Zomato meetup – Windmill Craftwork @Whitefield
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This is a nice pub which I got to visit as part of the #ZOMATO metope and I should consider myself lucky. There are many top foodies who sometimes don’t get to be called for such meet up(s). I hope they don’t forget me everytime they have a meet like this as it gives a chance to meet fellow foodies and share the thoughts.
The name is quite unique to a place having a brew-pub. Well, I guess the name is quite catchy and thats the trend being followed to attract customers. Well, always we can’t consider a place to be brilliant by looking at the name and surely there are quite a few factor that make us feel really good about the place. I guess this is one such place where in the name is unique, atmosphere inside is good, food & drinks are good.
Location
For directions, this is come in a road that comes to the left after the Dell office and I think its called Road-5 and then you need to proceed along deeper inside and you will find this place situated the left. The first thought is that its quite far and then you start playing in your mind how the place would look alike. All my doubts seemed to be getting cleared when I met some foreign delegates as dressed up going to the place. It is situated on the 5th floor of the building.
First Looks
The entrance is pretty good looking and I could seem some posters of some live performance that was planned at this place for next week. Also it had quite a bit of wooden finish which usually makes a place look classy. Well, as I enter inside I see that there are loads of people sitting. And I must say there is plenty of sitting space and all of them were chatting away. Infact, I was quite surprise to see how come there were so many people who had come over to the place which is right in some corner in the ITPL. Well, I guess if a place is good, people would just love to go anywhere. I have also heard few people say that its the best brew-pub int he area. Well, I guess my initial look to the right of the place seemed to reflect the confidence they had on the showing of their beer-containers to the right in a nice glass cage. I understand that its become quite populate amongst people to show off but still I think this one looks quite classy compared to others.
As I sit, I was given a menu and I could choose from any of items being displayed on the menu. Before going for anything, I went for the beer-sample. Since this is a beer place, 1st thing you want to try is the beer.
I get this nice paper where 5 beers are listed and the beers served were as follows-
Beer from Brew
Indian Pale Ale
A very mild kind of beer which is good for people who don’t want something strong and has got 6% alcohol in it. There isn’t any bitter in this flavour and you can just enjoy the drink as it. Actually, this is more of the flavourful beer.
Stout Beer
It is a dark beer which is big, black smooth & roast. Brewed with UK pale malt, roasted barley and flaked barley. It might look dark and usually a bit bitter in taste but the alcohol quantity in this is just around 5%. I think its good but not as good as the stout at other places.
Golden Ale
This is more of the American brewpub-style ale which has one food in par ague. It is made exclusively with traditional Czech pilsner malt and Saaz hops. This has got a more refreshing effort and the amount of alcohol in it just around 4%.
Hefeweizen
This is easily the best beer available in this brewpub. it is a South Germany’s classic wheat beer made with malts imported from Germany and fermented exclusively in India with some mix of Clove & Banana. This has got the optimum level of alcohol of 4.5%. I enjoyed taking this sampler and would compare it the best drinks at other brewpubs, easily the best of the lot.
Seasonal Beer
There was one of the seasonal beer which I am unable to recollect. It was decent drink to taste for sure but not as good as the earlier ones that I tried.
I guess it won’t be right if I just start writing about the beer. There are quite a few items that I tried after, so its time for me to write more about the other things that I had @WC 🙂
Starters
Onion Rings
Crunch Sweet Onion Rings, golden fried and served with wasabi mayonnaise. This was an awesome starter and I enjoyed eating this thoroughly. The best part about this starter was that the rings were quite even and it did not seem to be that one ring was fatter than other or bulged at one of the sides. It was perfect and consistent across. It went quite well along with the mayo that they gave.
Small Samosa
This was one really interesting dish to have at the brewpub. Coz usually people would not want to put in something like this. Infect, Nachos & Rings are quite common but this place has got some uniqueness with this being served. There is a mint-chutney that is served along with the samosa which was equally good. Also there was this tomato chutney that went along well with small samosas 🙂
Nachos
The only word I have is that of wow. It was served in the classic way that many other places might serve. But what I liked about this is that there was right amount of cheese and veggies in it. I mean the veggies were not like few, there was plenty which is usually not the case with many other places. And you can see the cheese dripping down the nachos which is again awesome to watch. And then when you bite into the nachos, it tastes quite good.
After the round of starters, there was also try some more of the Indian styled starters ie., Kebab(s). Again this is big surprise coz these kind of Indian Items are not easy to find in a place like this. I guess the owners have gone through the food requirement of many folks visiting brewpubs and made sure that none of the shortcomings are reflected in this place.
Mutter Kebab
This again was an awesome item served along with some green-mint chutney on top, onion pieces around the kebabs, chutney in a bowl and the lemon piece. I enjoyed the mutter kebab so much that I ended up ordering 2 of them as everyone who came along were also equally enjoying the flavour of it.
With the starters almost out of the way and it was time to venture into the main course space. But before that it is rightful that I write about some of their drinks coz they are quite unique. More than the beers their cocktails seem to be quite special.
To describe in general they have this unique sheet that lets you pick a drink on the basis of your choice. You can choose a type of base ie., Rum, Vodka, Tequilla, Whisky, Gin. And then the have listed different flavours that like Sweet, Bitter, Fruity, Sour and others in the first column. Basically if you choose Tequilla as a base and then you want it sour, they list a specific drink in it. Similarly, the same one for the Sweet + Tequilla combination there is a drink listed. This is a very unique way of putting data as the user does not need to run around looking for drinks and asking the bartender. Instead by looking at the menu-card, you will be able to choose by yourself. I think its quite unique for a place. Seeing all the options there were a few that I tried, which includes mostly the tequila, rum and vodka based drinks.
Drinks – Tequillas
Chocolate Margarita
Chocolate flavoured drink which was on the bitter side but was quite smooth drink to taste. It was more like the cold-chocolate-shake but instead of the milk, it was alcohol. But yes, it was decently strong.
Watermelon Margarita
This was a much sweeter version of the margarita which somehow seemed to have this peculiar smell of melons coming out it. And since it was quite sweet the liquor flavour was not coming as much as you would have wanted it to come.
Tequilla Sunrise
Sour tequila based drink with some orange effect in it that was pretty decent to taste. But again the alcohol effect wasn’t as much as I would have wanted it to be.
Long Island Ice Tea
This is one of the most traditional cocktails that is taken by people. Well I guess I wanted to try it and found that it was not upto the mark coz the alcohol (rum) effect was not as much as I would have wanted or expected out of it.
Apart from this, I think we tried a few other drinks including Mojito and some Whisky and some of the signature drinks. Overall they were find not that any of them had the actual kick of an alcohol coming out and they were quite mild. Just to add on a point regarding the Margarita, I have seen a some salt added to the sides of the glasses and also lemon being served. I was surprised to see that none of those were given, which I thing automatically brought down the taste of the drink itself.
Now that I wrote about the drinks, its time to write about the main-course food that I had. I guess for the day there were 3 options for vegetarians to be had. Let me describe each of them in detail.
Main Course
Veggie Burger
I guess this was one of the best veggie burger I have had and the patty was simply super and there was enough cheese added on the bread. It was served with some french fries and also some tomato ketchup. But overall the taste was quite good and I enjoyed taking it.
Lasagne
I think this was a bit of the disappointment as I don’t think that it felt as if the Pasta and the Cheese layers were quite visible. And also the tomato pesto sauce which is the traditional ingredient inside the pasta was that good. I did not enjoy it that much as I would have done at other place. Infact, the veggies were also quite minimally added and surely would have thought it would be a lot better.
Paneer Wrap
This was another item veggie available and I wanted to try it out. It was basically a romaji roti kind of bread and then paneer was added into it. Traditionally they might add something like a soft paneer with some nice chutney and onions inside. In this case, they did add some salads along with fried paneer(s). The idea of adding deep fried paneer was good but then somehow the overall flavour was not something that left a lasting impression on my tongue.
Food reviews at this place is still not done as it was a lengthy stop and the last one to be tried was the desert which I had really high expectation on as usual. Though it is a brewpub, they have made sure that it is also a classic fine-dining place. Some of the items I had as part of desert included –
Deserts
Sticky Toffee Pudding
This was one of the yummiest thing I had in the day @WC. It was a traditional pudding, brandy snap and some vanilla ice-cream. It was quite sweet as a toffee and I just enjoyed the moment I put it in my mouth. I wish I got there again shortly and try out this particular desert 🙂
Bakewell Tart
Again, a well made desert which was a classic english desert. It basically a short crust pastry with raspberry compote almond sponge. It is best tried with the vanilla ice-cream. Every bit of the tart in the mouth made me want more. Infact, I look at others friends plates and found that all of them had finished it 😉
Sitaphal cheescake
Ahah ! This was a unique cake which was well done with the perfect softness added to the cake.
The deserts served were limited but then each of them was awesome and you would always feel like having more of it. But, I guess its hard to take additional desert when you would have filled your stomach already with quite a few of the items from the start 🙂
Overall, I think I had a really good time tasting some real good beers and starters. The main course to an extent was good. The cocktails were so so and thought could have been better. But the final icing on the cake was the desert which was good. My rating for this place would be 4.0/5. I think the place might deserve more but then I will want to really try it out couple of times in future to be able to make a call.
Apart from the food and drinks, they have this nice stage inside where there is live Jazz performance that happens on thursdays. For this new year 2015 eve, they have a Jazz troop from UK coming in to perform.
Adding to all this, they have a great books collection so folks can just come sit, order for a beer/cocktail, pick up a book and just enjoy ready 🙂
My other ratings for this place is as follows –
Food – 3.75/5
Drinks – 3.75/5
Ambiance – 4.0/5
Service – 4.0/5
Food for 2 at this place would come up to Rs.1500-2000 for a sumptuous dinner 🙂
Looking forward to a foodies meet-up or a friends party at this place 🙂