Bangalore is the city of flowers; it literally is. But what it definitely is not a city of restaurants; atleast it is not a city of “visible” restaurants.
There are not many large or exotic restaurants in Bangalore. Bangalore has a lot of small restaurants where you get excellent South Indian food (read ‘dosas’ and ‘idlis’). But if you are looking beyond, you have a struggle on your hand hunting for ‘decent’ restaurants to have ‘decent’ food. And if you are new to Bangalore, then the magnitude of the struggle is more than what Tippu Sultan had when he fought the Britishers (the analogy is the hangover of the recent trip to Mysore during Diwali).
Thanks to certain mortals on MS (immortals are abundant here though) like Sri and Maddy, the ‘state’ of a married (harried?) man is not a secret any more. In this background, I need not explain why, the first weekend after my wife landed in Bangalore, I had to go to Commercial Street, after exhausting each and every shop in M G Road and Brigade Road.
All that I saw of Bangalore in one and a half month before that was the way from office to home and back and probably a couple of friend’s place. In just two days (the first holidays after my wife’s landing) I was forced to travel the length and breadth of Bangalore.
So where were we? Yes, we are in the midst of a crowded and narrow street called Commercial Street, which is the new shopping area that is coming up big time in Bangalore. Having walked the whole evening up and down MG Road and Brigade Road, I was too tired for even ‘bird-watching’ (you know what I mean, don’t you? – yes, looking at the birds in the sky. What did you think?) But my better-half [had bitter experiences after calling her the ‘bitter-half’; hence resorting to saner measures] was insistent that we should not be unfair to the shops on Commercial Street.
At this point, I suggested to my wife that we need to refuel ourselves the way we refueled the vehicle on the way. To my astonishment, she agreed to the idea immediately. My struggle then changed from trying to force my wife off shopping to restaurant hunting (refer how Tippu had little less trouble in paragraph 2).
Woodys in Commercial Street is a welcome eaterie in the whole Street. It makes a lot of business sense for the restaurant from the locational point of view as there are no other good hotels nearby (Disclaimer – Atleast nothing visibly and till the time we visited the place).
Part of the Woodlands group of hotels, Woodys is their chain of restaurants with the other restaurant outlets of the group situated at Jayanagar in Bangalore and Kodaikanal in Tamilnadu. The hotel has a big “W” as its logo and uses green colour as its theme.
[ As per Times of India last Sunday, the wavelength of green is 550 nanometer (1 nm = one billionth of a meter) and is the most soothing to our eyes and helps in quick recovery - the reason behind using green colour in hospitals. On the other hand, red with a wavelength of 700 nm is relatively most hard on eyes and is known to delay recovery. Now, that is a VERY GOOD excuse to go green, ain’t it?]
The Woodys outlets in Commercial Street and Jayanagar have separate provision of ‘self-service’ and ‘service’ areas. If you are in a hurry to catch that late night train/flight, then ‘self-service’ area is what you should be looking for. The service area is well ‘manned’ and the service is also quite prompt. (I should add “so far, so good”) There might be slight delay on some really crowded day when people will be queuing up for space which I suppose is inevitable.
The menu is exhaustive and has almost all the varieties of both North Indian and South Indian food. Try out the ‘Pesarattu’ anyday; you will love it. [‘Pesarattu’ is something I have encountered after coming to Bangalore. I am told it is made out of the atta made out of green gram.] I also recommend the “chocolate milk shake” to round up things.
The prices are quite reasonable and will not make serious dents in your budget. The token system of delivery in the self-service counter really saves a lot of confusion while placing and receiving orders. The ambience offered in their Jayanagar outlet is exquisite, with glass building and smart lighting et al. It has ample parking space as well though the outlet in Commercial Street does not have much parking space. It is also situated in a very accessible place and “visible” even for a first-timer in the city.
Woodys also runs other restaurants in the city though not under the same name. Adigas in Jayanagar is one such example. Woodys also maintain a lot of gardens, parks and grounds in the city. Probably, they believe in ’green’.
Woodys, however, is not a posh place to dine. If you are throwing a party, taking an important visitor or the kind who travels in Mercedes, then Woodys is not the place for you. It basically caters to the routine dining out middle class families (that includes me).
The other negative you could associate with Woodys is that it is crowded always. Hence it is not the place for that quiet dinner. You will have to wait for tables to get vacant and it feels awkward when people hangs around waiting for you to finish your food and leave the table.
Overall Woodys is definitely worth a dinner or even more. You can catch me in the Jayanagar outlet most Saturdays unless when we look for a change once in a while.