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Welcome to the first Restaurant Review at ‘Love Food Eat’!
I feel very privileged to be starting this new restaurant review section of my blog with The ITC Gardenia Bangalore!

When Novena from Public Relations of ITC Gardenia Bangalore contacted me a couple of weeks ago requesting me to try their Sunday brunch and blog about it, I was expectedly overjoyed! I had heard quite a lot about the ITC Gardenia restaurants and was very excited about the opportunity to try their food and write about it. The very next thought which crossed my mind was that I will have to taste/blog only the vegetarian food. I wasn’t too sure if ITC would be interested in that but to my surprise they said there would be absolutely OK with that.

I went on to have a personal meeting with them and got a brief of what the brunch was all about! ITC Gardenia offers a grand, larger than life brunch which they rightfully call as ‘Brunch N More’! There are 2 main brunch options which are Grande’ at Rs 1950++ and Super Grande’ at Rs 2500++ (a champagne brunch). I thought that the price was slightly on a higher side. As far as my knowledge goes it’s among the higher priced brunches in the city. I was curious to know what it has to offer.

At ITC Gardenia, the brunch spreads over 3 main sections of the hotel: ITC Gardenia’s Japanese restaurant & bar “EDO”, the multi cuisine 24*7 restaurant “Cubbon Pavilion” and  the outdoor setting of “Lotus Pavilion”! It  includes various cuisines, a wide spread of fresh bakes, a decadent and sinful dessert studio, ‘ice-dreams’ – the dainty ice cream bar, fresh fruit and juice bar, and of course a ceaseless flow of beers, spirits & wines and inventive cocktails!

I went to ITC Gardenia last Sunday with my husband to sample their brunch. I reached there at 12.30 noon and the place was bustling with activity! We saw some children drawing and painting in the Pavilion Art Camp, people getting their caricature done and a couple of tattoo/body paint artists entertaining young adults with their talent! There was also live band playing music at the Cubbon Pavilion, and of course there was a LOT of food!

 

 

 

We first took a tour of the entire brunch spread to scan what was on offer and then settled with our cocktails at the Lotus pavilion. Lotus Pavilion is an open bar and a perfect place to start your brunch experience. It has a beautiful lotus statue in the middle and a water body around it. There is a picturesque lawn and garden behind the open pavilion which provides a sense of space!

 

 

Their Bar section has a great variety of premium Indian and Imported liquor to choose from. Our bartender fixed us some gorgeous cocktails right in front of us! First was their signature family sized cocktail called the ‘Highland nectar’. It’s HUGE and truly family size. A vodka based drink with sweet pineapple juice, undertones of star anise and fresh cilantro. It was a little too sweet for me but was very refreshing. He also fixed us a beautiful ‘Strawberry mojito’ which really was one of the best I’ve had in a long time! Then came ‘The Killer’, which nearly killed me! This vodka based drink had French passion fruit puree, California grapes and cranberry juice! It was so good! I think the reason for all the cocktails to be so good was that all the fruit juices are freshly hand pressed and all the syrups homemade! Do not miss it!

 

 

 

The brunch spread at the Cubbon Pavilion was beautifully laid out, everything fresh and colourful. Décor was simple and tasteful. One could choose between the bright sunny seating with natural sunlight falling next to the dramatic green wall covered with creepers or the cozy warm seat inside.

 

 

 

The bakes and the dessert section immediately caught my attention and the aroma from the kebabs, curries, stews, soups and sizzling seafood and meat on their grills had our tummies grumbling!

 

 

 

My husband got himself a plate with some Indian grilled starters which included prawns, chicken and lamb. I sampled their paneer, stuffed peppers and potato patties. While they all tasted very good, there was nothing incredible about it.

 

 

After that I got myself a plate full of their beautifully laid out colorful antipasti which I really enjoyed! Fresh fig with pumpkin puree was my favorite!

 

 

By now we were already feeling slightly full and considering that we have a very small appetite we decided to skip the rest of the food from the Cubbon Pavilion and head over to EDO for the main meal.

Now EDO, ITC Gardenia’s Japanese restaurant is what makes their brunch special! Let’s just say it makes it worth every penny spent! ITC is the only hotel in the city to offer an exclusive Japanese restaurant experience as a part of their brunch! I will write about EDO, it’s food, especially what it has to offer for the vegetarians in my next blog post as it really deserves a full post for itself!

A couple more things… No! We did not drink all those cocktails; if we had, the following pictures would be out of focus! We never really got to taste any of those delicious pastries and cakes from the dessert section we were too full for anything more after EDO! ITC can you hear us! lol!

Wait for my next blog post tomorrow for more on the brunch and the EDO experience! Until then I will leave you with some more photos…