Visited the Old’s Cool Bistro today… I have been hearing about this place for quite some time thanks to one of my friends and thru some reviews in Facebook… Apparently the place is what used to be known as the Truffle’s Bistro… So, happened to go around Kuravankonam for some shopping and so got the chance to check the place out… First of all, I must confess that I never got the chance to go to Truffle’s Bistro and so I can’t make a comparison between how things used to be there to how things are over there… I have been hearing some people say that the standards have dropped and so things are not as good as how they used to be, but like I said, I can’t make that comparison…
It was lunch when I went there… As I climbed up the stairs leading to the place, a guy greeted me and escorted me to my seat and handed over the menu… I did find the decor to be nice with all the wood work… As can be seen from the pics, I guess they were going for the old days look of what we used to call as the “Virakupura” with what kind of looks like logs of firewood stacked together… Then they complemented that with the bench seating which again brings back memories of how restaurants used to be long time ago… However, the menu is nothing like the old days… 🙂
The menu here consists of options of Steaks, Sandwiches, Burgers – the classic Bistro menu with ofcourse some starters and salads thrown in there… They are yet to get a proper menu though as they handed me a laminated xerox paper with the menu as a list 🙂 So, since its been so long since I had a burger, I had to have one and so, went for their Mexican Chicken Burger and along with it as a starter, their Chicken and Egg White Salad (something my dietician has been asking me to have) and then to drink, what they call their Truffle Ecstacy… When ordering for the Truffle Ecstacy, the waiter informed me that they have changed the recipe and now they use Bananas and Dates for making the smoothie… Being not fond of Bananas, I was about to order for another one when the waiter insisted that I must try the Truffle Ecstacy as it is as I quote, “really good milk shake” 🙂
It took unusually long (25mins) to get served the salad which I am not complaining about, but it is unusual considering the fact that with salads you don’t really have to cook anything… 🙂 My best guess is that maybe they prepared everything and then served them one by one 🙂
So, the first item to arrive was the Chicken and Egg White Salad… The salad came in a bowl as shown in the pic and I am not sure if its really visible in the pic but it was indeed piled high… It was loaded with pieces of shredded roasted Chicken and boiled Egg White and Vegetables including Tomatoes, Bell Pepper, Lettuce and sliced Olives… The salad was seasoned well with salt and pepper and the dressed with Lime juice…
First of all, a request to the restaurant’s management to please serve it in a proper plate as having served as a heap in the bowl made it really hard for me to eat it without spilling some of it over the table… Regarding the dressing, I first thought it may be vinaigrette but then realised that there is no presence of the olive oil or any other oil in there and so realised that its just lime juice… The vegetables felt freshly chopped and the Egg Whites and Chicken felt perfectly cooked and seasoned… However, I felt that the amount of lime juice that went into the salad could’ve been much lower as I felt that it ended up dominating the whole salad’s taste… So, to somebody who is not into tasting sourness beyond mild levels, it won’t be a pleasant experience to eat this salad… I ended up diluting the taste by drinking some water with it… I guess it would’ve been an incredibly good and healthy salad for me had that lime not been added that much…
As I was almost done with the salad, I got served the Mexican Chicken Burger that I ordered as the mains… It came on a tray along with some French Fries and a sachet of Ketchup… The burger itself looked pretty big with a big bun topped with some melted butter with a spicy Chicken Patty inside sitting on top of some Salsa and a piece of Lettuce and then topped with some more Salsa along with what I think is their version of the Chipotle Mayo…
First of all, the bun felt good as even though as clearly can be seen, it looks like a very bad bun to meat and condiments ratio, turns out the bread was incredibly soft and airy that I didn’t feel like there is too much bread in the burger but I do wish the burger had a bigger patty either ways… The patty was cooked so perfectly that it literally did melt in my mouth… However, regarding the taste, unfortunately, the burger felt quite average in my opinion and I felt everything could’ve been seasoned better… When I saw the salsa, I expected it to taste better than the bottled one we get in the supermarkets and unfortunately it didn’t go much better than it… There was the overwhelming taste of vinegar in it that I found it hard to taste the chicken in the patty… I do seriously hope that it was a mistake there but if you are somebody who loves things that are sour, then I guess you won’t have a problem with any of it except for the seasoning part… Anyways, the fries were as good as how it could be which I could enjoy with the ketchup…
Finally, I got served the Truffle Ecstacy which as the waiter explained is a milk shake made with Bananas and Dates… Those who know me personally would know that Bananas are what I would eat only if there is no other option… So, the reason I went for this is for two reasons: 1) Its the only non-chocolate milk shake option in the menu and 2) It had dates in it which I love in a milk shake 🙂 So, I got served the same in a tall glass topped with some chocolate sauce as shown in the pics below…
This shake was awesome… Loved every drop of it… Even though this has Bananas, for some reason, the incredibly rich combination of it with the dates, is what I loved so much that I’ll definitely be having this again… It is indeed surprising to find myself liking something made with Bananas so much that this milk shake can definitely be among my favourites of all time… 🙂
So, altogether a meal with mixed feelings this time… I do think the place has potential and its quite possible that it was a bad day for the kitchen… So, I for one will definitely be going back there, at-least to have that milk shake and I do sincerely hope that things will be better then…
