BENGALURU: We walk into Polar Bear’s new outlet, in JP Nagar close to Lathangi Ford, expecting the usual. Bengalureans are familiar with this chain of ice-cream parlours, and are known to recommend to newbies the eatery’s Death by Chocolate and Icecream Pizzas. Would this be any different?
We are greeted at the door by the manager, with a beaming smile. Good start.
The ambience is soothing and fun, with interesting colours and arrangement of furniture.
We ask for suggestions and the manager suggests Tiramisu and a Chocozilla, which look great on the menu card, and have won good reviews online.
Tiramisu arrives and we catch the aroma of coffee. This is made of Brazilian coffee-flavour ice-cream and chocolate cream, which make seven layers with honey loops between each layer. I am a hardcore lover of coffee and this won me over. Next comes Choco Zilla.
Choco Zilla is for chocoholics, the presentation just made me go ‘wooh’. This humongous dessert has Belgium chocolate for the base, with hot chocolate and many, many honey loops between each layer. There’re just layers and layers of chocolates topped with crisp wafer, chocos, Oreo crunch and Gems, and a Munch is stuck into it.
We next order a Spinach-corn Sandwich. It isn’t easy to pick because Polar Bear has many interesting sounding options -- Paneer Burji Sandwich (paneer scrambled on a layer of veggies and topped with a chutney) and Mac and Cheese Sandwich (macaroni and cheese on a bed of veggies), there is also the common favourite Chilli Cheese Sandwich.
Our Spinch-corn is a well-done club sandwich with generous amounts of spinach and corn, with a bit of mayonnaise. There is no mayo served as a side because the chef wants us to taste the veggies. This, mildly spicy, sandwich is one of their signature dishes.
Then comes the much-talked-about Ice-cream Pizza. This has a thin pizza base over which is spread a thick layer of butterscotch ice-cream and topped with chocos, honey loops, gems and fruit jelly. This is too salty for our taste, so we stop with one.
Next we try on the Crepe Sundaes, which I’m sure all travel junkies who be familiar with. We order DBC (Death by Chocolate) Crepe and I can assure you that no one does it better better than Polar Bear. The crepe with a scoop of vanilla is served on a pan. There is a topping of chocolate-cake, Oreo crumbs, nuts and cherry, all smothered with hot chocolate. The crepe itself is soft and is folded into a triangle with a dark-chocolate filling.
We suggest this place to all chocolate-lovers. It is open between 11 am and 1 am.
Cost for two: Rs 500