Tandoor Express, Spencer's Plaza, Chennai

If you are in the craving for a fast and good roti's, and if you can pardon the ambiance and the service, then Tandoor Express in the food court at Spencer Plaza Phase I is worth a visit. Since my office is in the building, i do have the luxury of strolling around and deciding on a place to eat. Tandoor Express was a chance stop, two days back.

I stopped at their counter, in the rather unseemingly crowded and noisy foodcourt, since i was a little tired of my first option. I noticed a combo, for two stuff parathas and lassi. Wow, my mouth watered. Since the stuff parathas options included, aloo, egg, kheema, gopi, mooli, and panneer. But i was craving for lassi more than anything. I dont think i have had a good lassi in chennai recently (last good one came from Yaadgar near New College in Royapettah, now closed down, so thats a good 10-20 years). But, my luck, that day, they had a problem with lassi and so i walked away. As luck would have it, i was at the store again the next day. And this time, i was in for luck with lassi.

So here it was a combo of two parathas and lassi. I chose egg and aloo paratha. Short wait, brought me two hot parathas, a paper cup of lassi, some dahi and a pickle. Talk about disappointment. The lassi cup was small and the lassi was between good to mediocre. They also served a little dahi (curd) on the side. Little means little, i think the measure it out by the teaspoon, as in one teaspoon per paratha. So that meant i got two. The pickle was even strange. It was one piece of mango, as in about 4x5x8cms, no evidence of the usual gravy, it could very well have been on the plate as left behind from the previous customer. But they were kind enough to fetch me a little bit more of the pickle. The waiter took pity on seeing my plate, or maybe it was guilt. So they bought about 2 more of such similar stuff, but this time with a tad bit more gravy. Gosh, talk about being stingy. The day before it was lassi, maybe now they ran out of pickles, and they were scrapping the bottom of the bottle.

But the parathas were good. Closed to heavenly, i must say. Atleast the anda (egg) paratha. It was hot and burnt my tongue and mouth, which i am still suffering from today, ie a day later. I quickly worked my way through one half of the egg and aloo using any evidence of dahi and pickles. When they were all gone, i tried to flag the attention of the waiter for more, and also ordered an extra glass of lassi. However, i had no patience to wait. Soon they my plate was almost getting clean. And my cup was running dry. At no time, were there any evidence that my additional order had been placed and anything was going to come to my table.

So, if you can pardon the waiters, the crowd and the noise, but feeling like having some good parathas during lunch time, here is a place. But then what are the chances?

Basera, ECR Road, Chennai

This was long due, well atleast was more due, since i knew it was owned by my classmate from school. I had noticed this many times, but we were always in a hurry to get somewhere, Mahabs, Mayajal, Pondi, etc. And since it is located on left side of the road, when driving away from the city, it is not easy to stop by, when you are returning from your destination, to pick this out as a place to eat.
But that was before. Now that i have been there, tasted the food and service, i think i am ready for more. Even i as was turning into the restaurant entrance, i wasnt sure if this belonged to my friend or not. But the small writing on the entrance of the name of the company gave it away.

First things first, nice parking. Any decent restaurant must provide some amount of parking for its patrons. While this is difficult to expect inside the city, it is a must outside. Well there is plenty of parking and neatly laid out too. As we turned the corner inside the parking lot, the children squealed in delight on seeing the small playground. To my disappointment they were now planning to immly run into the playground. It was as life saver, considering that food always takes time to be delivered to your table.

They have multiple options in seating. You can be seated in the open, under a tree on wooden tree trunks for a table and stool, or you can opt the traditional indoor air-conditioned seating, or for the more adventurous, you can climb up to the room on stilts. We opted for the third, as we didnt want to loose out on the pleasant and breezy outdoor, but also didnt want to be dodging the sun, as it played hide and seek between the thick clump of trees and shrubs. Thats the other part, the number of trees, shrubs, plants and other stuff they have taken time and attention to grow and groom.

The main attraction was the food itself. It was good to great. We started with Chicken sheek kabab and Chicken Tikka kabab, both were well done and marinated. Its not one of my great favs but i do pop a piece of it every now and then. And this was good too. Basera, too had different cuisines to offer typical of most places in Chennai, it had the regular north-indian punjabi, chinese, continental and a small offering of south-indian too. We stuck with punjabi, since i was in the mood for bread (naan and roti). So quickly we ordered Butter Naan, Pudina Paratha and Aloo paratha, along with Daal Makhani and Dahi. An order of chicken biriyani completed the lunch order.

The butter naan was on the of flakiest and softest ever. The pudina paratha was soft and crisp too, meaning, it had a nice crisp exterior and a soft chewy inner layer. The aloo paratha was a little disappointing, but then i have never really eaten a good aloo paratha for a long long time. The chicken biriyani was tame, nothing to rave or complain about. But the Daal Makhani, is something to write about, was nice, creamy and flavourful. I have seen so many perversions of this dish that should be pretty easy to cook, that its not unusual to get disappointed. But this was just perfect Daal Makhani ever, there are a few other places i have eaten that dish out such good one.

Before i close out, i must also write about the dahi (yoghurt). Altho' it was not a perfect solid version, which would have been more pleasing to the eye, its the taste that matters at the end. Yoghurt taste can vary based on the culture or base used to develop the yoghurt. Well that is science, what mattered was, the dahi here again didnt disappoint me. Another basic item that restaurant ignore or are casual about, but an important part of the indian meal, that a small screw-up here, can ruin the entire appetite.

When everything but the chicken biriyani had been completely cleaned out. We ordered for Gulab Jamun, one order with ice cream. The Jamun appeared made from scratch, and so seemed a lil unshapely, but that also caused it to taste great, unlike coming from a box or factory like setting. And add ice cream to the syrup to get the one of the best dessert ever.