Vrindavan, New Woodlands, Chennai

This is not new, its been there for ages. This is one of the restaurants inside the New Woodlands Hotel, on Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai. This is their attempt to 'up the scale', i guess more on the monetary side, than on the service side. The restaurant is a multi-cusine vegetarian restaurant, and is also 'Jain food' friendly. I have been to this hotel a million times, but 99 times of a hundred it is to the faster 'south indian restaurant' now called Krishna Restaurant. The visit to the Vrindavan side is only when there are special 'guests' in the party, or if the other side is packed.

Food is not a problem here. It was never a problem with this or the other restaurant in New Woodlands. In fact, the name 'woodlands' has become quite generic, and i have not been disappointed visiting one of these copies or originals or branches (i dont think they are branches, but more like within the family or something like that !!, i dont know and so no judgement regarding that). It appears that if you name something woodlands, the food is decent to good.

The service on the other side is somewhere between indifferent to decent. It appears to be a common trait with all restaurants in India. It is difficult to get good quality service. This place wasnt so bad, but, i am sure there is scope to improve. We ordered Idly, Dosa (couple of different varities) and then later coffee. Well, if you go to a Woodlands, get the Idly and Dosa, not the noodles and roti/naan etc. Straying from this mantra is asking for unnecessary trouble. Not that it will suck, but hey, if you wanted roti/naan, go to a dabha. Yeah, except its difficult to find a vegetarian dabha.

I am sure they share kitchens at this hotel, because i couldnt find any spectacular difference in taste. They all tasted just as good. One thing that stands out, and caught my fancy, while sitting and eating, is the decor. There are some beautiful painting or pictures, primarily based on Krishna, but also mainly keeping with the theme of Vrindavan. I snapped the picture on the right, a long while ago using a camera phone. The reddish tinge, was because of the limited lighting inside.

One other comment about the Woodlands place, is the bathrooms. It is common to all the restaurants, and it is kept quite clean. There is a guy also standing there, watching like a hawk for split water etc., and cleaning it up fast and regularly. For that purpose alone, it is worth repeat visits. While this is great, the parking can be crazy when the marriage halls are full. So good to avoid the place when the marriage season is in full swing.