#WeWorkToEat: Lavelle Road, Bangalore

Located within the Central Business District of Bengaluru city, Lavelle Road and its surrounding areas house a number of law firms. In this edition of We Work to Eat, we get corporate lawyer Veena Ganesh Rao to provide a brief overview on where and what to gorge on for an entire “working” week..Work is Worship. Honestly though, shouldn’t it be ‘Food is Worship, Work is Work’? If you answered yes, and you work in and around Lavelle Road, Bangalore – read on. See what a week at work should look like, for someone who enjoys his or her food, and works only to pay for it..Monday:.Yuck, Monday..Mondays are depressing, difficult. No other day of the week calls for good food as much; it’s a necessity. So, even if you have already had two idlis at home and there’s ghar ka khana packed for lunch, keep it aside. It is a Monday, you deserve this..On Mondays, there is usually leftover work from the weekend, so it’s unlikely that you feel inclined to step out to eat. Also, against your better judgment, you were drinking on Sunday, and probably woke up hungover, late and missed breakfast. So let’s see, what qualifies as fun, easy to obtain and hangover friendly? Vadas my friend, crisp oily light crunchy vadas. Vadas just-soaked in sambar, or covered in chutney, will save you..The problem, though, is that hardly any southie joints have delivery options on or near Lavelle Road. So either you send your office-boy out, else you try and con a junior into picking up food from MTR 1924. MTR has decent idlis (rava and rice) and great vadas in the mornings. Also, they parcel their filter coffees, advertised as pure filter coffee with no chicory. If you have a slightly larger appetite, go for their masala dosa, but be warned, it’s likely to kill lunch for you. These dosas are the thick Udipi variety, involve varying amounts of ghee and a mid-sized ladle of aloo masala in-between..Delicious, but far from light..Assuming you dodged the dosa, or have a bottomless pit for a stomach or seem to be caught in the worst Monday in weeks, it’s time to think of lunch. Monday lunch is important, it must inspire, it must not just be filling, it must be (wait for it) fulfilling (author pauses to high-five her confused colleague, and is left hanging)..Order in Chinese, from Chung-Wah. Honestly, there is a Mainland China close to Lavelle Road, and yes I suppose it can do the trick. But, when Chung-Wah delivers, you say ‘Thank you Chung-Wah, for saving me from other possibly insipid Chinese options’ and then place the order..Do not miss the Hot and Sour soup – it elevates, it cures you of Monday. Once you’re done paying your respects to the soup, dig into some chili potatoes and Veg-Mushroom-Tofu-Brocolli (they don’t need to woo you with exotic names) in [choice of sauce] and Hakka noodles. Their Chinese greens, named Chow Tsing Chai (alright, they woo you a little bit), is done just right and helps make your otherwise heavy meal seem marginally on the healthy side..Do not forget to wash this stuff down with some green tea / lemon tea at work, or you will suffer..Tuesday:.Tuesdays are nothing. Days such as this – which are neither here nor there, they seldom follow long drinking sessions, and lead to a tiresome week ahead – get no special treatment, they get nothing. Quietly eat some breakfast at home and come to work on time..However, if you are one of those #YOLO fellows and live to conquer days which are nothing, to make special each day as if it were your last or have simply managed to scam and shove your workload to another day – head to Smokehouse Deli for a congratulatory lunch..Even #YOLOs tend to have calls scheduled at an uncomfortable 2PM, so if you want to keep it quick, order a soup and half sandwich. Their mildly spicy minestrone goes wonderfully with the sweet and tangy red wine poached pears, arugula and goat cheese sandwich (go with grilled-multigrain bread, send me a thank you note). Caution: the sandwich is on the sweet side, and needs something spicy to go with it..Scammers, however, are masters of their own time. Scammers should try the spinach and ricotta ravioli, which is amazing. Not a fan of red sauce? Then try the ‘My boss’s style spaghetti’ and try not to add your own ‘Masterchef’ take to it, they know what they’re doing. Wash it down with the apple grape coriander arugula juice..If you are a Scammer Supreme™, and can afford to have one spiked drink at lunch, request them for their Californian plum cooler with some white rum..If you are a Scammer Supreme™, and can afford to have one spiked drink at lunch, request them for their Californian plum cooler with some white rum..Smokehouse has plenty of great desserts (along with some average ones), but I recommend the Philly and Plum cheesecake. Once you’ve died and gone to heaven, don’t forget to text your boss a suitable excuse..Wednesday:.Wednesdays have got it goin’ on, my friend. Just yellow with rays of hope, all the light flooding in from the end of the tunnel, what a beauty this day, assuring you that half the week is gone, and hardly half seems left..You know it, it’s thali time. Now, before you head to Rajdhani (oh wait, they’ve upped their prices and call themselves Rasovara), stop and consider Maharaja Bhog. Word of caution, if you are in the mood to chit chat with friends, or have a relaxing long lunch, this is really not the place..Ideally, you head there with family that you generally have nothing but awkward fill-the-gap conversation with, because this place does not let you talk, think or breathe, before shoving one food item after the other under your face. However, on a work day (assuming you do have work) you want a quick and super hearty meal, you’re in the right place..The thali has the usual suspects of Gujarati and Rajasthani food, and they do them justice (from what a south-Indian can make of all this). The kicker really, is the Dal Bati Churma in which they add fresh onion, tomato and lime, converting what I usually find marginally boring into a chaat-fest for the soul..Dinner? Hello, you had a thali for lunch. Go home and have curd rice with pickle. Or a cucumber..Dinner? Hello, you had a thali for lunch. Go home and have curd rice with pickle. Or a cucumber..Thursday:.Who can take a Thursday seriously. Just get it over and done with, eat some home-cooked food, steal some home-cooked food, finish your work, go home and go to bed..No? Alright, I admire your spirit, and declare you deserving of a Toscano lunch. Before you head there, grab somebody with a healthy appetite (and food sharing reputation) for selfish reasons. On week days, Toscano has a meal plan where, for a relatively reasonable sum, you get to have either a two course or three course meal. Force your buddy to order a soup of the day (split two ways), and you order the Aged Goat Cheese Salad, which is full of crispy tangy salty delicious goodness..Follow up with a spinach and ricotta ravioli with pomodoro sauce, and force your side-kick to go for the Fusilli Ai Funghi Spinachi (which is a wonderful fusilli in white sauce with mushrooms and spinach, a dash of Tabasco seals the deal). If you’ve decided to chicken out of a two-three course meal, just order the Quattro Stagioni pizza, and ask them to mix up the ingredients (olives, artichokes, mushrooms, broccoli and balsamic glazed figs) because, there is some pleasure in troubling your waiter, and a tad bit more in sounding like you know what you want..Honestly, every single thing on the Toscano menu has the capacity to hit home, so if you feel adventurous, close your eyes and point..Dessert though, I would recommend taking a walk. No, this is not a reference to exercise, just move on to Café Noir and take your pick from their crazy variety..Friday:.Alright, you’ve made it to Friday. You woke up barely believing the week has ended, and the pure joy of discovering that it actually is Friday has filled your heart and overflowed to your stomach – equivalent to a sexy breakfast..Good, now screw breakfast because Friday is Biryani Day! Keep that appetite intact, guard it, if a colleague offers you an apple or a half-eaten Dosa, throw it at her face with relish and scream “DON’T MESS WITH BIRYANI DAY”..Keep that appetite intact, guard it, if a colleague offers you an apple or a half-eaten Dosa, throw it at her face with relish and scream “DON’T MESS WITH BIRYANI DAY”..By this point in the article, you must have noticed the lack of animal talk. Yes, this is a vegetarian review; no, I am not sorry you read this far; ok, please stop being a cliché..You get really great biryani (no, not ‘Veg Pulao’), at Meghna and Nagarjuna. Meghna is spicy and delicious, and if you’re lucky (only if you are), you get big big chunks of potato cooked with (what we assume is) utmost tender love and affection. Oh, pour that raitha over a particularly red large aloo, gather some rice and shove into mouth. Control the sounds that are bound to emerge immediately, and involuntarily, after – not fit for the office atmosphere, watch it..Nagarjuna has a milder veg biryani, yummy (in a mild way) and filled with broad beans and, again if you are Luckmaster++, you get bread crumbs roasted and soaked and toasted (and many delicious things) in ghee. Don’t forget to order papad in plenty..Biryani, you mother of all rice items (bows)..Saturday:.Oh no, you work on Saturdays? Who does that anymore? No, wait hold on. Come back. Come back man, so bloody pricey for a Saturday-worker..Head to Airlines Hotel for breakfast in the great outdoors under plentiful tree cover. You get lovely thin dosas with great masala, which you can pair with some truly super sulaimani chai. Eat slowly, order plenty and breathe deep..On your way out, don’t forget to grab a breakfast sundae at Corner House. What did you do? Did you walk up there and ask for a ‘breakfast sundae’? There is no such thing, it’s a concept, which I believe passionately should become popular. The thrill of an ice-cream first thing in the morning, each spoon further entrenching the fact that you are now a working-adult, you are now KING..Strut with that ice-cream back to office, and think (do not say out loud) ‘HA, Make KING work on a Saturday will you? Gaze upon my rowdy ice-cream eating habits’..‘HA, Make KING work on a Saturday will you? Gaze upon my rowdy ice-cream eating habits’..Drink some hot water in secret, prevent cold. As you sip on your mug of hot water, reflect back on what a brilliant week it’s been..Sunday is for guilt, Sunday is to contemplate calories. Right now, your working week has not ended, so just think about each item you consumed, with love and gratitude. Say to yourself, ‘Man, I am one lucky fellow, to have thrown diet to the winds and enjoyed like anything’..PS: This piece was originally titled, ‘A week at work, a lifetime at the gym’. True story..Lead image provided by author.