The Culinarium, Cunningham Road, Bangalore

This quaint bungalow on Cunningham Road is perfect for a lazy afternoon with its Parisian bakery, cafe and delightful artisanal icecreams!

Last Saturday afternoon I decided to crawl along Cunningham Road to visit Culinarium, which had long been on my list for its artisanal vegan ice creams. It was a breezy yet sunny day, perfect for the short walk from the Cubbon Park metro station.

Reminiscent of shops in the French Quarter in Pondicherry, The Culinarium is a cheery yellow bungalow which doubles as a store selling arts and crafts, yarn, clothing and a cafe with artisanal and vegan ice cream. The seating in the cafe is small, yet cosy with a pastel vibe. The cafe menu has several European dishes like pot pies, quiches, breads using specialty cheeses and veggies like Swiss chard, heirloom carrots, rye  which are rare finds in Bangalore.

While several bakeries have croissants and items using puff pastry, French choux pastry is are tricky and they can often be hard, dense or bready. Impressively, the Culinarium’s pastries have a wonderfully light, airy, buttery and flaky texture that assures freshness, use of quality ingredients and skill. We tried the Paris Brest: a ring of choux pastry filled with generous dollops of hazelnut praline and dusted with sugar, which was deliciously buttery, rich and quite sweet. I think it’s meant to be eaten slowly, one bite at a time rather than devoured. It was rather modestly priced at Rs. 125.  We also had their mocha coffee, which was creamy and foamy, just how I like it.

We sampled some of the ice-creams they had on display, and all of them were very unique and delicious. The dairy ice-creams have a smooth, dense and creamy texture like the best ice creams while the vegan ice-creams are somewhere between a sorbet and icecream, or textured like cookies and cream icecreams. The gingiberry tastes like a fruity gingersnap cookie, the vegan chocolate faintly of bananas and jaggery in a good way, the French vanilla like luxurious pastry creme (also dotted with black vanilla seeds). The Grand Marnier deserves a special mention, with a bright citrusy flavour from orange peels in a creamy vanilla base. I purchased lavender ice cream for the novelty value, which I have only ever seen sold here. It was sweetly floral with a velvety texture I loved.

All flavours are available in scoops and single serve packs (for Rs. 85-90) and also in takeaway tubs.

The service was quick and friendly, and they were kind enough to let us sample all the flavours.

Cost for two: Rs. 350-400
Rating:
Taste: 8.5/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10