Food:
We were terribly hungry by 9 pm, so we wasted no time in ordering food. We started the proceedings with Cheese Italian Nachos and Mexican Nachos. To quench our thirst we picked the Sparkling Mojitos. Not much can go wrong with the mojitos and they tasted just right. Refreshing for this hot summer.


Both the nachos looked the same in appearance and ingredients, but I somehow ended up liking the Mexican better. It was a bit spicier than the Italian nachos. To accompany the nachos there was sour cream, baked beans sauce and the lot. The combination was fantastic.


We also had Mushroom Chipotle. The mushroom chipotle was fantastic. Adding the sauce to the nachos made the crispy nachos even better. This is a must try combination.



After the yummy nachos and mushroom we moved onto the main course. For the mains we ordered a Penne Arrabiata with Chicken, Chicken Lasagne, Pizza Tomatina and finally Spicy Chipotle Chicken Pizza.



The Penne and the Lasagne were the first to be served. Loved the Lasagne, it was soft and perfect. Chicken pieces were chopped down to small morsels to match the consistency of the veggies. A marriage made in gastronomist's heaven! The Penne was al dente. Arrabiata sauce complemented the Penne. Again I would like to re-iterate they were highly Indianized versions of the original.



Finally the Pizza, they were just divine. Between the two, my vote rests on the Pizza Tomatina. They do give you a option of loading the pizza with olive oil which just adds more flavour to a dish which is already fantastic. Hola just simply reminds me off Bella Ciao. It felt in every way an exact copy of it. Damn they have done a great job at it. Food is superb and it is also a great place to hang out.

Ambiance:
Restaurant has both outdoors and indoor dining both great. I really wish to try the outdoor dining on a fine weather day.

Service:
Courteous, efficient and knowledgable.

Price:
This entire meal for eight, cost us Rs 4530.

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

Disclaimer : I paid for the meal

Hola is located in Besant Nagar opposite Tasty Jones.

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*A review about a place holds good only for 6 months as there can be a change in quality and quantity of the food, the service and the staff, due to reasons best known only to them. So kindly consider these factors while visiting the places.

My last visit to Pasta Bar Veneto was way before my blog happened and my source for new joints in Chennai was Mr.Chennai Foodie. I had visited their Egmore outlet and the food save the Mud Pie was a total disappointment. But this visit to Pasta Bar Veneto, T-Nagar as a part of CFG Showcase was a class apart. I think it is enough of me doing small talk and get down to the food.



The Veggies started their innings with Bruschetta topped of with diced tomato and cheese. It was crispy and fresh. There was another Bruschetta for the veggies topped with Mushroom and loaded to the brim with cheese. This was one cheesy delight


Next up, it was a round for the non-veggies. We were served with Panko Fried Chicken Wings. I have always loved Panko fried stuff and this too did not disappoint me. So far all the dishes were fabulous. No disappoints unlike my previous visit.




Next up came the Chicken Sausages in Spicy Masala. Seemed a little Indianized. I am not a big fan of Sausages, but this one was awesome. It was well marinated and was juicy with none of the side effects of cold storage. The next round went for the veggies. They had a Cheese Fritters. Cheese at its best.


Guess an Italian restaurant cannot be Italian without serving the Pizza. Please do not compare these with the one you get at Tuscana. But these were great in their own right. We were served two veg and two non-veg pizzas. I personally like the veg pizzas. They seemed to have the right balance between the juiciness and cheesiness. The non-veg pizzas were a little overloaded. At this point we were all beginning to feel a little stuffed.


Out came the Lasagnas! With two veg and two non-veg. Non-veggies had Roasted Chicken Lasagna and a Fish Lasagna. My personal fav was the Roasted Chicken. It brought back memories of dining at Red-E. At this point I was so stuffed I could eat no further.




Just when I started thinking I had, had enough of food, we were served with Grilled Chicken and Grilled Fish. Both Seemed to have the same marinate in them. I took a bite into the fish while it was fresh out of the kitchen. This turned out to be a serious mistake, it burnt my tongue. The marinade did not seem to suite the fish well, while the chicken was better. The grilled chicken and fish were served along with some freshly cut veggies and a piece of bread.




My previous visit to the Pasta Bar Veneto ended with me liking just the desserts.  So I had huge expectations on the desserts. We had Tiramisu, Mud Pie and Chocolate Mousse. Off the lot, I loved the Mud Pie and the Chocolate Mousse. Tiramisu had something a miss. All in all the entire meal was a killer and the meal wiped clean of my memory my previous experience.

Ambiance:
The T-Nagar outlet was swanky looking and in my opinion was way better in ambiance than the Egmore outlet ( one I had visited some time before ).

Price:
A dish here is priced around Rs 200 and thereabouts. A meal for two would roughly cost around Rs 1000/-.

Pasta Bar Veneto is located on Burkit Road. I used the GPS to head here so cant give you any landmarks. They do have outlets in Egmore and Anna Nagar.

Crab meat cakes were brilliant. One of the friends at the table with me, had never tasted crab meat before. So this was like wow to him!


The Yera Milagai was rich and flavorful. It vanished off the table in no time. I loved the crispy tail portion of the prawn.


Chilly Cheese Chicken Tikka was at its usual best, with loads of cheese infused into it.


Mutton Kaima Vada was not to my liking nor to the liking of people present at my table. It was hard and the flavors did not seem to gel with the flavors of other dishes.



After having some delicious starters we dug into our main course. I had ordered Chettiars Kozhi Curry to go with the Smoked Chicken Rice and Kozhi Stew to go with Appams. Since we felt it would be lacking, if we missed out on a fish dish, we chose Fried Fillets of Kingfish Maltaise. Kozhi Stew was rich in coconut milk and filled to the brim with pieces of chicken. The appam with Kozhi Stew was lip smacking. If you are a fan of appam, you must try this out. Smoked Chicken Rice was rich with flavors. It felt like a sister of biryani. The combo of Smoked Rice and Chettiars Kozhi Curry was deadly. Chettiars Kozhi Curry was similar in taste to a gravy that would be served at a Chettiar's home.  Finally I took a piece of Fried Fillets of Kingfish Maltaise. This was a beer batter fried fish full of continental flavors. Lovely dish with deep aroma. Our bellies were so full that we decided to skip the desert.

The meal for 3 cost us Rs 3200/-. We were not in the position to finish the dishes which we had ordered. So we decided to carry them home. The portions here are pretty large. So I would advice you to order accordingly. The ambiance at the Gandhi Nagar branch is better than the KNK Road branch. It has an old colonial house feel to it.

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

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

I have loved the food at Crimson Chakra in its original joint at Adyar. The food always reminded me of food very close to home cooked South Indian Food. The food always had a special corner in my heart whether it is their South Indian Food or their Cornucopia Menu with the rich Mediterranean food. I have also admired the ambiance there. Crimson Chakra at Adyar had eluded my camera and my blog, since it is far away from where I live. Now that it has opened closer to my home, has brought me great joy. I was at the new Crimson Chakra at KNK road for a CFG meet. The new branch has come at the place which housed Casa Picalo in Khader Nawaz Khan Road.

Getting a preview ticket for a Rajni film is awesome. Attending a preview dinner of an about to be opened restaurant is double awesome, especially if its by the "Chocolate Dude" Sandesh Reddy of Sandy's. The restauranteur had organized a four course meal for the people of Chennai Food Guide ( CFG ) priced at Rs1000/-. Who would say no, to a four course meal preview, at rock bottom prices. So fifteen of us from CFG were present at the lovely, soon to be opened joint, Fresca Pizzaria at Khader Nawaz Khan Road.

Sandesh being a very good host, welcomed us all with a lot of warmth. He explained to us the various courses of the meal. Sandesh also enlightened us about the different types of cheeses, pasta and the pizza breads. He also explained the difference between the Neapolitan cuisine and Italian cuisine. From the way he explained the various things which constituted the meal, we could understand the labour of love and the amount of craftsmanship which had gone into making such a wonderful meal. He himself has had a month of testing of the pizza and pastas. I think thats enough prelude yapping.

Just to get our appetites revved up, we were served with a Veg- bruschetta. The bruschetta looked different from the traditional thick bread slice. It was more like an oval pizza. It had thinly grated cheese  with basil on it. This was definitely a different take on the regular bruschetta. The consistency of the bread was crisp and it tasted yumm!!. After to the lovely bruschetta, just to get a palate teased, we were served with smoked gorgonzola cheese with poached pear ( Thanks Aati ). When the dish was brought to the table, it was closed with a lid and once the lid was  lifted open, it gave off  an aromatic charred smoke smell. The taste of cheese and litchi was like entering a different level of nirvana. The combination was simply awesome.

After taking us to different levels of nirvana with the cheese, we were served with the starters. We chose different starters,  and so we could try them all. I selected Ajo Blanco. This is a cold soup made of almonds, stewed green grapes and gastrique. This is the first time I am having a cold soup, all previous attempts have been me consuming a hot soup after it had cooled down. Taste of the soup was fantastic. One sip will transport you to an entirely a different dimension. After the brilliant cold soup, I took a bite of the Carpaccio. This is a dish which has very, very thinly sliced beef, rocket, mustard mango and parmesan. The taste of the dish was exquisite. The mixture of basil leaves with the beef and cheese made it mouth watering. My taste buds were on an overdrive because these were some of the tastiest dishes I have ever had. I took a bit of the Stewed Figs with Boccancini and Roasted Zucchini. It tasted delicious as well. I just couldn't believe that I had, had just course one and with more to come.

Course Two, begins here.
After those lip smacking dishes in course one, we moved on to course two. I chose to go with Smoked Chicken Agnolotti, while the others chose the other options available, so we got to try them all out. The Agnolotti had Tomato, Basil and Parmesan along with the chicken. Agnolotti is a type of ravioli pasta, this dish was heavenly, with the chicken stuffed inside the pasta. The exact way to describe it, would be a Momo kind of feeling. The tomatoes were lush and juicy. Then I took a small portion of the Fromaggio Ravioli. This ravioli was made of three different varieties of cheese and Wine Butter and Pickled vegetables. This dish was an absolute gastronomical delight. After this I sampled Spinach Gnocchi, with butter milk and gorgonzola. This dish was flavorsome, with the spinach giving it a nice punch.

Course Three, over here.
The course three was the round of the pizzas. My God! these pizzas were delicious. I could see people going gaga over the pizzas. Some reactions really showed the inner child in them. There were two pork pizzas ( Spech & Bocamccini and also Pepperoni) which i avoided. I gorged over the Grilled Chicken, Quattro Fromaggi ( Quattro does not mean the 4x4 system by Audi ) , Pesto & Artichoke and Margherita. The Quattro Fromaggi is an 4 cheese pizza. This pizza was shouting "EAT ME". People who love cheese, will love it, unless you are lactose intolerant. This pizza was really rich and tasty. You could differentiate the different cheeses which imparted flavor to it. The Margherita pizza too tasted great, the tomato sauce was full flavored, with a good balance between sour and sweet. I tried a bit of the Pesto and Artichoke pizza, the pesto sauce complemented the artichoke, making it scrumptious. Finally the Pizza which I loved, the most Grilled Chicken Pizza. This pizza had the most tender and properly grilled chicken, that I have ever tasted. It had me going Bonkers!.

After the three courses, we had small palate cleanser. An Apple Sorbet with lime juice. The lime augmented the apple really well.

Course four,
I picked the Tiramisu. while some others picked the Bocha Negra. The Tiramisu was marvelous with mascarpone being sweet as a nectar. The ladyfinger cake were soaked in rum. Me, being a teetotaller found it hard to have the rum soaked cake, alone. But along with the cream it tasted great. The Bocha Negra was a gooey triple dark chocolate fudge, with a Bean Vanilla Ice cream. This tasted very much like a Lava Cake of Dominos. But it was easily 10 times better than it.

By the time we were done with all the eating, it was 11:15pm. When we left, we certified that the food rocked. Hats off to Sandesh Reddy for giving us an awesome evening. Fresca definitely holds a lot of promise. Wish Sandesh and his team the best. Fresca Pizzaria will be opening to public by the end of this month. And I would love to visit it with my family and friends.

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

If Sandesh prices the food the way he says he would, a meal for two should cost about Rs 1000 to 1200/-, depending on what you order.

Fresca Pizzaria is located in Khader Nawaz Khan Road, in the basement of Cascade restaurant building.

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