Restaurant Review 4: Ebony and the 13th Floor Bar

Ray Phillips was in town last week, with film crew Graham and Andy, and wife Alison in tow. We are making a film to promote the GDC at the upcoming DES conference. This gave us an excuse to visit several nice 'locations'. Of particular note was the Indian Institute of management campus - a stunning building whose architect I shall need to find out more about.

With the excuse of using it as a platform to do time lapse of MG Road we visited the 13th Floor Bar in the Barton Centre. It is nice location for a drink, with great views northwards towards the cricket stadium and beyond. The bar food was pretty good (it turned out it came from the restaurant on the other side of the building)

The bar's balcony was on the sheltered side of the building so it was warm despite the exposed position. However, this was not true for Ebony, on the opposite side. External diners were wrapped in what looked like tablecloths but turned out to be blankets that they have to hand for these conditions.

I have seen reviewers raving about the menu, but I found it rather unfocused, split between Andraha, Parsi and European, and rather confusingly laid out. The food in the bar is taken straight from the restaurant's menu.

Don't get me wrong - its OK, but all in all I reckon it is a bit overrated. The views are good, but not as good as those from the bar.

My suggestion - go for a drink at the 13th Floor Bar and then nip around into Church Street and have your 100 Rupee thali meal in Coconut Grove! We were back there again on Saturday.