What used to be Oh! Calcutta on St.Marks Road last month gave way to the new and very chic Café Mezzuna. An all-day dining venture from the Specialty Restaurants, Mezzuna has a pretty large area, with seating at the patio, bar, booths and a standard dining area. Despite being in the basement, they have beautifully used the structured and transparent roof to ensure ample natural light. These grassy garden areas on the side are probably perfect for a nice lazy brunch, which is where we perched ourselves for this pretty long meal. The founder of Specialty Restaurant, Anjan Chatterji is quoted on the menu saying, ‘There is no sequence to eating great food – if it sounds tempting and you haven’t tried it yet – now is a good time to start.’

Café Mezzuna has a pretty interesting and eclectic menu. We started off with the forbidden punch and the CNC. The fruit punches are made with Tropicana juices, and also are served by the pitcher. The cranberry and pineapple mix had quite a tangy tinge smoothed over with hazelnut in the Forbidden Punch, while the CNC was the perfect summer cooler of cucumber frappe with toasted cumin on top. A visit to Mezzuna must see the classic mezze platter which comes with lavash bread, plain and parsley hummus, fattoush, falafel, various dips like harissa, toum, Babaganoush, feta and more! A definitely must order while you wait for more food.

We then got the cottage cheese skewers grilled with their home made harissa sauce, and prawn skewers with garlic butter. Both delicious, though the prawns were delightful, and a personal favorite of the afternoon. The pizzas here are pretty good as well. I had tried their jerked chicken pizza earlier, very good, the chicken spiced up and saucy on the thin crust base. At the tasting I had their Moroccan lamb minced pizza with herbed feta, quite a spicy pizza, and the lamb done perfectly. The Mediterranean pizza with pesto was delicious as well, with generous grilled vegetables. The Chicken and Cheese sliders followed with jerked chicken wraps, and they were both served with coleslaw and fries. The wraps were great, with a spicy dressing, while the sliders came with their thick patties, and were perfect to munch on.

To be honest, I was almost finishing my meal when the real mains were brought in! But the Moroccan lamb chops just took the cake! Served with cous cous, the chops were amazing, worth devouring. The meat was cooked and glazed perfectly, a tad bit sweet with the accompaniment. The second dish was at an obvious disadvantage, but the veg lasagne was very well prepared. It was baked layers of spinach and ricotta with hint of tomato. Thumbs up! A pretty fantastic lasagne on all counts.

Needless to say, dessert was something both my friend and I had run out of space for. We got a tiny platter of desserts for the tasting, with vanilla bean panacotta, philly cheese cake and chocolate fondant of vanilla bean ice cream. It was a flurry as we tried to ‘taste’ the desserts but of course ended up finishing everything much to our hosts’ amusement!

The place is a great hang out. The food and drinks both can keep you going, while the pricing is just fantastic. Pizzas are priced around 225 to 275, while most starters are in the 150 – 200 range. Cocktails are around 200, while mocktails are around 110. The pricing can’t get better. The ambiance is upbeat and peppy, while there are quite corners inside where you can curl up with a book from their collection or just enjoy the food and music on their rather comfy couches.

It’s been a while since a place was this fun, and I am so glad that Cafe Mezzuna opened up in Bangalore. For more details, check out their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cafe-Mezzuna/693600410746032?fref=ts

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