With new restaurants cropping up each day in almost every part of the city, I have been trying to write down the names of restaurants that I should visit at the first available opportunity. Considering the reviews and recommendations on a couple of food groups on Facebook, Jonah’s Bistro was in fact on the top of my list. After a hectic day at work, it was Friday evening and almost weekend, and a sudden decision to eat out and family was ready too. Jonah’s Bistro was obviously the first choice.
As I said earlier, I had a fairly good idea of what to expect seeing the reviews and clicks from my friends and fellow-bloggers on food groups in Facebook. This actually increased my urge to visit this place 🙂 I am not very familiar with Besant Nagar, but Second Avenue is one of the big and busy roads in Besant Nagar which you cannot miss. Having visited Eden earlier, I knew this place. This restaurant is just a few metres away from Eden, above Shree Krishna Sweets. We reached here around 20:30 hours and valet parking was available. The guy who took the car was not wearing a uniform, and did not give me a valet card. So I had to recheck to be doubly sure I gave it to someone who was connected to the restaurant 😉 The place was fairly occupied and only a few tables were free. A couple of them had high chairs and since we were with kids, we opted for the first table with normal chairs, by the entrance. The place was nicely done with decent interiors. I somehow felt that the bakery counter was a bit of an intrusion to the nice ambience of the dining space, but of course the other side to it is you can choose your desserts and buy some for home too.
We placed the order and wanted to check out some stuff from the bakery in the mean time. Let me start by saying that I am not a big lover of these baked stuff, especially sweet stuff. I am one of those guys who couldn’t understand the subtle difference between a cupcake and a muffin 🙂 Baker’s Street in Pondicherry is a well-known name in the Bakers’ circle. They have a variety of items and we decided to try French Macaroons. I have seen so many cute pictures of them, but eating it for the first time. The only macaroons I have eaten are Thoothukudi macaroons 🙂 This tasted very different. There was something shaped like a sausage, called Eclairs and different flavors like Vanilla, Coffee and Chocolate were available. Ordered Coffee and a Vanilla eclairs. This was ok, but had an overpowering smell of egg. So overall, bakery stuff was just ok in my opinion, and pricey too.
Now coming to the items from the Kitchen. Trying to recollect the names from my memory as the menu is still not on Zomato. We started with Devil’s Sausage. This was sausages cut into small pieces and stir fried with onions and other ingredients. I have myself made something similar to this during my days as a bachelor in Norway. I loved it and so did my son. Stuffed Mushrooms topped with Goat Cheese was also very tasty. My wife preferred vegetarian today and she liked the stuffed Mushrooms. Ordered a Mojito for myself and a Lemon Mint Cooler for my son. Mojito was wonderful, the Lemon Mint Cooler could have been a little sweeter, it was ok.
For the main course, ordered a Veg-Stroganoff for my wife. I tasted a bit of it, tasty, cheesy and the rice was yummy too. My son had Pasta Alfredo, with Spaghetti instead of Penne and with Chicken. This was also tasty. I was recommended Jonah’s Chicken Steak. I should say this tasted wonderful. The shallots tasted awesome. A very familiar flavor in the brown sauce, and much different from the ones I’ve had in Norway. The chicken was soft and succulent. The potato mash was good with the brown sauce. One thing we all had an opinion about was the size of portions. The Stroganoff was still ok, but the pasta and Steak was not very filling. In fact, I had to order another dish, Pancko Chicken, after having my main course. That was good, but again, turned out to be four pieces of chicken which disappeared in no time. Basically, I am a bit of a good-eater, but have felt full in a lot of places after a main course. Here, somehow I felt longing for more. Probably it’s the good taste 😉
Since we had one round of sweet stuff, decided to skip desserts and asked for the check. This dinner set us back by about 2.3K. The bill included a service charge of 10%, so I did not tip in addition to it. The service was good and the waiters were polite. From the pricing point of view, I felt if I had excluded the bakery stuff from my bill, it would have been perfect!
Overall a good dining experience!!
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