KOBE grills

KOBE grills have now opened up shop in Chennai right at the heart of town. Located behind Apollo Hospitals, in Wallace Garden, KOBE will now compete with Tuscana, Subway, Casa Picola and a million other places a stone's throw away. Apparently liked by quite a few people at Delhi and other places, they have franchised one now in Chennai.

As you enter, you cannot help but notice the simple, but nice and elegant interiors. I would have preferred more space between tables in a steak/sizzler joint with smoke coming from all directions, but that was not to be. Luckily we went in early (both in terms of restaurant opening day and time) and were the only ones for quite sometime before few more people decided to take a peek.

We were two of us and had only 2 sizzlers so I can only speak for those two. The portions are HUGE. We ordered a grilled beef steak with schezwan sauce and a grilled chicken steak with garlic sauce. You get a decent portion of meat with a number of different vegetables, all grilled, all around the steak and makes it look BIG!!!!

One pleasant surprise was that both the dishes tasted different sauce wise. It is not uncommon to visit a restaurant and order two steaks and find that the only difference was the meat, but here, the base sauce (although the same colour), was different for both. But the extra schezwan (which you can see in the picture, red and angry) and garlic sauces were poured carelessly over the steak on top! The schezwan sauce was overly, overly, overly spicy,something like andhra times andhra!!!!!! The garlic sauce was ok, but if I go again, I would avoid the sauces (and the extra Rs 20) you pay just for a jab of sauce. I completely removed the schezwan sauce and placed it on the next plate.

The beef was extremely tender....he did not ask me how I would like my steak, a relatively basic question that all steak joints will ask!!!! The meat was well tenderized and easy to eat, but hey, I like my steak medium done! I was not even offered that option. The chicken steak was decent. The veges served more than make up for the meal and you might not need any side orders. The steaks were priced around Rs 320 each, justified only by the size.

Decent place, would like to go back in a larger group and try out more steaks and steak burgers, but if my intuitions are right, we have another extremely Indianized steak outlet, nothing particularly great, but another place to eat!!!!

Food 6/10
Service 7/10
Ambiance 8/10
Price 6/10

KOBE is located in Wallace Gardens, behind Apollo Hospitals, or the road adjacent to Tuscana.