MAGNOLIA, a recently opened restaurant in Koramangala, is a favourite haunt for Chinese and Thai food lovers. The restaurant gives you something different, apart from a good blend of two oriental cuisines. It operates from a bungalow that is done up in pink and black with grey stonewalls.
Rysma Kumar, who has been a consultant in the food business, started Magnolia, in an attempt to "provide Bangalore's gastronomes with good Thai food as well as some Chinese fare. Thai doesn't work in totality because somewhere people prefer some Chinese flavours," says Rysma.
The exhaustive menu has various items from both these cuisines, as well as some signature items that the restaurant's chefs have specially cooked up. And they are dimsums and dumplings, stuffed with vegetables, chicken, fish or prawn, and a range of sauces, such as black bean sauce and ginger onion sauce.
Rysma tells us that while these different sauces and dimsums may be available at other specialty restaurants, they are certainly not served at every other Chinese or Thai eatery. "The type we make is not available elsewhere," she claims. There is also a seasonal menu, which covers specialities served by the restaurant for the different festivals and seasons. For Christmas and New Year, it serves Kung Pao prawns (a delicious preparation), pickled fish, Thai crab/prawn in namprik sauce (a sweet and sour Thai sauce). They have worked on a new menu for Valentine's Day. The delicacies on this seasonal menu are unique such as, Kung Pao prawn (a delicious prawn preparation), Pickled fish, Thai crab/ prawn in Namprik sauce (a sweet and sour Thai sauce) and others.
Magnolia, named after a gentle feminine flower, "encourages people to eat Thai and Chinese food, cooked homestyle, which is characteristic of the country of origin". Though the Indian palate doesn't always prefer this, if someone wants it in its original style, Magnolia will cook it for him/her. For the others who prefer Indian-style oriental food, the menu has an extensive range of starters, soups, and main course delicacies.
You could begin your meal with the original fare from Magnolia such as sesame toast, peppery stuffed bean curd (highly popular), or fish pepper salt. There are also familiar starters such as spring rolls, satay chicken/vegetables, and onion pancakes. Most preparations are available either with chicken, fish, prawns, or vegetables.
Thai tum yum soup (available with noodle too), Thai coconut soup, and Talumein soup, to name a few are some of the popular soups served at Magnolia. The main course, once again, has an endless list of vegetarian, prawn, fish, chicken, and lamb dishes (all available in a range of Thai red, green, coconut gravies, or soya sauce). The menu almost makes it difficult for you to decide what to have but something interesting is the taro nest preparation, for which food is served in a fried nest. There are also Hong Kong, Singapore, and Mandarin style dishes and various preparations in sauces ranging from hot garlic, Schezwan, hot bean sauce, and so on.
Noodles vary over glass noodles, Malaysian flat noodles (a meal in itself), Schezwan, and Haka. The rice platter offers Shanghai rice, fortune rice, and American Chopsuey.
For those who have a sweet tooth, Magnolia offers date pancakes, and desserts with toffee and leeches. The restaurant soon plans to introduce Thai sweets.
While the restaurant seats 90 people at a time, it also caters to private parties on the terrace.
Magnolia can be contacted on 51102222.
TINA GARG |
