Shiok!

Well last night I went to eat at Shiok, a 'far eastern cuisine' restaurant, after reading about their Chef's tasting menu here.

I was really impressed. The place is very nicely decorated. The walls are a textured deep orange and the lighting is soft but not too dark. They have a regular restaurant area, and then a really cool cocktail lounge area that's a little more chill. It'd be awesome to rent it out.

The menu's were printed on sheets of paper, rolled up, tied with a red ribbon, and placed on our tables. Nice touch. I decided to go with the seafood lover's menu and Sindya went with the vegetarian supreme. There was a complementary glass of wine included with the meal (but Sindya's not drinking these days). I had a glass of red. I should've asked to look at the label. I'm no wine expert, but I haven't been impressed by the wine here yet. It tastes pretty 'flat' (is that a technical wine-tasting term?) like they got grape juice and made it alcoholic; no other flavors really.

Anyways, the food was fantastic. I'm going to list out the actual menu in case they remove the link from their site:

Fried fish soup
A citrus-flavoured soup flavoured with tamarind juice and bits of pan-fried fish fillets

Steamed fish mousse
A Thai mousse of fish paste, red curry paste, coconut cream, and lime leaves - steamed

Prawn satay
Large juicy prawns marinated overnight in a spice paste and then grilled in their shells on a satay stick

Soft rice noodles with fish curry
Rice stick noodles are steamed and served topped with a Thai fish curry sauce garnished with basil leaves

Tiger prawn - lemongrass, chilli, and lime
Marinated large Tiger prawns in steamed in a mixture of chillies, lemongrass, galangal, garlic, and lime.

Pineapple and shrimp fried rice
A standalone dish of juicy shrimp and pineapple pieces stir-fried with curry powder, a touch of chilli, garlic, and red peppers

Thai Coconut custard
The perfect ending to a hearty meal, this custard is made from a coconut cream and palm sugar mixture that is then steamed.

The commentary is not mine, it's from their menu. :)

My comments:

• The fish mousse was nicely done.
  
• The service was great.
  
• I know prawn is an expensive delicacy, but I was a little 'prawned out' by the end of the meal. I loved the fish curry; maybe they could've switched out one of the prawn items for another fish dish.
  
• I never found tiger prawn to be worth the hype.
  
• For a seven course meal, the portions were a little large. They started off with small portions which made me feel like I was going to end up just right, but then they threw in some big dishes. I ended up getting my fried rice packed to-go (even though it was phenomenal) because I wanted to make sure I could enjoy my dessert.
  
• I asked if I could get a hybrid between the chicken and seafood menu, but they weren't amenable to that. I can see how, because of the big price difference between the two and the fact that not everyone likes seafood, they separate the two menus. However, it would've been nice to get a bit of everything during the meal.
  

But now I'm just nitpicking. I highly recommend.

I love that there is so much good food in Bangalore.

Update (12/22): Check out Chef Menon's blog . In addition to cooking up a riot, this guy is hilarious and he stops at red lights and waits in lines. I'll definitely be frequenting Shiok.