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'.

Sri Krishna Sweets, Adyar, Chennai, India

Sri Krishna Sweets is not originally from Chennai, it is based on Coimbatore, further south in TamilNadu. But soon after it set base in Chennai, it has revolutionized the sweet-meats business in the city.

Of special note is the mysurpa (or mysorepak, altho' i dont think it has anything to do with mysore). Today if i were to buy or eat mysurpa, i wouldnt get it from anywhere else, other than from Krishna Sweets. It is difficult to believe that i used to occasionally nibble on something of this kind before, because it was called by the same name, but compared to what Krishna Sweets make, that was like eating plain sugar and flour mix. The mysurpa from Krishna Sweets is in a very volatile form, you must consume it immediately otherwise it would melt in your hands. You would rather have it melt in your mouth.

Krishna Sweets also makes a boat load of other stuff. They also have a ladoo which is supposed to be an imitation of the famous 'Thirupati' ladoo. Its close, but you will know it is an imitation. I also like the sweet and masala poli that they make fresh. Recently they introduced food and snacks, i guess keeping in line with their restaurant background. And it is pleasing offer from them.

Krishna Sweets also has something more than sweets and food to offer its patrons, music. Sometime back they introduced a concept of live music (classical kind). Although i havent visited the restaurant during a performance, i have seen the stage and all the prerequisites for such performance.

A daily event from Krishna Sweets