Some days you crave for South Indian food, while on the other days it might be Thai or North Indian. Last Saturday was one such day where we badly wanted to have some South Indian delicacies, but instead, we found ourselves at Aloft Bengaluru Outer Ring Road, going through elaborate dishes at a buffet. What made us stay? The ongoing Namma Sri Lanka, a Sri Lankan food festival.
The table was set. A potted plant with a flag of Sri Lanka on it and a small toy house boat over blue tablecloth did bring in island vibes. We started off with some delicious appetisers — Daellan Valalu (crumb fried squid rings), Kukul Mas Piyapat (fried spicy chicken wings) and Paneer Tikka. The chicken wings were tangy and we didn’t really care about getting our hands dirty, while the paneer tikka was on point with the flavours, the squid was well, pretty ignorable. A touch of Indian with a couple of Sri Lankan starters was not a bad start at all, but they could have done better.
Moving on to the main course, we were left with a number of options to choose from. We decided to start with some Chicken Biryani, Kukul Mas Kalu Pol (chicken black curry) and some raita. The flavourful rice along with raita and the spicy chicken gravy was a treat. The flavour of curry leaves in the chicken curry was very overpowering, but we loved it. We had so much of the biryani that we were left with very less space for dessert. But if you’re planning to visit, you could try the steamed rice with Negombo Esso Kariya (prawn curry), Paripu Themparadu (toor dal curry), Moringa Maluwa (drumstick curry), Bandakka Kari (okra curry) and Wattaka Maluwa (pumpkin curry).
We managed to find our second stomach for some simple dessert and had a couple of black forest pastries and gulab jamuns. Don’t judge us, okay!
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INR 1,999 onwards. On till July 9, 12.30 pm to 3.30 pm. At Nook, Outer Ring Road.
Email: alwin@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @al_ben_so