Cafe Au Bon Pain and a yummy mugcake

Situated right at the busiest signal of Kormangala (yup yup I am talking about the Sony World signal with taco bell, KFC and now chroma too on one side and Oasis on the other the signal is a nightmare these days specially in the weekends), standing out by its bright yellow colour is Cage Au Bon Pain. Bright and chirpy with a yumm burger photo outside it invites you right in.

The first thing that hits you when you enter the place is the nice and casual decor. They have very little seating on the ground floor and almost the same place on the first floor but the place is smart and cosy. I specially liked the wall leading up which was decorated with lovely pictures

Its mostly a help yourself and get billed kind of concept. They have trays, cups and tongs lying around and have a soup counter in which they have non veg and veg soups of the day, on the side is a juice counter which had peach and litchi iced teas,orange slush and cold coffee. The thing I really liked about them was the fact that they have small tasting glasses to sample the soup and the drinks and decide what one wants. They also give out food samples apparently all through the day (morning usually muesli, afternoons sandwiches and evening baked goodies) and they have rack for the baked goodies which was full of droolworthy bagels, muffins, brownies and danish

We started our meal with soups, a veg puff, a muffin and small samples of cold coffee and litchi iced tea and also took one helping of couscous and chickpea salad and in the all that according to the star of the show were the soups and the litchi iced tea. We had taken both non veg soups (one was an indian kind of soup with curried veggies and the other more european style) and both were brilliant, the veg puff was good too. The salad was how it should have been but somehow not to my taste as it was a bit bland

While we were eating this we had ordered two sandwiches (corn and jalapeno crostini and schezwan chicken). Both sandwiches were nice, well balanced how they should have been.  By this time our stomachs were pretty full but the dessert and the baking shelf was luring us towards it, double chocolate mousse, cappuccino  mousse, danishes, brownies aah the possibilities were endless. Both of us went off with our trays and came back as happy bunnies excited about the goodies on the plate. The cappuccino mousse and the blueberry danish were to die for and I could have eaten another helping of the same too, however the brownie didn’t really match upto my expectations, it was a bit dry may be all it needed was a quick warming but that blueberry danish sweet, sticky and soft just as it should have been

On the whole a good experience. Good food, decent ambience a place where mostly I will go back to taste some more of the menu

When Team Au Bon Pain mailed me sometime back announcing the opening of their Kormangala Cafe and inviting for a visit was the first time I had heard of them which is surprisingly because usually I do keep a tab on Cafe’s in bangalore and this apparently is there 19th cafe in general, the other branches they have in Bangalore are at ITPL, Whitefield, Indirangar and MG road .Au Bon Pain is BTW pronounced as Oo-Bo-Pa and means the “place of the good bread” and I must say the place was quite close to its name.

Last Words

Food – 3/5

Ambience – 3/5

Pricing – average for a cafe

Parking – an issue, its a busy crossing and you will have to find your way in bylanes

Child friendly – well yes there is no kiddie corner but on the whole the place is child friendly

And now that we have spoken so fondly about desserts, let me tell you my quick fix dessert fix these days. I have been making mugcakes for quite sometime now but this one which I figured out combining something from this, something from that and hold your breath adding my most favourite thing on the earth Nutella, I can safely say that I have landed on the best ever mugcake possible   and that too in all of 5 minutes. What else does one need in life tell me?

Recipe – Nutella Cinnamon Mugcake

What I used

• 4 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons white granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons Nutella
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

How I made it

• Combine all ingredients together.
• Whisk well with a fork until smooth.
• Microwave on high for 1 1/2 – 3 minutes till its done mine took about 2 minutes and the above quantity gave me two medium sized mugcakes

try this and you can thank me later