I made my first visit to Punjabi by Nature last weekend and was quite impressed with the food. The restaurant is very well spread out and has seating arrangements both inside and outside. Despite being located near the fairly busy Diary Circle road, very little noise travels into the restaurant.
The troupe and I arrived there a little after 1:30 in the afternoon and considering Bangalore was having a good weather day, we decided to sit outside. A major annoyance as we took our seats was the fact that the outside area was infested with flies. Those pesky little creatures have the ability to destroy even the best dining experience.
In under a few minutes, we had to request to be moved indoors as we couldn’t take it anymore. While there were no flies inside, we were witness to leaky air conditioning at a lot of points, forcing the staff to keep empty ice buckets to collect them. The beautiful interiors were reduced to shame thanks to poor architecture.
Luckily, those were the only two sore spots of the afternoon and we quickly forgot about it once our food arrived. The waiters were extremely courteous; they knew the menu card and made some very good suggestions on what we could eat. Punjabi by Nature also has its own microbrewery. We stuck to beer all afternoon as the taste was quite good. The mead and the ale especially stood out.
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| Beer |
We started with the Kastoori kabab and the Dahi ke kabab. The Kastoori kabab was a nice spicy chicken kabab that complimented the beer real well. It came with a small helping of a tangy carrot salad which really accentuated the taste. Coming covered in a layer of egg whites, the kabab was grilled almost perfectly and left a nice spicy taste in your mouth.
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| Kastoori Kabab |
The high point was the Dahi ke Kabab, which as the name explains is a vegetarian kabab made out of curd. The cool taste of curd occupies your taste buds just as you bite into the mildly spicy exterior. Apparently, available in the northern parts of India, this was my first exposure to the dish and I simply loved it - a must-have at Punjabi by Nature.
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| Dahi ke Kabab |
Before we hit the main course, I felt adventurous and tried the Golgappa Shots. These golgappas are your traditional ones, but have vodka mixed in with the jal-jeera water. While I had only two of them, the combination of spice and liquor hit me almost instantaneously. This is one for the more adventurous folks who visit.
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| Golgappa Shots |
Our main course was fairly simple which consisted of a Paalak Paneer, Daal Makhani and a plate of Chicken Sheekh Kababs. The true nature of Punjab is summed up in this meal. The entire meal was delicious and extremely heavy on the tummy. The daal was well cooked and the chef was not frugal with the makhan at all. While some found the Paalak Paneer to be spicy, I rather enjoyed the taste. The Sheekh Kababs were very tender and heavy at the same time. We had these along with some Indian bread which were quite large in size. Pretty soon, most of us were overcome by the richness of the meal and had to considerably slow down our pace. (That might have been just me) The servings of food here were quite good and even had enough left for me to parcel and take home.
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| Daal Makhani |
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| Chicken Sheekh Kaba |
The lunch ended with a simple yet heavy and delicious Hot Chocolate Fudge. Besides the traditional vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate sauce, the sundae also had chocolate brownie and roasted nuts to add flavour. I’d definitely recommend this. I suggest sharing it with another person thanks to the size of the sundae.
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| Hot Chocolate Fudge |
Overall, besides the flies and the man-made interior waterfalls, the food and experience at Punjabi by Nature was excellent. The waiters were courteous and never made us hurry through. It’s a great place to catch up with friends over some beers and kababs. Located near the Bak Bak Bar, opposite the Forum Mall, Punjabi by Nature is a pricey establishment. A typical meal for two would come up to at least Rs.3000. The servings are good and the food is rich, so I suggest you had better skip the previous meal before heading to Punjabi by Nature.
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