Chillax Garden Pub is a brand new bar on Marine Drive attached to the Global Towers Hotel. They offer draught beer at a great price point and their bites are value for money, to boot.
The ambience is pretty chill, with a sea breeze, but, unfortunately, there's an obstruction of the sea view due to their pastry shop that's right by the road.
Aside from that, this is a good spot for drinks any time between 11AM and midnight.
Drinks
What's great about this place is that they've got Lion Lager, Carlsberg and Special Brew on tap, with a 275ml glass of Lion Lager at Rs 250 and 500ml at Rs 400.
We tried out one of the classics first, going for a Margarita (Rs 850). Though the price is quite standard, there wasn't enough of a punch from the tequila.
Instead, we tasted more of the lime, mostly sour with some bitter notes as well. There was also too thick a rim of salt, which threw off the balance of the drink, unless you made sure you sipped from the exact same spot.
We brought this to the attention of the staff and they asked what we would like to be changed. We asked for a little more tequila and some sugar syrup to be added, and it came back quite balanced, in terms of sour, sweet and bitter.
Next, we tried out what they recommended as their special, the Beer Cocktail (Rs 400). While the name isn't imaginative, the drink itself is pretty good.
It's made with passion fruit, ginger ale and lager. You get a lovely kick from the passion fruit, and that distinct fizziness from the ginger ale, but you can still taste the lager. It's refreshing and obviously not too boozy. For the price, it's well worth trying.
Bites
Their bites menu basically offers pub fare. We asked for their specials and tried their suggestions.
The Hot Butter Cuttlefish (Rs 750) was plentiful in portion, but not what we've come to know as HBC.
First off, they are not cut into rings or flowers, instead, strips. Second, they use a rather thin batter that just holds on to the oil, making it not too enjoyable. It's definitely hot and spicy, but when it arrived on the table, the batter had already gone soft, which was a bummer. I kind of wished I had gone for a devilled cuttlefish instead, because this was reminiscent of it in taste, but seemed confused.
The other suggestion proved to be less controversial. "Mini sausages with hot garlic sauce and mashed potatoes" (Rs 450) is a decent amount of food if you're just a little hungry.
The sausages aren't tiny, by any means. I was expecting those Sam's sausages, but these were decent. The mash has got some garlic powder scene going on that makes up for the lack of gravy. The hot garlic sauce was nothing to write home about. A sweet chili sauce meets chili garlic sauce, really.
The Staff & The Space
While the waiters dressed in white seem untrained, those dressed in blue are surprisingly helpful. They're quite warm and will see to your requests.
The space itself is held back by the pastry shop up front by the roadside that blocks the view of the sunset. Also, it is below road level, just slightly, so you can't take full advantage of the location. If you sit on the side pictured above, though, you get a lovely sea breeze that sneaks in through the space between the pastry shop and Global Towers. Which is nice.
They also don't play their music too loud, generally some inoffensive reggae and pop songs.
Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
We really appreciate that fact that there's an affordable option for draught beer on Marine Drive, available through most of the day and into midnight. That's the main attraction here.
They could do with more imaginative cocktails, and with this price point, it's likely that we'll be coming back again for budget beer sessions. The bites are meh. Overall, I'd give this 3 stars. Check it out.
