Food brings about many debates! Authentic or tweaked to the market? Fusion or Classic? Modern or Classic? Original recipe or Modern Twist? Classic or Contemporary. These debates rage on forever and like most debates, there is never a winner! Canon or Nikon? Nope, no clear winner!

Then one smart alec chef decides to put on the plate! BOTH! I mean, no this or that. This AND that! Every single dish on the (festival) menu has two versions of dish on one plate! While I've been seeing a lot of interesting food promos at The Park recently, today I've been kicking myself for not attending those! Clearly, their Chef Saravanan has few tricks up his sleeve. He is already a mini celebrity with a TV show for himself on Sun TV, and gladly, I got a chance to meet him. It was the first day of the festival and the orders were delayed because they had an overwhelming response!

Obviously! If you are giving two dishes on every plate, this is something indeed! We started off with the simplest of simple salad! The Caesar! The original was simply the original. Some lettuce strewn and some dressing tossed with loads of parmesan cheese! It was classic, but the modern take was fabulous. A poached egg with a parmesan dressing on lettuce and I don't have a picture of that! Crap! Classic 0, Contemporary 1.

Next up was the soup! A lobster bisque! Classic was classic! Fantastic Lobster Bisque with a nice smoky flavour, but the modern take was brilliant too! Served with a little biscotti with meat and foam on top, you tend to think if this is a clever way to take a dig at the purists! Simply present them with the outdated form of food and a modern take right next to each other and with a IN-YOUR-FACE presentation, they are bound to take a view! Draw here. Classic 1, Contemporary 2

Three main courses (two of us and we shared each dish). Salmon was the only one that didn't vary too much between classic and contemporary. I guess you can't do much to a piece of fish flown in from Europe! So no points for either. Classic 1, Contemporary 2.

I definitely wanted to try the Shepherd's pie. Whoa! Classic was classic. Beautiful tenderloin topped with mashed potatoes!Yum till we had the contemporary version! Meat rolled inside thin potatoes! Whoa. It wasn't a deconstructed dish, it was a completely new dish altogether but retaining not just the essence, but the entire flavour of the original. Classic was good, but contemporary was brilliant. Classic 1, Contemporary 3.

Prawn Gravy. Mini dosa with a brilliant prawn gravy was the classic version which was yum as all of the classics were! The modern was a beautiful take. A rice pasta with the prawn gravy on top. Beautiful idea and a great way to bring a South Indian take to a modern presentation with the rice pasta, but the classic was classic! Modern simply did not kick classic's @ss here! Classic 2, Contemporary 3.

Dessert was a beautiful Lemon Merengue Pie! The classic was yum, the contemporary was yum and the flavours were all the same! So draw! Classic 3, Contemporary 4. A few more dishes on the menu and only then we will know which is the clear winner, but the winner is the concept!

Pricing is very nice. The starters were priced at Rs. 275 and the main courses between 425 and 575 and considering you get two dishes (smaller version) in each dish, a nice meal for two will cost under Rs. 2500 for a three course meal. The festival is on till the 26th, but I am more interested in what this chef is going to bring out next! Wouldn't mind going back for another cup of the Lobster bisque! 

Places to host a little tea party are few and far apart. If there are, then you need to pick a fixed menu that varies between Rs. 400 and the sky and you get the same dish for everyone. Maybe okay for birthday party with 10-20 kids, but with three kids and 15 adults, my friend wasn't happy with a Rs. 650 plus tax for juice, soup, pizza/pasta and dessert type menu. Jonah's came to mind. I've been meaning to write about this place for a while, but never did. What stuck to my mind though was the little 16 seater part of the restaurant that is cut off from the rest and can be the right party place for a small crowd. And being a small place, a-la-carte would be great, we thought.

So after discussions, my friend decided to do it. We just blocked off the place for 16 people. Jonah's being Jonah's with their outstanding customer service that I wrote a few times about on social media, had absolutely no qualms about bringing a cake from outside. The kid's mom wanted a theme cake and Jonah's was super cool about it. Place was blocked and we had a blast. The ladies ensured that dishes that landed on their tables did not leave their tables!! The men though had to send what landed in our tables to the ladies. If not, there were glares!!!

I remember we ordering stuff left right and centre but these are the dishes that come to my mind!! Chilly fries - yum yum yum. We ordered almost three plates. Crab cakes - with six vegetarians and others not too fond of crab, just one portion was enough for the four of us who ate. The paneer with rice and gravy was yum!!! The fried calamari was equally yum.

At their Besant Nagar outlet, I had written about the really dry burger. Here it was juicy and nice. One interesting dish on the menu was the steak burger pizza. Its essentially the burger patty on the pizza for those who want to have the best of both worlds. I did not like it at all!!! There were lots more, but thats all I took photos of!!!

The bill for 15 adults and 3 kids was Rs. 9000 after a 15% discount that they offered for a group booking, which ended up being a steal for the amount and variety of food we had. Definitely better than the same soup starter pizza and a stale cake for Rs. 650 plus tax!!!! The minion cake was baked by Afsar's Magic Oven (9994088522)

Jonah's is on Kasthuri Rangan Road, the road next to the old Chola Sheraton, a few meters further down the Russian Culture Centre. 

When it rains, it pours!! Yeah, this month sees a battalion of new launches and food festivals in Chennai. What started off with the Cuisines from the Nawabs has taken a detour to Goa, with new menu launches at On the rocks and the Citibank Restaurant Week's 2nd edition in Chennai, this month is a bang!!!!

So, when we say Goan food, we think of beaches, grilled fish, chips, mayo dips and booz! Right? Wrong, apparently. A few years back, a very nice Goan food fest at Residency gave me insights into Goan cuisine which was helmed by a home chef, but this time at Hyatt Regency's Spice Haat, they flew down their exec chef from their Goa Hyatt!!! So what's wrong with grilled fish, chips, mayo dips and booz? Everything!

"Those are the fancy beach foods that were born out of necessity due to lots of foreign tourists," he says. The real Goan cuisine is far from that. So, peri peri chicken has the peri peri chilly? Peri Peri unlikely! :-) "The names have stuck from the olden times, but we now rarely use the peri peri chilly itself, but a blend of spices to give a similar feel," feels the chef. The actual peri peri chilly is way too spicy, apparently!

While it is available as part of the buffet, me being a buffet-hater, preferred the thali. Though available only for dinner, the stuff that comes in the thali (except the dessert which you have to move your backside and walk to the buffet) has everything in the buffet that is part of this festival. Oh, except starters also, but that is served on your table.

And we had the peri peri chicken and a crispy fried squid to start off. Now that I know there was no peri peri chilly, my brains were confused, but not enough to stop me and the friends from gulping down a few prawns and squid. For the main course, I liked only two dishes, the Goan Chicken Green Curry, which I thought will taste similar to the Thai green curry, but they are like, poles apart. Extremely flavourful but completely different from the Thai Green curry.  I also liked the mushroom Xacuti, which is a spice blend of 12 different spices. Again, names stuck, but our chef here didn't mention much about the how the names originated.

While the main courses were a combination of hits and misses for me, the desserts were excellent. While we also had the only dessert that we (or at least I) know of, the Bebinca, which was excellent by the way, we also had what they call the Dodol and another one called Alle Belle. Now, this Dodol is exactly what my family makes calling it, 'Karupatti Halwa' or Black Jaggery Halwa! It was great to be able to get that taste after so long and I wonder how it made its way from Nagercoil to Goa (or vice versa). The Alle Belle was like a modern Goan dessert, with a stuffed pancake, rather crepe stuffed with coconut and nuts!

Since it is part of the buffet, its the same price as the buffet, but you can get the thali for about 200 bucks lesser. Look for more from the Restaurant Week when the post goes up on Monday!!! 

Slowly, but surely, eating out is becoming expensive. And cheap! Uh? Contradicting, right? What seems to be happening is that the per person eating out at common places are slowly going high. And for something similar, the 5 star prices are coming down. Now, a first look at the menu and this may not seem right. Prices look ridiculous for a casual eating out or meeting with friends, but over the past two years with a lot of business meetings in the coffee shop of hotels, the overall bill is a little startling.

And that is why when our friends came down from the US and a bunch of 10 of us had to meet, we met once in a comfort coffee shop and eat well. We paid about Rs. 6500, which is about 650 per head. And for the second time, we met at EST, Hilton. This time we paid about Rs. 6900! Thats why opening statement that is contradicting itself!

So we had lots of cake. The ones on the counter are priced lower than most coffee shops! We loved the mango cake and the pistachio cream cake among the four or five different ones we had. And then, surprisingly their orange juice was excellent. I mean, how much can you do to an orange,but whatever they did, it was nice. The price (and the reason the bill was high) was about Rs. 300, so normally it might be avoided.

And then croissants. And french fries. And pop corn, a very nicely flavoured cheese and jalepeno pop corn!!! Two of it, in fact. And sandwiches. More sandwiches. More fries. More pop corn, this time another flavour, I forgot what that was! Tasty though. My US friend finally caved in and said he wanted the Biriyani. We warned him. He couldn't care less. He ordered. We all had one spoon. He was left with three. He wasn't complaining. Biriyani wasn't fabulous, but was flavourful and the lamb was soft. When you're a bunch of ten, it is very difficult to remember all that was ordered!!!!

Everyone was happy with the bill. And the ambiance. With a nice comfy sofa all ten of us had comfy seating with a large coffee table in between. There are tables of 2,4,6 too for smaller groups, but only one that can accommodate 10. So, fancy hotels are attractive now, at least their coffee shops when they have a counter. But food from the menu is priced 5 star!!! The temporarily-US-return-friend was happy with the bill that he foot it himself and no one went dutch.

Happy Eating. 

When someone tells me that there is a vegetarian version of a non veg dish that I must try, I look up. When it comes from a hard core foodie who is a pure non vegetarian, then my brain is deciding when, how and who to go with. When the guy says he is going back there two days in a row and is willing to drive me, I'm sold!

And that is how I was introduced to Nicky's Fine Baking and Cafe. The dish in question here was the Pao, which I think they call Bao. Or maybe there are two ways to pronounce and spell it, I don't know. When in Hong Kong, my friend told me that I must absolutely taste the Pao/Bao and I took a trek to try it out from what he said was a great place for Pao! I had the veg version there because they ran out of chicken and the other option was pork, which I don't eat, and OH MY GOD, it was awesome.

So after my friend placed order for the Pao, my eyes wandered to the counters which had delicious looking food. The one thing that wasn't delicious looking was the sandwich. The chef/owner who was besides the place then walked over and suggested we try the sandwich the next time. My friend and me looked at each other and thought, why come back, let's do it now! And so the sandwich landed on our table.

So, here is something that needs to be told. Nicky's, at least now, is a cafe that is very Swiss, but vegetarian. Dishes are not completely tweaked to suit our South Indian palate yet, but on the flip side gives a glimpse into how simple street side cafes in small town Swiss towns are. The perfect example was the size of the sandwich which immediately brought back memories from Switzerland. Quarter size breads, simple, but tasty fillings! The pao arrived and it was simply awesome. Baked to perfection, the flour was soft, just right with the sweet (yes, it is slightly sweet and that is how it is supposed to be) and the filling was fabulous.

For dessert, we were debating between two desserts and a very French (I think) dessert, called St. Llorine (I think), which had a nice shortbread crust, some mango, some choux pastry and caramel, won the debate. The chef was quick to say that this is not the original version and that the original version has something else instead of the short pastry and the caramel is dipped..........well, it doesn't matter. The dessert was nice. The bill for the above and a nice macron was Rs. 425.

I plan to go back and try the rest of the stuff and also learn a little more about the chef who has trained in Switzerland. Wonder if he can make a fondue! Wink Wink. The menu is very interesting as they do stuff on order and they make profiterole and macaroon towers like the ones we see in Masterchef Australia! Wooooo.....

Vegetarian cuisine is not been getting justice in Chennai and places like this show us the there is so much more to veg cuisine and I am very glad! OK, this is not pure veg as they have egg based stuff, but still........

So some places have been making some noises recently and pantry d'or is one of them! Dragging my backside all the way to Anna Nagar was the sole reason, I didn't try it earlier, but then, one day, Vadivel's 'ADIMAI SIKKITAN' moment happened! Friend offered to drive. When I went home, I realised that I was the 'ADIMAI.' Bulb!

Anyway, so I drove, parked and we got in! Place was empty!  The place was very nice with a neat outdoor seating and a nice, but slightly uncomfortable inside seating. The menu is simple and small, but its very typical of a nice coffee shop! Not too much, not too little, but if you're scouting for options, then this may not be the place for you. They also have options with and without fries, so that way there are options!!!

Food, well, we ordered a Turkish pizza and a lamb burger! Both dishes were nice. The pizza was loaded with meat and was quite flavourful, so it was an nice starter to have. The burger had a nice patty, fries and a little salad too, so that was quite thoughtful! We finished off with a very good marble cake with ice cream. The food in general wasn't outstanding, but for the price and for its position as a coffee shop, the food was great!

I was quite intrigued by the name and so I asked the owner, who was around and he said it means Gold! Gold it is!

Pantry d'Or is located at J Block 6th Ave, Anna Nagar,

Quirky cafes are slowly making their entry into Chennai and I love that! It is no more a 'when I was in Bangalore.......' phenomenon. Ah, yes! The latest entry into the bandwagon is Brew Room, cleverly adapted inside Savera Hotels, but can stand out on its own without having to rely on the hotel for clientele. And as of date, it is probably the only garden cafe in which you can actually sit on the lush green lawns. Small, quirky and eclectically set, the ambiance is a winner. The Chennai weather unfortunately, is not and so you might end up sitting in the glass interior section most of the time, but during the Chennai hot season (remember, Chennai has hot, hotter, hottest only), the outdoor will be a beautiful place to sip a hot coffee!

I was there twice in two days and I waited for a few days to write about it because of one reason; the lamb burger. Now, I am paranoid about having lamb medium. Beef, yes, I have acquired that taste and the courage, but lamb, not yet. Only and only if I am absolutely sure of the quality of lamb will I even consider it done medium, so I was not happy when after the first bite the lamb burger presented itself with varying degrees of pink. I asked the person (he wasn't a waiter, but I think he might co-own the place) and he assured me that it was very good quality lamb and they have tested it multiple time. Oh, I forgot, the first bite was heavenly. It was an excellent lamb burger and a very good price. Reluctantly I ate. Reluctant, because I was paranoid and I didn't send it back because it was perfect. Ten days late, I am still alive, so I guess it was very good quality lamb.

The first time, we had chicken sliders (essentially mini burgers) which was quite good for me and the little sweetish onion compote was a real winner below the patty, the chicken sandwich wasn't out of the world, but was good enough. The Thai ice coffee was nothing special. The second time of course was the outstanding lamb burger, a Jamaican chicken sandwich that was quite nice and a very good carrot cake to finish it off. Both times, the bill was around 1200 for two dishes, so I guess the hotel tax rates kick in, though the menu price didn't seem very high with dishes being priced around Rs. 275.

Great ambiance, good food and friendly service! 

I couldn't wait to write about the desserts at Pan Asian and that is why Part 2 of the dessert hop came before Part 1, but that should in no way undermine the dessert we had at Focaccia, Hyatt Regency. When Chef Roberto was brought into Focaccia, he was appalled that I thought of another Tiramisu as being the best in Chennai. While you can read the whole thing here, in a nutshell, he wanted to us try his Tiramisu and we were floored. And that is why, I had insisted that my friends must try the Tiramisu here.

But after we went there, we were told that they have another excellent dessert and we thought, 'why not?' And that is how we discovered Chocolate Salami! It was a dessert with three thick slices of chocolate that had biscuits inside it and served with Creme Anglaise. It was super yum and since I loved chocolate with some crunch in them, this was a killer dessert for me! The Tiramisu! Oh wow. My other partners in dessert crime agreed that this was by far the best Tiramisu in Chennai! I think baking their own lady finger biscuits make a big difference, but whatever the reason........

Our final stop of the day was EST, Hilton for Macarons. EST is a very reasonably priced cafe for a 5 star hotel and with the Happy Hours happening from 5 PM to 11 PM, everything on the counter is on a 50% discount. Their macarons were excellent and thats why we picked up a piece each. At Rs. 40 a macaron, they were far better than most wanna-be macarons in Chennai. But this time, it was a miss. The macarons were a little too sweet for me! But the price of 3 macarons was Rs. 63 after the 50% discount, but though it was a miss, it certainly wasn't bad and I have had much worse macaron in Chennai!

And that concludes Dessert Hop!!!

The first time I wrote about this cafe, I had written about how it reminded me of the cafe in the sitcom, F.R.I.E.N.D.S. I loved the quirky cafe and though today, we have much better looking ones, this is the only one that reminds me of the sitcom. Initially I quite liked it and then I felt that the quality dwindled, but last Saturday, my friend and me wanted to get a quick dessert and this being walkable for both of us, we took the walk!

We had just two things, a Layered Mocha for my friend and Brownie Tornado for me. I wasn't expecting anything at all. My previous visit's pasta which was very very average and the almost tasteless sandwich is all I could remember! And so, the two very good drinks came as a pleasant surprise. The brownie tornado was excellent and there is almost nothing to find fault in that drink! My friend's layered mocha was just as nice and together we were wondering if we should come here more often! The times we are looking for a place to have a nice discussion are too many and thus far, my colleagues have not considered this place after the bad sandwich, but maybe it is time to reconsider. I will probably go there one more time to see how their short eats fare and then, it might just become a regular hang out, considering its proximity!!!

I think I am going back here after a couple of years! Tucked away inside a lane on RK Salai, at that time and now, the look and feel of the place hasn't changed. Beautiful outdoor seating, well spaced out tables in one part, just about coffee shop feel in another and a wonderful place to catch up on a book or a friend. But, that time, it was good bistro, but now it is a slightly confused place, cuisine wise. They have a new brand called something that I forgot with full fledged Indian food for lunch and dinner and the Dewberry brand is only between 3 and 7 during which time they serve a small cafe menu. I wonder why!

So my colleague and me wanted some peace and quite for a discussion and that is why we landed there. We got the peace and quite as the restaurant was closed for a month and they had just opened, so we were the only one there. We got ourselves two finger foods - a chicken bruschetta topped with olives and cheese and a stir fry chicken from the very small menu. I believe the menu is not fully operational yet. Both dishes were reasonably good and I had no complaints, though they could work on the presentation. I used to like a chilly lime margarita and so I asked for it. Only this time, I could hardly taste the chilly. My friends cappuccino was just that.

But the layered chocolate dessert that the waiter was very pushy about actually turned out to be excellent. Layered chocolate goodness brownie with a nice sauce and ice cream presented beautifully was gulped down in no time.

I hope they get out of their confusion soon and set up the place. With a lovely setting and reasonably good food, I wonder why they want to create another brand and change to fully Indian cuisine for this setting. Though it would be lovely, I wonder if they can actually have a full fledged Indian cuisine also for the evening snacks. Maybe pakoras and bajjis and those type things with hot Indian chai! Not a bad idea especially since the one starter we had was of good Indian flavour.  But one name from 12-3 and 7-10 and another name between 3-7! I am no expert, so will wait to see how the market responds.  

This place has been a refuge camp for late nighters since God knows how long! And a place for star spotting post midnight. The star spotting has reduced considerably, though there are those who still swear by this place, but its more grandiose cousin, the Grand Chola, has definitely taken away some of its spotlight. But after a rather sad experience in a new Palace Hotel, we found the comfort here rather welcoming.

The place was almost empty at about 11 PM, so getting a table was a non-issue. The big bunch was tired and irritated and so the orders were placed rather quickly. For the first time, out of the eight, five of them chose to go the easy way and get a set meal. So two Chinese set meals, two Indian set meal, a sea food set meal finished the set meal orders, while I wanted to try their burger and my old favourite, the bolognese pasta and one person ended up with a 'Raliway' gravy that was served with rice and there is an option of having it with Indian Breads. The burger was a very comfort burger, and it has certainly dropped a few notches from what it was before, but the bolognese pasta was outstanding and liked clean!

I was looking at a Cappuccino set meal for the first time, so I thought it was reasonably well done. Decent portions, not a wide range of flavours, and I believe they wanted it that way. With five of them not in the mood for dessert, three of us shared a coffee creme brule Everybody was happy with their respective dishes, none of it was outstanding except the pasta, none of it was bad, service was excellent and I guess this makes it a 5 star adda!!! 5 star comfort food if you call it that! 

United Tastes of America? Really? While the ads were quite catchy, it did catch our attention after an invite for desserts. Being with a bunch of foodies does that to you. Desserts can be followed by main course. After all, don't you eat the sweet first at a number of 'Elai Saapadus?' OK, so one night, we were a little hungry after eating desserts and after having seen the burger photo in the ad, we decided to drive down to QT grills and see what 'United Tastes of America' has to offer.

The place is quite small. The menu is a little bigger than the place. The burgers are a little larger than the menu. The burger in the photo ad is the largest. After placing the order and waiting for almost twenty minutes, during which time the waiter was no where to be seen, one foodie prompted, "looks like there is only one server and only one cooker," but after the one 'cooker' cooked the two burgers and vegetarian dish that we ordered, we were quiet.

Is it the best burger in town? Not at all. Is it a great burger for the price of Rs. 180? Hell, yeah! The beef burger was quite juicy, the sides were adequate and the taste was good. The bbq burger was just as good, but it did have a different flavour, unlike places where the patty is the same and the sauce is different. This patty tasted different! Our vegetarian friend was raving about her dish so much that we all took a bite and instantly loved it. Sorry, I forgot the name, but it was some sort of a potato steak.

Thats all we had space for and the bill was Rs. 581! Service was a little slow, but speak in Tamil with the waiter and he was more than happy to serve well. Our next table folks were speaking in Tamil to themselves and for some reason, had to speak in English to the waiter, who wasn't trained in Oxford University from the looks of it. Why can't you speak in a language that he understands?

QT Grills is in Adyar, in the service lane right behind Naidu Hall. At their prices, they are well worth trying. 

So after a rather shocking incident at a restaurant in Adyar where we had a little photoshoot for a newspaper that was doing a story on food bloggers, three of us randomly landed our backsides at L'amandier without expecting much. A couple of friends had been there and didn't have much to say about the place, but little did we expect a cafe to be packed to the brim at 245 in the afternoon. Guests were leaving a big table and it wasn't ready when we were seated but cutlery and napkins were placed quickly. But before that, the look and feel of the restaurant was super quirky and real bistro types. Everything from the chairs to the paint to the French style windows was lovely and the ambiance was just perfect.

The menu is currently a one pager, but the concept is nice. The menu has an a-la-carte option where you can choose from Starters, Salads, Main course or dessert or you can choose one from each for a meal priced at Rs. 475 (425 for veg) plus taxes. The waiters are quite honest and they tell you that the portion of the same thing served as part of the set menu is a little smaller, but so is the price difference.

Since we had a little food at Adyar, we ordered only one starter and one main course before getting ready for desserts, but both of us (the third was a veggie) loved our food. The prawn skewers were just perfect with the little basil mayo and the main course, the chicken kiev was excellent with a superbly smoky bok-choy. We finished of with a Tiramisu that was more a coffee cream than tiramisu and a wonderful apple crumble. The main course was just right in portions if you look at it as a meal and it might look very small if you look only at the chicken. It is not meant to share, but the portion was quite small.

The bill for all the above with all taxes was Rs. 805. Service was excellent even with a full house and no service charge was levied. Brilliant.

4/5 and if the portion was a little larger, I would have rated it 4.5.  I hope the owner retain the passion and quality of food and service that we had today, because Chennai has been missing a place like this forever.

L'amandier is on the same road as Park Sheraton, right next to Cream Centre, R A Puram.