Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Mr.Beans - The Coffee Lounge, Bangalore - a Review




 My husband and I are always on a lookout for good eateries which serve great food, have aesthetic ambiance, are conveniently located and more importantly are friendly on the pocket. In other words, a place where we can just hangout, unwind and relax.

Well, I am sure most of you are also on this hunt and would love to know of new places in the city! If yes, read on and meet our new friend... Mr.Beans :)
The Front Lounge Room with Cheerful Posters


One of our recent discoveries of exactly one such hangout, is Mr.Beans Coffee Lounge. Conveniently located in Koramangala, Mr.Beans is a tastefully decorated cafe which serves a wide variety of exquisite and authentic, lip-smacking yums from across varied cuisines. 

The instant we reached the cafe, what caught our fancy is its warm ambiance. There is no formal or a structured table-chairs seating arrangement here. You will find all sorts of seating here... from sofas, benches to chairs. Have your pick and enjoy your time at Mr.Beans.


The Outside Seating Area

If you are an outdoorsy kinds, you can choose the outside seating area amidst the greenery (also note, that this is their smoking zone). The decor is simple with garden furniture. This time around, we were at Mr.Bean late evening on a weekday. With the traffic at its peak and the cafe being right on a main road, this outside seating didn't seem the perfect spot for us for that day! But, on our next visit, I would love to pick a spot here :)

The building was originally a house that has been artistically converted into a beautiful cafe. Hence, just like a home, it has rooms and each room has a different personality of its own. Cheerful posters adorn all the prettily coloured walls of the cafe. There is a room to suit everyone, depending on the size of the party visiting the place. From private two-seater corners, to a section that accommodates more than 8-10 people in a single room, this cafe has it all!

Colourful Cabinets in the Party Hall

There is little shelf in the corner of the group seating zone, which has board games and comics. If you would like to simply spend a few hours making merry with a couple of friends over some fun games and yum food, you know where to head! :) These guys insist on being informal to the extent that, no one is made to feel rushed to finish up their order and move out. It is just like when you visit some one's home.

The Foosball Room


One of the main attractions of this cafe, is its Foosball table! Yes, you and your bunch of friends can enjoy a serious match of Foosball while you wait for your order or simply fool around and have some fun tossing the ball around :) Would you be surprised if I told you that the management arranges Foosball tournaments for their guests on weekends?! If that was not exciting enough, they have some exciting prizes that they offer to the winners!! How much fun is that?! You may just want to head over there to find out more details!

Caramel Mocha | Kit Kat Shake | Mochachino

So, finally after a lovely little tour of the place, we sat down to enjoy our yummies. We started with a hot drink each - A Caramel Mocha and a Mochachino. YUM is an understatement for these two drinks. I loved the rich creaminess of the drinks and the perfect flavoring. and that fancy design on top, oh I didn't have a heart to distort that! It was a great start and we just couldn't wait for the food o arrive.

Since, we are talking about drinks, let me also tell you that we drained down all the yummy food that we had, (...which you will get to know about in just a few seconds!) with a cold Kit Kat shake. We ordered for one and got it split into two glasses. It was nice, but probably a wee bit strong on the Kit Kat flavour to my liking.


CTC Toast [Cherry Tomatoes & Cheese]

As a starter, we chose the CTC Toast. If you are wondering, like I did, what CTC stands for... it is Cherry Tomato and Cheese! This was a plateful of yumminess. A perfectly toasted slice of bread with a topping of deliciously melted cheese and flavoured tomatoes. I only wished the serving portion was a little more!

Tri Chilli Pizza and Funghi with a twist - 50:50 Pizza
Then came along their speciality, the thin-crust pizza. 

Now, I am a huge fan of mushrooms while the hubby is of chillies. So what do we do? We decided to go for a fifty-fifty pizza! Yes, these guys are so flexible that they agreed to bake us a pizza with two different toppings, once on each half! So, there was our pizza with a Tri Chilli topping on the husband's half and a creamy mushroom topping (called the Funghi with a twist) on my half! We both were happy and our tummies too! :D 

Frankly, we were skeptical about the thin crust, as we are not huge fans of thin crust pizzas, and the few that we have had in other places, had really soft thin crusts that took away the fun from pizzas. But this one, oh this one is a show stealer. It was crisp and crunchy... easily the best thin crust I have had! 

Thumbs up to this one! :)

Arrabiata Pasta Authentic (Veg)

Now the thin crust pizza, though delicious and a class apart, were not completely filling. So, we ventured onto an Arrabiata Pasta next. My usual pick would have been a Alfredo pasta, but having had a creamy mushroom topping on my pizza, we opted for a tomato based sauce for our pasta. 

The preparation of the pasta was authentic, bursting with Italian flavours. The sauce was of a lovely consistency and the pasta was cooked to perfection. There were not many veggies in there, except for the bits of tomato and onion comprising the thick sauce and some basil leaves. Probably this very factor, accentuated the flavours of the sauce. The only negative I found in this dish was that it seemed a tab bit oily (Oh but not much worries, as its Olive oil!). And oh yes... we would have loved it if they served a portion of Garlic Bread along with the pasta!

Waffles with Strawberry Sauce

To give finishing touches to our meal, we opted for a sweet dessert - Waffles with Strawberry Sauce. I have not eaten waffles too many times before, so I frankly do no know the exact texture that it should have. This one was mildly crisp on the corners and soft and chewy in the centre. The waffle was topped with strawberry sauce and served along with a dollop of whipped cream. 

I personally found the sauce a little too thick and of jam consistency. I would have preferred a more dilute sauce. But the husband, a huge jam-lover, loved this very fact more than the waffles :D So this dish was of neutral liking to both of us.

After about an hour and a half, same great food and a rejuvenating experience, we headed back home with satisfaction. As an overall rating, I would give this place a 4/5 and would definitely be visiting this place again.... and again! 

If you are a foodie, you will definitely love this place. Do hop over and check out their official web page: Mr.Beans Coffee Lounge or their Facebook page. 

Or just pay them a visit. 

Address: 100 Feet Road, Next to Karnataka Bank, Near BDA Complex, 3rd Block, Koramangala, Bangalore| Ph: 080 61344833

1 comment:

  1. Nice review dear. This is one place which I would definitely love to visit.

    ReplyDelete