Suggi-o-suggi!

Restaurant: Suggi - A taste of Malnad, New BEL Road. (I believe that its pure veg. twin is in Basaveshwaranagar, opp. Panacea Hospital).
Cuisine - Karnataka - Coorg, Malnad, Mallandur (that's what the menu card said!!)
Ambience - one notch below fine dining, but definitely better than your average multi-cuisine melting pots.
Service - was a bit tardy for a new joint.
Meal for two - veg - a la carte around Rs.600, thalis around Rs.200, non-veg - combo meals around Rs.400, a la carte around Rs.800.

If you understand the Coorg Otti, Paaputtu, Kadumputtu, noolputtu or the Mangalorean Akki rotti, kai kadubu, neer dosae, ragi amblee or the coastal appam, idiyappam - this is the place to come to. This New BEL Road eatery seems like it goes all out to pamper the non-vegetarian palette, just as its counterpart is a pure veggie puritan. Maybe that explains the amazing combos of the above-mentioned foods with chicken/mutton/fish curries made in the local styles. But vegetarians fret not, the spread may not pamper you, but you definitely won't come back hungry. A fellow vegetarian that I am, I tried the Suggi basket (one each of Akki rotti, Appam, a very small idiyappam, kai kadubu and neer dosa) with the Badanaekai Gojju ( pricey for a humble badanaekai dish at Rs100+, tasted like a melange of eggplant with mushrooms, maybe the latter explains the price) and wasn't disappointed. Though IMHO, the neer dosaes and ottis could've been better. The Veg Thali was good, but not great at (I think) 90 bucks for akki rotti, yennae badanaekai, soppina saaru, rasam, rice, akki happala, majjigae menasinakai, run-of-the-mill characterless pickle, mosaranna, neeru majjigae, ragi amblee(absolutely without character!) and paayasa (very nice - semia with jaggery and coconut milk undertones) and a very tangy red mango-based chutney. I asked for the house specialty - "Wild jungle mango curry" and was gently reminded that it wasn't available in the current season.

Verdict - If you are a carnivore, then this place gives you a taste of cuisines that never before were available outside the Hindu Military hotel format - Kannadiga cuisine in a fairly neat ambience, though I don't quite know how much of an overlap there is here with its cousin, the Andhra cuisine. Vegetarians get a curtain-raiser on the local cuisine, though I wouldn't say that accounts for much. OK for a try or two, maybe it would be worth the while to try the pure veg twin at Basaveshwaranagar.