Nagarjuna, Residency Road, Bangalore

I was dragged into yet another South Indian Restaurant by my friends when I was in Bangalore. Guided by a friend who had stayed in Bangalore for 2 months years ago, we landed up at Nagarjuna at Residency Road, Bangalore. The looks of the place didn’t do much to whet my appetite but in the spirit of trying new places, I went in with a prayer.

In the dreary settings of the restaurant, the 4 of us ended up ordering the following:

Chicken biryani

Mutton biryani

Prawns pepper fry

Chicken chilli

Chicken ghee roast

Prawns curry

Appams

The 5^th friend stuck to his Punjabi tastes and ordered half-plate tandoori chicken, which, as expected from a south-based south Indian restaurant , was quite average.

The girls (2 of us) decided to share 1 small plate of chicken biryani in order to taste a bit of everything else and we could not even finish it together! This is despite of it being fairly nice. When I taste biryani, I am biased...I do tend to compare biryanis with the one I had at Shadab at Charminaar, Hyderabad, which to date is the best-est biryani I have ever eaten. The mutton biryani here, was a tad better than the chicken biryani, according to me. The Chicken chilli was unlike anything I’ve had before (and I am not saying it in a good way). The chicken seemed to be simply boiled and served with a dollop of spicy green curry. The chilli does hit the back of the throat but other than trying it once, I would not want to have it again. Chicken ghee roast was even worse. The chicken comes swimming in oil (I suspect that there was no ghee in the dish) and coated in a strange red curry that was determined to not impart its flavor to the chicken. We chose not to finish the dish. The prawns pepper fry, however, was out of the world! We ordered and re-ordered the dish till they ran out of Tiger prawns. I guessed that it was their most popular dish on the menu. Still greedy for more, we ordered their prawns curry and appams, which was offered nothing memorable. The best part of the restaurant (apart from the prawn pepper fry) is the bill. After stuffing ourselves with enough food that made us want to walk nearly 2 kms just to feel a little comfortable, we shelled out Rs. 375 per person.

Note: From other online reviews, I learnt that the branch Residency Road is the best. I shudder to think what is being served to those who unwittingly choose to go to another branch.