Anniversary Eve at Aloft, Bengaluru!

 If you follow me on social media, you know about my recent trip to Bangalore. What made the trip special was the commendable hospitality by everyone! We stayed at Aloft Hotel, Cessna Business Park for a night.

The hotel, though meant for business travelers has a very vibrant quirky feel to it. There is a splash of colours everywhere and the entire team was very enthusiastic too. They made sure our check-in was hastle free, and because it was our anniversary eve, they upgraded us to the junior suite! Woot woot!

The suite is beautiful in taste, and exceeds expectations with a long table, bean bag and other cool seating, comfy bed etc. They kept surprising us more and more, with a welcome gift coming next which were assorted desserts along with two USB speakers! I am one who loves to collect souvenirs from wherever I go so I was thrilled.

Unfortunately, we had plans to go out to meet cousins for rest of the day, and considering the traffic scenes in Bangalore, we headed back to the hotel only after midnight. Though we did have a good time at this place called The Big Brewsky, a brewery in Sarjapur. You must check that out too if you’re headed to Bangalore, and try to get a place near the water.

Bengaluru is an amazing place, and the people there are awesome too, it felt great to bring in our third wedding anniversary here! Next morning, after a good night’s sleep (gone are the days when I could stay up all night partying or chilling, I like my sleep now) we got up and got ready. I loved the shower installation they have in the bathroom, with dispensers for shampoo cum conditioner and shower gel. You can even ask for a chair for the bathroom if you want!

We headed for breakfast at their in-house 24/7 restaurant Nook. As expected, there was a wide spread of American and Indian dishes with usual’s like eggs, pancakes, idli, dosa, muffins, donuts, fresh fruits, juices, cereal etc. But everything was totally amazing, the perfect taste. It’s quite a tough situation when you have to choose from so many amazing options, I wish I could have tasted everything. For us, the highlight was the pancakes and dosa served. The pancakes were served along with whipped cream, strawberries, maple syrup, chocolate syrup and raspberry crush! I relished every bite of it and devoured the entire plateful. The dosa also was crisp, served in an attractive manner along with sambhar, coconut chutney, coriander and coconut chutney, and garlic chutney, which were all again, yummy! Oh and also, the "talents" at they like to call all their crew and staff (Respect!) happily baby-sat my li'l one while we ate breakfast, and I soo appreciate that! Infact the kiddo didn't want to come back to me once I was done, that happy he was!

It’s such a peppy lively hotel, I loved everything including the pool table, swimming pool and lounging area, the Bar (W XYZ) etc. In-fact even for the mini-bar they have a cool concept where you can buy or order from (Re:fuel) and pay for what you want (instead of the regular stocked minibar with no choices). They even have fun props like guitars near the bar area, and a LED scrolling text that reads out fun facts, trivia etc.

Oh there is more! They have this really groovy trippy elevator, and if you observe, the place where you stand, they have some liquid that moves around as you put weight. So very cool! They also have take-away disposal coffee glasses right in your bedroom, incase you want to take your filter/instant coffee/tea on the go! Now that’s called being smart! They even had filter coffee along with a brewing machine (though I didn't really understand how to use that :P).

For lunch, executive sous chef Sandeep Kumar spread out a feast for the four of us (my brothers were joining us for lunch as we headed to the airport together). He had asked us if we had a preference of any cuisine, but we didn't, and believe it or not, we had North Indian, South Indian, Italian, Oriental etc. We started with Caesar salad (veg and chicken), and pumpkin soup (which by the name I was not looking forward to, but it was delicious and comforting), some cocktails and papad. We had some chicken biryani, chicken curry, alu chaat, spaghetti pasta, Dal Makhni, Stir fried vegetables and more. I loved the special chicken curry, which the Chef told us was a speciality at Aloft CBP. The oriental dishes were good, but not the best I've had. But the biryani, dal etc everything were fabulous. We ended off with dessert - Ras Malai, Gulab Jamun with Rabri and Gajar Halwa, which were all simply mouth-watering. After stuffing us with all that amazing food, we had to make sure we got a picture with the entire team of talents! 

And, because it was our anniversary, they were soo sweet to send us one of the most beautiful cakes I have seen, and because we were too full after the heavy lunch, we took it to Mumbai with us in the flight, and cut it on-board! This anniversary will always be special for us.

I know for sure that whenever I am travelling to any city where there is an Aloft (Mumbai doesn’t apparently), I am staying here for sure! Will look forward to the Calangute, Goa one opening next year! I also got to know that they’re thinking of even starting a Barbeque in one of their open spaces soon, that should be fun! Don’t forget to follow them on Facebook or Twitter to stay tuned with offers and promotions.

P.C. @Koshik_Sash Taken by iPhone 6S