Birthday blowout @ 13th floor

Birthdays are one of the most important day in everyone’s life; atleast to me… Its marks the beginning of a new life, a point where one can forget the regrets he had, of his past and move on with new hopes. Planning one such day for a special friend, to make it special and flawless puts in a lot of pressure. And this was one such situation where one of my best friends birthday was nearing up and we wanted to something special, with an added pressure that this could be her last birthday being a single. I was brainstorming for ideas when a friend of mine pings me on whatsapp and puts forth a plan for her birthday. I should say it was simple yet a mind boggling idea.

Plan was to arrange a small get together among friends at MG road on the 13th floor at Ebony. Reservation were done for an outdoor seating, cake was ordered, presents were ready and a bouquet was arranged to be delivered at her work place. And the salient point of this whole plan was to sneak in some of our close friends; which includes me and another friend, for the party and the birthday girl apparently has no idea about any of this.

Me and Ani made it to Brigade road around 6.30 in the evening. We started hunting for this place. After 5 attempts of asking multiple folks, asking directions to traffic police, calling up ebony guys and googling up ebony on map we finally found this place. Its a 2 min straight walk from MG road metro station with the station falling on towards your right. Amidst all the building you will find a tall 13 floor skyscraper with CCD onto the ground floor. We reached our destination around 7 and made our way to the 13th floor. After confirming the reservation we were comfortably seated on the outdoors waiting for the showstopper to arrive. It would take another half an hour for her to arrive, so to kill time we started clicking photos. The view from the 13th floor is amazing. A breathtaking view of Bangalore at night with the lights shimmering till infinite distance, the candle lights glowing on the rooftop. It was mesmerising.

Bangalore can really be chilly at night times. To beat the cold we ordered some drinks. I went for the Mango Daiquiri which was a mixture of white rum and mango with a hint of citrus. My friend ordered Smirnoff to go with sprite. While slurping away the drinks the staff got the cake we ordered, Kiwi icing. Around 7.30, we started getting impatient, so, each of us made call to the birthday girl and Kapil. While my friend was busy guiding Kapil to the 13th floor i was talking to the birthday girl, pulling her leg and acting disappointed for not meeting us for dinner, if u know what i mean. A couple of min later both of my friends arrive to the venue. As she makes her way outside towards the open seating place were we were seated, we ran towards her,  singing happy bday loudly and hugged her. The whole crowd in the balcony turns to her, to check out who the bday girl was. My friends seemed astonished and out of the world at the same time. She was laughing out loud as she couldnt believe her eyes. Before she could digest the fact of we being there, we presented her with another surprise; the cake. She blushingly took the knife from the table, blew the candles away while the music of Happy Birthday was playing in the background. She cut the cake, stuffed us and we smashed her face with the icing cream. All of us had a piece of the cake and the rest was saved for desserts. Meanwhile Sruthi (bday gal) went into the rest room to get her face washed and Kapil was giving us updates on how Sruthi turned into a questioner, asking all possible questions like where we r going, who will be there, whats the plan etc etc….

Once Sruthi was back, we were ready to order. Sruthi and Kapil ordered a mango mocktail. This was followed by Broccoli and Mushroom creamy soup. The soup was tepid and creamy, and was perfect for a breezy cool night. Later we ordered Kumb Tikka Rasmonak and Andra Chicken Chilly Tikka. Kumb Tikka Rasmonak was fried mushrooms filled with cottage cheese served along with tamrind chuttney. I loved the mushroom as it wasnt too oily or deep fried. But what amazed me was the Andra style chicken which was the spiciest chicken i have had for sometime now. I would recommend this dish as a must if you are planning to go here. This was followed by main course which included roti sided with paneer tikka masala and ebony’s special chicken biryani. I was quite disappointed with the paneer tikka masala, it was quite blunt and sweet. Personally if i have to go here again i would either go for the Thai green/red curry or risotto. Chicken biryani was as usual, nothing very special as the name suggests.

Overall i had a splendid night here. Even though the main course was little disappointing, the time we spend here was worth the visit. Overall a nice place for a romantic candle light dinner with your better half, but, it can be enjoyed by a group of folks too like i did.