The Vil'age - 100 ft. Road, Indira Nagar, Bangalore

A scarecrow in a field of sunflowers. That's the first thing that gets your eye as you walk into the Vil'age. You walk out onto the terrace of the building, the open sky above you, and the tops of trees around you. We chose a table near the wall, so we almost had the tree canopy for our roof.

Suffice it to say that the ambience at this place is great. The waiters are dressed in Chokhi Dhani style outfits, but it doesn't quite cut it this far south. On the whole, I'd say great first impressions.

The food is what we're here for though, and while it is good, it does leave a little wanting. The tomato mint soup (tamatar pudina shorba) was tasty but went down too quickly. There needs to be enough in the bowl for you to savour it. Bread sticks may have been a good complement to the soup, but there were none.

We tried a few chicken kababs as starters, and these were definitely the best part of our meal. The lightly garlic flavoured kababs with mint sauce just slid down my throat. It would have been nice if the mint sauce had arrived with the kababs though. For the main course we tried a few vegetarian dishes. These were good, but not comparable to the kababs. The paneer makhani was a standard dish, but each paneer piece was too large and the gravy too watery.

They have some good rotis and parathas, so try out the ones you haven't seen before. You won't be disappointed.

On the whole, I'd say that the entire experience is good if you can overlook a few blemishes.

Blues rates it:
Food - Good, slightly wanting
Service - Good
Price - 180 bucks a head or so
Decor - very nice
Overall - Good open air dining place

Recommendation - Go there in a group, not too often.

Getting there:

Get to the Café Coffee Day on 100 ft. Road. It's on the 3rd floor above.

Sigri - Indira Nagar, Bangalore

Sigri sells itself as a north Indian place in Indira Nagar. They have all kinds of dishes ranging from Fish in almond gravy to Afghani Chicken and Dum Biryani. They also have a selection of vegetarian dishes.

Every dish that I've tried here has been good, especially the fish. Fish preparations are generally tandoori or thick gravy style, and not what you'd get on the coast. Their chicken dishes are also quite good and tender. Servings are large enough for a two people with a little left over.

If there's anything I'd stay away from, it's the biryani. I'm not easily impressed with biryani at restaurants, and Sigri found it easy to disappoint me.

They have two floors, and there's not much to choose between the two, except the spiral staircase.

Blues rates it:
Food - Good
Service - Good
Price - 100 bucks a head or so
Decor - Pleasing
Overall - Good place

Recommendation - Good place to eat.

Getting there:

Go down 100 feet road towards Old Madras Road, take a left on 1st Cross, it's about one furlong in, on the right.