Bon Appetit

This open-air cafe is reminiscent of quaint eateries from Paris sidewalks

If you felt your mouth watering while watching the lovely Meryl Streep cooking her version of the Croque Monsieur (a classic French sandwich) to impress actor Steve Martin in the recent Hollywood hit It's Complicated, you need not salivate anymore.
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That is because you can take a juicy bite of the very famous Croque Monsieur right here in the city at Cafe Noir. For this French-style cafe and eatery boasts of a range of sandwiches, salads, soups, hot and cold coffees, shakes and desserts all the way from France.

Located in a swanky city mall, Cafe Noir is housed in the first floor open-air food court.u00a0



Perfect for an evening-out with friends or a romantic date, Cafe Noir has vintage style wrought iron furniture placed under white umbrellas. In case the weather plays truant, there is an indoor deck area as well.u00a0

The cafe looks out to a fountain and an amphitheatre located at the mall and is perfect for sitting outdoors. On the day we paid a visit to Cafe Noir, the weather was perfect for sitting outside.
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u00a0We started with the Cafe Viennois (Rs 85), a foamy cappuccino served with lots of whipped cream and a Cafe Frappe (Rs110), a frothy cold coffee concoction.
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The Cafe Viennois was served with a dainty little tea cake. Both the hot and cold coffees were excellent with the aroma and flavour of the coffee being dominant rather than it being oversweetened with loads of sugar.
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Infact, the Cafe Viennois did not need any sugar at all, the whipped cream was enough to flavour the coffee.

We ordered a Croque Monsieur (Rs 140), a Moulin Rouge (Rs 180) and a Quiche Lorraine (Rs 140) for our evening snack. All three dishes came with a side order of greens tossed in olive oil and fries.
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The Croque Monsieur is a white bread sandwich filled with ham and topped with emmental cheese and grilled.
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The sandwich came with the right amount of gooey, melted cheese and was spiced with a hint of nutmeg, just enough to heighten the taste of the emmental.

The Moulin Rouge was a club sandwichu00a0 stacked with layers of grilled bacon, cooked ham, boiled eggs, cucumber, tomatoes, onions, lettuce and mayo.
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The sandwich had an interesting flavour in each layer and was quite filling and wholesome to eat.

The Quiche Lorraine, a baked pie filled with cooked bacon, ham, cheese, eggs and onions in a flaky pastry crust was another signature French dish that we ordered.

The filling was delicious but the pie crust was a bit too flaky for our liking and did not fuse well with the filling.

But our order of Choc Ganache (Rs 115) as dessert proved to be the right choice.

A heady combination of white, milk and dark chocolate and whipped cream served on a biscuit-like crust, the ganache just melted in our mouths.

The one thing we kept wondering through the entire meal though was the choice of the name Noir for this sunny, romantic cafe.
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Noir means dark or crime-related (as in French noir cinema) in French that we found very tough to correlate with the pleasant ambience of this lovely cafe.

At UB City Mall, Vittal Mallya Road
Call 4098 2050
Meal for two Rs 800
Cafe Noir didn't know we were there. The GUIDE reviews anonymously and pays for meals.