US 101 is a chic sports pub located at the GLM Meridien hotel in T Nagar. It is designed on the theme of sports and you find a lot of material backing the same in the form of wall paintings of sportsmen, vintage collection of framed sporting memorabilia, scarfs of popular football teams hanging across, artifacts and portraits of sporting movies and quotes of motivations, pillow covers depicting a sporting avatar, boxing punching bag, T shirts of popular sportstars with their numbers disclosed and the bar side is enveloped with great sportsman in their respective field. It is sporty and invokes the sporty side in you.
The ambiance feels all dark and noisy with loud music playing at the background. The decor comprising of sofa seating feels comfortable and laidback. They have a number of television sets all playing you guessed it right sports channels. You can see the attention to focus on the 'sports theme' and in a large way they have succeeded in getting it right.
We were invited as part of a bloggers meet to check their new offerings. A set menu was handed with options of both vegetarian and non vegetarian on the foodie side of things. For drinks, we had a shot of some of the mocktails and must say they all tasted great. There were some like the Choco punch which stood out having a punchy chocolate taste over a strawberry puree. Even liked the Blue breeze which was a lovely thirst quencher in a concoction of red bull and blue curacao with a dash of lime juice and mint thrown in. Even the other ones which I mildly tasted were decent enough.
On the starter section, we were served the following:
Cheese balls - One of the highlights of the night with the balls being extremely soft loaded with gooey cheese and flakes which went perfectly well with the chilli mayo dip. Took repeat quite a few times.
Nachos - It was passable but wasn't great. A portion of it had all the toppings whereas some chips were alienated. It was decent enough but lacked the zing.
Chilli Jalapeno's - This too was pretty nice though a long way off from being mindblowing. Resembled the cheese balls in size and texture but felt short of it on the taste front.
Button Mushrooms - This won brownie points. Felt it went along jocularly well with the Balsamic browm butter sauce. The mushrooms were big in size and cooked to perfection. The second best starter following the cheese balls.
Main course followed with the items mentioned:
Burritos and Enchiladas - Both were ok and especially the accompaniment part was good however they were very hard to break and it didn't gel well with the final package.
Baked Eggplant - Very okayish with a layer of cheese on top and an overdose of tomatoes for decoration. Not bad at all but a distance away from anything to rave about.
Spinach and Feta cheese Pasta - This was quite a disappointment and was very bland in taste. Except for the lavish coating of cheese, the dish overall lacked bite.
Cottage cheese steak - Tasted much better than the other main course dishes. The cottage cheese as such was a bit raw but it went well with the tomato basil sauce. And with corn, spinach and baby potatoes to go as sides it was a win.
Overall the drinks and the food were a mixed bag. The choices available and the taste of drinks were excellent, the starters especially some of them were really good but the main course ended up being rather disappointing. The service was prompt and friendly. Only grouse was the extra time being taken for the main course which was just taking way too long. The prices seem apt for pubs of this genre in general and one wouldn't be complaining too much on this area.
There are drawbacks yes, but this is one chilled out cafe to hang out and have some fun amidst the music, sports, food and drinks.
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