Lounges in Bangalore: Colour me turquoise

Holed up in a corner of the inroads of JP Nagar, in the basement of an unassuming hotel, Turquoise at S Hotel is a pleasant surprise.

One of the first lounges to hit this part of Bangalore, it has apparently been around for over three years. I decided to check the place out on a Wednesday evening. To my surprise, I ended up walking out, telling myself I’m definitely going back.  And here’s why.

To kick-start the evening, we ordered from their selection of martinis — green apple martini, a passion martini and a marmalade martini. Along with that we asked for Chicken Tikka, Spicy Cheese Balls and the oh-so-favourite desi Chinese dish Gobi Manchurian. That done away with, we sat around checking out the place, which does seem to have an attitude of its own.

As we waited for our drink, I realised this is exactly what would please South Bangaloreans. It isn’t as high profile or chic as the big stand alone lounges, yet it offers good music to shake a leg, a decent bar menu and, of course, a multi-cuisine restaurant floor, to satiate a suburban upbringing.

The green apple martini had the right amount of sweetness and a hint of lemony twist — the barman had got his drink right. The passion fruit version lived up to its green apple ally. The marmalade variation caught my fancy the most. This had marmalade, but didn’t have orange juice as its mixer.

The food was just as good too. The chicken tikka was soft and more importantly devoid of any food colouring. The spicy cheese balls were indeed spicy. The after-taste had that stinging taste of spicy jalapenos. The Manchurian we’d ordered was  also devoid of artificial colouring.

For the second round of drinks, we had an El Diablo, a mojito-like drink which had crushed strawberries, a Long Island Iced Tea and a Hurricane, a passion fruit drink with both dark and white rum. While the iced tea and the Hurricane seemed to live up to all the pleasant things that made the evening good so far, the El Diablo stuck out as a sore thumb.

It could have well been their winning mix, for a couple of other bars in the city have had similar concoctions as their signature cocktails, but this place isn’t that lucky. Firstly, the crushed strawberries used was just boring syrup.

If that wasn’t enough, the drink had a bittery lemon twist. It was no winner! A Bailey’s on crushed ice was what I needed to get over it. And the staff let me down again here, when they gave me Bailey’s in a martini glass, with ice separate. Sacrilege I tell you! But for the last few glitches, I’d say this is one place that definitely should figure in the ‘must check out’ list of all South Bangaloreans!