Soul led out on Coastal

Often times, getting a simple, flavourful meal, which hits the spot reserved for local sapad is all the pick-me-up we need. Roosters Soul Kitchen in Indiranagar offers exactly that. Started by Out Of Office Hospitality Service Pvt Ltd in partnership with Thomas Associates, this restaurant doesn’t stand for frills. It’s your neighbourhood bar, which serves local food, Continental fare and live music its biggest plus. “We play retro and have live bands over the weekend,” says Director, Operations, MP Ashoka Kumar. The partners, who were previously associated with Windsor Pub, want to serve coastal food with some continental flavours thrown in, to give the expanding Indian customer base more options. 

The name catches our eye at once and Kumar explains, “The Rooster is considered confident, fun loving, passionate and loyal. He loves to have friends and family around and loves playing host.” It’s a familiar address, too, it was home to well loved hubs like Herbs and Spices, Café Thulp and now, the colourfully designed Roosters, perfect for catching up with friends over a tipple. 

We went for lunch, and were the only customers there this might be more of an evening out kind of place. We started with the stuffed mushrooms, which were beautifully plated and half open crumb friend with spinach, mushroom and olives. The chilli oil dip was absolutely spectacular. The mushrooms were fresh and cooked just right. Must order.

The bar snacks are good, and Ashok adds that the Bang Bang Prawns are very popular. Their regular coastal fare is full of flavour and spice, the best with any one’s chosen poison. We also liked that they have a special rasam and soup on the menu, with crab, chicken, Kerala and pepper… “We’re known for our Coastal fare, and in our Continental menu, the filet mignon and steak Mexican are popular. On Sundays, we serve appams and stew and Mappa and curry, a tapioca-based dish, which is quite popular,” adds Ashok.

For mains, there was plenty to choose from, even as we longingly eyed their weekend special of Appams and stew… We ordered the Ulli Theeyal and the Chettinad mutton with appams and Kerala parantha…  you can choose any two - appams, parantha, dosa and muttai appam. This we loved and ordered a plate of two separately. They were scrumptious.

The Ulli Theeyal was delicious, we loved the crunch of small onions in a spicy, tangy gravy. The fresh appams went beautifully with it. We would have liked some curd on the side to tone down the profusion of spice, though.

The appams were dreamy, paper thin on the sides, soft and bouncy on the inside. The mutton was tender, and we would have liked nice meaty pieces. The gravy is for total spice lovers, too overpowering for us… We loved the paranthas, perfect and full of buttery goodness.

There’s chicken mappas, chemeen curry and something called bad word curry, which made us chuckle, an Anglo Indian meat ball curry! They also have the famed Coorg pandi curry and baffad.

For dessert, we chose the Toffee inspired cake with icecream that came bundled in a gooey, caramel texture with almonds on top, and a denser subtle tea cake. It was good and went perfectly with the toffee flavour and icecream. We spotted the steak which Ashok recommends and there are some interesting options like the eggs Florentine, bacon wrapped fillet mignon and wild mushroom with béchamel sauce. The place is nice for a quiet meal, the music weekends are quite the rage and so are Sundays with appam highs. Pricing is on the higher side, which may deter regular soul food seekers. A simple place, honest food, spicy for the tipple, we ll try the Continental and Appams and stew next with fresh draught beer. You should too. 

Address: 39, First Floor, 80 Feet Road, HAL 3rd Stage, Indiranagar
Meal for two: 1200 onwards
Coffee for two: Rs 400 onwards
Must haves: Bang Bang Prawn, Pandi Curry, Brain Masala, Chicken Steak, Blueberry Cheesecake, Crab Rasam and we liked the appams, muttai appams, parantha and ulli theeyal and stuffed mushrooms.