Before I start, let me make it clear that this is not about real Kaayal or Malabar. But, this is about two restaurants in Bangalore that I visited in past two days. One is reasonably posh with own website and fan base and the other is a small drab shop which nobody talks about.

Kaayal:

This restaurant is at Jeevan Bhima Nagar, opposite to Miranda public school. Many people whom I know had told me about this place. There was lot of expectation built up before we went there. The inside of the restaurant looked promising. But, to be frank, I felt compared to “Kolkata Kitchen”, a similarly themed restaurant at Vigyan Nagar, it was not that great. Just one glance at menu killed whatever was remaining of my initial excitement.

• There were not enough vegetarian items
• What ever was there were over priced (Eg. Kadala – channa – curry cost Rs. 70)
• None of the items were really great

My wife had some non-veg stuff and she also did not like them much. We had a plate of tapioca, and quite a bit of it was not edible since they had not taken care to remove the hard part of tapioca root. The curry was masala water + channa and they did not seem to gel with each other. The bill came to be Rs. 280.

Malabar:

Today morning we had gone to the Ayappa temple near kaggadasapura level crossing. While coming back, we walked through the kaggadasapura main road. Near the junction where kaggadasapura main road met K H Road, there was this small shop called Malabar. There was space for hardly 10 or 12 people. We got in there and had our breakfast. The Kadala (channa) curry was the best of all. The thick gravy clearly made the statement that it is far superior to the masala water that we got from Kaayal the day before. The tea was really nice and I actually wanted to order a second one. The appam was very delicious (My stomach was upset the day before after dinner from Kaayal and I feel it was possibly due to some excessive fermenting agent (baking soda?) that they might have used in their appam).

It was not a great place as far as the cleanliness and ambiance were concerned. However, it was not a place where you can’t sit and have food. The bill was only Rs. 78 after having almost same amount of stuff that we had from Kaayal.

The moral of the story? Not just the appearances, but even hearsay is deceptive. Well, go to these two restaurants and experience for yourselves