Nuts over Salads

Yes, that's the name of the restaurant. When a restaurant named like that opens in my branch office's premises in Bangalore, my reaction will be, 'great, a new place, but now I can get quick lunch.' So wrong. When we had to break our meeting and wanted quick lunch, a salad place seemed to fit the bill. 4 of us walked down and got in, but though the place looks tiny from outside, the interiors are quirky and, with a plant wall, super fresh. The air cooled place somehow managed to stay cool despite Bangalore being hot. The role of greenery in keeping you comfortable stares right at your face.

While the healthy component is always debatable, our guests at least didn't have the guilt. The quick part, didn't exist. But the meal, was brilliant for most part. The pani puri for starters. Since we had a vegetarian with us, we chose the minced soy over minced chicken filling. 4 pieces each of spinach and beetroot based puris, minced soy was a refreshing change to the usual potato. The puris didn't leak, so the rasam stayed put inside. Yes, rasam was the soup, the sweet chutney was usual. While the puri's weren't crisp to begin with, filling it up with the soy and pouring the rasam didn't make it soggy. The outcome? A totally new pani puri that we were left craving for more.

The powerhouse salad, was packing and filling. While to make it really healthy, the ratio of quinoa to the veggies should have been lesser, leave the health technicality out, and you are served a fresh and tasty salad. The simple dressing more than tied the dish together. The falafel pita roll was our vegetarian's choice, but we all took a (big) bite out of it. Nice and crunchy falafels with veggies in a nice pita bread, the garlic paste served on the side took the dish to a different level. The lamb kebabs with the pita was served with hummus, but we asked for some extra garlic paste to take this lovely kebab to the next level too.

There were misses. The savoury pancakes, and the chicken adai, were both the same pancakes, one served like a mille-feuille, the other served with chicken on top like a taco. Both had flavours all over the place and either it didn't have a sauce to tie it together or the flavours of the pancake didn't gel with any of the toppings or sides.

While ordering the home made chocolate ice cream, we didn't expect it to be plated and served. While the ice cream itself was a rich decadent chocolate, the two flavoured cookie base and sliver of sauce made it a fitting dessert.  I could have had one for dinner and gotten done.

The price was about Rs. 1450 for four of us.

Nuts over salads is in Koramangala, 5th block, right below Techmed Healthcare, very close to Sukh Sagar.