The Myth of a family restaurant:

This weekend, my wife and I thought we should make a stopover at 'The Filling Station' in Koramangala. We like the place China Pearl nearby and each time the mystery of the restaurant that we could see from there beaconed us to fill something up from the Station.

The eating place announces itself as a multi-cuisine family restaurant. OK. The first thing we notice is that the place has a kind of not-so-soft ambience. Beige and red tables with chairs for some tables and sofas for the ones against the wall are set around steel columns used to support the higher floors of the building. The I-beams are orange in colour and stand out from the overall decor of the place. We also noticed that the place has a bar, after they handed us the beverage menu. Is this a family place or what? Or do they think families in Koramangala are different?

We order a seafood soup, not brave enough to swallow assurances given by the government that chicken is not sickening anymore. We very clearly mentioned our preference in this regard. Only after the soup arrived on our table and we supped it up, were we a little suspicious that the soup might have egg in it. Our doubts were confirmed when the first waiter was not sure and the captain followed up with a confused 'No sir, it contains no egg'. I trust my tastebuds more! That was enough to upset the rest of the meal.

We had just recovered from the eggy experience, when the man (I have skipped the 'gentle' part) behind our table lit up a cigarette! Trying not to fume, I asked the waiter if smoking was allowed. He immediately conjured up the existence of a non-smoking zone in the small place and gave us an option to settle ourselves in a corner. A smoking zone and a non-amoking zone with a common AC set-up and no walls in between? There must be some confusion here. We moved to the far table, but were wondering about the state of the 7 year old who was munching away in the table next to the smoking Joe's.

Unenthusiatically goin about our food, we were pleasantly surprised at the Mandarin fish that surpassed our expectations. But the schezuan rice has some basmati mixed in it! For some reason (care to help?) we got little help with refilling the glasses of water we kept emptying. Disappointed with the service, we left a nominal tip and a promise of never returning to this 'family place' to fill our gastronomic needs.

Can someone tell me if smoking in restaurants is banned in India; especially restaurants of the family kind?