The Aqua Bar at Atria Hotel is an interesting find. Extremely pocket-friendly, very safe ambience for single women out for a drink, low-key pop music and an oasis of calm with the aquariums that line the wall providing a Zen feel to the whole area. Okay, it may not be the one landmark where you take visitors to Bangalore to boast about your city, but if you’re looking for a place to go after a hard day’s work, where you down a couple of drinks without hassles, this one is your place to go to.
Money matters
To start with the business end of things, the cocktails and the liqueurs are priced at about `250, the beer comes at `150 and for those who swear by their whiskey, the range is an affordable `150 (for White and Mackay) to `550 (Glenmorangie Lasanta). It’s not an exhaustive menu for sure, but it does have enough for you to pick from. On the hard liquor menu, you get only Bacardi rum, vodkas offer you slightly more with Finlandia, Absolut, Smirnoff and Eristoff. Gin-drinkers get Beefeaters and Gordons, while the liqueur menu accommodates Sauza and Don Angel tequila, Martini Bianco, Curacao Blue and the likes. The starters are mostly Indian, coming at an affordable range of `230 to `265.
Inside story
The bar is tucked away from the main lobby, the walls being replaced by huge aquariums filled with colourful fish. Keeping with the theme, the interiors are aqua blue and the tables and the seating keep up with the theme. Apart from all the ‘fish-watching’ you can do, the aquariums serve the dual purpose of imparting a sense of calm and quiet and you can easily see through them to spot if your friends have arrived already and are waiting at the lobby. The tiny flaw in an otherwise perfect scheme of things is that when the beer takes a toll on the bladder, you have to walk all the way outside and across the lobby to redress the problem. You can sit at the bar or choose to sit apart; the lights are pleasantly low, so you don’t get a feeling of being in a fish-bowl or of being given the once over by the other guests. But it sure doesn’t require you to whip out your reading glasses and a flashlight to read the menu.
Proof of the pudding
The scorecard, when it comes to the cocktails and the food, is riddled with hits and misses. The Long Island Iced Tea hit the spot, as did the Bloody Mary. The balance was just right, and like all good cocktails, you could feel the liquor and yet it didn’t overpower the complex flavours of the cocktail. Horse’s Neck, one cocktail that we don’t see much on the menus these days, packed a surprising punch. The classic recipe calls for bourbon and ginger ale with an option of adding Angostura bitters, but for those not used to the flavours, this takes an acquired taste. The Aqua Lounge, a vodka-based house cocktail, was pleasing enough, but that was just about it, being a bit too on the sweet side.
The starters are pretty basic, and provided you stick to the Indian ones, you are safe. They are not going to make the intrepid gastronomes write reams on them, but are pleasant enough as accompaniments to the drinks. The machchi ajjwain tikka was slightly on the dry side, the konjee crispy lamb provided some exercise for the jaws, but the chicken malai tikka tried to make up for the disappointment. One good thing though, they do turn down the heat and spices upon request.
Here’s to the people
The service here is stellar though. The servers are attentive without being intrusive, a smile is always thrown in with the orders and they are extremely accommodating of any requests you may have of them — right from asking for extra chairs, better tables, customisation of the menu or even asking for cocktails that are not listed on the menu. If they can indeed make a guest happy, they do try and ensure that there’s no room for complaint. And what’s best, they are happy to leave you to your drink and your conversation without going in for a sales kill. This, we really appreciated.
End note
For the price and the convenient location it offers, Aqua Bar is quite a neat spot to head to if you’re not a dyed-in-the-wool Sybarite who swears only by the cutting-edge stuff in the culinary world. For the rest of us, looking for a quick drink to drown the sorrows of a working day and with a pressing need to balance the bills, this could just work out fine.
Name: Aqua Bar
Address: The Atria Hotel, 1, Palace Road, Bangalore
Phone: 22205206
Smoking area: No
Dance Floor: No how much?
Price: Rs1,200 (for two approximately)
Timings: 11amto 11pm
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