What if a restaurant doesn't serve rice in any form? And they don't give you cutlery? OK, if you notice that there are no knives and forks, you could ask, and they will politely tell you that their food is best enjoyed with hands. Of course, if you insist, you will have your way. Not the best way to eat food, but your way. More often than not, your way may not be the best way like some of us from our party of 5 found out!

Get reservations. We were on for a Friday dinner and the place was packed! We were told during entry that there is no rice served and that it is not really kid friendly. We had packed some stuff for the kids, so they were fine. So were we!

Small menu on a large menu! Yes. Just a handful of stuff, printed on a super large wooden block. Actually, two menus. One, the usual. Two, the unusual. A 10-11 course meal on one side and I think a 13 course meal on the other, priced at Rs. 3150 and Rs.3500 respectively! Nope! No way. We need to have starved a few days to make that worthwhile! My friends from Germany weren't looking to roll all the way to Germany. They simply wanted a great Indian dinner! So we asked the waiters to serve us one veg and one non veg starter!

Some Paneer in triangles arrived! One bite each and the table was in silence. You could clearly hear the kids! The adults were quiet. Then slowly, the praise for the paneer started pouring out. Soft. Juicy. Stuffed with potatoes and cooked in the tandoor. Oh, everything here is cooked only in the tandoor. So, no rice, biriyani or anything that cannot be cooked in the tandoor, on the menu! This was followed by a succulent, flavourful, definitely super fattening, Murgh Malai Tikka. The tikka was fabulous to say the least and so so so soft. Clearly, no knives were needed and the one person who tried eating with the fork, put it down quietly and started using his hands. Yours truly!

While pricy, the portions were hearty. There were 8 pieces of paneer and 6 pieces of chicken and they were large hearty pieces. We wanted to try the Naan Bukhara, called the family naan and we were warned that it was for about eight people and will be too much for the five of us. We ignored the warning.  We got the Dhal Bukhara for company and went with the waiter's choice of semi-gravy chicken.

The Naan was huge. For Rs. 1500, it certainly could feed about 8 people. We had to pack almost half of it home, but be warned. Even if you have a big appetite, order the naan bukhara ONLY if there are about 8 people because, because of the way it is cooked, it dries out super fast and then becomes leathery after about 10 minutes, if not less. So it goes from juicy to stretchy very quickly, so all of us who took the third helping after a few minutes, found it hard to tear. At home, same problem. 2 minutes out of the microwave and you had to reheat it to make it soft. But during those first few minutes, this naan with this dhal is heaven! The semi gravy chicken that was served was licked off the plate in no time. We had ordered a wonderful romali roti (for the kids) which was super soft all the way through! No space for dessert, so we split one Kulfi, just to end on a sweet note!

This is a real treat and the cuisine is very specific which is great! If you've been to Bukhara, please refrain from comparing! We know and we've heard that the original is better, but in Chennai, this is it!

Our bill was Rs. 6750 after a 20% discount! And they give you a tiny copper cup as a souvenir! So cool!

Peshawri is open for dinner and is at the lobby level at ITC Grand Chola!

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!!! 

That night was magical. While, it felt like entering a fort with its high walled security entry, the moon light on the bridge that runs through the property was truly magical. It was serene. The view of the pool from the bridge was intriguing. Like a blast from the past.....I mean well past, like a few civilisations past. The pool like the Harappa and Mohenjodaro pool. With the moonlight on it.

Some things change for better, I guess. After a long long wait for the property to be up, the sprawling resort on ECR is up, but in a new avatar as the Intercontinental Chennai Mahabalipuram Resort. While not really a beach resort, the beach is walkable. The place has an intriguing feel because of the way it is built. It feels like it has too many characters. The lobby is eclectic. With straight stairs going up to the extremely well planned out bar with a spacious outdoor space, a royal indoor space and a modern side to it, the lobby and bar alone seemed to have multiple personalities.

The rest of the hotel is even more confusing. Built around squares, it has a really ancient feel to the design but an extremely modern feel to the decor. The pond almost entirely covers one half and the swimming pool and garden form the other half, split by a walkway. The bridge is on top of the walkway. That night, courtesy the moonlight, it was magical, but I wonder how this place will look at daytime. I have to go back there to stay to find out.

We were here for the food. What's so special in a resort's buffet, I thought. It wasn't the buffet. It was a 7 course meal. Who does that in the all day dining? Well, here they do. Aimed at those staying for long and don't want to do a buffet everyday and those willing to drive down from Chennai to celebrate a special occasion or to impress the woman of their lives (or hope to be), this was a showcase of Chef Ashish, who is here from Anandha, Himalayas. When I saw the words 'Ash potato' on the menu of the day, I was wondering why they didn't notice that mistake and was actually looking forward to the mashed potatoes.

Freshly baked bread with the dips were so good, that we took refills all along the way. It looked great, it felt great and tasted excellent. This was followed by an amuse-bouche, a melange of vegetables. Then the excellent scallops and duck with cauliflower puree, but I am rushing to the next course, the soup. This was a green peas soup, full of flavour served in tiny coffee cups with a wafer of bread with parmesan. This was just fabulous! It was small enough to keep us wanting for more and reminded me of the mushroom cappuccino served in similar portions at a favourite restaurant of mine. This though, was a cold soup and that added to its complexity. Loved it.

This was followed by an excellent prawn dish. Poached in orange juice with curried pop corns and miso, this was a melange of flavours. All familiar, but not together. The tinge of orange with the miso and the little bump of pop corn was excellent. This was followed by the baby Sea Bass, with a citrus salad, that wasn't on my favourites' list. But then, I am not a big fish fan, so that opinion to be taken with a pinch of salt!

This was followed by the spelling mistake. Tenderloin with potatoes, but there was no mashed potatoes. The chef came on to explain how he got the 'ash' on the potato. It was indeed Ash potato with the beef!!! Flummoxed! While I loved the potatoes and the beetroot puree and the beans, I didn't fancy the beef so much, that day! The next course, dessert more than made up for it. Five textures of chocolate with the fabulous banana ice cream was a feast for the eyes and palate.

Buffet is priced at Rs. 1499 and 1799 plus taxes for lunch and dinner, while a 7 course meal like what we had is priced at Rs. 2500 plus taxes, with a few hours of advance notice. A friend said that their breakfast was excellent, but I am yet to try any other meal there. Waiting for the other restaurants to open and then plan a mini holiday there. Will update on how the stay and rooms are, real soon!

Intercontinental Chennai Mahabalipuram Resort is on the way to Mahabs, about a dozen or so kilometres before Mahabs! 

\\

I wasn't too excited about mBessy. 'What is new about another resto-bar in a small hotel?,' I thought. Its the fashion these days! Tie up with a hotel that has the required 21 rooms and start off a watering hole! Hmm! Friends insisted on going when they launched and me, though dead tired that day, tagged along! The entry was typical. And the familiarity ended there!

This was a real fine dine setting hiding behind that typical-bar-door. We were whisked away to the first floor though and apparently that's where the action is. The setting is beautiful and eclectic. Completely different from the classy looking ground floor, this was a beautiful resto-bar! While I was still recovering from the beautiful setting that I least expected, we were seated in a nice eight seater with a low table. We can go down for the main courses after we are done with drinks and starters, said Mugesh, their manager. I have known him from his days at Casa Picola and he was as surprised to see me there as I was to see him there! 

Starters and drinks were excellent. I can keep going on and on about the starters as they were simply excellent. The crumb fried prawns, a bunch of nice big prawns, dipped in a flavourful crumbs and fried till crisp, was the pick of the lot, though the others were almost as good! Prawns took the cake as they I love them in general and was happy to not have to leave the shell on the tail behind. It was all done and you had to keep eating them! The Broccoli with cheese was quite excellent with the soft broccoli being coated nicely with cheese and the bruschetta that came along with it was fantastic. The other starter, the spicy chicken skewers were quite nice and didn't stand a chance compared to the other two, but that's okay. The mezze platter was pretty nice with fluffy pita bread to go with the dips. The drinks were excellent from a teetotaller's POV. Some had theatrics like smoke coming out to flavour a drink, but the mocktails weren't too bad. My drink had smoked pop corn on top and in general things were great this far!

And then they sort of went downhill. Being a bunch of six of us, we tried quite a few dishes and really none of them stood apart. By this time we moved down to the fine-dine type place with its rich looking decor and cutlery. Sadly, the food did not live up or maybe the starters were so good that the palate didn't like the mains. Whatever the reason, the pizzas were blah. The Australian lamb felt like it was being handled without care and was rather dry and leathery. The risotto was very very blah. Stuffed chicken breast was rather inedible. Dessert was slightly redeeming. While certainly not excellent by any means, it sort of cooled off the rather bad main course. 

 But going by the quality of the starters, I guess, this place since being rather new has a lot of scope to catch up and get on track with the mains. While the choice of menu is good, it needs some work to get it to match the ambiance and the starters! 

I'll be going back in a month or so to see how things have changed. Do the mains get to appetiser quality or vice versa? Only time will tell.

mBessy is in the ground floor of the newly revampING, Estelle hotel in Adyar, near the Aavin, the first building on the Bessy road. 

Speechless.

My camera bag dropped on the floor.

It took me a while to understand what was going on. When a restaurant where you have some special memories has a makeover, it tends to surprise you and make it difficult to reconnect with the same place. For the first time, I wished this make over happened when special memories were being etched. From being a nice rustic restaurant at the secluded end of the beautiful Fisherman's Cove, this has evolved, no, turned overnight, into a chic, pretty bistro by the sea. With rocks right in front of you and the sound of music (the natural splashes of the waves, I mean) and the beautiful decor staring at you, this is some transformation. When Taj called us over to try out the new menu at the revamped Upper Deck, this is not what I was expecting.

No food photographer can do real justice to the ambiance, I guess. So I just took one shot and moved on to the food! We started off with a nice French Onion soup, but without the cheesy mess. This was a fine dine version of the cheesy soup, but one that was right on flavour, but it stood no chance against the other soup, the Roasted Tomato and Basil soup! This was excellent with the flavours of the roasted tomato searing through the palate and the basil just caressing the tongue on its way down.

Then four wonderful dishes to start off, the beet salad and the chicken liver pate. Both were excellent in presentation and flavours, the beet salad being super moist for a salad with the perfect home made vinaigrette dressing, while the chicken liver pate, for someone who is not an offal fan, made me take two helpings. The third being the seared Tuna salad, which with the rocket leaves and done medium rare, left us wanting more, but we had to save space for the rest of the courses. The, fourth, a leek pie was simply excellent. The pastry used for the pie was a killer and I'd die to get the recipe for that!! The filling was just right and the dish as a whole was loved by everyone on the table.

Then came the disappointment. The Risotto wasn't up to scratch for me. The rice didn't have that bite, though the flavours were just right. The previous courses set the standards so high, that the risotto didn't live up to it.The next was a chicken stuffed with four cheeses. While the chicken was a little dry for me, the dish itself was pretty good and the flavours were brilliant. A slightly moist chicken would have nailed it.

Then came a dish that set the standards higher. Grilled jumbo prawns (I'm salivating as I write this), with cheese, salad and tagliatelle. The prawns were grilled to perfection, were juicy and yummy and the pasta was just right for this. The desserts simply did not live up the standards of the other dishes! The tiramisu and the chocolate mousse and pie were just about alright, so nothing special here.

The prices have dropped significantly from the older menu and meal for two will cost about Rs. 2800 without alcohol. They also have a sundowner menu from 4-7 pm, which I didn't get a hang of.

More importantly, the revamp is so good that I'd like to recreate memories here again and we have already planned it!!! But if you are yet to pop the question or the ring, this might just be the place to do it! 

What more can you innovate at On The Rocks? Its been five years that the restaurant is going strong, with them putting on a chef hat on you, giving you a rock heated to 400 degrees and making you cook on the table. Conceptually, practically, gastronomically OTR has been brilliant. But when there is news that they are doing something new, it is intriguing. What else can you do? Can you put salt on the rock? Can you put pepper on the rock? Actually, they put a pot on the rock.

But much before that, the bread that is served to all tables was excellent. So, its a nice soft round cut bread inside a pan, with a nice chutney on the side, but with a cut garlic roasted and dipped in oil which can be squeezed on the bun. We loved it. We loved it so much that we ended up asking for two helpings of the bread. Actually you don't have to ask, if the bread is over, the will replace it till the starters and the main courses come. Then we got an appetiser, chicken, the name that I forgot which was excellent too. In fact everything that day was excellent, so I'll just describe them and not comment! The chicken was like a mini sausage with fried garlic and greens. And then a fabulous prawn. The prawns were on top of some mini noodles and together were a nice combo for the tongue.

And then the main course. Normally, we'd go for the the package here. It comes with a soup, main course and ice cream, but this time, it was all a la carte! The hot pot is like a melange of flavours of whatever you want. You get all the meats you want. You can keep adding more meat for an extra price. We had all three, chicken, mutton and prawns. There are noodles, garlic, lotus stem and some fancy stuff and you can keep putting whatever you want, how much ever you want into the pot and let the pot cook on the rock. Unless you want fried fingers, don't dare touch the rock!!!!  So, you can't blame the chef for the taste. You decide how much you want of all, but the chef goes around every table assisting in flavours. You can keep checking the soup. So, this is like a fancy ramen or bibimbap!!!

Like everything else desserts were awesome too. Triple chocolate which had white chocolate mouse, chocolate crust and melted chocolate on top, but I love the creme brûlée here. Normally, they will flame it with alcohol, but this time we took it without the flame. One of the best creme brûlée in Chennai and probably the only one that has the perfect crust on top.

A set meal will cost from about Rs. 1500 per person, which has the soup, main course on the rock and ice cream, but cost can go up if you choose pricy fancy cuts of meat. A-la-carte will cost about Rs. 4000 for two without drinks. Its amazing they have a lounge down for chatting out and then you can go up for dinner. And because its a lounge, you can sit there forever. Whenever we go we end up sitting there for at least 3 hours!!! Relaxing.

On The Rocks, is the fantastic lounge at Crowne Plaza Chennai Adyar Park, which was previously called Park Sheraton.

There are sometimes I wish I had my camera with me, but there are times when I am absolutely kicking myself for not taking an extra step and borrowing a cam for shooting food. Caperberry, tucked away inside Fava, inside UB city terrace, is one such place. Ranked the No. 1 restaurant in various ratings for a few years and taking a huge shot after Garry of Masterchef Australia fame visited, this has been on my wish list for quite sometime. Missing out on it in the last restaurant week when an affordable version is available, four of us landed on Sunday for lunch when we had nothing to do in Bangalore! A bill of Rs. 6500 for four did not leave us disappointed. If four people ordered four desserts without sharing, that is quite something!

So, we started off not so good, though. We saw two interesting soups and two of decided to split the Chicken, walnut with celery soup. This was the molecular gastronomy types, aka, minuscule portions of the solids with generous broth. The flavour did not make it, mainly because the chicken in a microscopic sausage form wasn't enough for the plate. Maybe if we didn't split the soup, the solids might have been enough for the broth.

But then on, the food was going from good to great! The first to arrive was the lamb shank with tiger prawns, called the Surf n Turf. While the surf n turf, in places like Miami denotes Beef with Lobsters, lamb and prawns were not a bad combination. The lamb was literally pull apart with fantastic flavours while the tiger prawns were kick ass!!! Thats the dish I was eyeing, but our friend took it and gladly for us, she shared! Then my dish came - beef cooked medium with asparagus, sauce, spinach and potato parcels. The beef was also pull apart really. It was cooked medium and just kept tearing off. Then my adventurous friend's rabbit! Whoa. Lovely would be an understatement, but the best dish was my temporarily-vegetarian-friend's saffron ravioli! Dishes like these show us that vegetarian food is not being done good justice in India and there is so much more to veggie food.

And then all four of us wanted dessert. Each. So we had our way and had one. Each. The minute I saw churros on the menu, I wanted it, but the waiter said that it was a deconstructed churros. I wanted it even more. And loved it! It was powdered and flat churros with the perfect flavour with lots of chocolate sauce to dip. The live tiramisu was even more awesome. Belgian chocolate with orange mousse was excellent, but the best dish again went to my temporarily-vegetarian friend, a dish whose name I forgot, but flavour will linger along forever!!!!

Yeah, the bill was Rs 6500 for all of us, but it was better than most 2k plus buffets available all around Chennai and Bangalore. I would rather have this than have unlimited mediocre food!!!!

Caperberry is on the terrace at UB City Mall, Bangalore, with access from the Fava Restaurant. 

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.