Being one of the best places for dessert in Chennai, I wish it was outside of the Satyam Complex as dessert here requires some amount of planning! If you park your car first and then extend it for a movie, you pay double the parking charge and if you plan it along with your movie, then you get very little time to savour these amazing desserts!

I don't know the names of these two that we had that night before the movie. One was a special eclair and if you like variety in your eclair, then this is a must try. Served with a scoop of ice cream and an edible outside coat which was nice on its own, it was wow, but after the first half went it, it started to hit me! The second dessert, the square one, was either new or I have never noticed it in the display before. It was outstanding, crunchy, chocolaty, nutty all at the same time and no flavour overwhelmed another.

Yeah, this post is a little rushed and as you might have noticed, there was no post this week, but I promise to make it up next week with two places! Till then...if you're watching a movie this weekend at Satyam, indulge!

It's been two years, at least, I think. Tangerine was once the go-to-place for steaks and sizzlers, but after an onslaught by various other places, and a couple of bad experiences, I sort of forgot about Tangerine. Last weekend, my friend and I were both craving for a nice sizzler and so we decided to try out Tangerine after another friend had tried it and said that her meal was enjoyable.

We started off with a simple mushroom and mascaporne soup - it was nice simple and just about right and this was followed by a 'Take 5' - a grilled chicken with lemongrass, oregano and garlic - which was excellent. We then went for the Steaks - my friend asked for a grilled lamb in mushroom sauce in a sizzler and I chose a stuffed chicken breast steak from their 'special menu'. Both of us loved our steaks, the lamb was soft, juicy and succulent and the flavour was fantastic, while my chicken breast was stuffed to perfection and the sauce was brilliant. The jacket potatoes they serve here with the cream on top is quite good and they are generous with the sauce too. My friend asked for more sauce for his steak and it was served, so no qualms there.

The portions are very satisfactory and we almost had no place for dessert - but who can say no the 'Death by Chocolate' here? It is really death by chocolate and I cannot eat the whole thing because it starts to hit me, but chocolate lovers who can die in chocolates would love this. It is chocolate in a chocolate shell drenched in chocolate sauce - yes, chocolate all the way.

I am glad we tried Tangerine that night because, steaks were dying in Chennai. Very few places have a good steak and I am glad that Tangerine is serving up some excellent ones. The place was not full on a Saturday evening, but there was a floating crowd, yes. Service was quick and attentive and the waiters seemed to know the menu well and were able to recommend based on your requirements. I am not a big fan of the sizzlers served on a bed of rice at Tangerine - we told the waiter that. He said he will bring the lamb steak without the bed of rice and brought it separately. The meal cost us Rs 1495.

3.5/5

Tangerine is in Alwarpet. Take the road next to Chola Sheraton and drive all the way down, take the right at the end and you will find it on your right.

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When we were talking about places to chill out and read a book in Chennai, D cafe was suddenly brought out by a couple of friends. So my colleague and me decided to try it one day for lunch and we set out. Half the property is not complete yet, rather the front portion is not complete yet. But whatever was completed was excellent. Both of us loved the ambiance - a part outdoor and part indoor with a little greenery and comfortable seating on couches - loved it!!!!

We asked for the menu and it was extensive. Coffee was not available that day and so we settled for one sandwich and one pizza! The food was disappointing to say the least. The sandwich was served without any fries or coleslaw - just a long bread with an average tasting chicken inside. The pizzas were very home style and equally average - in fact we saw the oven from which it came out and my oven at home is definitely better!!!

Maybe these are teething problems, but since the ambiance is excellent if they improve the food, it should be another Amethyst, albeit a smaller one, in the making!

3/5

D Cafe is on Bazullah Road, T. Nagar.  

Expectation is a good thing - it keeps us looking forward to something! Sometimes when our expectations are met, we are very happy, when they aren't, we are not so happy. But there are times when expectations are neither met nor unmet, but thrown out of the window!

Pan Asian at The Grand Chola called me on a quiet Friday evening and asked to join them for their opening celebrations the following Sunday and I could not make it. 'Monday or Tuesday would be fine', I suggested. And after not being able to make it on Monday either, Tuesday it was and when friends from CFG said that they were invited too, I was looking forward to a night of exotic Thai, Singaporean (though nothing is really Singaporean) and Malay dishes and maybe a bit of Chinese here and there! The nasty traffic played it's part and I missed the 'Amuse', which was supposed to be an introduction to the cuisine. And yeah, the restaurant, a fine dining pan Asian one in a five star deluxe, one of a kind hotel (at least size wise) in Chennai was almost packed on a Tuesday evening.

A chef tasting menu is what we were supposed to have that evening. A Banana Blossom salad was served. I had no idea from which Asian country that dish was from, but the taste was outstanding - not exotic, in fact, it was rather simple, but outstanding. This was followed by Duck Carpaccio, now, I am not a fan of duck meat, in fact, I have had duck in some fancy places and I still stay away, but this duck was edible for me. The others thought it was fantastic and if I was not so prejudiced, I would have agreed. A simple but modified Thai classic salad came out next and was good, again, not exotic. Then a Sichuan style Crispy prawn - yeah, Sichuan, to remind us that China is part of Asia! Excellent, followed by the stir fried squid, which was nice too. And an excellent Wok Tossed Chicken followed suit to end the list of starters. Like the others, this had just the chicken, some nuts and a cucumber salad.

And then came the soup bowl, yeah, the soup bowl with something small in it. The soup came separately in a jar which we had to pour. The soup was simple with very mild flavours, but since the appetising was already done, I don't know how the soup fit in, but it was a break from the flavours thus far. By this time I had two mocktails already, a virgin Mojito and a chilly spice, both of which were very predictable.

A glazed salmon started proceedings for the main course, again, maybe I only like Salmon smoked, so I thought this was ok, but we soon had another excellent chicken, very similar to the nutty chicken starter - look and simplicity wise, but completely different in flavour. We then had an assorted seafood which was very nice too with Asian Greens and Teppanyaki fried rice - and what wonderful Teppanyaki fried rice. Japan is very much a part of Asia. We finished off with two excellent desserts to end what was an amazing evening. The dinner hit the sweet spot - left us full, but not stuffed.

The chef then joined us to explain the dishes, so when the dishes came we did not have someone telling what it was, but the food did all the talking - the chef only did the yabadaba doo. A meal for two should set you back by about Rs 5000, but if you want to spend more, you can ask for the Chef's table starting at Rs 6500 per person and you can go up to whatever number you want. But if you're at the restaurant and don't want to go through the menu ask for Chef Vikram and ask him to help you out. The menu has three sections - Chinese (with four different Chinese cuisines), Japanese and rest of Asia!

So, yeah, back to expectations - what to do with them? I went in expecting something, came out experiencing something completely different - simple flavours with excellent taste in a five star deluxe hotel. Quite an oxymoron isn't it? But since the meal left me quite happy, I would rate this 4.5/5. Whoa, two restaurants taking up the 4.5 in one week. I wish life continues this way.

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Phew! Finally!!! These words filled my thoughts when I saw the 'Costa Coffee - Coming Soon' banner on Harrington Road, a few months back. I love Costa and I think they serve great coffee. Around the world, Costa's coffee and short eats in their chilled out seating, are a nice detour from local specialty cuisines! In Bangalore, the coffees from Costa are nice, but the short eats are very bad compared out outlets outside India.

The ambiance at Chennai's Costa is very nice. A spacious outdoor seating in a reasonably less polluted road in Chennai (though that is changing by the minute) and good indoor seating welcome you before you place your order. On my first visit, we had a berry blast cold coffee, a raspberry iced tea. two short eats - a masala chicken pie (not 100% sure of the name) & Lebanese Chicken pie and a sweet dish.

The Berry Blast cold coffee hit the perfect spot between the bitterness of coffee and the sweetness of the berry (I think there was only strawberry inside). Simply loved that coffee. The iced tea was very typical - overdose of sweetness and flavour of the raspberry and very little flavour of tea! The short eats were very so-so. On my second visit with another friend, I asked for a cold coffee with hazelnuts and cream, while he took my recommendation and had the berry blast, and loved it. My coffee was average, his smoked chicken sandwich was average, but the oreo brownie we had was superb.

So looks like the berry blast is going to be my regular coffee here and I will have to try out other short eats to see if I like anything specific, but I wish Costa would improve that part of it, not just in Chennai, but all over India.

But yeah, Costa has arrived in Chennai, finally! Phew!

4/5 for the coffee and 3/5 for the rest. So averages out at 3.5 stars for me!

Costa Coffee has set up it's first outlet on Harrington Road, Chetput.

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Some places scream celebration - while for a select few, they might be more common places to eat out, for a vast majority, Taj is a place to celebrate! The very mention of Taj Coromandel brings back memories of my grand dad and my uncle, both of whom are no more! The Golden Dragon at Taj was a family favourite and my grand dad, being a hotelier himself, more than knew how to distinguish good food from wanna-bes. Whenever my uncle came down to visit us, he would scout for various places and then invariably narrow it down to Golden Dragon. When my uncle got married and the couple came back to India after three years, Southern Spice was born. My grand dad, being who he was, had to celebrate at this 'new Taj restaurant'. I was 14 then!

And that was my twist with Southern Spice. Every meal till the renovation took over was outstanding. There was once, when I was in my 10th standard and my uncle and me went there, we asked for just appams and a gravy. The waiter brought the wrong gravy and when we pointed it out to him, he thought for one second and said 'Compliments from us, Sir' and continued serving us the gravy. The one we ordered also came along and the standard of service there was a delight!

I am wondering where my write up about Southern Spice went as I cannot trace it, and way back in 2010, I have written about my experience at The Golden Dragon. During the renovation, the food took a beating, but as I found out by the end of the meal, normalcy has been restored. Today, we were invited by The Taj to taste the revamped menu at Southern Spice and what an evening it turned out to be. I don't remember having had a degustation menu at ANY Indian restaurant thus far, including, Ayna, where the food is excellent and the ambiance, brilliant. But getting a degustation menu for the Indian Cuisine where we have gravies and different breads (as in Naan, Chappati, Parota etc) and a cuisine which is well suited to be served and eaten on a banana leaf with everything being served at once and refills on request (or by sheer force, if you are at a wedding in a generous family)! Southern Spice had got it perfect.

A degustation menu, as I have tasted around the world, has anywhere between 10 and 20 dishes served in a particular order. At the Maha Virundhu menu here, as the name suggests (Maha Virundhu means Grand Festive Lunch), it is GRAND. 30 dishes grand! The first tiny little adai, the out of the world Mysore Rasam, the Banana dosa, the Lettuce Lentil Salad were all washed down with ease. The carnivores were waiting for their stuff to arrive and how it arrived - a soft shell crab dusted with Semolina, a mutton sukka - named the Vaigai Curry Sukka, the superb chicken fry and the kola urundai with a string tied to keep it in shape completed the rest of the starters. There was a nice ginger pineapple punch to help wash it down which made matters easier for the mouth.

And then - ok, I am not going to name the dishes anymore. Honestly, Southern Spice is not a place where you sit and order, but a place where you tell them your budget for the Thali and let them pamper you! There were 6 gravies, 6 sides and then parota, idiyappam (string hoppers), appam, and steamed rice. Oh, there was this amazing podi and ghee to go for the rice, which was an instant hit! I loved it. We were stuffed to the brim and then the Biriyani arrives - I have no idea how it tasted, my taste buds had given up. I skipped the curd rice!

And we were asked to save space for dessert - I asked around and nobody wanted to rent space for the dessert! There was a payasam - a perfect payasam, not too sweet and a home made ice cream which was nice. But then, they saved their best for the last, with no space anywhere - An Indian Chocolate Mousse, which had lentils, coconut and jaggery and was screaming INDIAN all the way.

Even writing about this experience makes me tired! They have the Thalis starting from Rs. 2000 and they go all the way up to 12000 which has wines paired and the works. The Maha Virundhu costs Rs. 5000, but if you don't have an elephant's appetite, any Thali should be enough to celebrate whatever you are celebrating. Obviously when you are at The Taj, you don't talk about value for money. It is like asking what mileage a Ferrari gives!

The ambiance was grandiose and with three private dining rooms, this place is complete. With paintings from different parts of South India and famous families having shared their recipes with the chefs at the Taj, the Southern Spice is a winner in bringing out an unlikely combination of Fine Dining and Indian Cuisine! Kudos to that!

4.5/5 and if there was simple live Indian Music and dance, I would have gone, for the first time, 5/5. It was there earlier, but now they want the focus to be entirely on food. The fact the this restaurant has been featured in the top 100 restaurants in the world, helps keep the focus on food.

Taj Coromandel is on Nungambakkam High Road and Southern Spice is at the lobby level.

*Thanks to Taj for the photographs. After a point, I decided to enjoy the food and stop worrying about shooting pictures. My flash failure also helped make the decision.

*The last two pictures were shot by Sanjay Ramachandran and have been published on the blog with the permission of Taj Group of Hotels.

This is one of the most difficult places to write about. The first time I went there, in 2010, I thought it was a decent place for a meal, not too good, not too bad and I had rated it 7/10 (old rating style) for the food. I went there a few times and the place has been kind to me. Then I was asked to review this place by a magazine and I was told that it was a discreet review, but it turned out that the owners knew about it. The food that night was fantastic! I went there a couple of times after that and food was back to decent - not too great, not too bad! But almost every review I read was contradictory to mine. At one point, I thought I was the only one who liked Pasta Bar!

A couple of weeks back, the Chennai Food Guide had arranged a meeting at the Pasta bar and some of the stuff served there was excellent. I met the owners and the passion and knowledge they have about the food was overwhelming. One of the owners, Bipin, I thought could compete with Andrew Zimmerman and Vir Sanghvi put together!!!! I told them that I would tell them when I go back, but I did not! I went there without CFG, without the owners knowing I was there and just my friend and me! We ordered some of the dishes that were served on the night of the CFG meet to check the merits of this restaurant that does not do Rome delivery!!!

The Chicken Sausage in Spicy Masala was excellent! It is a rather unique blend of the Continental Cuts with an Indianish Sauce. We had one pizza - the fungi veg pizza, which turned out be really nice! It was great the other day and it was super nice today. And then Alpana Chicken pasta - a spagetti with chicken and drizzled with loads of cheese - a delight! We were stuffed by now and saved the last bit of space for the Pasta Bar hero - the mud pie!!! It was excellent as always!

So I don't know if I am jinxed in a good way with the Pasta Bar, but it has been good to me. I would rate my experience here a 3.5/5! Except for the first time when I tried their Egmore outlet, every other time I have only been to their Burkitt Road outlet.

So, if it has been bad to you, maybe it is worth trying out once more before you give up!

The owners are willing to listen to you, so if something goes wrong, ping Bipin at 9840035241. I don't have the contact of the other owner Vinod, but you can ask them!

I did not have my camera and the pictures are from the CFG meet.

the Pasta Bar is located on Burkitt Road, on the two way part of the road from T. Nagar.

On my way home, I noticed a fancy new building with a huge COUNTRY CHICKEN board! Next morning there was an ad on Chennai Live 104.8 FM for the same and so three of decided to skip our usual Subway/Quiznos and try this out for lunch! For a minute, we thought we were in a Fancy Dress competition and then realised that all of them are wearing the same fancy dress - Cowboy Style. Apparently these are Australian cowboys and not the Texas ones!

The menu was very similar to KFC! We settled for a veg burger (for the vegetarian), one spicy country chicken burger with friend chicken and coke combo and I had the Australian Chicken burger! The veg burger was blah, according it the vegetarian. The spicy chicken burger was a piece of fried chicken with a spicy sauce. My friend who took one bite and said there was more bun than chicken opened it and what we saw is what you can see in the photo. I had a bite and I must admit that I liked it, but the chicken inside was tiny and hardly covered the buns! The fried chicken was over fried - not sure if this is how it should be, but it was ok! My Australian Chicken Burger was exactly the Marrybrown's hot touch burger - it was nice, but nothing special in it!

So you have another fried chicken outlet in town! If it came before KFC, it might have been a hit, but right now, it's just a catch up game!

3/5

Country Chicken is on Valluvarkottam High Road.

A few years back, in one of Malaysia's mall, I spotted a quaint little outlet. They had only 5 items on the menu - a choice of spring rolls, a choice of momos, a choice of fried rice/noodles/crispy noodles where you can choose the style, the sauce and the meat and two desserts! Food was excellent there!

Today, when I wanted a change from the usual Subway and Quiznos for lunch and with the rest of my friends not here, I headed, alone to Ishpahani! Luckily for me, I spotted two standees, Chat on Chaat and Chat on Chinese -1st Floor! I headed to the first floor and saw two restaurants, very similar in decor and I walked into the Chinese side of it. Apparently the Chaat restaurant is pure veg and the Chinese is the non veg, but they will serve the Chaat here, but not Chinese in the Chaat restaurant! Makes sense!

The menu was almost exactly the same as the Malaysian outlet I was talking about! They had just two starters - a spring roll and momos - both with veg and non veg options. I went straight to the main course and I, being a big fan of crispy noodles, chose the crispy noodles, went with the Mushroom sauce and diced chicken. They had a 'Signature' Chilly Garlic sauce, but I was not in the mood for anything spicy. A big bunch of college kids occupied about 15 seats and there was one other gentleman on one of tables apart from me. The place can accomodate about 30-35 people! The spoons were fancy - both fork and spoon on the same thing, but not very useful as you can use only one! And if you want to use the other side, you will have to wipe it first!

The food arrived and I loved it. It was brilliant combination of crisp, saucy and stuff on the noodles. There were lots of veggies with brocoli and stuff, a good helping of chicken and the right amount of noodles! I also tried their cheesecake which I thought was very different - it was a layered cheese cake and it tasted reasonably ok!

There is nothing much to try here, but I am wondering if a Chinese place with only 5 items on the menu will survive in Chennai. If they maintain the quality and taste, they might be a hit with the working group and maybe even the offices within Ishpahani, but the place I was talking about in Malaysia was in a mall and therefore has higher footfalls. Also, many restaurants have failed in that space as I think more people will prefer Coffee Day as a time tested outlet. Only time will tell, but the concept is here now and it is worth a shot! Next time, I would want to try out the chaats!

3.5/5

Ishpahani is on Nungambakkam High Road and this is on the first floor, next to Coffee Day.

What is so special about another coffee shop in Chennai? So what if it has more teas than coffee? Ultimately all of them have sandwiches, burgers, pizzas, grilled stuff and some drinks! Why then should people I know talk at length about a new tea shop? What made a guy go there 5 times in 10 days? I had to find out and luckily, I was part of an invited group of 15 people to try out their food!

So, obviously in a tea house, we needed to test the teas. They were sad! I am even posting a few photos depicting the reaction of some of the members to the tea (those photos were shot with their permission). The equipment was fancy et all, but the teas were not! Sorry, I have had better teas.

And then we waited..................and waited..............and waited. To be fair to them, the place was packed and the paying guests were obviously their first priority. We noticed that even they were made to wait as, clearly, the owners were not ready for this! And then they dished out items one by one and I don't remember the last time I could not decide which dish to post on the blog (the photo, I mean). Each AND every one of the dishes were outstanding!

There was a prawn in some sauce that disappeared as soon (though it arrived late) as it came. Then came a risotto - I am not a big fan of risotto, I call it the Italian Bisi Bela Bath, but this one here left me wanting more! Among all the dishes, the best dish of the day was the smoked chicken sandwich - amazing would be an understatement. Three pizzas came and all three were excellent - remember they are not the pizzeria type pizzas, but the coffee shop type pizzas!  There was something called the Zuchini dream - it was vegetarian and still disappeared from the carnivore table - it was not outstanding, but we were hungry.

Desserts - my, oh my! Nothing was exotic, but everything tasted good. The white chocolate mocha cake was slurp, there was this chocolate layered stuff that was slurp and the mint creme brulee, which was, yes, slurp. The red velvet cake was BAD and the only one that was bad. It wasn't ok, it was bad! You could taste the flour!!!! Sorry, I don't know the name of the desserts, but they are on display, so........

There was more good than bad and if this is how it is going to be, this is going to be one hell of a coffee shop, sorry tea shop!!! The ambiance is confused, though! There is one small area with couches and the rest of the space is set like a restaurant  - not cool! I would have loved this place to have a more relaxed ambiance, especially with the kind of food they are serving. The one place which has the couches also has a few book, you can bring your own books, but since it is one table with many couches, they might not like it if you are on your own!!! A few more couches and this place would rock!

I am not rating it as yet, as I would like to try it out on my own, but from the first look, it could get 4/5 fro me.

Llyods Tea House is located on Llyods road, a few buildings away from Coffee Day. When you go towards Mount Road from Coffee Day Royapettah, you will find this on your left, opp, Nilgris Supermarket.

Models - Fazil Badrudeen, Sri Hari Nambiar