Malgudi, Savera Hotel, Royapettah, Chennai

Malgudi is one of the restaurants within Savera Hotel. I dont recall, when i first visited this place, or when they actually carved out or created this restaurant inside. But, i have been here many times and pretty impressed with their food selection. Malgudi is a smaller and lesser expensive version of Dakshin (located within the Park Sheraton). Malgudi offers a collection of vegetarian and non-veg food delicacies from south india. If you open the menu, you can choose from food from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The best bet is the thali, again you can chose from veg/non-veg. This gives you a quick tour of the food from these places. But if you want to pick and choose and soothe a specific hunger or taste, then feel free to flip through the menu and take a leap. The non-veg dishes compare decently to the restaurants that specialize in one cuisine. Most of the time, i have chosen the thali, many times the non-veg, and few times the veg. Their dosa and appam that comes with this thali is recommended. And you can eat as much as you want. The only problem with the thali format is that, you are served dishes in a particular order. You must specifically request them to bring dishes out of order.

They give you some free starters, vadams with different chutneys. But then you will really have to be on a strict diet, to pass up on the soft mangalore bondas. They also have a selection of delicacies that are more the home cooked variety than usually available in restaurants. Trust me, i could give you a list, but a visit is much better experience.

Their service could improve. They try, but at times, a lot of people are around, but not necessarily paying enough attention. This is true of most hotels and restaurants in Chennai and India.

To add to the experience they also have a 'killi jotsyam' and/or 'kai jotsyam'. So, if you miss these interesting diversions and fortune tellers of yesteryear, you can experience it here at Malgudi. Now it would have been complete, if they also had the 'boom boom maadu'.

Kumarakom, Gandhi Nagar, Adyar, Chennai

This is only one of the many Kumarakom restaurants in chennai. The others that i know of are located in Shanti Colony, Annanagar and the first one that started it all is at Nungambakkam, near Palm Grove hotel. The main usp of this place is kerala style food, hence the name to show the link to the now famous backwater resort in kerala.

I have eaten from this place a lot. More often delivered to my home, than actually eating at the restaurant itself. The nice part of eating at the restaurant, apart from the food, is the music. There is a karaoke machine, and the people sing along, mainly malayalam songs, but also a few other songs. I have seen one person very regular, maybe the owner. He has decent voice, but the whole experience can be soothing when you are enjoying the food, or very irritating when you are hungry waiting for your food.

My favorite is Karimeen Pollichathu. I really never ate this fish before. But this is a constant order at home and so an acquired taste. But what i really like is the masala. The chilli paste that is rubbed all over the fish. That really sets the flavour for this dish. You can get the same if you order their regular meen fry too.

The other main attraction is the rice, the kerala style boiled rice. I have huge craving for this 'motta-motta chor', or rather the full blooded rice. One look and you would think that this rice will fill you up sooner than eating the regular thin grain variety. But you would be surprised. Kumarakom also serves kerala style parotta. At the restaurant you cannot go wrong by ordering the regular meals, which comes with pappadam, kachiya mullaga and moru. I have tried the drier varieties of chicken, but i am sure they are probably not as great as the beef ulathiyathu etc.

All in all, it is fine food. The service as always falls short, but its nothing to complain about. Its a small restaurant, and so the wait can be long depending on the time you land-up. I, luckily havent had to wait long at all. Most times we are either early for lunch or late, so we miss the peak time.

Kalpaka, Royapettah, Chennai, India

Name: Kalpaka
Address: Royapettah
Location: Chennai (madras), India

Its been years since i have gone here. Actually not true, me and wife had picked up food recently from the place. But life after a visit and life in the US, has surely affected our ability to dine in restaurants where the food is great but the ambience not. In the case Kalpaka, the food is great, the place is decent, the area were you wash your hands (or bathroom) is the weakest link. And thats not true only of Kalpaka, its true of virtually any restaurant in Chennai, except the ones in a hotel or maybe the high class ones.

Before i spent too much about the 'nothing', let me simply start by saying the food is great. Starting with the free 'kachiya-mora' and achaar on the table during lunch time. Sit in the air-conditioned room, and order your stuff, and be ready to forget all those warnings of health and diet before you read the menu. Because this is not for the faint-hearted, nice beef curry and fish curry etc, is for the one ready to battle it out.

The restaurant like the other two i have written about so far, has limited access and parking. It, altho', is located in a very easy to find intersection, within walking distance of the Music Academy. The days when we used to frequent this place, it had more parking of the kind we wanted then (bike), and it still does allow bikes to be parked in nearby lanes. The view from the road is almost hidden, and you could easily miss this place, if you didnt know where to look and what to look for. A small steep stairway, i guess typical of homes in kerala, leads to this food place, that serves up hot malayali dishes, right in the heart of madras.

And my favourite about kerala food is the rice. Nalla goondu goondu ari (nice fat and thick rice). But it seems that no matter how much eat this rice, it doesnt fill you up. I am sure it is just a perception, but who wants to argue. Food would have been even better for me if it came served on a banana leaf, but here it is served on a nice clean and white porcelain plate.

So, briyani, fish fry, chicken kerala style, mallu parotta are all my favourite. I dont eat beef, but the options are real mouth watering. I wish the cook would be brave enough to cook up chicken the same way she/he does beef. Everything on the side plate is all kerala style too, papadam, moru-ozhicha kuttan, avial and manga-pickle, etc. Fast service, at least, the best i remember, but may also be because, i have always been here only during weekday lunch time. And in-expensive, at the end of the day. Me and wife used to frequent this place during our working days. How else to get home cooked food, when both of us were working ?

Here is a review of the place from The Hindu.