Park Hotel

Park Hotel always had two of the best places, make that three, you could visit for your evening entertainment, all under one roof. italia for aruguably the best italian food and service in Bangalore; i-BAR is one of the coolest bars for a while and Monsoon is a great coffee shop, especially after hours (favourite dish being moti-appam with Thai green curry, introduced to me by Saritha.)

So once again, the intrepid Singaloreans went gallivanting on Friday evening to sample two of these places.

Our table at the italia was non-smoking, much to inconvenience of T & JT. Between each ourse, they would be headed outside for 'fresh air'. As usual, the food was excellent. Would definitely recomment the pear/walnut/rocket salad woth gorgonzola and the tenderloin. Pork loin, when not too dry is also excellent, especially the accompanying zucchini done to a light crisp.

i-BAR on weekends are now exclusive to i-access members and their guests. It started really slowly. Gautam made it a point call everyone in the afternoon. He is determined to make the concept work. He got Sanchita Ajjampur to come in as celebrity bartender.

The crowd started to come in after 10. I think everyone was pleased that the bar was never completely crowded over. However, it was still difficult to find a waiter when you needed one.

Gunish and Eldeen arrived soon after us. Rani was there, Namrata. Sushma (with the really great laugh, kinda husky giggle..) reminded me that we had met a long time ago at Amit's party. Am having serious trouble trying to remember people's names. I was inted to after party by someone who greeted me so warmly and I barely remembered her face.

Met Heather there after a long time. It's amazing that's she moved into the city and goes out all the time now, and we we have managed not to run into each other. It just shows that there are enough partying places in Bangalore...

Sari came by after dinner at Olive with her childhood friend Anjali, who now lives in Barcelona. They had dropped by Fuga before that. Anjali hated the place, finding it too dark and claustrophobic.

Ben was there with Surya but I think it's more likely than not that he was there because Sanchita was coming there. Still think Surya fit the Sonal mold.

JT and HL were really dancing the night away with Ayumi, who had joined us. Sharon and Neo decided they needed fresh air by the pool. Thomas was dividing his time between cutting up the rug and scoring drinks.

Lights came on at 11.35pm. Amazingly, someone managed to coax the bar to play one more track. That was when we hunted down our bartender for the bill and left.

Went home to Thomas', where Geena decided to meet us after her office do at taika. She was quite impressed with Oliver Sean (don't know which is his last name.)

Thomas cooked instant noodles and luncheon meat for supper (which reminded Geena and HL of when they would be cramming for exams during Uni.) He was quite upset this his efforts did not merit photograhs. It may be a taste of home but I think all of you know what instant noodles and luncheon meat look like, no?

At 1.30pm, we decide it was time to quit while we were ahead. Brunch to go to tomorrow.