This is a rather difficult review, because of the difference of opinion of the four of us who were there last week for lunch. First things first though, BBQ chicken apparently stands for Best of the Best Quality chicken and not barbecue chicken, so do not expect barbecue there, they don't have it. Apparently all of it is cooked in olive oil only, so it is being promoted as a healthy eating option!

Now to the situation, the four of us who go went there normally go for lunch to either Subway or Quiznos to grab a quick bite and get out, so to get rid of the routine we landed here. Since we were not attempting to try anything new, we went straight to the main course and ordered a grilled chicken in mushroom sauce, a jamaican grilled chicken and chargrilled chicken, while one other guy, who is currently undergoing a detox program and has food restrictions ordered a grilled chicken salad!

I thought the food tasted good, very good in fact! My chicken was grilled well, served with the right accompaniments and the portion was just about right for a main course and priced at Rs 299. The mushroom grilled chicken was about the same as mine in every quality and priced the same too. The chargrilled chicken was served with an overdose of rice and just two pieces of chicken, while it tasted good, my friend who ordered that felt that there was too much rice and too little chicken. The friend who ordered the salad was complaining that there was almost no chicken inside.

The confusion is who do I go by? I am of the opinion that you cannot compare a full service restaurant with quiznos or subway and expect value for money, while I also feel that just one main course in restaurants like this will not fill you. It tasted good, no doubt, but I think the situation of the meal did not give the other three the right impression about the place. The final bill was Rs 1199 for the four dishes and I am definitely going back, not for lunch when we want to eat and get out, but on a more relaxing note! Service was ok, but you have to buy water, there is no 'regular or bottled water' option here, which I find a little different as almost all full service restaurants serve regular water.

My experience here was a 3/5 and I would like to go back and try more!

BBQ CHICKEN is located where Movenpick used to be located, the corner building of Shafee Mohammed Road (that's the road, opp Fruit Shop on Greme's Road, Egmore). You can access it via KNK road too!

And hey, if you like this post, please share it.

Another kebab outlet in town, this place really does pack a punch. After deciding not to take the 45 minute at the other new place, Cave restaurant, the three of us headed here at 9 PM, park our cars and get onto the restaurant located on the first floor. A brand new ambiance greets us, complete with lighted tables, a buffet spread, bright location and brimming waiters! We were asked if we wanted the buffet priced at Rs 275 or 'a la karte' and we chose the latter as we wanted to try out a few things at this place.

We were given a 'welcome drink' that tasted like a drop of pineapple syrup in a glass of water and we we thought that this is another fancy place with average food. After ordering mango lassi that tasted like great lassi, but with no hint of mango, I call the guy, who appears to be the owner or the guy in charge and tell him that I wanted mango lassi. He comes back in a minute and told me that the mangoes were 'too ripe' to make lassi with and they had only one mango that was used in my lassi. I told him to just give me the lassi that was served to me (make no mistake, the lassi tasted great), and we thought 'Man, this is really just fancy setting and food is going to be very average'.

Nothing was further from the truth! The starters that we ordered, the Tangdi Kebab, the Shamyiya Kebab and the Jhinga Kebab were juicy, succulent, soft, tender and all the adjectives that you can describe 'good' with, put together. The Tangdi kebab as we all know is chicken legs, the Shayiya kebab was described as lamb chops, but in reality we were served with lamb cutlets that were stunning! The Jhinga Bara Bar, was a prawn cocktail with large prawns and tasted great! We went ahead and ordered one more starter, the Nawabi kebab, which was boneless pieces of chicken grilled to perfection! The rumali roti and the chicken gravy were alright though with nothing special to mention about them.

The desserts were awesome too, with the kheer being superb and the kulfi served with sweet rice extremely tasty! The carrot halwa had nothing special in it, but was decent though. Price was on the higher side, with starter being priced between Rs 150 and Rs 325 and main courses similarly priced. The total bill for 3 of us, with 4 starters, 3 lassis, 3 rumali rotis, 1 main side dish and 3 desserts came up to Rs 1675. We had nothing to complain against the service, however the restaurant was only half full with half of those present helping themselves with the buffet! If the place can maintain the quality of the food being served, they should be a force to reckon with in the food scene of Chennai!

Food 8/10
Price 7/10
Ambiance 8/10
Service 7/10
Tandoori Thadaka is located on North Usman Salai, beyond Joy Alukas showroom on the same side, on the first floor.

I was at the farm sometime ago!!! And then I got all busy and like some might have noted, I disappeared to another country!!!! I soon plan to have an International Food Blog as well, but, thats for later.

Now I do not remember all the individual dishes I ate there, HOWEVER, I very well remember that we had a WONDERFUL time. Its a great place to go either as a group or, like quite a few people seemed to have noticed, to take your date (provided both are willing to eat well).

The tour of the farm was nice. The first lake was nice to sit by and the second one (with no water in it) exited a film maker in our gang! You can take your cricket bat there or badminton or anything of your choice, play n sweat it out, work up the appetite and get back to eat. The place is open from 5 PM to 11 PM. So to make the most of it, head in early.

Hospitality is unbelievable. The whole experience is like going to some kind of a wedding and being attended to personally! You can eat your first course, walk around the place, work up some more appetite, get back to pizzas, walk some more......you get the picture, don't you?

Personally I liked a few dishes specifically, esp the two chicken starters, they were brilliant. The beer chicken was somehow not to my taste and the sheek kebab was alright. The garlic breads are fresh out of the oven and are wonderful. The potatoes were awesome too! The pizzas, depend on how well you decided to spoil them. Follow the instructions of the guy at the oven, and your pizza will turn out to be great! But we also deviated from the instructions, and one pizza turned out to be KICK ASS, while another turned out like something that is not really pizza!!!! But thats the fun part of this whole experimenting, your price includes the pizzas that don't turn out to be good, so the real chef in you springs up!!!

The curd that he served, apparently home made from buffalo's milk, is among the best curds I have had in my life!!!

I feel, you could add a dessert or two to the menu, but I presume the menu keeps changing, so may be the next time, I might find more!

At 500 per head, there is no question of Value for Money!!!!!! Its more value than most places on earth!!!!

Food-7/10
Ambiance 9/10
Price- 9/10
Service- 8/10

The Farm is located on the OMR, near the Shell Petrol Pump. You need to make a reservation to be able to spend a wonderful evening there!

A simple ground+2, shack near the beach is all you can describe this place! With wonderful sea breeze and seafood grill with beer, this is all you might want for a Saturday night dinner or a lazy Sunday lunch if you are in Mahabs for a weekend get away or if you are willing to drive all the way for such a combination!

6 of us (1 poor vegetarian was sorry, shocked and was probably kicking himself for joining us, what with us tearing apart whole grilled stuff. We warned him ahead though, but he chose to accompany us)

So for the remaining 5, we ordered one LARGE POMPFRET, one Medium Lobster, 1 Portion of Tiger Prawns, 10 Parathas, 2 egg fried rice and one chilly chicken.

The large fish was LAAAARRRGGEE!!!!! About, 1 foot long and priced at Rs 800. We asked for the usual 'home' masala, which was smeared fully on the fish and the whole fish was grilled! Ditto with the Lobster and the Tiger Prawns, which were priced at Rs 350 and Rs 450 (for 2 pieces) respectively! All of them tasted great and eating the same marinade on different kinds and tastes of seafood was exhilarating! The prawns and the lobsters were the best and fish was superb for the most part, but since it was very big (and pretty thick), the marinade did not seep through to the entire depth of the fist and that was the only complaint, but it was other wise great.

Nothing much to talk about the parathas, the fried rice as they were the usual stuff. We did not treat them as main course, only as side dishes!!!! The chilly chicken was unusually tasty on that particular day and I would recommend it for a slight drift from an avalanche of sea food.

One of the few places, where you get to have beer with grilled food at not so expensive prices and beer drinkers would totally enjoy the experience. At Rs 400 per head, with 3 of them having beers, this is totally worth it!!!

A few tips though,

1. The prices of the fish, prawns and lobsters are NEGOTIABLE. So ask the guy to bring you the raw fish, see which fish you like and negotiate the price with him!

2. Don't try the above for chilly chicken or friend rice or you might get thrown out!

3. If you are a vegetarian, please avoid the place.

4. Try to get a seat on the first or second floor near the balcony. With wonderful sea breeze and superb grill, it is a paradise.

5. Do not expect 5 star service, (obvious, isn't it, when I mentioned BARGAIN) or a wonderful ambiance. It is a shack located away from the beach.

6. Try not to order supra big fishes. The marinades do not seep in well. Order 2 small fishes for the same price.

7. Stick with the 'home masala' or Lemon Coriander or Herbs n Tomato marinades. The chefs are not deft with other marinades, and so might not be able to satisfy your tastes.

8. If you are looking for fried rice with fish as side dish, avoid this place. This is a place for grilled whole fish and seafood.



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

Moonraker's is located in Mahab, near Chennai. As soon as you enter Mahabs, take the first 'Big' left, opp a large sweet shop.

A nice looking shack, complete with wooden chairs, tables and tree barks running through, with fresh fish, lobster and prawns on display and multiple stand alone tables facing the Bay of Bengal is what you see when you enter the area of the Wharf at the GRT Temple Bay Resort in Mahabalipuram near Chennai. The view tells you that this is no ordinary place and the food later on will prove it to you.

You are served with the Beverages menu, and needless to say in a 5 star property, you have a choice of Indian and Imported Liquor. Apart from beer, all of us ordered only mocktails so I cannot comment on the Liqour. The menu strives to serve a variety of cuisines, but in a restaurant like this with shacks, they could have stuck to grilled, tandoor and the likes.

Among the meat eaters, we ordered for a Moroccan Chicken Steak which is four nice juicy chunks of chicken marinated and grilled with some kind of spicy sweet sauce. The next was the catch of the day which is the choice of fish cooked to your choice of marinade and sides and we chose the lemon honey marinade with potato wedges. You can even make your own marinade to customize it even more. In fact you have a choic of a few fish to choose from and all of them look delicious! The king prawns was made with a wierd name marinade and I chose to have it with fries and salad, while the other order was a Tandoor Chicken Steak. Except for the last order, the others were brilliant while the tandoor was average. You get about 6 pieces of King Prawns spilt open and it was totally worth it. The fish was extremely good while the Moroccan Chicken Steak was something totally new for me. Among the vegetarian dishes, the paneer grill was mentionable while the corn steak was pretty good too.

All the grills and steaks are served with yellow or black dhal and a couple of tandoor rotis, so a grill is a meal by itself and quite filling at that! The portions are not big, but the right size and with a drink and dessert, you are done.

Desserts are decent and nothing spectacular. Service is impeccable and order to table time is acceptable, considering that this is a place where you want to take your guitar and sing along with friend on the beach front or sing to your girlfriend! Women, expect your men to be in great mood what with beach side and shell fish as great aphrodisiacs! Down some alcohol and you could have a great time!

Prices are five star, and kind of justifies the kind of atmosphere and service you get there. We were a large group with almost no alcohol and therefore costs us about Rs 700 per head, but if you are a couple you could expect to pay about about Rs 3000 for two, especially if you order alcohol,lobsters and some other pricy steaks.

A great place to chill out, its even better at night and lunch is served only on weekends.

Food 7/10

Ambiance 8/10

Service 7/10

Price 7/10

The Wharf is located on the premesis of the GRT Temple Bay Hotel in Mahabalipuram, near Chennai on the East Coast Road.

Noted to be a great place for North West Frontier food, the service in recent times, especially during weekends, when they run full, leaves much to be desired. For example you might find that something you ordered might not be served at all, but worse, claimed that it was definitely served. We did bring it to the notice of the manager, but how would you complain about waiters not assigned to your table conveniently ‘not looking’ at you, rather than excusing themselves and asking ‘your’ waiter to come over? So you have to wait till ‘your’ waiter sees you waving your hand.

But that said, the food at Kabul is still one of the best in its cuisine. Do not let a plain menu fool you, the food being served is definitely worth more than the simple printed 2 page menu and the prices. Both vegetarian and non vegetarian are equally good and close to authentic. You have a choice of fruit drinks served in decent sizes, my favourite however is the jal jeera-a great appetizer.

The signature dishes are probably the biriyani varieties- they have 5 different varieties and they are not just different names or the same tomato rice served in different colours. They are actually different biriyanis. The chicken zafarani biriyani is the less spicier version with a tinge of sweetness to it and if made well, will blow your mind. The murgh mutton biriyani is quite as nice and there is one version that has potatoes in it, the name of which I cannot recall, however the description on the menu will tell you that you hit the right dish. I must say that all the 5 varieties are decent, one better than the other, next to a well made muslim marriage biriyani!

The Thanghdi kabab was decent, though the flavouring could have been richer, while the Raan (which by the way is a whole lamb leg cooked to your choice) is way tastier. Their paneer dishes are very very good and will also tempt a hard core non veg guy. The gravies are of decent portions and most of them give out the aura of being made somewhere in the North West region itself. Naans, kulchas and stuffed parathas are a standard and are not anything extraordinary (and you don’t expect it to be).

The choice of desserts are very minimal and more often than not ,you will be offered a choice between strawberry ice cream and kulfi. The kulfi is served in the earthen pot and is probably the same as any good road side kulfi (which is by no means inferior), so I suggest you have your desserts elsewhere.

All in all, a nice place for the specific cuisine. Its expensive for a couple but will work out to be very comfortable on the pocket for a large group of people and will make you feel you got what you paid for (if the service is not pathetic on that particular day). The ambience is unassuming and very northy and the waiters are dressed in kurthas to give you that feel, not a bad job overall.

Food- 7/10

Service- 2/10

Ambience- 5/10

Kabul is located on TTK Salai right after the adidas showroom.

Cool breeze and a Fantastic Ambiance greets you as soon as you walk out of the elevator! A smart guy greeted us and showed our table, right at the edge of the terrace. The atmosphere is indeed superb. As I wait for the rest of my friends to arrive, I ordered a non alcoholic margarita, my choices were lemon and strawberry, and I chose strawberry. It wasnt great, but was not bad either and was a good time pass while I waited for my friends to arrive! When they finally did, we ordered 3 different drinks, all non alcoholic, from the limited mocktail menu. All 4 (including my margarita) tasted similar and that left us wondering if they have just one drink with different names and glass sizes!
For starters we ordered one portion of Minced Chicken Keive which was the waiters suggesstion and one portion of 'South Indian' Fish Fingers. THe keive was exactly the same 'chicken balls' that you get in the ground floor shop at Chennai City Centre for Rs 50. The taste, the size, the spice were all the same, but you get 10 pieces, the set back Rs 175, but ya, it was tasty, so you dont feel the pinch, especially if you are sitting 164 feet above sea level! The fish fingers were different from the usual stuff, more like the dragon chicken taste and tasted good too!
Now comes the best part of our meal, the main course. Being four of us, we decided to go with two orders from the Lava Grill and two from the Indian. Our choice was Chicken breast with the marinade being Arslan sauce and King Prawns marinated with Herbed Spices. The chicken breast was priced at Rs 475 for two decent pieces and the Prawns at Rs 690 for 4 pieces. The grills are served on a penne base with mashed potatoes and a portion of boiled vegetables. Each of them can be a meal by themselves and quite filling at that. The prawns were especially great! The two Indian dishes were Lamb Madras and Chettiar Chicken, both of which was fantastic and close to authentic chettiar stuff, certified by one of the girls, a true Chettiar herself, the food being like the one in Chettiar weddings. The gravys are served with one piece of appam/2 pieces of paratha/2 pieces of idiyappam or 1 portion of rice, so you invariably have to order more of these. The appams were superb and so were the parathas, but we did not try the others!
Next comes the worst part, the desserts. We ordered a creme brulee, lemon sponge cake, chocolate fantasy and fruit platter. Only the fruit platter was good, because apart from cutting the fruits they had nothing to do with it. The sponge cake was probably old and was hard, the chocolate fantasy which is some form of chocolate cake was bad except for the vanilla ice cream and the creme brulee.....the lesser said, the better. Any one who has had creme brulee anywhere else, do not even attempt at ordering this, those who have not, well, this is not creme brulee, so forget it! All the three had the smell of egg, similar to the smell we get when we bake cake at home, suggesting an amateur cook's work! The desserts spoilt what was otherwise a fantastic meal! They were courteous enough not to charge the lemon cake and the creme brulee because not more than one spoon was consumed.
Service was alright, was good before you place the orders, but had to wave a million times to get their attention to refill our glasses with water. Food was served pretty fast, about 15 mins after placing our order, which is decent by any standards .
I would not mind going there again for the grills and the main course and if someone else pays the bill! The meal for 4 without the two desserts and no alcohol cost us Rs 4350. However a restaurant specialising in South Indian and Continental was kind of unique to me, to see Lava Grills and Indian Specialities, without any other offerings. Unique indeed!


Ambiance 8/10
Food 7/10, Desserts 2/10
Service 5/10

Pergola is located at 164 feet above sea level, on the roof top of the Accord Metropolian Hotel on GN Chetty Road, opposite the Apollo Cliniq, about 1 Km from the Anna Flyover!

Its a nice and spacious place. The concept is a lift off from Melting Pot, however you only cook your starters here, so I was not too exited about the concept, which, however I think it caters wonderfully to the Indian audience. You have a live grill on your table and the starters are brought on skewers and placed on the grill for you. The meat was slightly precooked, so you bbq them on your live grill for only a short time. And you have a choice of marinades to bast while your meat cooks, however the marinades are pre fixed for the day. And its not an electric bbq, but a charcoal one, so you get the taste that is close to authentic.
The concept is not so exiting because you only do the last part of, should I say, full cooking, on your table. And today, we only had to do it with 2 or our starters. The others were brought fully done to our table.
For the carnivores, you get 5 non veg starters. I did not try the fish, but the other four were excellent. The lemon garlic chicken and the prawns get a special mention. You get 4 non veg gravies (of which the crab gravy and the chicken masala were very good) 4 non veg salads, 1 non veg soup, and one chicken biriyani (again the non veg rice menu changes everyday). Food was excellent and you can experiment your starters with the marinades and decide how much you want your meat to be 'done'. But since the marinades are pre fixed and pre cooked, it takes some of the fun away, but then, the food is good and if you dont care about the concept, then theres no problem!

Veg food was pretty neat, I had the penne in white sauce and a small dip of each of the veg offerings.

Deserts were neat, nothing flashy, but they were nice.

Pricing.
The price is Rs. 408 nett, for dinners and the Sunday lunch. It includes all taxes, VAT, service charge and all the crap. This, I feel is the right way to do business. So for 3 of us, the bill was Rs 1224. Nothing more. Infact, I asked for a non alcoholic margarita, and I loved it so much that I asked for another one, and we were not charged for either. You are only charged for alcohol, but then again, on weekdays, you get one pint of beer on the house!
Its Rs 275+2% which is about Rs 281 nett for week day lunch. I was told that the number of starters shrink to two non veg and one veg, you get only 2 non veg salads and 2 non veg gravies, which I think is ok for the price. You get a choice of indian breads that include nan, romali, garlic naan, and a few more.
Service was prompt. The starter grill was refilled before our plates were empty, and there was always something cooking. Glasses were refilled before they were empty and it was done everytime. They filled our glasses with mineral water (kingfisher) bottles that was opened before our eyes. All in all, very good service.

Overall, i like the place and would not mind going there again. Good Indian food, decent pricing and a good attempt at a international concept and has blended it well to our audience. I dont think we will like to wait for 20 mins with our meat on the grill in front of us, so i feel he had done a good job! Lets hope the quality of the food and service does not decline with time.

Food- 8.5/10
Ambience- 7/10
Service-8/10
Price- 9.5/10

BBQ Nation is located on North Usman Road, T. Nagar, on the first floor of Sri Devi Park Hotel behind Murugan Idly shop.

Its not a place to hang out and meet. Its a place about one word-FOOD. Loosen your waist and start. You cant order anything there and neither is it a buffet. Welcome to the Great Kebab Factory where the only choice you make is 'Veg or Non Veg'. They have a fixed menu and bring it in a particular order. And at anytime you can ask for any of those dishes, but I strongly suggest that you don't. Because when I did,I realized that as they kept bringing i was not able to eat towards the end because I had filled up my stomach with what I thought tasted great, only to realize that tastier dishes were coming up. So let them bring it to you, dish by dish. And at the end (after they serve biriyani with naan and dhal makhni), the waiter will ask you if you want a refill of something, and at that time you can ask for whatever you think you have space for, but then again, remember that there is whole of dessert to come by too so leave some space for the awesome deserts to follow. By the time the deserts are over, they would have stuffed food right down your throat and if you yawn, the person opposite to you can almost see food in your mouth. You might not want to drive after that, so i suggest you go with a chauffeur. Come home and sleep, don't you dare try anything else. When you wake up the next morning you will hate food, the oil and the great taste of food is soooooo good that it hits you hard. You probably won't feel like eating kebabs for the rest of your life. Don't worry, that is a normal feeling and two days later you will crave for that food again. The second time I went, I held back the urge to ask for any kebab in the middle. Just sit back, relax and let them serve you in their fixed order.

Go there only if you have skipped lunch and you have had a light breakfast. The girls only wasted the food when they went with us, no offence to the women, but i suggest you girls don't even have the breakfast the day you plan to go there, even better if you can also skip dinner the previous night. Except for one, all of them ate only one bite of each kebab. It costs 675(including tax) for NV and 555 for the veg kebabs. Worth once in a long while, but the food is SIMPLY SUPERB.