Toppings that can put #pizzato shame. The street side dosa stall at #Vadodra has been around for ages apparently. A fantastic dosa that was warm for the #rainy day. 
#chennaifoody #eat #healthyfood#yummyinmytummy #yummy #foodtalkindia#fbai #foodgasm #foodporn#foodphotography #food #foodie#foodblogger #foodblog #chennai#foodwriter #travel #travelling #indian#dosa #streetfood #chilly #shotononeplus#vegetarian #chennaifoodyvideo

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Toppings that can put #pizzato shame. The street side dosa stall at #Vadodra has been around for ages apparently. A fantastic dosa that was warm for the #rainy day. 
#chennaifoody #eat #healthyfood#yummyinmytummy #yummy #foodtalkindia#fbai #foodgasm #foodporn#foodphotography #food #foodie#foodblogger #foodblog #chennai#foodwriter #travel #travelling #indian#dosa #streetfood #chilly #shotononeplus#vegetarian #chennaifoodyvideo

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2w9iZgX

Toppings that can put #pizzato shame. The street side dosa stall at #Vadodra has been around for ages apparently. A fantastic dosa that was warm for the #rainy day. 
#chennaifoody #eat #healthyfood#yummyinmytummy #yummy #foodtalkindia#fbai #foodgasm #foodporn#foodphotography #food #foodie#foodblogger #foodblog #chennai#foodwriter #travel #travelling #indian#dosa #streetfood #chilly #shotononeplus#vegetarian #chennaifoodyvideo

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2w9iZgX

Toppings that can put #pizzato shame. The street side dosa stall at #Vadodra has been around for ages apparently. A fantastic dosa that was warm for the #rainy day. 
#chennaifoody #eat #healthyfood#yummyinmytummy #yummy #foodtalkindia#fbai #foodgasm #foodporn#foodphotography #food #foodie#foodblogger #foodblog #chennai#foodwriter #travel #travelling #indian#dosa #streetfood #chilly #shotononeplus#vegetarian #chennaifoodyvideo

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2w9iZgX

Toppings that can put #pizzato shame. The street side dosa stall at #Vadodra has been around for ages apparently. A fantastic dosa that was warm for the #rainy day. 
#chennaifoody #eat #healthyfood#yummyinmytummy #yummy #foodtalkindia#fbai #foodgasm #foodporn#foodphotography #food #foodie#foodblogger #foodblog #chennai#foodwriter #travel #travelling #indian#dosa #streetfood #chilly #shotononeplus#vegetarian #chennaifoodyvideo

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I've been talking about how it is slowly becoming cheaper to eat out at fancy places compared to stand alone, but sometimes this can be really ridiculous. Imagine, a five star meal for 750 plus tax, which comes to about Rs. 900! And that includes super premium places like Prego @ Taj Coromandel, which by the way is booked out! Citibank's Restaurant Week India, promoted as RWI makes this possible. While Citibank card holders have first peek and option to make the bookings, it is now open to all! The list of the restaurants are fabulous this time, considering that this is only the second time they are doing it in Chennai. All the good restaurants in Bangalore are booked out!

Last time, I went on the last day as I didn't know, but this time, I went on the first day. And at these prices, I will going a couple of times. The aim of this week is essentially to showcase the three course meals at most places at a fraction of the cost. So while I was going through all the menus, Beyond Madras stood out. One, I have not heard of this restaurant and two the menu was elaborate. A little google showed nothing at all and only after I went there was I told that the restaurant was launched along with the RWI. No wonder. So, there are some undue advantages here. No 3 course meal, their full daily menu on offer at 750 bucks. This has to be illegal!

So, Beyond Madras is the alter ego of their day restaurant, the Dining Room. By 7 pm everyday, the restaurant gets a make over and becomes all ethnic. I was fascinated to hear that Chef Balaji, the wonderful chef whose passion I saw during one of the Masters of Food and Wine, heads this restaurant. The chef comes to every table and explains the menu and talks to you about how he created this, which includes spending a week at Karaikudi to learn from grandmoms!!! Nice!

So, this a sit down buffet type place. The counters are all live and you get to see what is being cooked, but you don't really have to move from your table. There is a choice of sherbet, three starters, six gravies, four (they call it breads, but I wouldn't) stuff like idiyappam, rice, dosa and appam from the live counters and four desserts and the menu changes every week. Beautiful white table cloth with a nice white roof to bounce flash really helps too!!! Their price is 1350+ but for this week if you book through the RWI, its just 750 bucks.

My friend and me were just too happy with everything. We had a super nice gooseberry sherbet to start, but their appetiser bread was stunner. Now, we only think of focaccia and croissant and all of that when we think of breads and Indian breads usually mean just naan and paratha and stuff like that, but here the bread was fully South Indian flavour served with chutney. Loved the concept and the flavours.

Then we had a succulent lamb, a kambu paniyaram that was alright and a fantastic vazhakai varuval to start off. Most of the main courses come with the 'healthy' tag, so there is ragi dosa, ragi idiyappam, appam and such stuff. Don't let the tag put you off, because they were all fantastic. The fact that you have six gravies to mix and match makes this so much more exciting. Out of the six, the claypot meen manga (fish mango gravy) was the stand out!!!!

And then desserts! Wah. Filter coffee ice cream. Can't get more South Indian than that!!!! This with vattalappam, elaneer payasam and a super fantastic black rice with cardamom and sugar that was awesome. Chef Balaji also said that some of his dishes have been inspired by the outrageously talented but late Chef Jakob, so..........

I know the restaurant is new and so the full team is going great guns and really hope they can maintain this standard of food. You can't complain about the price but this week, at 750 bucks (okay, 900 bucks) this is a steal really!!!

You can make the bookings at http://restaurantweekindia.com to get the price. Prego and Golden Dragon are both in waiting list, but most other restaurants are available. Looks like not too many people know about this!!! 

The photo is not from Saravana Bhavan.

In Chennai, very few restaurant chains are debated so much. Lots of Chennaites, think this place is crap, a whole bunch of others swear by this place. But in the preceding week, three incidents happened and in two of them, I had to have lunch here. First. My friend who came down from the US was telling me that his and his wife's families wanted to go out for dinner to a 'nice place' and I casually asked him where they were going and the answer was Saravana Bhavan. WHAT? People go to Saravana Bhavan for a nice family get-together dinner? Really? 

Second, we had a business meeting and three people flew down from Bombay. Two of them landed first and the the third guy landed after 3 hours. The first two were reasonably adamant that they wanted to eat 'Only at Saravana Bhavan. ' While we were having lunch there, the third guy calls and when we asked him if we can get him some sandwich or something to eat, he immediate reply was - 'I am in Chennai guys, why will I eat a sandwich? Please get me dosa and idly from Saravana Bhavan'.

Three. Ditto. One guy came from Bombay and wanted to eat only there, so my colleague took him there. He came back two weeks later (last week) and asked for packed lunch from Saravana Bhavan. And I had to eat that, too. 

But if you look at most online food forums based out of Chennai, almost everybody complains that HSB is way to pricy. So, when I had the dosa and idly onsite, I thought they were quite nice. Quite pricy, yes, but quite nice. The packed lunch was meh, but the guy said, 'Doc, you must eat the lunch at the restaurant. It is way better.' I don't know how much better, sambar rice, curd rice, lemon rice with a pickle can get, but that's the way it is. I mean, if South Indian families are going there for a 'nice' dinner, well......speechless. 

Service at the A/C restaurants are a little more cultured, whereas in the non A/C areas, they are doing you a favour by serving you. They are giving you the privilege to pay them and taste their food. 

Bottom line, it serves very good dosa and idly, I am biased with variety rice and 'Chinese' in HSB, so my opinion does not count, but well, I won't eat those there unless I don't have an option. At times, I have had chaat there and it is OK. The badam halwa is excellent. But, I don't think I can ever review this chain properly. For that matter, I don't think I can review any 'multi-cuisine' food chains properly! Is there anybody who has done justice writing about this place? I really want to learn. 

Dosa Calling, a south Indian vegetarian outlet, has had be wanting to get there for a long time, and when the wife and me were both hungry and it was right across the road on which we were driving, we obviously could not resist it!

Wife is not a great eater, which means that between the two of us, we ordered only 3 dosas and 1 vada, of which I ate two dosas and the vada, so the review is limited to these foods!

The oriental dosa which I ordered was nothing to boast about, but a decent dish by any standards-tasty, filling and hint of home food. The regular masala dosa that the wife ordered, but just that- a regular masala dosa, again, tasty, filling and a hint of home food! But one dish where you do not want the hint of home food is in a paper roast, you really want it crisp and crunchy, but DC (as this joint promotes itself) went a tad further and made it like a home dosa, soft, soggy with no hint of anything near crisp paper, and I made sure I wrote it down on their feed back form!Prices are pocket friendly but the special stuffing dosas are slightly on the higher side, but not exorbitant!

Service was prompt and attentive and the decor very good. The place is slightly off from the usual Chennai food joints, located at Kilpauk and the their outlet in Nelson Manickam Road has been shut due to some problem, so its time for them to expand and do it soon!

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

Dosa Calling is located in Kilpauk, near the OLD UMA THEATRE. Another branch opened up on Nelson Manickam Road, but has been temporarily shut.