We might have all been to Italian restaurants, where they serve pastas and pizzas loaded with tons of cheese, sautéed with oodles of garlic, but have you ever wondered how lasagne would taste along with panner tikka or if pasta paprika could be preceded by seekh kabab? Eurasia, the new pasta – barbecue restaurant in town, enables us to experience these quirky combinations.

Barbeque mushrooms. Pic: Shivashankar.

In Eurasia, Jayanagar now has its very own Little Italy franchise. This pure vegetarian restaurant has not only retained most of Little Italy’s popular items but has also added a few dishes of its own.

An ideal way to kick things off would be to try out one of the piping hot soups such as the Spring Onion soup which is sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and served with crunchy croutons. If you’d like to compensate for the imminent overdose of cheese then you could try out one of the salads – Corleone, which pays obeisance to the iconic Corleone family from Mario Puzo’s Godfather. It is the pick of the bunch.

Eurasia offers a wide range of starters, from the Italian Crostini Assortiti, which is the assorted plate of different types of Crostini (Crostini means "little toast" in Italian and is very similar to garlic bread) to the Mexican Super Stuffed Nachos (Nachos topped with re-fried beans and of course, Cheese!).

Among the pizzas, if you’d like a Classic Italian pizza, then you can go for the Sicilia (a spicy, thick based Pizza straight from the ovens of Little Italy) or if a Pizza with Indian spices sound appealing, then you can try out Nawabi, Indian, Manali or Bombay pizza. The difference in taste among these Indian Pizzas is not easily discernible as they vary only in one or two of their toppings.

Wok Talk. Pic: Shivashankar.

All the Pastas have two things in common. They are replete with cheese and Italian herbs and they are all impossible to pronounce. Here, the numbered menu, which frees up our tongue for more intelligible conversation, comes to our rescue. The lip-smacking Pasta Paprika is quite spicy and is highly recommended.

The specials include Lasagne Alla Napoletana (layers of pasta, béchamel sauce, cheese etc. baked in the oven), and different types of Risotto (brown rice dish cooked with cheese) – with the former possibly being the most delicious item in the menu.

The name Eurasia is quite misleading, as the number of European dishes far exceeds the number of Asian dishes. Most notably, Eurasia offers just one Mongolian dish called Wok-Talk. This is a chef’s special dish that can be customised to accommodate the noodles, sauce and ingredients of your choice.

The Barbecue section in the menu contained glamorous-sounding dishes like Sugar Glazed Barbecued Sweet Corn etc., but this was soon replaced by a menu which had garden-variety Barbecue dishes like Panner Tikka and Hariyali Kabab. The Barbecued Mushrooms were thankfully very different from these run-of-the-mill dishes and was clearly a cut above the rest.

The sinful desserts, albeit meagre in quantity, are thoroughly delectable. The popular Cheese cake and the esoteric Kahlua Mousse cake are definitely worth a try.

The service is very brisk and the waiters are quite pleasant. They might initially come across as being cognizant of the menu, but once you dig a little deeper, you would realize that their knowledge is quite superficial. However, they do compensate for this shortcoming with their enthusiasm.

The décor is quite simple but the dim lighting at night gives this place a romantic feel. Apart from the cozy indoor setting, they also offer an alfresco dining option. Unfortunately, this setting is accompanied by the blaring horns and the stentorian engine sounds which ruin any possibility of a quiet dinner. Needless to say, a quieter location for the restaurant would have been better. However, unlike most restaurants in Bangalore, parking isn’t too much of a problem.

The variety of cuisines at Eurasia, especially for a vegetarian is fabulous. Although the food is quite expensive and would probably set you back by Rs 1000 per couple, this place is definitely worth a visit.

So head to Eurasia to indulge in the cheese filled Italian delicacies with a few zingy oriental dishes thrown into the mix.   ⊕