Last week, a late evening saw me sipping on a delicious floral, apple juice and herbs infused tea for two and munching on a doughnut – you are forgiven for thinking I was chilling at a café. Well, looks can be misleading – as we were at the five-year old resto-bar, Bay 146, at Savera Hotel, sampling their all new menu. The deceptive café staples were in fact a delightfully sublime Grey Goose vodka and South African white wine mix called A Beautiful Bliss that came in a teapot, and the pastry was a perfect bar snack – a firm chicken patty fashioned like a doughnut and sticky with a mango-jalapeno topping and a drizzle of peri peri sauce.
I believe I can fry
Chef Jesu Santiagu Lambert, the Executive Chef, informs us with a smile, “While healthy and clean eating are the buzzwords – at resto bars and pubs, I find that deep-fried dishes continue to be the fast movers.” When we dig into the delicious, flaky and beer batter fried Seer fish we agree with him wholeheartedly. The Chef tells us that the Drunken Machi Amritsari is his take on the popular American fish and chips – while I smother the potato wedges with the green-pea mash and chase it all down with a Cosmopolitan. However, the cocktail too has a twist – as Food & Beverage Manager, Sampath Kumar divulges, that the tang on my palate is of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice.
Meanwhile, the surprises didn’t stop with the teapot – which is understandable, as they have 146 mixes in all (Rs 395 onwards). My companion was served a Bay’s Penicillin – where the first sip is alluring with whiffs of the 15 ml of Glenmorangie floating on top, while the base is Jim Beam, all held together with a potent honeyed, gingery concoction of lemon juice. I am distracted with the bite-sized prawn popcorn with wasabi cream – of course, deep fried and delicious with a hint of Indian spices in the crumb – even as I peruse their food menu that now covers everything from soups to desserts and everything in between.
Jar code
In support of sobriety, we passed on the Bayside cocktail, comprising two drinks, a part of their new Pot and Jar menu – where the former is a muddy concoction (dark rum, passion fruit mix, pineapple juice and lime juice), and the latter is an invigorating green mix (gin, zucchini juice, basil, lime sugar syrup). We barely mulled over that as the dessert had arrived, waving colourful cubes of red velvet, brownie and doughnut (the real thing!) all plastered on the rim of a small jar of chocolate milkshake – the Sloppy Shake. Scooping out the soaking chocolate truffle cake from the bottom of the jar, I was grateful for the mini-monster size, before calling it a night.
A meal for two at Rs 1,500 onward (not including beverages). Details: 97109-76876