Writing about restaurants may seem like the way to live the
good life. In reality, especially in Bangalore, it’s a task made dreary by new
restaurants that flog tired ideas, try and fail at aping concepts or are
annoyingly pretentious.
So, there’s a heightened sense of anticipation when there’s
the promise of a restaurant with a difference. Still, I made a concerted effort
to go with no bias or preconceived notions to Toast & Tonic, assiduously
avoiding early reviews or even a glance at the menu.
One look and I was smitten. This is, without any argument,
Bangalore’s most gorgeous looking restaurant. Others may be more opulent,
extravagant or highly designed, but for sheer, dazzling style, Toast &
Tonic will take some beating. What was once buzzing Monkey Bar, is now a
high-ceilinged, barn-like space. Wood finishes, an earthy colour palette and
the cutest farm animal shapes suspended on strands of fairy lights all come
together, bathed in soft lights, to create a warm, mellow mood. I loved the bar
the best and found myself frequently turning to gaze at it, as if it were some
fetching cocktail hour scene in a beautifully shot film.
It’s the perfect showcase then for the new direction that
Chef Manu Chandra’s prodigious talent is taking. The menu is said to be inspired
by the eating out culture of New York’s East Village – a melting pot of ethnic
influences, edgy, yet comforting. The cooking is not bound by cuisine or
culinary style. The flavours are from across the globe, but every dish
celebrates Indian produce, ingredients and condiments in a way that has never
been attempted here before.
Roasted Beet Salad doesn’t sound particularly innovative,
but here with the perfectly cooked beets, marinated feta and flawless honey
mustard vinaigrette, every mouthful was a flavour pop. And there was the small
plate of Warm Asparagus, Avarekai (possibly the last of the season) and Green
Beans with peanuts and lemongrass, paying elegant tribute to a seasonal
favourite. I’m a jackfruit fan and to taste tender shreds atop tostada with
smoked goat cheese was delightful.
We’ve been hearing that Poke bowls are the trendy new food
to try and Manu Chandra brings it to Bangalore. There was locally sourced tuna,
served on sticky Gobindobhog rice with mustard greens, seaweed, fried onions
and chia seeds, tasting of the sea and hinting at the comfort of a Bengali
meal. I loved, too, the Spiced Prawn Cutlets with a just-right charred
pineapple salsa. Eat the flatbreads here, with toppings such as charred
broccoli, tomato gojju and feta and you may never order pizza again. For main
course, I had Udon Calabrese, with cold-pressed mustard oil – unusual,
flavourful, deeply satisfying.
Every dessert on the menu seduces. I settled for Expressions
of Jaggery – pot du crème, banana jaggery cake, noren gur – and am freed from
Tiramisu tyranny forever.
Toast & Tonic, then, is a path-breaking effort. I hope,
too, that it’s the beginning of a new movement that celebrates the purity and
goodness of real food and honest cooking.
PS: The bar does brilliant things with gin & tonic, and
more about that in my next post.