Lunch at Koshy's

Usually on most fridays, we plan to go out for lunch (from work) and since our office is in a very upmarket area (Lavelle road), choices are plentiful. One that had been missed in the last two years is Koshy's which is one of the oldest, classiest restaurants in that part of town, the Jewel Box. This is the AC restaurant which is not so much the happening place as the non-AC part which is always crowded with people, and usually smoke is hanging in the air all the time.
I had been to Koshy's earlier with a friend from Emuzed, and he used to be a big fan of the non-veg food there, at that time, I did not think too highly of the veg fare. So, I was more than delighted to visit the place and have a relook.

The ambience in the Jewel Box is extremely classy, very nice, and the service is simply fantastic, very attentive yet non intrusive. The menu is quite big though be warned that 95% of it is devoted to non-veg food. We were four veg and four non-veg in the gang, and the latter were smacking their lips in anticipation while the four of us were somewhat wary on whether coming here was the right choice after all!

We wanted french onion soup but were told it cannot be split, so tomato soup it was! The soup was quite pedestrian in my opinion, lacking in salt...so we had to exhaust the salt and pepper placed on the table (btw others felt the same too). For starters, we did quite a bit of searching, there practically is nothing in the menu for vegetarians...so you could say the starters were a non-starter for us veggies.
As we were about to order the main course, we were informed that the usual suspects were all there but somehow not quite visible on the menu...baby corn, gobi, paneer - manchurian, chilly, etc. Baby corn manchurian it was, and man it packed a punch or what !!!! It was spicy and good, made up for the dull and lacklusture soup.

The non veg starters apparently simply phenomenal, they loved it!
For the main course, we ordered kulchas which were really good and two curries, veg malai kofta(which had a very watery gravy) and good ol' paneer butter masala(this was the better of the two). But, the food most unfortunately was not great., so we ordered a vegetable biriyani which was recommended by a colleague. As it is, am not a fan of rice items, and this definitely reaffirmed my taste, the others said it was fairly good.

The desserts sounded good, but we wanted to have the kulfis at the famous Bowring stall near the petrol bunk on St Marks road (not only is the taste familiar and out-of-this-world, it is very light on the pocket at Rs 16-18 per kulfi, easily the best in Bangalore).

But overall, I would recommend vegetarians to stay away. It cost us quite a bit, Rs 300 per head on an average (four veg, four non veg). For Rs 300 per head, we could have had a good sumptuous buffet at the numerous places in Church street and around.

I know how big Koshy's is among the restaurants and the famous high profile clientele (including Mr Azim Premji who's supposed to go there for breakfast every sunday), but 99% I am not going back there.
The food was not great...that is the bottomline. I admit that my opinion is somewhat biased. A vegetarian going to Koshy's and complaining is probably like a South Indian going to Jallandhar and complaining about Idlis and Rasam.