Bread Bar

Under food:

Bread Bar

Flatiron District

Superfatty went out to lunch with some coworkers to Bread Bar. This outing came about when Restaurant Week was extended this month. Tabla, the dressier sister of Bread Bar, was part of this promo, but when we arrived all rushed and famished, everyone in the group opted for the downstairs Bread Bar instead.

Air-popped popcorn with spices. This was ok, the spice was sprinkled on top but did not warm enough that the aromas were released.

Our friend, V, was our de facto guide to the menu, since she grew up on Indian fare. She steered us towards the thali, which is an assortment of various items. Thali is a typical lunch dish in their cuisine. Depending on the restaurant, it can be a simple assortment or an all-out, full-blown feast with a whole lot of dishes.

Vegetable thali. (Blogger insists on displaying the picture sideways.) Clockwise, from top: sauteed greens, chickpea and pear chaat, green mango chutney, mungbean ussal and basmati rice. Whole wheat naan in the middle. This looked like a very filling dish. The chickpea chaat was very pleasant, and I kind liked the ussal because I just like mungbeanss. The chutney was super sweet.

This is what I got: fishcake wrapped in banana leaf thali. Clockwise from top: naan, fish cake, basmati rice, mungbean ussal. The fish was flavored with a lot of spices, I think lemongrass and ginger among others. No banana leaf flavor, I'm afraid. Nevertheless, this was a pretty hearty dish too.

Saag paneer pizza. The "sauce" is creamed spinach and the "mozarella" is chevere. My coworker broke a tooth while eating this... I wonder what this means???! In any event, I was too busy tucking in my food that I did not want to try the pizza.

Overall, we all agreed that the food was not bad... we all had a good time outside of work V agreed with my assessment that the flavors were rather toned down for the western palate.