Jayanagar gets a new Italian restaurant, Red Tomato, that serves experimental pizzas like Sour Dough Indian Dal Neapolitan

The menu offers an interesting mix of Italian dishes, but it’s the pizza section that’s the highlight
A slice of pizza that's served at Red Tomato
A slice of pizza that's served at Red Tomato

South Bengaluru has witnessed a sudden explosion in the number of breweries and pubs in the last one year. Now, Red Tomato, a pizzeria opens its doors in Jayanagar.

Located in one of the quieter lanes of the verdurous suburb, the restaurant is tastefully done up with distressed white furniture, wooden barrels and indoor plants. The menu offers an interesting mix of Italian dishes, but it’s the pizza section that’s the highlight. We headed to the restaurant for lunch on a weekday.
 

Red Tomato Minestrone soup
Red Tomato Minestrone soup


Melon mix
We started our meal with the Melon Sizzler mocktail. This drink is the restaurant’s take on the watermelon and feta salad, sans the cheese. The concoction of watermelon, black pepper and balasamic vinegar with soda was refreshing. Then, we sampled the Red Tomato Minestrone soup. The tomato basil broth with pasta and vegetables, seasoned with red wine was served with garlic bread. The broth was creamy and boasted a sharp tanginess.

From the starters, we liked the Cottage Cheese Red Tomato Tart. The tomato tart, filled with creamy cottage cheese, tomato chunks and spinach, is a must-try because of the crumbly and crisp tart shell that’s made in-house. The Spicy Cottage Cheese Calzone was the other starter that impressed us. Cottage cheese, cooked in a spicy Indian sauce, was stuffed into the calzone pockets, which were baked and topped with cheese. The comforting Indian curry flavour and the spiciness of the filling made it interesting.
 

Spicy Cottage Cheese Calzone
Spicy Cottage Cheese Calzone

Bean there
We then sampled their signature pizzas. The Sour Dough Indian Dal Neapolitan is the Indianised version of the classic Neapolitan pizza. So in addition to the tomatoes and mozzarella cheese, the pizza is topped with beans such as rajma and moong. It’s a bold experiment and worth a try if you want something unusual. The sour dough thin crust of the pizza was crisp and baked to perfection.

We then tried the Prawn Crust and Cheese Pizza with Gnocchi. The crust was stuffed with prawns and topped with prawns and gnocchi. It was the play of different textures that made it interesting. If you want to try something that’s totally out of the box, then order the Cottage Cheese and Corn Spicy Indian Chicken pizza. It is a large square-shaped thin crust pizza which is topped with another round thin crust pizza. The Indian chicken topping is quite spicy but that’s what gives it a local flavour. Apart from these options, there is a long section of toppings to choose from.

From the desserts, we enjoyed the classic Italian options — the Lemon Panna Cotta and Strawberry Cream Bombolini. The Lemon Panna Cotta was topped with lemon curd. The texture was smooth and silky, and the lemon curd added the required citrusy flavour to the dessert. The Strawberry Cream Bombolini was the highlight of our meal. The sugar-dusted doughnut was filled with strawberry cream, which you get a burst of with every bite. Red Tomato is attempting to serve classic Italian dishes and a few options with an Indian twist. It certainly warrants a visit if you like to experiment with different flavours.

Rs 1,500++ for two. At 5th Block Jayanagar

ayeshatabassum@ newindianexpress.com
@aishatax

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