The Island & 124 Restaurant Review

The Island at Indira Nagar has some interesting food options!

On the Indira Nagar 80 ft road, is located ‘The Island’ restaurant. This road which is on its way to become the next 100ft road, getting busier by the day, though that’s a topic of another post and as usual I digress and that too in the very start of the post. Well, I think its an art I have perfected.

Coming back to The Island its very close to Spencer’s, a white building with tall walls which looks like just another Indira Nagar or Defence colony bungalow from outside but when you enter inside it surprises you pleasantly. There is lot of water to be seen – waterfalls in the side, thin running streams below the wooden planks, hammocks and other stuff. They have truly tried to bring in the island effect and it works to quite an extent too.

There is a little bit of inside sitting but most of it is outside. We took a seat outside and started the evening with two of their signature cocktails – The Island Special and Pain Killer while hubby stuck to his usual kingfisher on a weekday evening. I loved the Island Special but found the Pain Killer, a little too sweet for my taste but the friend who ordered it, liked that too.

The menu options for the starters were very interesting as they claim to serve something called a “Island Cuisine” where every dish comes with a twist making it closer to the food normally had at an island. We ordered Hot basil chicken, Grilled calamari and prawn salad and veg sampler so that something vegetarian could be tasted too. The hot basil chicken was nice, correctly cooked and spiced to the right levels specially because our spice levels are generally on the higher side.

 

 

The veg sampler had beer battered onion rings, cheese balls, spicy wedges and stir fried mixed veg. The beer battered onion rings were the best among it. We loved the crispiness and the beer flavour was just right.  Having said that, the rest were good too and special mention here to the green chutney which had a lovely applesauce and tamarind twist to it.

 

 

But the dish that stole my heart away was the Grilled calamari and prawn salad. Absolutely knock out dish, both calamari and prawn was perfectly cooked and well balanced with crunchy vegetables and a mildly spiced light sauce.

The person serving us mentioned that the paneer (cottage cheese) in the place was really good and we should try it and hence we decided to order Kafta Seasoned Cottage cheese and I was so glad I did because the quality of the paneer truly was good, the seasoning was decent too and all in all it made a good dish.

 

 

For the main course, we ordered a Goan spiced sea bas fish sizzler, which came in an amazing platter. In fact speaking of platters and plating, I loved all the presentation of the food here.  I mean just look at that paneer dish, the sizzler and the pictures below. I simply loved the dish they served steamed rice in. Coming back to the sizzler, I personally felt it could have been a little more sizzling and also the rice that came along lacked a bit of flavor and were a tad too dry, the grilled fish was pretty yummy though.

 

 

The other main course we ordered was a Thai veg curry and steamed rice and I quite liked the flavours of that. (This is the rice bowl I was talking about. Cute, isn’t it?)

 

 

And the cracker dish of the day, the dish I am usually most critical about when I go out and eat, may be because I am baker myself. Yes, my dear friends I am talking about the dessert. We ordered a dessert named “Grand Duchess” and it was a tender coconut mousse with a touch of white chocolate served with mixed berries, amazing from the word go 🙂

 

 

All in all, we had a good time with great drinks, lovely starters and a decent enough main course and a cracker of dessert.

Meal for two (with one drink each) – Rs 2500/-

Parking – Valet parking available also the streets around are not so difficult to park.

Rest Rooms – Clean and sparkling.

Child Friendly – Its a lounge, so technically they don’t need to be child friendly, but they do have a non smoking area and their Sunday brunch has lots of activities for the kids. However I am not sure the ambiance is child friendly specially all the water around and more so if you are the one who let their kids walk around the place, must try the Sunday brunch once to know the answer may be 🙂