Brunch and then some Bombay

Brunch in Bangalore is as big a deal as you want to be. The options range from the corner Darshini (read: Adiga's or Sukh Sagar) that will serve the safe (by which I mean standard-taste-always-good) Masala Dosa and Kesari Bhath fare. But every now and then when you feel like something different, there are a bunch of brunch options. Of these, Sunny's on Lavelle Road is pretty impressive.

Sunny's is an institution that began as a tiny kiosk on an offshoot of a road a few streets away. Today, it's housed in a Prestige building that looks as though it once was an old house. But it's been renovated and now boasts a swanky curb appeal, complete with a classic wooden gate at the entrance and a well-landscaped outdoors. The interiors are the highlight though, with spotless glass panes that look out onto the green space outside and which is remarkably well-concealed from busy Lavelle Road.

I loved the lights the best, that looked like ear swabs - short metallic poles with white bulbs on either end. A series of them dangled from a framework of sorts, possibly to provide a more dramatic effect than airborne ear swabs.

Once inside Sunny's, it would be unfair to say this is just another Indian restaurant. The atmosphere is different - airy, open, fresh. That's not to say that other eateries in the city are stale and claustrophobic. Just that this feels like a world by itself. Everyone was in capris and cotton shirts, sunglasses pushed back against their hair. People at nearby tables sit sipping a tall glass of beer where the foam has collected at the rim or a more colorful pina colada sort of cocktail/mocktail concoction with a lemon wedge peeking out.

And given the setting, it's easy to guess that the crowd had its fair share of Page 3 celebrities that jump out at you every Sunday morning from pages of Bangalore Times. But if you can get past the air kisses and the drawling "dahlings," you can pay more attention to the food.
I ordered a saffron cream chicken that I really liked. Mild flavors in what I would call a "smooth" dish. Mom and grandma ordered salads. I almost overlook the salad section on restaurant menus and with good reason. I've never considered vegetables, "food." These salads did little to shake my conviction. The sibling got lasagna which frankly was too tame an order for me, but she seemed to enjoy it. The highlight was dad's order of a whole fish cooked in some medley of pan Asian spices. Mighty impressive. Dessert was good too. The nice touch that all this was done on Father's Day.

In the evening, dad's friends invited us to dinner to Bombay Post of the BJN group on Airport Road. No matter how many times we go here, the novelty of dining in a restaurant with black and white paintings of old Hindi film stars and eating delicious Indian food that makes you think of being in Mumbai or Delhi, never gets stale. This time was no different except that we had to adhere to a vegetarian menu, to respect our hosts' dietary practices.

We had palak chat, which was every bit as fancy as it sounds. There was paneer and chole and naan. Somewhere along the way, there was some rice too, but we were so full at that point, that the details conveniently blur. Of course, none of this mattered when it was time to order the blueberry kulfi. Fantastic.