I haven't been to THE PARK, in ages. To Lotus Thai, well, at least not in the last 3-4 years. Lotus Thai was the go-to place for premium Thai, but once they shut for about 10 months before relaunching last year, it has skipped my radar. Until tonight when the seafood festival really caught our attention. My cousin, a theeni pandaram from birth (read, well meaning version of foodie in Tamil) wanted to see (or taste) an entire menu of seafood in Thai cuisine. While that is not uncommon, it is uncommon in Chennai. So, off we went.

Started off with some nice crackers (basically appalams), but non veg ones. The prawn crackers were cracking! The garlic crackers were cracking too. We regretted filling our tummies as there were lots to try. Three stunning dishes stood out! Like really shining. While waiting for them, we did gulp down some drinks. A green tea mojito was fabulous, with just a hint of aftertaste of green tea and the Rose Lemonade was a nice and refreshing.

I'm not even going to attempt to name the dishes in German (or Thai or Chinese). The super jumbo prawns. I've shot from two angles, but both don't tell you how big these were. Steamed to perfection with just the hint of Asian flavours. One each and we were revelling. Next came the awesome soft shell crabs. With Malabar peppercorns used for Thai flavours, these crabs were fried to perfection. And then the lobster!!! Priced at a measly Rs. 1650 for a 900g lobster for the festival (normally these would cost you about Rs. 3k), and marinated with garlic and green peppercorns, the lobster was yummy. I wasn't a big fan of the thai green curry (wasn't very green) with the jasmine rice.

We had a small dessert platter with the usual water chestnut with coconut milk and a beautiful black sesame ice cream which helped wash down the Arabian ocean we had just swallowed!

Beyond the Seafood festival, I'm thinking why and how I missed Lotus Thai for so long. The restaurant has been renovated last year and it has moved away from the gold and orange shades to a beautiful and elegant blue gold theme and looks a lot more modern now. Menu has changed and I'm looking forward to going back and trying more stuff from there!

Two fantastic cricketers. One Chef. A noble intention. No ego branding. This deadly combination brings in a fantastic restaurant. The Ministry of Crabs. While it also makes it to Asia's Top 50 restaurant list, it also operates out a quaint little space in the Old Dutch Hospital in Colombo.

A picture speaks a thousand words, but some pictures speak a thousand pictures. This one prawn photo that I posted on instagram went viral (by my standards) and the one question that most people had was, "Is that shell on?" Nope. It was without the shell, but the head was intact."

So, we thought we were not going to Ministry of Crabs. After unsuccessfully trying to get a reservation for dinner, including blowing my trumpet about this blog, I was waitlisted. Our host in Colombo was able to get us a place for lunch and after nearly missing our place because of a delayed meeting, we barely made it, just before they were going to release our table. The place was full with a the board, "Sorry, the Ministry is full today." Thank God.

6 of us. 6 prawns, 3 crabs, 2 bowls of rice and two plates of bread. That's it. The prawns came first with the breads. Oh-My-God. The flavours seeped in well and the prawns were super jumbo. I mean, it could pass off as a baby lobster! Without the shell they were half a fist in diameter and the juices were flowing in the plate that was good fodder for the nice and freshly home baked kale breads. Just one piece each and we thought we were done with the mains. We almost forget the crabs, though this is the Ministry of Crabs.

The crabs came in next with the burnt garlic fried rice. The crabs were just as Oh-My-God as the prawns. I am used to having flavours on the shell and no flavour seeping through the crabs, but here, flavours of the marinade had seeped through, and with the natural flavour of the crabs, were simply awesome.

We finished off with the only available dessert, the chocolate biscuit pudding that is ubiquitous in Sri Lanka.

The meal set us back by LKR 30,000 which is roughly about Rs. 14000! For a premium experience and the size of the prawns and crabs, we thought it was justified. Actually it doesn't matter what we thought, because honestly, we didn't think about it till we got back!!! 

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. 

Given a choice of meat from the sea, my first three choices will be - prawn, prawn and prawn! After that, some types of fish, but crab is not on my favourites list! Rarely do I come across some excellent crab that makes me want more and so, since quite a few have asked me about where 'we' get the best crab, I am pinning down the top 3 crab dishes I have had in Chennai. These are my three favourite crab places, in no particular order!

Cosmopolitan Club, Chennai

I never thought I will rate club food ever in my blog. Yes the food is good and quite cheap, but the crab lollipop here is one of the best crabs I have ever had. There is almost no added flavour at all, just the taste of crab, shanked and deep fried with bread crumbs. The crumbs are hot, but the crabs are kind of cool! I was not able to get a halfway decent picture, so no visual representation, sorry. If you have friends who are members at this club, do try it out.  At Rs. 85, this is a no-brainer!


Crab Cakes at CHOP by Sandy

These are very similar to the ones at Cosmo, but served as cakes instead of sticks. Pure crab meat, almost no added flavours and fried to perfection. It was so good that I could almost smell and taste the sea! Priced about Rs 300 (I think) for 3 crab cakes.


Hotel Blue Diamond

The crab here is completely different from the other two places - this one is full of added flavour and you won't know if it is crab meat at all, except when you really look for the flavour of crab meat. This crab is minced, stir fried with Indian spices, refilled into a crab shell, dipped in egg and deep fried! Amazing stuff and by far, the ONLY place I have had something like this! A single big crab is priced at about Rs. 150 or so, but you have to specifically ask for CRAB in SHELL!

The soft shell crab as part of the Maha Virundhu at Souther Spice, Taj almost made it, but if it was top 3, my pick would be the above places!!!

*the first crab image is from www.fooduniversity.com