27/11/2011

Shiraz Cafe, ECR

20:54:00






I have been wanting to start my own food blog for quite sometime. I have been a proper foodie since birth. My Mom's never had trouble with me eating less, only more. I just love food, any cuisine i love it. Food is like music only to the taste buds. I must thank Mr.ChennaiFoodie for motivating me to go ahead with my own blog. The other bit is i am his cousin so we both share the same passion for food. I think its enough about me here.

I was told about Shiraz Cafe a couple of times by Mr.Chennai Foodie himself as i love Middle-eastern cuisine. I tried hunting this place a couple of times in the East Coast Road(ECR). But to my bad luck and i could not find it and also i was surrounded by people who love seafood so we ended up going to MoonRakers. So this time i sat down made a big plan that i will eat in Shiraz Cafe and will also hunt it down.

So I set out with a couple of my friends this Sunday for the Lunch Buffet. We reached the place quite early and they informed us that they open at only 1pm but the time was only 12pm. We had a solid 1hr to kill so we drove down ECR a couple of times and reached there at 12:50pm. By this time I was really hungry with breakfast in my stomach.

It was rainy day and Shiraz Cafe is purely a outdoor cafe with every few seats indoor.  So there was a bit of a trouble seating the people. Since we reached there early we got a seat. The owners had a tough time seating the crowd of 50 with rains spoiling the outdoor environment. Ambiance hmmmm I cant rate that today maybe another time.

Now coming to the food.

The spread was quite lavish for a all middle eastern cuisine especially Iranian. The welcome drink cum starter thats what i would call was just nothing sort of amazing. You better love fruits because it was fruit in crushed ice. I really dont have a clue to what fruit it was, but it was more guava like. The Soup was a veg soup and again there was no name placed underneath it so i have no clue again to what it was. But it was like a Porridge which is served during the months of Ramzan only a 100times creamier and it tasted fabulous for a veg soup. A word of caution I am a full and proper Non-veggie, veggie foods are not palatable. So its a complement when I say a Veg-Soup was good. The Hummus and pita bread is just too good and is a must have for hummus lovers. BBQ Chicken was good but found it a little salty. The Rice and Chicken Kebab along with Fish gravy was superb as well.
For deserts there was a variety of cakes and also Choco-orange souffle. Friends who had come along being pure veg did enjoy the placeas well. Me dint try all the dishes. After eating all this I was stuffed and my stomach was super happy.

The buffet is priced at Rs500/- which is a steal for proper Middle Eastern Food and again you can eat to your hearts content.

Food - 8/10
Ambiance - 7/10 - Looked really pleasant too bad we could not sit out there.
Service -  7/10
Price - 8/10

Shiraz Cafe is located inside Cholamandalam Artist Village in ECR.