Mad Over Donuts, Bangalore

Yesterday, Mad Over Donuts, or M.O.D as they are known, opened shop in Bangalore. My hotshot yembeeyay friend who had done some project on niche chains like MOD dragged me along with her to sample some donuts at the place.

It was a long anticipated opening. The store has been under construction for a while now. On Saturday, the atmosphere was festive with a friendly man distributing balloons to young and old alike. The head chef guy was cheering the entire staff and all of them were chanting M-O-D aloud. And to add to all the happiness, they were giving away free samples of the donuts to all the people who walked in!

The place is hard to miss- standing right outside the food court of Phoenix Market City. M.O.D claims that those who have not lost their hearts to donuts would lose them post sampling them. And they stand true to their claim.

In keeping with our love for all things chocolaty, we set out to order the Choco Bomb and Double Trouble - two of their most recommended items. To our dismay, both trays were empty. However, the person at the counter told us that they were getting made, and would be available in a jiffy!

So I went on to sample my first donut from M.O.D. Sinful, delicious and wholesomely chocolaty. That is all I can say about it. Double trouble was worth every penny. It has a lot more filling when compared to what Donut Baker offers and scores on the taste front too!

One can see the bakers making donuts in the place. And my! I dont know whether it was because it was Day 1 or what, but the entire staff was buzzing with high energy!

They have other cheesy sounding flavors like Blush Factor, Original Sin and After dark. The donuts come in rings and are filled. And there are plenty of flavors to choose from! They are priced upwards Rs.50, slightly more premium than donut baker.

I intend to revisit and fill in more details.

P.S. Ashu, thanks a ton for taking me there and all the gyaan :)

  

Phoenix Market City, Bangalore

The run up to the opening of Phoenix Market City saw them putting up hoardings on the Outer Ring Road and Whitefield Road. The hoardings actually put me off slightly cause they seemed to hint that the place was meant for the elite only. Here is a sample:

There was another memorable one with a chic lady in ultra high heels which said - "Corridors by day, runways by night; Get your glamor quotient right!"
I was apprehensive about going to the mall in my normal non-designer clothing. But then, what the hell! When a mall that claims itself to be Market City has opened at walking distance to my workplace, am I crazy to not check it out?!
So well, G and I went there yesterday after we wrapped up at office. Armed with our laptop bags and lunch bag, we certainly did not seem to emerge from luxury! To top it, it had just rained and the road was covered in slush. Not a pretty start to our evening.
But the facade of Phoenix Market City made up for it. Rain washed clean roads around it, and a mall that seemed to stretch endlessly. It was flanked by bill boards of svelte models endorsing brands that we had only read about but not seen much around.
Soon as we made our way inside, we saw that most of the outlets were yet to open. That meant that there were only few people strolling about the mall. In the center of the ground floor was a guy playing the piano. That is when i realized that i had never seen an actual piano so up close till date!
The mall is not geometric in structure and tends to go on and on in different directions. We really did not go store by store or explore all the places that the mall stretched. However, we did not miss out on much since there were only a few stores open. Zara takes up most of one half of the ground floor. I saw opening soon posters of Mango, Promod, Timberland, California Pizza Kitchen, Pantaloons, Bossini, Avirate and loads of other stores. The place is probably spread over 5 floors. I did not even count the number of floors in the maze of all the escalators.

The place has something called the "open door policy". They say that the doors are not for the customers to open, but will be opened for them. :) True to their words, at most stores, there were people to open doors and assist us graciously. And assistance is probably given to the right measure. Not like the not so friendly staff at many malls at one extreme or the kind that at supermarkets keeps badgering you to buy products to get rid of skin problems (They say it on the face and make you feel that your face needs to be worked on!).

Most other stores were repeats of those that are in Garuda and Mantri. There were stores selling clothes- branded clothes, designer clothes, more clothes and accessories, leather stuff, shoes. I peeped into the Crocs store and saw like a hundred colors of footwear! The food court was serving mostly non vegetarian fare. Rajdhani and Kalmane Koffees were yet to open.

I dunno about purchase, but the mall makes a place where you can do loads of window shopping. The entire market city is sprawling and has plenty of benches and cute colorful seating to rest your heels that are tired after walking the whole area.
After a short break it would be time for the well heeled to indulge in a Tissot or Tag and adorn their manicured hands with a solitaire or two. ;) And then maybe go to the foot spa for a fish therapy. I had to make do with clicking the mural at the entrance of the spa.
Does not mean one cannot shop there at all. But most of the stuff that is not common to the existing malls is all luxury stuff.
Nevertheless, us common janta can do our regular shopping, can always have a scoop of ice cream in Polar Bear and a cuppa and dine in Rajdhani. And make up our minds that some day, some day i will reward myself with that 2.5 L Tag watch. For now, am happy looking at it on the storefront!

P.S.
It has been quite some time since i wrote the above post. those were my first impressions. I must say that I have visited Phoenix many times over since i wrote the post. and its a fab place to while away time. If you get used to this place, most other malls in Bangalore will induce claustrophobia, it is that big and spread out. My verdict - do visit in if you have a whole day to spend and loads of patience to check all the stores. With places like Copper Chimney, Trader's Vic, Noodle Bar, Chilly's opening here, there are plenty of fine dining options. You could go bowling at Amoeba, or simply catch a movie at the upcoming PVR. Perfect weekend hangout.