Guess this is the last post for 2012. I have had a fun filled 2012 and I am hoping my 2013 turns out to be equally great. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

Since a couple of my friends kept calling and asking me to suggest a good dinner place without spirits. I have catalogued  the restaurants where you could head to, for the special night.

I am just listing the restaurants without partiality or favour:

1. Zaitoon - Anna Nagar : Special Buffet. Priced @ Rs 549/- for adults and Rs 399/- for Children.
   Contant No: 044 - 26140001

2. Falafel - Anna Nagar : Special Buffet. Priced @ Rs 499/-
    Contact No: 044 - 26200666, 9840800055

3. Mahamudra - Mylapore (Veg) : Special Buffet ( Candle light dinner). Priced @ Rs 1000/-
    Contact No: 044 - 43535555, 24991757

4. New Town Cafe - Injambakkam : Special Buffet. Priced @ Rs 1200/- for adults and Rs 750/- for children.
    Contact No: +91 89398 66235 / +91 91760 66866

5. Fusion 9 - Sterling Road: Special Buffet. Priced @ Rs 1250/-
    Contact No:  044 - 42664299

6. Jewel Box Restaurant, Hotel Blue Diamond - Egmore : Turkey Special. Priced/plate
    Contact No: 044 - 26412244

7. Dewberry's - R.K. Salai : Special Buffet ( Candle light dinner ). Priced @ Rs 650/-
    Contact No: 044 - 28473439

8. Coffeetales - Shanti Colony (Veg) : Cafe to hang-out post 12pm! Priced / order.
    Contact No: 9790750555

Happy New Year once again!!!!

Next up we were served with a whole platter of Non-veg starters. My God! It would bring a big smile on any carnivore. Easily 5 to 6 different starters of medium sized portions each. I do not think I would need to explain it further. "A perfect non-veggies paradise". The platter had the best selection of dishes from  the Indian end of the menu. The word limited starters here is an understatement. After we had stuffed our bellies with rich scrumptious starters, we headed for the main course.




Main course, was an  unlimited round. It consisted of Mutton Stew to go with the Crispy Appams. The combination of both was out-standing. Also this verdict was given by one of my appam crazy friend from Kerala. Then we had the Butter Chicken Masala to go with Tandoori Roti and Butter Naan. Butter chicken served here may not be really rich, but it had the right flavor and also a delicious naan to go with. Finally smoked chicken rice with chicken gravy. The signature smoked rice was fantastic and it did not disappoint. By the time we had the smoked rice, we ended up feeling really stuffed.


Finally when we are done with the main course, there was a single (limited) helping of Ice Cream and Gulab Jaamun. The Gulab Jaamun was simply the best  that I have had in a restaurant. The combo of the Jamun and Ice cream did not fail to rock us. Once we were done with the meal, we ended up with the realization that  the amount of money we paid for the meal was really worthy of the dishes served here. You would love the set meal, if you were a through bred South Indian.

Ambiance:
The ambiance at the Adyar Crimson Chakra is slightly better than the Nungumbakkam Branch. The restaurant has an old colonial house feel to it. Also there are loads of photos on the wall, which are for sale. Another plus here is the availability of parking space.

Service:
Service is proper, with the waiters giving you the best suggestion to enjoy the meal.

Price:
Priced at Rs 600/head + taxes, it works out to be the best set meal or and extended a la carte aka shrunken buffet at this end of the price. Had you had the same amount of food on a la carte , it would have worked out to about  Rs.1000 per head.

Food - 8.5/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Service - 8/10
Price - 8/10

Crimson Chakra is located in Gandhi Nagar, Adyar, next to Gandhi Nagar Club.

The only time one can eat  freely without worrying about the cost,  is when someone else is giving a treat. I was out on one such occasion to enjoy my friends birthday treat. We had decided on Triana Valasarvakkam, since we had received a flyer about the restaurant, on the previous day. On reaching there, we asked the waiters , since that restaurant had been opened to the public. When the waiter replied 6 months, we were surprised, since none of us knew about the presence of this restaurant. One sore point was that the restaurant lacked electricity when we had reached around quarter past 1pm. We were informed that it would not be back until 2pm.






Before the other starters could arrive the vegetarians were served with the Hong Kong Noodles, which was part of their main course. Not that they minded about it. Flavor of the noodles was not very authentic, but it was palatable. The Cheese Naan which the vegetarians had ordered was the next to arrive. The vegetarians seemed really happy that they were being treated better than the non-veggie, who sat waiting for the next dish to arrive.


After quiet a bit of waiting, Chicken Wontons were served to us. The wontons were crisp, with decent amount of chicken stuffing in it. Crispy, crunchy & yummy.



Then came the Crispy Fried Baby Corn with Mushroom. One might wonder at the amount of Chinese dishes we had ordered in a North Indian Speciality restaurant. The Crispy Fried Baby Corn with Mushroom was fantastic, we even went on to order another portion of the same. After the crispy baby corn, finally came our Pahadi chicken. The pahadi chicken tasted like concoction of chicken tikka and tandoori chicken but with a little coriander seeds added to it and served along with mint chutney. The taste felt very much like a chicken tikka.


After the neat round of starters, the veggie finally got their gravy to go with the cheese naan. They had ordered the Stuffed Capsicum curry. I had a sample of the naan along with the capsicum curry, I must say it was quite nice. I really liked the mild flavor it had.


We non-veggie (Warriors) had ordered Chicken Chettinadu, Butter Chicken Masala and a Bread Basket to feed the lot. Since they had a big selection of biryani, we ordered a Mutton Biryani. The Mutton biryani was the first to arrive. This biryani can pass off as a masala rice with hard and uncooked mutton pieces.


The Butter Chicken Masala was all right, but I felt it lacked  richness. The pieces of chicken too, were small. The Chicken Chettinadu on the other hand, was spicy and oily. The mixture of both the gravies along with the roti was delightful. Somehow it seemed to compensate the error in flavor of both the dishes. Just when we were about to be done, we decided to have a Tandoori Chicken. Tandoori chicken was a little over  cooked, with edges of the pieces being charred. Overall, the food,  in-spite of not being authentic and true to its name, was delicious. Then coming to the final factor - the price, which is the most important factor to consider when you have to dole out money to  treat to a group of ten, is pocket friendly

Ambiance:
The place is located in an off shoot road in Valasarvakkam. Parking as such, is very limited. The place had neat white interiors. But at the time we had gone in, the place lacked electricity and when we had inquired, the waiter reported to us that they had power shutdown between 12 & 2pm. The restaurant  has been open for 6months and it still lacks a current generator  which seems a sore point.

Service:
The waiters were knowledgable, and knew the right dishes to suggest to the group. They also had the right idea about the portions of each dish.

Price:
As I had said earlier, the entire meal was pocket friendly. The meal for ten cost the birthday boy Rs 3140/-, which works about Rs 314/head.

Food - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Service - 8/10
Price - 8/10

Triana is located in Valasarvakkam next to TMB bank ATM. It can be a little hard to locate the restaurant.

I was on an official visit to Pondicherry, this did not stop me from finding a  chance to explore the place. The city is built on a rich colonial history, with settlers from various regions of the world using it as their trading capital at various times. A drive around Pondy reminded me of the first few scenes from the movie, "Life of Pie". Since I had reached Pondy early, I decided to grab a quick coffee. I drove down to Goubert Avenue, to  Le Cafe which sits right on the shores of Bay of Bengal.

Food:
I chose to go with Cafe Latte since I wanted a drink which would wake me up from the stupor of the long early morning drive and the friend who came along with me decided to have a Cold Coffee. After a quick browse through the menu, we decided to have a Tomato and Basil Baguette.

The coffees were the first to reach the table followed by the Baguette. Baguette looked colorful with rich selection of finely chopped vegetables arranged on the plate. The baguette itself was toasted with a small amount of butter and had a nice amount of basil and tomato sandwiched between the cut pieces. The exterior was crispy, while the interior was moist, making it absolutely delicious. The latte must have easily had more than a double shot of espresso in it and was a tad strong. Cold Coffee was neat with nice helping of chocolate to it. I loved the entire experience and would love to go back and try the non-veg dishes on the menu.

Ambiance:
The place as such does not look great, but the location of the cafe just adds value to it. There is roof top open  dining area which is used only at nights. Nothing can beat that  fantastic sea breeze with the vast twinkling sky and a view to die for in roof top eating area.

Service:
The service was good, with the waiter explaining to us patiently as what goes into the sandwich.

Price:
The small snack cost Rs 260/-. This is an amount well worthy of the service, food and ambiance.

Food - 7/10
Ambiance - 8.5/10
Service - 8/10
Price - 8/10

Le Cafe is located in Goubert Avenue, next to Chief Secretariat of Pondicherry.

The buffet spread was neat with a mix of Indian and Continental items. One of the dish which stood out  was the Barbecue Chicken. The chicken was well marinated in the BBQ sauce, and cooked to perfection. One could never stop with just a single bite. The combination of the chicken and Garlic Naan was fabulous. One other dish which I liked was beef, which was cooked in pepper sauce. Even though it was a little hard, I found it delicious. I guess the hardness was due to the dish cooling down. Biryani which was part of the buffet, could not be called as one. But then again I have become used to tomato rice-kind biryanis at buffets.



By the time we went for the desserts it was a quarter past 11pm. With most of the dessert  dishes being empty or close to being empty, we grabbed what was left of them. The selection of desserts served were quite peculiar, most of the cakes served were dry cakes. It would have been better if moist cakes were chosen over the dry ones. Finally came our ice creams. We chose to go with the houses recommendation. We were served with a awesome bitter chocolate ice cream and a fantastic black current ice cream. Two of the people who accompanied me, did not seem to like the taste of the chocolate. They kept complaining that it was way tooo bitter, but to me it was just right. Overall the dinner was an okay affair.

Ambiance:
The place looks every bit a fine dinning restaurant. The outdoor dining is quite simply fantastic. The air conditioning in the indoors could be worked upon. We found it a little warm.

Service:
Service was spot on, we did not have any worries with it.

Price:
Priced at around Rs 975 / head inclusive of taxes for the weekend dinner. If food is your top priority, there are other options were you could binge for a much lesser price. The buffet spread here seemed to have been prepared with an idea of keeping it within a certain budget in mind and this made none of the courses of the meal outstanding.

Food - 5.5/10
Ambiance - 7.5/10
Service - 8/10
Price - 6/10

Burgundy's is located in MRC Nagar opposite to Hotel Leela Palace

If you like what you are reading, Please share it with others.

Yes! You read it right, veggie food review on Chennaisoru. I was at cream centre with a couple of my batchmates for lunch and this is one veg diet which I did not regret.





The American Cheese Corn balls as the name implies was very soft filled with cheese and a sprinkling of corn. It was served along with some potato chips and a single slice of tomato and cucumber. The only rue factor was the plate did not look very appealing to look at. The flavor was perfect. Cheese and corn combination made it heavenly. Guess a dose of cheese will make any dish awesome.


n between the starters I placed an order- Peach Ice Tea. When it was placed on the table I was shocked. It's a good thing we ordered only one, because it looked gigantic. The peach flavor was fabulous and very refreshing.



I For the main course we settled on Paneer Makhani, Lachha Parotta and Veg Dum Biryani. The combination of the Lachha Parota and the Paneer Makhani was fabulous. The paneer was really, really tender. We were all raving about the consistency of it. The super soft parotta complimented it. On the other hand the veg biryani was not up to the mark. We had  to eat little bit of the small button onions soaked in vinegar to make the biryani taste better. If you were to head here, I would personally advise you to skip the biryani. Overall the meal was great, apart from the  biryani.
 I would definitely love to visit again and tryout the other dishes on the menu.

Ambiance:
The meal was more of quick lunch. So I really did not get to check it out. But it was jam packed, which is a good thing.

Service:
The service was really quick, with waiters being very attentive to our order and also in giving suggestions.

Price:
Slightly on the wallet emptying side. The meal for four cost us Rs 1370/-.

Food - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Service - 8/10
Price - 7/10

Cream Centre is located in College Road, opposite to Good Shepard School.