Olive Beach Restaurant at Ashoknagar, Bangalore

How about clubbing great ambience, a hip and happening place to be seen in, rub shoulders with the P3P with some absolutely delicious Mediterranean fare?

Olive Beach, the best restaurant in Ashok Nagar, Bangalore combines all of the above! The sunny open areas allow cheer to stream in while the walls are textured and white-washed, adding to the brightness. You could well be in a sprawling villa somewhere in the Mediterranean: the restaurant exudes an old world charm, and nestles in an old villa, under the shade of hoary trees. The ambience is charming but it’s the food that is their biggest draw!

Get going with a steaming bowl of soup at Olive Beach: smoked tomato and fennel soup or savour the puree of mushroom soup. For the more discerning there’s shrimp bisque and onion soup with sage and Gruyere. Dig into a fresh salad: crunchy Iceberg lettuce, garden fresh vegetables, pepper grilled tuna, wild grapes salad served with chunks of creamy goat cheese or try the oyster salad.

For starters we strongly recommend the wild mushroom borek, stuffed in filo parcels served with an aromatic herb sauce, the pan seared foie gras with port reduction or the classic Parma ham with melon balls. Say cheese with the cheese platter: laden with your choice of the best cheeses: Gruyere, Camembert, brie, raclette, mahon, rocquefort and manchego.

The main course offerings are an epicurean’s delight: simmered lamb chops, beef carpaccio with parmesan cream, chicken bisteeya (a Moroccan delicacy traditionally6 made with pigeon) with cinnamon dust, zesty Creole flavoured halibut, baby lobster cooked in bisque, jumbo prawns in piquant chimichuri sauce, pork tenderloin, moussaka, chicken tagine and even duck confit.

The infinite variety of Italian pastas includes spaghetti, lasagne, tagliollini, linguine, fettucine in pesto cream sauce, gnocchi and of course wafer-thin crust pizzas with a variety of toppings. The dessert trolley heaves with crème brulee, Tiramisu, cheesecake and bread pudding but it’s the rose Parfait that wins hands down: served with lychee sorbet and candied rose petals….