I always fancied a pool side dinner. Well, there is a relatively new place in Bangalore called Nakshatra that boasts of one. A friend had suggested that it might be a good place for a cozy dinner. Since its new, it would not be really crowded like your 5 stars with a pool side spread. So, for my birthday, we decided to go to Nakshatra (that’s just off Cunningham Road).

Nakshatra is on the 8^th floor of the Fortune Select JP Cosmos building. Pool side on a roof top!! Double kudos for that! They have 3 restaurants there – Nakshatra (serving Indian cuisine), Nostradamus (serving Continental) and Terrace Grill (serving grills). We had reserved a table by the pool and even before we ordered any food we were kicked about the various photo opportunities that the place was throwing at us.

 

The menu looked decent. They had a large beverage menu with a few mocktail options. I went ahead with a safe bet – Lemon Ginger Ale. We had also ordered a tropical drink and some hot coffee. While Kiran had asked for a cocktail. Yes, we were too engrossed in deciding what starters to have and our drinks arrived (except the coffee). The Lemon Ginger Ale was horrible. The tropical was bad too. It was like a drink mixed with some orange juice and orange squash. We could not decide on which one was worse. But, we had a good laugh. Finally the coffee arrived. Sunny was just happy that it smelt good. I guess it tasted bad! Kiran’s drink turned out to be the safest bet! By then, they had served us a bowl of papads that were yummy and drove away all the negative attention that the drinks were attracting.

For starters, we had ordered Cajun Spiced Potato Wedges, Prawns, Chicken Suka ,Palak and Corn Kebab and Paneer Tikka. The wedges tasted delicious. I loved the tomato dressing that it had by the side. The palak and corn was also great. The paneer too was delicious. Both the non-veg starters were good as well. I must however say that the kebab was cold. At various points I did wonder if they served us old food.

 

We had eaten so much already that I had decided not to go ahead with main course. I just wanted to have a dessert and then cut my cake! The boys ordered a Mysore Chicken and a Hyderabadi Nihari. They were also contemplating the Biryani. But yes, we settled with some Roti and the Chicken. When the Mysore Chicken arrived I had this little kid inside me jumping with joy as I could smell a strong flavor of coconut! I knew it would be awful!! And indeed it was! The Nihari was average. So the boys just had the chicken and left the gravy.

We had a good choice for desserts. At least that is what we thought as we saw Sugarcane Cheese Cake and Tender Coconut Payasam on the menu. We asked the steward if the Payasam was a Mangalorean or Kerala dish (not that I had a problem with either but just to make sure what I could expect). But we were told it belonged to neither! After it was served, I can confirm there was no way it could be a part of any cuisine. It was diluted coconut milk garnished with pistachios. It tasted horrible. The sugarcane cheese cake I think was the usual cheese cake with an overdose of vanilla flavor in it. Since they sensed our dissatisfaction, they offered to exchange our desserts. I initially thought of asking for a Tiramisu but I thought they would probably be stale. So, I went ahead and asked for Kulfi Falooda! You won’t believe we were served with 4 tiny cubes of Kulfi with a spoonful of that Falooda kind of vermicelli on the side! The falooda was awful and the kulfi was average!

The steward got the chef along to find out what was wrong. There was nothing much that we could tell except that it was bad. The stewards are courteous. I guess they need to be considering their food is horrible. The rates aren’t too bad either.

 

The only saving grace at the end of the meal was the Dairy Milk Cake that we got from outside. It made up for everything else. Well, if you take my word, you can go there and take a look at the place and just have the starters.  Try their grills. I guess that is worth it. May be their Continental is far better. I can surely say that the Indian is bad. Horribly bad.