Les Amis - Your truly creamy companion!

Les Amis ticked plenty of boxes in the affirmative and can be termed to be a pretty impressive place with it's assorted collection of desserts especially creamy gelatos as well as selective bakery produce. It gives such a vibrant atmosphere with it's delicately done up aesthetics and seeing the display of ice creams and all the machines churning up the mechanics of creating these creamy creations is quite a sight to behold.

They are built up over two storey's with the ground area stacked up with dessert delicacies along with cozy seating arrangements whereas the top floor has more seating space with comfortable laden cushions along with some of their coffees and savory delights holding forte. It even feels like a place ideal to bring your work around for a wee bit because the atmosphere ignites that feel as well.

We tried some of their creamy creations. The ice creams scoops we had were sicilian pistachio and a dino milo chocolate both of which were sinful and oozing with delight all over. An ice cream cone combo of raspberry sorbet and pink guava was just riveting to say the least. Cold icy taste of the sorbet went jocularly well with the milk based rich taste of guava. We even had a shot at the stroop gelato sandwich which looked appealing with the biscuit layers being stuffed with cotton candy ice cream. They also have these lip smacking popsicles in the form of radical flavors such as rose milk, semiya etc aptly titles condensed milk creamsicles.

The savory side also had loads of interesting stuff worth trying but had to give it a pass since we just consumed a heavy lunch before coming in here to satiate our creamy cravings. They also have host of other sweetened items such as cookies and the like along with a fine variety of shakes and coffees. The service is based on self service model.

Les Amis is translated as Friends in its French avatar and there certainly cannot be an acquaintance better than rich delicious desserts which this place definitely conjures with fine quality. Les Amis infuses all the right vibes and is definitely assured to capture your heart to it's fullest content.

Ice Kraft - A tryst with Ice & Cream!

Ice cream parlours are on the prowl. You literally find one opening every other day and there is an inherent similarity in most of them. However that's not the case with Ice Kraft. I didn't come with any great expectations but left with a sounding impression that this place is here to stay and going to capture the market.

The place is located in the main road of GN Chetty road in T Nagar. It's quite nicely done up with a small lawn space seating overseeing the inside portion where the ice cream action takes place. They also have a portion upstairs where it's a little more private and peaceful. There is an envelope of blue overseeing the place. A dash of white added along gives it a lovely little professional touch up. There isn't too much on the ambiance front except for portraits picturing ice creams with quotations.

We were here on an invite and tried a variety of their offerings. First up, had a shot at the Hurricane fries. It was powdery and that sprinkle was felt in the mouth. It wasn't spicy by any means but the spread could have been subdued a bit. The cheesy potato wedges were absolutely wonderful though. Just the right dosage of cheese laced on top and this was a delight to eat with the dip. The sweet potato was another stunner. It had everything going for it and tasted delectable and was a great combination with the peri peri sauce. The corn also was nice to taste with this spicy red peri sauce. We also had a couple of salads which were well done up with both the thousand island as well as the herbed garlic lebnah being pleasing in taste. It had the perfect mix of creaminess and tonnes of exotic veggies in the mix.

Now, coming to the main part of the programme, the sweet stakes. This was an area where they literally aced it. Almost all of their creations were really well played and it was rejoiceful trying their sweetened delicacies one after another. The freakshakes lorded the show with both the Nutella crunch as well as the Tiramisu being spectacular. If you like your shakes to be messy and overloaded, you should definitely try this one out. It was overflowing like a waterfall with the sweet avalanche gushing. I particularly took liking to the nutella which gave that socklodager chocolaty punch. We also were served a twist in the form of sweetened fries in the mode of red velvet oreo and red velvet brownie fries. The former was absolute kick ass. Crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, this one was certainly enjoyable taking a dab at. The latter didn't pass the muster as opposed to the former as the brownie taste didn't come across appealingly.

Finally I had my much awaited tryst with the black charcoal ice cream. This was a first for me and I was looking forward to have a dribble. It was quite nice though I really can't say about the taste because it was something totally new. But nevertheless, I kind of enjoyed the charcoal scrape with the tinge of coconut which was quite pleasing. We had a number of shots at different flavours served on the black charcoal waffle cone and each one of them was lip smacking. We also had ice cream coming along in taco shells which was done up really well. We tried the charcoal flavour as well as the berry which I took real fondness to.

On the whole, it was a roller coaster of an ice creamy experience. The quality of the highest order and they also seemed to have got most of their innovations bang on without trying to go too over the top. They are planning to bring many more sweetened inventions to their inventory and for the dessert craving aficionado, this is an outlet which can give your ice cool creamy instincts a definite high five.

Kitchen 187 - Cafe of Creperies!

 I really like the setting of Kitchen 187. It gives a very languid feel and the blend of the colonial style vintage ambient with the new age brushstroke touches certainly points towards the right path. There are cafe's all over town but only some get that perfect laidback atmosphere right and Kitchen 187 falls in the affirmative. It is converted from a quaint old house and is located next to Raintree hotel in St Mary's road and it shares space with The cupcake company.

Brick walls surround the outside enclosure and on the inside is a splash of painted red walls and black sofa seating and lazy wooden chairs. The chess board style flooring adds a rather nice touch going in sync with the surrounding environment and the miniatures hanging are minimalistic and mild music is played at the background.

We were here on an invite to try out some of their offerings. We got to try various sections from their menu with different naming conventions such as All day breakfast, Salads, Sandwiches&burgers, Health bowls, Indian bites, Italia Cucina, Tex Mex, French crepes, smoothies, milk shakes, desserts, ice creams and hot&cold beverages.

The shakes and beverages were up on the mark and I personally enjoyed my Nutella chocolate milkshake having a strong essence of stirred nutella which was lip-smacking. Even the other shakes viz the hot fudge, cookie monster, nutella banana et al all were pretty good in their own sweet way. The lemonade drink in a conical shaped bottle was also quite refreshing.

In the Indian bites space both the onion rings and the Gongura potato were top notch and were stand out performers. The onion rings were crunchy and laced with a dripping of cheese and garlic aioli. The Gongura potato rolls were quite a revelation with an Andhra style mix inside a kathi roll. The salad in the form of Quinoah Tabouleh comprising of parsley, tomato and cucumbers wasn't much to speak about and on the Tex Mex side, the Nachos felt a tad too try with the cheese strangled awkwardly and but for the kidney beans by the side wasn't really too appetising. However the Quesadillas inset with mexican veggies and cheese made up more than lost ground by being remarkable. The Mexican corn on cob were pretty much your usual beach corn kinds with a mexican dressing to boot. We tried the Burmese Broth from the health bowl set and it was quite interesting. I've never tried such a thing before and I fairly enjoyed slurping this up. The fiery Mexican burger was pretty mainstream and managed to serve the purpose.

Both the pizza's we tried competed for top stakes and especially the Tomato basil pizza was one of the finest I've tasted. They nailed the spicy gravy mix which was superlative. The mushroom and cheese version was nice too. For pasta, we preferred the cream and mushroom spaghetti and though the dish was well delivered, that extra zing factor was slightly missing. The crepe lasagne was a master class and again something unique and divergent. And so was the egg in a hole under the all day breakfast category which was an interesting banter between bread, eggs and cheese. The vanilla cinnamon french toast went jocularly well with the maple syrup and the sweetened essence was tapped wonderfully.

The desserts too went in line with the high standards set by following it's predecessors. The nutella crepe with bananas is like your go to dish to satisfy your sweet cravings. Known for their crepes, it must be said they did a great job of it both on the savoury as well as on the sweetened avatars. The ice cream sandwich though hard to crack was regal and rich in taste.

The service was in adherence throughout and we never really had a long waiting time in between the items. Also they were very helpful with all our requests. Pricing is not applicable as it over an on the house. A glance at the rates would indicate they are a little on the higher side but considering the fest on offer seems a fair bet.

To adumbrate the experience at Kitchen 187, the positives far outweigh the negatives. You cannot ask for more from a place having the ideal cafe like setup with some lovely food on offer. If your quest is towards comfort and good food, Kitchen 187 will ensure to have that satisfied for you.