Donut Factory

One of the many things I missed from Bangalore is the donuts there. There were many doughnut places in Bangalore near my house and office. We even had excellent donuts at work as we had an 'Au bon pain' in our cafeteria. We used to have a MAD OVER DONUTS in the Inorbit Mall near the office . They have this Thursday offer where when you buy 4 doughnuts you get another 4 free!.There was one in Phoenix Mall which Krishna and I used to buy from. They made the best donuts.Ever. And it was always crowded.

I do not crave sweets. I am more of a spice person unlike Krishna who is a kid when it comes to chocolates , ice creams and pastries. Must be from hogging down all that sweets from the ghee and sugar overloaded iyer household. I love cinnamon donuts and the classic ones. They are my all time favorites.

So when i came down to Cochin and started craving doughnuts one day I tried to brush it aside. I mean i didn't know where to find them. So i conveniently forgot about it and didn't even mention it to Krishna and went about with my life.

But one evening Krishna surprised me with this box of assorted doughnuts from Donut factory . And it was yummy. I was presently surprised to taste them . I had bought a box of doughnuts from Lulu hypermarket here and it was a disappointment. So my expectations were really low. But they were amazing.Not too sweet. Just the perfect size . The ones from Lulu were huge and too sweet. The toppings too were very unique and different. None of the flavors were over powering.The cinnamon one and the Mango filled ones where my favorite. The chocolate one wasn't bad either considering that I am not much of a chocolate person .Donut factory is going to be my go to place for doughnuts here in Cochin. Until i find another one.

Will i go back there again?
Yup , until i find more places.

Thakkaram ,Vyttila

Mmmm.. I went to this place by mistake. On the same date night that we discovered Cochin Majlis we went to Thakkaram thinking that this is the place with the live counter. But it wasn't.

Anyway we went in cause there were a few cars parked outside ,so ppl do come to this place to eat. But inside was a disappointment .What looked like a decent restaurant from outside looked like an old tiffin house from the inside. It was really cramped and the menu had nothing great to offer.

Like many multi cuisines who start big they had a flashy menu with only half the things in the menu available.I ordered a squid biriyani since i wanted to try something different and nothing else.

Thank God i did cause the squid itself turned out to be a huge disappointment. The portion of the dish was so small it wouldn't have filled a single person. And it was old school biriyani rice filled with squid curry sorts. We left that place really fast before the whole date night was ruined and went hunting for other places.

Food: 2/5

Decor/Ambiance :3/5

Service :3/5

Will i go back there again?

No , I Wont

Cochin Majlis

Krishna wanted to take me to this place where they have a live counter and we came her one night for a date.And what started as a simple date turned out to be the end of the hunt for good food! I mean I will not go to any other place again when I know this place will not fail me.

I went there expecting nothing.Nothing brilliant. They had fresh fish on display and the first day I went there i was skeptical about trying the fish. I ordered Kashmiri Nan , garlic Nan, masala kulcha , malai kofta and chicken patiala - a special dish of theirs.

The waiter politely told us that one main course dish will be enough. And i was taken aback. He doesn't have do that at all but he did. We told him to strike the malai kofta. I started doing the crossword on the paper on the table but the order came really fast like 10 minutes!. An average restaurant takes ages to bring an order like this and there it was.

The chicken patiala , why didnt i take a pic, was chicken in 3 different gravy. It was pure heaven. The kashmiri naan was the best i have ever tried.

We came there for dinner again the very next day with my mom and my sister Dadu. Dadu wanted to have crab and we picked up an evil looking crab for her from the live counter ;) and mom ordered Karimeen. Again surprise , the order was done in 10 mins and the food was drool worthy. That too at a very reasonable price. The crab was the star of the show and dadu was like - I didnt know something could taste so good.

Dear people of Cochin, and people who are new to this place , come here once and fall in love with food like never before.

Next time i hope i will be in my right mind to click some pics before i start hogging:P

Food: 6/5 :P
Decor/Ambiance: 4/5
Service:5/5

Will i go back there again?
Oh i could eat from there every single day

Waffle street , Cochin - Why I will not go there again.

I went to this place with very high expectations on Valentines Day. I came to know about this place from the lifestyle page of a newspaper. The article was impressive . The cafe belongs to an actor Asif Ali and like every other celebrity in Kerala he too had a restaurant in his name.

The first thing I noticed was that it was really small. it was a tiny quaint green cafe. We were the first customers that day and we were the only customers. The decor was different and impressive but again the place was tiny. they has a small counter with a display of confectioneries (just doughnuts and waffles). It was half the size of the smallest counter I have seen. Half of it was filled with doughnuts. Around 4 varieties a dozen of each.Nothing special.Just the usual kinds. The other half had the waffles. They looked all cold and shriveled up. Its OK they are on display right. It was around 11 and I was not in a mood for sweet . So i went for a chicken waffle with white sauce and pepper. They had a fancy name for it which i forgot.

I placed my order payed in advance and waited. 15 mins passed. The 4-5 servers cramped into the tiny kitchen space sat there doing nothing and another picked up his bike and left. Krishna joked that he had gone to get the chicken. A lady came who was supposed to be a friend of the owner and she wanted to order doughnut. All 5 staffs were busy helping her out and chit chatting. And i started getting pissed. After she left a server came and checked my bill to check the time and gave a shameless grin .It was already 30 mins since bill issue! Even dominoes delivers their pizza faster than this and they cant do a bloody waffle?

And in another 10 mins they served . A cold shriveled up chewy waffle with a cold topping!. What the hell . Why did they open this place up if they cant serve their name properly.Such a waste of my precious time and money.It was utter nonsense served on a plate. The food court stalls do better than this. I was really irritated with the whole episode. Thank you Waffle Street for ruining my Valentines day and Thank You Brunton Boatyard for making up for it later on .

Food: 1/5
Decor/Ambiance: 4/5
Service:1/5

Will i go back there again?
No Never Ever

Bread World

Bread world the the closest pastry and cookie shop and pizza, burger place we have got. I went to Bread World first a day or two after i reached Cochin. and Since then i have been there many times.

I tried out their cookies first. They have a wide range of cookies and only they have them. their cookies are Great. I went back and bought them again. just the smell of the freshly baked cookies are awesome.

Next i ordered fried rice and Gobi Manchurian from them one Sunday as a friend suggested the food it good and it was. But i have had better too. It wasn't the best.

Again we went there to order a cake for my brothers birthday and we ordered a pinky girly strawberry cake :D just to make fun of him. But they surprised us again!. That was THE best cake i have ever had. It just melts in the mouth. And this comes from some one who hates cakes and pastries!. The whole 1 kg cake got over in a day.

And then my nephew came down from Chennai and I took him there for a quick lunch on the way home. And that is the day I fell head over heels for Bread World.:D I forgot to mention that the cafe was really big and spacious and neat. There was a separate cookie area and a pastry area and the comfy dining area. We ordered a tandoori sauce Burger and Blue Sea lime soda , and apple tart and an over load cake with chocolate and vanilla chips shaped like tiny Hershey's kisses. Every single thing was yumm.

Food: 4/5
Decor/Ambiance:4/5
Service:4/5

Will i go back there again?
Yes Yes Yes, I wanna try more things from them

Goli Vada Pav No 1 ,Marine Drive

So one day we went to Marine Drive for a walk and some street food and just as we entered the pioneer towers building this amazing smell dragged us to the Goli Vada Pav No 1 counter there. I have seen this shop in Kakkanad and Edapally and always wanted to try it out , but Krishna had warned me it is Frozen.

I ordered Cheese vada pav and Krishna ordered the classic one and cheese bites. All of them costs around 35-50 Rs range. I'm 10 mins i realized that the only thing yummy about this store was the smell. The store guy handed out the tiny covered pavs, quarter the size of a regular burger and the cheese bites? I make them better. And i am not a great cook. They do serve frozen food after all. It might taste a little better if they fry them until they are cooked properly.

Will i go back there again?

 I don't think so

Pandal Cake Shop , Vazhakkala

So one fine day after a hunting all over Cochin for curtains for our french windows i started craving for cheese cake. I saw that helpless look on Krishna's face. In Bangalore we could Google or ask a friend for places to go looking for something. Cochin was hopeless. We just did a hopeless curtain hunt and the 10-20 shops we went to didn't have curtains for our length. Finally we decided that we will have to get them custom made and then i brought up the cheese cake.

And then Krishna took me to this tiny pastry shop called Pandal cake shop in Vazhakkala. I remember seeing this place elsewhere in Cochin. This one i went to was really small. They just had a few pieces of pastry left and thankfully they had the Cheese cake as well as Blueberry cheesecake. I always love plain cheese cake and got 2 pieces for Rs 100. What i felt was the price of the pastries were slightly on the higher side but it was totally worth it. The entire cheese cake would cost around 600. I usually hate cakes and pastries especially when bought as a whole for birthdays or Christmas. I tell Krishna to get Muffins instead. But this time i told him i want this for my birthday!.

Will i go back there again?
Yes , defnitely for cheese cake and may be try the others too.

I Am Back ...Again..:)

This has been a long break.So long in fact my previous posts looks funny to me. I started blogging while in college and now I am a professional with a few years experience. In the last 4-5 years a lot have changed.

Well I didn't care about blogging so much cause honestly there was nothing interesting to blog about. Why i am back ? I did find something. After college I left for Bangalore and had the most wonderful 3 years of my life. With the love of my life Krishna by my side I did almost everything I ever wanted to do. I love Bangalore for the cosmopolitan, self sufficient place it is. I love everything about it.

In Bangalore i was introduced to the amazing world of "eating out". Yeah we never ate out at home except for that concessional masala dosa or biriyani. I didn't even know there was food beyond that. The 3 years in Bangalore and all that travel to Mangalore, Pondicherry,Hyderabad,Goa introduced me to some amazing cuisines that I turned into a Food Junkie in no time.

Both Krishna and I love to travel and love food. We like to experiment with what we eat and try out new things . And then after 3 years we moved to Cochin . It was such a quick step, I still have not adapted to the place.

A week after in Cochin, we went for our first food hunt and i painfully realized that my trust worthy tripadvisor failed miserably when it came to Kerala. there was no websites or blogs that gave a list of restaurants or eateries . And Cochin had plenty of restaurants of all kinds. We decided to try out restaurants randomly and post it here. Might be a hit or a miss. But hopefully it will help some one out.

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