With a 4.0 rating at Zomato, and the “oohs and ahhs” I heard from folks, Indian culture demanded that we visit the elderly lady in Indiranagar and pay our respects. That’s how, helped by the relatively peaceful Bangalore roads on the Easter long weekend, we ended up at Sly Granny on the more peaceful side of 12th Main. (map) Either Granny was in a cantankerous mood or snootiness runs in the locality (Bombay Brasserie also turned up its nose recently), I couldn’t reserve a table. Our way around is to arrive early enough, so at 7 PM we walked up to the 3rd floor, eyeing Claridges’ Dhaba (2nd Floor) on the way.
Granny lives on two floors – the lower one is divided into a Lobby Bar (where you can wait if you can’t find seats) and a Dining Room, while the upper area is the Living Room and Terrace. The Dining Room is where she’ll likely entertain people of her age (and ours) since despite the risque art, the seating is more conservative and ‘proper’. The terrace and the stairs leading up to it are much more livelier and prettier, I’d say. The seating as well as the alfresco setting gives it a more relaxed feel. Sitting there though, was unfortunately not an option for us since there was some private party starting there soon. In fact, one suited gentleman rewarded us with a delightfully funny scowl for disturbing the peace (uncharacteristically, since the staff is otherwise polite and friendly) as we took a little tour before we went down and meekly took our corner table.
The drinks menu has its share of interesting concoctions in addition to the regulars. We decided to humour Granny and began with a Cinnamon Swizzle for D and a House Special Coconut Scotch for me. As always we liked D’s drink more! Excellent mix of bourbon and cinnamon syrup with refreshing mint. We did miss the marmalade flavour though. It wasn’t that the Coconut Scotch was bad – in fact I could actually smell the coconut fat, but on taste, I really couldn’t perceive a difference from Scotch. Meanwhile, the complimentary bread was fantastically fresh!
We asked for a Liver Pate (the one at Toast & Tonic was magic) and were rewarded with some really thick chicken liver and crisp melba toast that balanced the texture very well. We didn’t fancy the tomato chutney in the beginning but warmed up to it when it proved its worth as a flavour complement. The Pulled Pork Taco was next. The person who took our order recommended Pork Ribs but I really didn’t want to wrestle with a pig (bone) in front of Granny. Despite the best efforts of the Chive Ricotta, jalapenos, pickled onions and well cooked pork, the coffee bbq sauce was just too sweet for our taste.
I decided to go back to my real love – rum – and asked for a Le Punch. D followed suit and ordered a Planter’s Punch for herself. This time, my drink, with gold as well as aged and homemade extra aged white rums was significantly better. It smelt divine too! On the other hand, it seemed as if a hailstorm had hit D’s drink and left it full of stones! The dark rum – berry syrup – lime combo also didn’t seem to work well together. Since we were reasonably stuffed, we decided to share a large plate. The Roast Lamb & Gnocchi proved an excellent example of Granny’s cosmopolitan lifestyle – Ramen noodle gnocchi (it is amazing, you can really taste the flavour!) with a Rajasthani style pulled raan in a tomato-onion masala. This was really the best of all three worlds!
Except for one gluten-free dessert, the section wasn’t really exciting, so we decided to skip. Our hearts also skipped soon after – when we got the bill. A little under Rs.4250. Granny must love giving heart attacks at her age! The drinks were a mixed bag, and the food delivered except for that bbq sauce. However, even given the location and ambiance, I felt this was quite overpriced. For perspective, compare what we ate at both the restaurants I linked to earlier – Toast & Tonic and Bombay Brasserie and how much we paid there. In summation, I don’t think I will (re)visit Granny anytime soon, mostly because she is pricey on at least two counts!
Sly Granny, 618, HAL 2nd Stage, 12th Main, Indiranagar. Ph: 48536712