How about a futuristic meal?

Bangaloreans have always been fond of their food. Keeping that thought in mind, young restaurateurs are going all out to ensure that they leave no stone unturned to make eating out a special occasion for the city’s foodies. The result of this has been innovative restaurants, some of which are firsts in the nation or the city.

Take the case of the one-week-old diner bar Touché in Indiranagar. This place is India’s first ever touch table restaurant. The owners are obviously very proud of their achievement, for they also are, apparently, only the fifth such place in the world.

Co-founder and director, Jibby Matthews, who also is a techie, says this is a concept that he has been toying around for a long time. “I have been working on this concept for nearly five years. I was just waiting for everything to fall in place so that I could put it into action. We have developed the software ourselves and have even assembled the tables the way we wanted,” says Matthews.

Talking about the way the restaurant functions as such, Matthew says, “We have two, four and six seater tables. Each of these tables has screens. While we have 32inch screens for the four-seaters, there are two 24inch screens on the six-seater and one 24inch on the two-seater.”

The screen displays the menu, which is divided into different sections. “One can choose what they want and the orders automatically go to the tablet computers carried by the waiters. The orders are then reconfirmed and sent to the kitchen,” says Matthews. The touch screen also offers games, allows one to share jokes and quotes, which can be rated by other diners and even request songs from the jukebox to the DJ. “It is a first of its kind concept in India and we hope to take it to other cities to,” he adds.

Following closely on the footsteps of this restaurant will also see Bangalore having its first microbrewery. Toit, which recently opened doors to customers in Indiranagar, is going to have a microbrewery soon. “Bangalore is a beer loving city and the one thing that the city’s population lacks in a microbrewery. We’re just working on it and plan on being a brew pub, a fad that is fast catching up with the youngsters globally,” says Arun George, one of the partners of Toit.

“We already have a multi-level restaurant and plan on installing the microbrewery in the ground level, which has a pub like setup,” says George. And we also hear that there is another such place which is working towards opening this summer. This microbrewery is said to be situated around Lavelle Road and it should offer many flavours of beers to the customers.

F Bar and Lounge, which has been a little delayed, is also supposed to be opening its doors to customers this summer. This place, situated off Cunningham Road, is supposed to be designed to host fashion shows, with a special VIP section that overlooks a ramp that’s a permanent fixture in the lounge. “We have a whole host of surprises apart from just the ramp, which will ensure that partying in Bangalore will no longer be the same,” says Satya Sinha, one of the partners.

From plain ol’ fine dining restaurants to newer concepts, eating out or partying in Bangalore is slowly but surely catching up with global twists.