Greek cuisine is a mediterranean cuisine, sharing characteristics of the cuisines of Italy and Turkey. When Cheese, Olive Oil, Breads, Eggplant and Yogurt combine together to produce fusion food, it is bound to be good. I was at Kryptos by Willi, for the formal unveiling of the bi-lingual menu of the restaurant. At first I thought it was going to be English and some Greek letters on the menu, but it was surprise to see Tamil subtitles in the menu. This was the first time I have came across a menu which had description of the food in Tamil. It was really interesting and funny to read the description in Tamil, as I had forgotten how to read Tamil. I must say it is a very brave move by the management to add Tamil to the menu. Kudos to the management for this decision.

Coming to the food, I had left the Vegetarian dishes alone, for the veggies to judge them. To start the proceedings there were varieties of dips with pita bread. My favorite was clearly Hummus. My love for hummus has been on the rise and this day was no exception. We were served either Ice Tea or Tangy orange drink. I stuck to Ice Tea  It was nice and soothing to the throat. Non-Vegetarian and Vegetarian Meze Platter were served on the table. The Non-Vegetarian Meze Platter comprised of Lamb and Aubergine rolls, Kotopoulopithakia and Crispy fried lady finger fish. The fish looked nice and golden brown. I took a bite expecting it to cooked right through with the bones being crispy. But to my surprise the bones were not crispy and that brought down the experience. The lamb rolls were juicy and delicious. Kotopoulopithakia is chicken apricot and feta. This was my favorite in the platter. It tasted heavenly, it had a nice phyllo pastry covering, which made it crispy. Think of it as a small and expensive looking puff. All in all the platter was very decent.

After the Mezze Platter, we were served with different variations of Potato. There were Wedges, Mash and Potato with sour cream. I selected the wedges, which were very crispy even after I was done clicking. There were also decent amount of salads. Of all the vegetable salads I distinctly remember the brilliant veg.club sandwich, I just loved it. There was also a cheese ball which tasted divine. I gave the other salads a pass.

We had some mouth watering choices for the main course. Kotopoulo me pilafi, is chicken breasts roasted with garlic and mint. The taste was luscious and I enjoyed having it. They also had Kolios sto fourno ( I am not using any bad language here ) which is an oven baked mackerel. I was expecting really big things from this dish, but it was a little disappointing, when I consumed it. The fish felt it was under cooked. It was chewy and rubbery, also difficult to pierce with a fork. The highlight main course was the Meatballs in tomato sauce. This dish was a gastronomical delight. It had nice soothing sweet trace. I am pretty sure I consumed atleast 3-4 meatballs. There was a garlic rice which I avoided. I washed this sumptuous meal with a Coke. The can was made to commemorate Sachin's 100 centuries.

After the lip smacking food, we had the deserts. The Chocolate pie was top-notch. It was moist with good amount of chocolate flowing when I tried to cut it with a spoon. If you are a choco freak, you would love it. There was also a Baklava, which was sticky with loads of honey drizzled on it. It tasted nice, but I have had better and even richer versions from the middle east made of Camel milk.

The ambiance is really wonderful with nice music playing in the background. They a big 20 seat table in the middle of the restaurant which can be used if you come in as large group. The place had a nice rock and granite decor which gave it a rustic feel.

A meal for would set you back by Rs 1600/-. If you love greek food or if you are in the mood for something different give Kryptos a try. I am sure you would return home impressed.

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

Krytos is located in Khader Nawaz Khan road, right opposite the old Mocha.

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With the Sun scorching and temperatures reaching 41 degrees, Ice Creams call to you to beat the heat.

So I set out with a friend on a hot summers day for some tasty treats. We headed to KNK Road and evaluated are options. We finally settled on Cream & Fudge. Its a fairly small and narrow place with a good ambiance. They have this wonderful cold stone concept where they mix the ice creams, fruits, sauces and the nuts before serving. Since the stone is cold the ice cream does not melt. As you walk into the place you get to see the ice creams and waffles which are displayed. After a brief period of seeing and decision making, I picked Strawberry Shortcake and the friend chose What's Up Berry?. The cashier informed us that due to non availability of Vanilla Sponge Cake, he would replace it with brownie in the strawberry shortcake. There was an assortment of waffle bowls and cones. We settled on Waffle bowl coated with Chocolate sauce. We selected the medium size bowl.

After a few minutes of waiting, the ice creams were given to us at our table. The strawberry shortcake had a gooey brownie topped with the caramel sauce and strawberry ice cream. Strawberry flavor was kind of subdued by the presence of brownie and the caramel sauce. The 'what's up berry' was totally on the other end of the spectrum. It had bread crumbs with banana and chocolate chips. It tasted like Belose or Unni appam a regional sweet dish. The banana was too strong and left us wondering where did the strawberry go. It was really sweet as well.

The two ice creams put us back by Rs 460/-. Which is really expensive for the quality of ice cream and also the ambiance they give. Will I go back again?, NO!!.

Food - 6/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Price - 6/10

Cream & Fudge is located on Khader Nawaz Khan Road next to the Cafe Coffee Day Lounge.

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Lamb Sausages in Phyllo Pastry

Olives, Olives, Olives...

Fried Ravioli with cheese

Mushroom Corn something

Pizzaa!!!!

Moree Pizzaaa!!!

Eclairs

Strawberry Eclairs

If someone asks me to suggest a good pizza joint in Chennai, I would name, only one place, and that would be Tuscana!!. Pizza and Tuscana have become synonyms with one another. Since I am a Chennaite, the only place I like to go to for pizza is Tuscana. There is just one word to explain the culinary masterpieces which are produced here, 'Awesome'.  And lucky me was invited to Tuscana on Chamiers Road for their first year celebrations.

As I usually frequent the KNK (Khader Nawaz Khan ) Road Tuscana, this was my first visit to the Tuscana on Chamiers Road. I was impressed by the amount of parking space available at this premises, as the one on KNK suffers in this area. The ambiance was very much similar to the KNK premises. There was a live band to keep the guests entertained.

The evening proceedings started off with a range of fruit juices and soft drinks. There was an array of starters, which were making the rounds. I did not let any of the starters pass me, without my trying them. Of all the starters which were present, I loved the Chicken Liver with Caramelized Onions. It was a delight. The way the liver was made into a paste and applied on the bruschetta with the caramelized onions was slurp!!. The fried ravioli with cheese was another stunner of the day, it was quite simply brilliant. Lamb sausages inside the phyllo pastry tasted nice as well. There was also a basket of cheese crackers and bread sticks which could be consumed along with Hummus, which had Nishant running towards it, more often than others.

Apart from the delicious starters there were some mouth watering pizzas which were also being served. I sampled of some of the pizzas. They were all uniformly good. Though I am not able to recollect the names of all of them, as usual the pizzas rocked.

There were some divine eclairs and tarts. I personally loved the Strawberry Eclair, some others felt it was a little over powering and preferred the chocolate eclair.

There were some difficulties faced while clicking the pictures as the food items were held by the waiters and I ended up having many pictures which were blurred.

Some scenes from the party.

Ali with Vipin

Balloons!!

Karuna , Nishant, Ali and Chef Senthil ( Left to Right )

Nishant stuffing himself

Dude who rocked the show

Guests at the Party!!

Nishant and Willi

Pizzaa!!

Cheesee!!

Pizza making

The celebration was really nice, with loads of A-listers and their friends. Loved being part of the celebration.

Since this is a party I will not be rating it.

Finally a big Congratulations to Mr.Vipin and Mr.Willi for this awesome place.

Tuscana by Willi on Chamiers Road is located diagonally opposite to Hotel Park Sheraton.

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I have been on a quest to find some tasty lip smacking burgers. This hunt has led me to various places, trying out various types of burgers from the street stalls to some big restaurants and also venturing into making my own burger. I had heard from Mr. Chennai Foodie, that Sandys had introduced burgers,  and that kindled my interest to try them out.

I headed a little late in the evening with a friend, who had just eaten his lunch at the Subway. So we decided to walk around Kadher Nawaz Khan Road for a bit, to get our appetite up. After a couple rounds loitering around, we headed into Sandys thirsty and hungry.

My friend got himself a watermelon juice which tasted like watermelon juice. You really cant expect a mango taste in a watermelon juice ( LOL ) . I got myself Virgin Mary mocktail, it tasted like spicy tomato, salt and pepper concoction. I seriously hope Bloody Mary is better than this. Maybe I should stick to ordering the things I know.

Now coming to the burger bit,  I had a Chicken Red Curry Burger. There is a Cheese Burger which is made of Beef but I did not pick that, as it had bacon in it. Coming back to my burger, it was a nice big burger with good amount potato wedges. The potato wedges remained nice and crispy even after I was done clicking it patiently. The burger itself was mouth-watering, with a  nice mustard hit to it. I made a mess, by spilling it on the table. My friend had a Chicken Shawarma. This was simply delicious, with loads of meat and again the same crispy potato wedges.

Lesson learnt from this meal was that,  I should never have burger, when I am out to impress someone as I am bound to make a mess of it. The meal set us back by Rs 870/-. But kudos to Sandys for making Burger and Shawarma every bit a gourmet food.

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

Sandys is located in Wallers Garden Road, opposite to Harley Davidson Showroom. They have another branch at C.P. Ramasamy Road.

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Summer is here. Its becoming increasingly HOT in the city, with the absence of rain showers. Its very important that we partake of  cool items to beat the heat.  Chennai seems to have become a hub for new eateries, which keep opening every week. This was one such place, which was opened about a month ago, with loads of promotion on FB.

Amadora tells you to be ready for the expensive ice cream experience even before you enter the place by tossing in a word called gourmet in the name. So I was prepared for some pretty expensive experience. We were allowed to sample some of the flavors which were arrayed before us.

I settled in on Madras Filter Kappi flavor. It was heavenly. It had a very very very ( I dunno how many Verys to put here ) rich and aromatic taste. It reminded me of Filter Kaappi at Saravana Bhavan. My friend had picked 5 Bean Vanilla and it was rich and pleasant too. The consistency of the ice creams are very thick and a single scoop is quite large. We ignored the waffles to try them out, another time. Definitely one of the best ice creams I have ever had.

A scoop of ice cream costs Rs 170/-. Ice Creams are made fresh in house, they have a waffle bowl and also a waffle cone. Yummmy!!!

Food - 9/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Price - 8/10

Amadora is located exactly behind Simply Sofas, in the road opposite to Tuscana at KNK Road.

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