A planned alternative

If all your eating out choices fail for the evening, you can always fall back on Plan B, a new eatery serving beer and juicy steaks

Plan B by definition is a secondary plan of action in the event that changes would make the primary plan unsuccessful.

The new restaurant located on Castle Street also called Plan B seems to be quite apt as far as its name is concerned.u00a0

When your favourite or intended eating out experience for the evening fails thanks to traffic jams, already waiting crowds or any other unforeseen mishap, you can always fall back on this new diner style eatery for some wholesome grub and pitchers of beer.

As you enter Plan B it will instantly remind you of several pubs around the city that serve beer and bites that's easy on the go with thundering rock music in the background.
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But the restaurant has another Plan B up its sleeve, it also has a small but interesting menu full of steaks, chops, burgers and even Coorgi style cuisine to name a few.
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The place is done up in a grungy style with melted and flattened beer bottes serving as a platter for cutlery on the rough wooden tables.

The brick walls are lined with retro posters, the usual stuff you can buy off allposter.com. The bar area is interestingly done up with several green and white beer bottles hung from the ceiling.
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The lighting is suitably dim with the music ranging from the Goo Goo Dolls to INXS to Pink Floyd.

Since the restaurant serves only beer and wine, we started off with beer cocktails: Bee Sting (Rs 90) and Berry Beer (Rs 90), because wine wasn't available that day.
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The Bee Sting was beer dressed up with freshly squeezed orange juice and tasted fresh, tangy and had the kick of the beer as an aftertaste.
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The Berry Beer was the same if you replace the orange juice with a berry juice instead. We also dug into Firecracker Wings (Rs 150) as recommended by the staff and the Crunchy Prawns.

Both starters were served with a sour cream dip.

While the prawns were encased in a deep fried beer batter and tasted quite crunchy and succulent at the same time, it was the spicy buffalo wings (chicken wings) that did the trick.

The chicken wings were coated with hot pepper sauce with a dash of vinegar and tasted slightly tangy and were hot as hell.

The staff informed us that we could ask for an even spicier version if we wanted to. The sour cream dip was the perfect foil to the hot chicken wings and gave relief to our tongues on fire.

The names of the dishes mentioned on the menu have some serious wordplay going on. The burger section has interesting names like Don't Be A Chicken Burger or the Mary Has a Little Lamb Burger.

Since this reviewer is a big fan of punning, she decided to go for the Real Piggy Chops (Rs 250), Pork Chops, smoked, dunked into brown sauce and served with herb rice and potato wedges and the Juicy Lucy (Rs 250) a beef burger with an extra portion of bacon (Rs 30).
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The piggy chops were tender on the bite and not too spicy. They were done just right without the sauce being overpowering. But we wish it was a bit more charred.
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The burger however was massive with the thick, chunky well-done beef steak patty already struggling to get out of the buns.

The patty was also topped with crispy strips of bacon and mayonnaise with a hint of mustard. The burger is just too massive to finish at one seating until and unless you have been starving all day.

We found ourselves asking for a doggie bag for the half eaten burger since we just couldn't imagine leaving it uneaten.
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Plan B is still probably figuring out its dessert menu and the chocolate mousse, kiwi cheesecake and caramel custard on the menu were not enough to tempt us with our already overloaded tummies. We let it pass for this time.

Since Castle Street is full of music schools and spaces where local bands work on their sound, heading over to a reasonably priced Plan B to knock down a couple of beers and some quick bites after band practice would seem like a natural progression in these parts.

At Plan B, 20, Ground Floor, Castle Street, Ashok Nagar
Call 4111 9225
Meal for two Rs 800
Plan B didn't know we were there. The Guide reviews anonymously and pays for meals.