mins of worst dining experience.

PRICE & BILLING: Considering the above experience I feel its overpriced. Service charge appeared bit less.

EVERYTHING ELSE: Wash area and rest rooms were good, Seating capacity is good and there are various options like broad family table, tiny table for 2 and 4 members, window seating. Lighting and music were good. Parking might be a problem for cars.

FINAL VERDICT: Avoid this place, once if you visit this place you will start hating all...

A small restaurant severing decent and good food. Ambiance is good, we sat at the table facing the street. There is not much tables in the first floor. Service was pretty quick, but some beverages took time. We ordered: Manchow Soup- Was more on the sour side, the fried noodles helped to cut the sour taste. It had a lot of vegetables (took 2/3), quantity was enough. Roasted Masala Papad- Papad Taste was good, but not enough of tomato and onion on it. Baisakhi Maharaja Platter- harabhara kabab, babycorn, Gobi and paneer tikka (4 of each) in one platter. Spinach Corn roll- we ordered another starter, which was not on the menu, but it was displayed on the board that’s placed as one enters the first floor. It was good, mild taste and was cheesy. 6 pieces in one plate. Sabzi Pataka- A veg curry, with a potato based stick, made to look like a cracker. Was good, but could have been more spicy. If you want spicy then you have ask for them to make it spicy. Dum Aloo Kashmiri- Plain potatoes burnt on the outside and added with gravy. It could have been more sweeter, as that’s what Kashmiri dishes are. Garlic Naan- Really good garlic naan, but did not have much of garlic taste in it. But was fresh even after 15 minutes. Not rubbery at all. Chilly Naan- The dish did not match what was served. I thought they will add green chillies (as they do like in other restaurants), instead they had put chilli powder on top. Amritsari Kulcha- a paneer stuffed kulcha. It was thicker. Matka Dum Biryani- Typical rice preparation with biryani Masala taste, it was not a dum biryani, it was more like normal biryani. Served with raita. Rose milk- had a very good rose essence and was really good. Mango lassi Virgin Mojito- had lots of pudina leaves, which was blocking the juice below it. As straws are banned, we had to drink without the straw. Other than that it was...