It's like a treasure hunt. We are being rattled about in a rickety auto as we go round in circles, looking for clues, sign posts and doing whatever it takes to get to Coffeetales. Yes we tried calling, thrice, but the staff answering the call sound like Garfield — sleepy and dazed. Finally when we get there, our reaction is probably similar to Columbus's when he discovered America.
But my finicky foodie friend is fuming by now. She hates wasting time when it comes to food. So I quickly scan through the menu and get a refreshing mint cooler to calm her down. The menu has an elaborate list of mocktails. There are juices with exotic names, and sangria, margarita, shots, daiquiri...everything is non-alcoholic. A chocolate based shot would be nice but it's not listed in the menu. Fortunately, the staff here is accommodating and volunteer to make an After Eight shot. To go with that we order Aloo tikki, Crispy babycorn sandwich and a vegetable Maggi biriyani. Interestingly, they do a variety of Maggi noodles with innovative flavours of their own.
The bar stools overlooking the road, are a good place to sit down and enjoy our drink. The shots come in a set of three miniature glasses. The top layer is milky-chocolaty-minty but the Hershey's chocolate base is way too sweet. So by the time the drink is over I am craving for something spicy. Meanwhile the friend is bouncing from one seat to another — first the bar stool, then the cosy chair and now the green couch, apparently she isn't able to get a complete view of the interesting graffiti on the ceiling. It's a six step drawing that depicts a boy who wakes up in the morning and finds out he's run out of coffee and heads to Coffeetales...yeah yeah and they all lived happily ever after. Thankfully the food arrives and her embarrassing game of musical chairs ends. The grilled sandwich has a filling of crunchy babycorn with gooey cheese and mayonnaise. It's so good that we can barely wait for it to cool down. The deep-fried aloo tikki is a disappointment.
It's an open kitchen and we can smell our Maggi being prepared. The steaming hot love child of Maggi and biriyani masala is actually delicious, albeit a little too spicy. This is when the After Eight shot comes in handy. The good thing about Coffeetales is that they prepare your food right then and there, and serve it piping hot. We go through the menu again looking for something sweet to end the meal. They only have ice creams — tender coconut, watermelon, sapota, litchi…Making up our mind takes so long that the menu decides to give way. We change our mind and settle for an Indian mushroom wrap instead. It takes a while for the wrap to arrive but when it does it's fresh and tastes like homemade paratha fried in ghee with juliennes of capsicum, carrot and mushroom. Not just the food, the ambience feels homely too, oh and they have wi fi. Coffeetales is at 7, 7th Cross Street, Shenoy Nagar West.
