Durga Park, AMS Raj Palace Sundar, Adyar

A last minute decision on sunday evening, caused us to get in the car, and drive to a restaurant for dinner. The day was almost over, getting ready for monday played on our minds, to pick a restaurant close by, but to avoid boredom, it had to be something new preferably. The choice was Kokum, which i had just located inside MRC Nagar that morning or the new Raj Palace Sundar. A quick left turn after crossing the Adyar bridge, brought us inside the erstwhile Andhra Mahila Sabha location, which is now the home for this hotel and its restaurant.

There is only restaurant, Durga Park, and is located in separate building. This was an old building tastefully converted into a restaurant. We entered into a small hall about 10x10, to be greeted by no one, but were able to see a buffet laid out to the left. A lot of men dressed in dark suits (mostly black or blue blazers) were standing in line, leading us to believe that maybe some party or marriage had taken over the place. Soon one of the waiters came up to us and directed us to another room to right, which we had seen earlier, but avoided because it looked like a hastily converted dining area. The table and chairs were not the usual restaurant chairs, but more like the marriage hall types. When questioned he indicated that the restaurant was booked. Ok. My question at this point should have been, why keep it open at all? Why not indicate that today it is closed to casual diners?

Well, not to make a big fuzz, we sat a table in the corner of the room. There were already another family seated at a larger table, with room for one more large family of about 6. Our table of four, seemed placed rather oddly in a corner, but was ok to seat children and two adults. He brought us a buffet menu, priced at Rs. 300 for an adult and 150 for a child, it seemed fair. But we were not in a mood for buffet. We were looking for just a couple of dishes to close out the night. He indicated al-a-carte menu also was available, and brought us the menus, he did bring one menu each (i guess since the rest of the crowd was not using the menu). The buffet, by the way, is regular for weekend dinners. The non-veg buffet, had only 3 non-veg dishes, one each for mutton, chicken and fish. I think based on your preference and liking, the chances of a win-win on the buffet is only 50-50 or less.

The menu was fully of all kinds of cuisine, southern, chinese, tandoor, punjabi etc, all fitted into about 4 pages. I was wondering why a restaurant which supposedly located in AMS would have any cuisine other than Andhra style. I reasoned that the guests at the hotel would probably want more options, and hence the only restaurant offered a mish-mash of everything. I tried specifically to stay away from chinese and north-indian. There are better restaurants for these kind of food.

We quickly ordered a starter chicken chat (i forget the exact title) and pappad, and the main course was kozhi varthathu (chettinad style), meen kozhambu, chicken biryani, pulkha, roti and some curd. The pappad (masala) was on the house. All of this cost us only about Rs. 500, inclusive of bottled water. Well the food arrived rather quickly. I found that a little strange, but who is to argue, and since we were hungry and tired, it was heaven sent. But the reason was apparent soon, the kozhi varthathu and meen kozhambu were based of the same gravy, same taste, same spice, well like i said 'same' gravy. It was good, no complaints there. The biryani was average, and no different from very many chicken biryanis available elsewhere. The roti and pulkha were pretty pathetic, not from a taste perspective, but from shape, form and style of cooking. You would think they would be dry and devoid of oil, well these seemed to be soft (more from wetness of oil or humidity). All in all the meal was not bad, but a big disappointment based on the expectation to eat Andhra sytle food.

When the food from the main course arrived, i asked the waiter about the starter. He said there was nothing on his list. Looking at the food in front of us, i figured this was more than enough, and said fine. As we began eating and made about 1/4th our way into the meal, a chappy came with our starter. I said thanks, but we are already eating our meal, so no thanks, and please take it away. Smart fella, he goes back and arrives about 4-5 minutes later with a small boxed meal indicating our starter was packed. I wanted to smile at his cheeky attitude or his manager disposition. But i said, boss, we are not going to take it, please cancel and take it back. Well, no major shakes, they didnt make a fuzz after this or about this. But we did get a visit from a 'manager' or someone who apparently seemed to have just worn his jacket to visit our dining area. I dont think he was visiting us on accord of this dispute, but must have suddenly realized that we and now two other guests in this room must be missing his warmth. He strode in adjusting and buttoning his jacket, and asked if everything was fine, and soon walked away, never to be seen again.


At two points during the visit, i was considering leaving this place, the first was when they had indicated the main dining area was booked, and the second was when we saw the menu devoid of any andhra specialty. I was seriously considering going to Kokum. In some sense it was good that i stayed on. We may have been tempted to visit this place at a later date, but now, i doubt if we will go back to this place, considering it doesnt have anything unique to offer. A few points to its credit, the place was new, and so had a very clean and fresh smelling bathroom (something that is rare even in larger and better restaurants). The waiters were not discourteous and tried their best to accommodate visitors and our wishes. The food was just better than average, but it may also be based on our choice of dishes. They are also priced modestly. However, i am disposed to not visiting the place, since my expectation was that this restaurant would offer a specific cuisine or atleast specialize in the andhra cuisine. This is a restaurant meant mainly to cater to the guests at the hotel.

Zameendar, Shanthi Colony, Anna Nagar, Chennai

Shanthi Colony, today, bears no resembleance of how it existed 2 decades ago, or even about 10 years ago. And Zameendar restaurant, bang on the main road, built on what used to be HIG flats is only a reflection of the same. I had first heard about this from an office colleague, but didnt get a chance to stop and try until recently. I had passed the place a while back and for some reason the signs outside didnt seem very appealing.

I visited Zameendar last saturday, for a late lunch. It must have been a little after 2. We were greeted by friendly people and seated quickly without a fuss. After some carefull consideration of the state of the stomach and the many different options provided by the menu, the quickest and fastest bet seemed the meals. We ordered meals and few dishes to actually make it a non-vegeterian fare. The meals arrived promptly as expected, may be a tad-bit slow for our growling stomach. Of course while waiting we had all the time to chow down on the vadams that were placed in front of us. They even replaced the dish continously through out the meal.

After 2 rounds of vadams, thali plate covered with a banana leaf and nice small 'katori' of sides including sambar, rasam etc, arrived. The friendly waiters were quick to notice that food was drying up on the plate, be it the chappatis served at the start or the rice served subsequently. There were just enough of them to look after the tables under their domain and were effecient and friendly, a nice welcoming change from a lot of restaurants. When we were stuffed with all the food we could eat, the head waiter did ask us, if we wanted to order any desserts before closing and making the bill. We had to say no, although i intend to go back and try out a less gluttonous fare, to be able to sample the menu better.

The meal was tasty and good. All the side dishes bore some true south-indian flavours. I particularly liked their sambar and another curry (tough to name) that were served in the meals thali. One of the chicken dish we ordered was not up to the mark. I even forget the name of this, because it was the waiter's recommendation for a boneless dry chicken. In any case, i attribute even this unpleastness to our need to stuff ourselves with some real carbs or rice. Again, this happens once in a while, when the palette demands only a particular kind of food and any other accompaniments may not add any flavour and sometimes even turn-off the taste buds in those moments.

A small note of possibilities tho'. The door man and waiters are attired in ethnic clothes. I guess these were first ordered when the restaurant started out. Given that the restaurant is open seven days a week, it is possible that there is little time left to wash and clean these. However, the management can do well to take care of these clothes, if they do feel it is important to the ambience. It was a small mental note made, while waiting for food to arrive. I guess another options is to somehow automatically determine the hunger level of arriving patrons and then keep feed them quickly and appropriately that they fail to notice these small and subtle things.

Another important note, and much appreciated by me in particular. The bathroom was clean, altho' a little smelly. But it was nice to observe that the place was cleaned recently and spacious enough. The bathroom in most indian restaurants used to be a hole in the backyard, with a bucket and a mug nearby. These days it is refershing to note that some resturants in the city and elsewhere seem to pay particular attention to this.

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.

Hotel Saravana Bhavan, Royapettah, Chennai, India

Hotel Saravana Bhavan, or HSB as i call it now, has numerous branches. All over Chennai, there is one close to you, like finding an ATM. And now they have a few or more in other parts of the world. The hallmark of HSB, is consistency, unlike our Indian cricket team. Its like a McDonalds, only that the food is cooked fresh, unlike throwing 'boxed patties and french fries into boiling oil' fresh. The food tastes almost the same in every branch and location of HSB.

The only problem, i have, if any, is what to choose. I know HSB makes all kinds of stuff, including chinese and tandoori items, but i try to stick to our south-indian stuff. The reason, if i want chinese i would go to a chinese restaurant and for tandoor a punjabi place. I am at HSB, for their dosas, idlies, poori, and the likes. So, back to the choice, amongst this long list of south-indian stuff. Its always a tough choice, and i end up with some kind of dosa or dosai. Rava, Masala, Butter or some newer variant. If it is not Rava Dosai, then my instruction will include, soft dosai, not crisp like pappad. I hate paper dosai, what the hell, why would anyone eat it. My wife loves it, crispier the better. For me, dosai has to be crisp on the outside, kind of thick, and soft on the inside and of course flowing with butter.

HSB has started speciality restaurants, and the one i am writing about specifically here is the one on Peters Road, Royapettah, called Swathi. Go early, and you will find a place to sit, if you are any late, you will need to wait for your table, for a long time. Small place, but it can easily crowded. With all the restaurants in the city, a lot of them seem to want to wander here. For us it is place to be after a late nite movie, specially after a tiring and boring one. Its also close to the Satyam Cinemas.

The reason i stuck the logo picture (i couldnt grab a better picture), is because there are a lot of restaurants that have been using this name and passing-off as HSB. So dont get fooled about the quality when you visit a Saravan Bhavan, and find bad food, and then you realize its missing an 'a' in Saravana.

Hotel Saravana Bhavan