Street side dosa at Vadodra.

What is so special about another coffee shop in Chennai? So what if it has more teas than coffee? Ultimately all of them have sandwiches, burgers, pizzas, grilled stuff and some drinks! Why then should people I know talk at length about a new tea shop? What made a guy go there 5 times in 10 days? I had to find out and luckily, I was part of an invited group of 15 people to try out their food!

So, obviously in a tea house, we needed to test the teas. They were sad! I am even posting a few photos depicting the reaction of some of the members to the tea (those photos were shot with their permission). The equipment was fancy et all, but the teas were not! Sorry, I have had better teas.

And then we waited..................and waited..............and waited. To be fair to them, the place was packed and the paying guests were obviously their first priority. We noticed that even they were made to wait as, clearly, the owners were not ready for this! And then they dished out items one by one and I don't remember the last time I could not decide which dish to post on the blog (the photo, I mean). Each AND every one of the dishes were outstanding!

There was a prawn in some sauce that disappeared as soon (though it arrived late) as it came. Then came a risotto - I am not a big fan of risotto, I call it the Italian Bisi Bela Bath, but this one here left me wanting more! Among all the dishes, the best dish of the day was the smoked chicken sandwich - amazing would be an understatement. Three pizzas came and all three were excellent - remember they are not the pizzeria type pizzas, but the coffee shop type pizzas!  There was something called the Zuchini dream - it was vegetarian and still disappeared from the carnivore table - it was not outstanding, but we were hungry.

Desserts - my, oh my! Nothing was exotic, but everything tasted good. The white chocolate mocha cake was slurp, there was this chocolate layered stuff that was slurp and the mint creme brulee, which was, yes, slurp. The red velvet cake was BAD and the only one that was bad. It wasn't ok, it was bad! You could taste the flour!!!! Sorry, I don't know the name of the desserts, but they are on display, so........

There was more good than bad and if this is how it is going to be, this is going to be one hell of a coffee shop, sorry tea shop!!! The ambiance is confused, though! There is one small area with couches and the rest of the space is set like a restaurant  - not cool! I would have loved this place to have a more relaxed ambiance, especially with the kind of food they are serving. The one place which has the couches also has a few book, you can bring your own books, but since it is one table with many couches, they might not like it if you are on your own!!! A few more couches and this place would rock!

I am not rating it as yet, as I would like to try it out on my own, but from the first look, it could get 4/5 fro me.

Llyods Tea House is located on Llyods road, a few buildings away from Coffee Day. When you go towards Mount Road from Coffee Day Royapettah, you will find this on your left, opp, Nilgris Supermarket.

Models - Fazil Badrudeen, Sri Hari Nambiar