The search for casual dining restaurant in Malleswaram, led me to the discovery of Rasa.  I was quite amazed initially looking at the pictures and the same thought might hold true for others as well.  A place that is spared across 3 floors, each with different interiors catering to different clients – Traditional South/North Indian restaurant, Pub with casual dining experience and Rooftop lounge.  I visited the place round about evening time-frame and ended up seeing all 3 sections and had food at 2 of them.  Let me share my experience.

Ambiance

The place is located very close to Sampige road and there is limited parking option.  It is best to search for parking 1-2 parallel to this road.

The Estate – First Floor

This is restaurant serving traditional South Indian food and the idea is recreate the feeling of being in an estate.

The outside door is made of wood and they have boxes on the wall.  It feels like someone like the safe lockers where different ingredients can be kept.

There is a artwork where they wall mounted an actual bicycle that represents two letters from the word FOOD and other two letters have been painted.

Inside the restaurant, every chair is wooden and individual seats are well setup.  There is live-music that is played during the dinner time-frame where local singers come and sing.

On the walls, they have some wonderful paintings of Electric poles, Wires, Lights which look so real.

They also have antique pieces of phones, clocks, gramophone and many other things.  I specially loved one of the artworks which looked like an emboss work that shows a temple, village and people.

Timber – Second Floor

This section is like the contemporary pubs in Bangalore that have some of the posters of musical bands and singers.

Casual seating made of wood makes it quite comfortable for anyone.  They have different section where 6-12 can sit across the table and chit-chat over a drink or food.

Highlight of the place is the huge screen where they play some live music video and probably some sports match as well.

The place looks like a perfect hang-out spot for friends.

Grub – Third Floor

Rooftop lounge section which is similar the second floor but the only catch, is that they allow smoking.  This section is not apt for family dining, especially there are kids.

Food

The place simply amazed me in terms of the interiors and I had high expectations on food.  I ordered some items while sitting in ‘Timber’ and then had it move to ‘The Estate’.

Cheese Stuffed Croquette

This was a pretty decent looking starter served with cheese and some salads.  The starter was slightly crispy and tasted decent.  But to be frank, this starter did not wow me as I had very high expectations.  I would have ideally thought that this dish will be sweet and yummy, but they made it slightly spicy.

Sabakki Vade

The ingredients of this vada is the traditional ‘saabudana’ made it like the traditional masala-vada.  Vada was served with mint chutney and tasted decent.  Like the earlier starter it was a little on the spicier side.  The flavours of sabakke was not coming out well and it did not impress me & my family.

Averakalu Gojju

This was one of the special recommendations by the manager.  It contained the traditional seasonal avrekalu and masala gravy.  The taste of avrekalu was not coming out as much due to gravy being on the spicy side.  We consumed it with Appam, Akki Rotti and Neer Dosa, found it was to cancel the spice level.  Finally, we resorted to eating with curds which allowed some flavour of avrekalue to come out.  I hope the chef is looking into this review and make dishes which are more generally consumable across rather than catering spice eating audience.

Dosa & Rotti

Neer Dosa – I ordered for 2, so they cut it into 2 and brought it.  In no time the dosa got stuck to each other which was very disappointing.  I had to consume, two dosa pieces at a time which made it look like a thick dosa.  Ideally the manager should have told us to consume it quickly or made fresh ones, which they did not do.  Another suggestion would be, not to fold the neer dosa and serve it on plantain leaf.

Appam – Traditional Kerala style dosa which was prepared well.  It had the right amount of crispiness and softness in the middle.

Akki Rotti – This was made pretty well, and it tasted like the rotti that is made at home.

Drinks

Chocolate Milkshake

The drink was ordinary as it did not just have chocolate ice-cream & milk, but also had some coconut.  Chocolate flavour was completely subdued due to the presence of coconut milk.

Strawberry Milkshake

A drink that is taken to be able to get the flavours of strawberry.  Like the other milkshake, the presence of coconut was more and the strawberry flavour was not coming out as much.

Overall Experience

It was a decent evening spent at one of the old restaurant that has been around for nearly 10-11 years.  The ambiance is simply awesome, and I would love to spend hours together at this place with friends or family.  Food is very average, and I feel that unless they do something about it, not many people would like it.  The only 2 things to highlight in terms of the food were – Cheese Stuffed Croquette and Sabakke Vade.  I rate my current experience at 3.5/5.

Rating in other departments.

Food – 3.5/5
Drinks – 3.25/5
Service – 3.5/5
Ambiance – 4.0/5

Food for 2 at this place will come to anywhere between INR 1200-1500.