After the barrage of Arabian restaurants in Chennai, looks like bistros are mushrooming all over the place. The two recent ones, L'amandier and this Bistro Story place are the latest and since I loved the first one, the day I found out about the Bistro Story, I took two scapegoats and landed there the next day. Location is not pretty so let's get that out of the way. After searching for a bit, we called the restaurant and got directions and it is set in a rather dingy part of Royapettah. Open the door and it seems like a different world inside. With an open kitchen and eclectic interiors, I wish they were in a better location. We were greeted by the chef behind the counter, who I later realised is one of the partners of the restaurant, when he came to chat with us after our meal.

We got ourselves a smoked chicken sandwich, a pesto pasta and a curry chicken burger (since there was no beef burger and I couldn't make up my mind from the rather small menu). Dear Chef, beef burgers will sell in Chennai if done properly. Llyods tea house next door and Sandy's a little further away are examples!

The smoked chicken sandwich and the pesto pastas were excellent. Loads of olive oil on it, it looked and tasted like the recipe has been perfected. With the chef taking a sabbatical from a London kitchen, he has brought the recipes with him! The curry chicken burger has an Indian twist to it, but the burger was too large for me. Actually, it was too tall for me. There is no way I, or any one I know, can fit it into their mouth. I ended up eating the burger with a fork and knife, but the flavours were all good. The chef recommended a date pudding, which was a little too dry for me, but the triple chocolate dessert was excellent and we ordered another one.

The menu says that there is a 5% service charge, but we weren't charged that. Other taxes and the meals put together cost us Rs. 995, which was rather reasonable. If they maintain this quality of food and find a way to make people find out about their location, they might do very well. If they change their location, they might do wonders!!!!!

4/5

They are located at Sadasivam Salai. When you are on Llyods Road, take the road just before Axis Bank and you can see the board at the end of the road in the ground floor of an (is it?) an apartment?

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.

Forgive me for spamming this blog with so many posts of restaurants outside Chennai, but I have been traveling a lot and courtesy Ramzan fasting, I have been eating outside of Chennai for quite a bit! But, hey, if you are traveling to these places, that's a heads up! OK, enough of defending my non-Chennai- writing!

While in Pondy, the heritage hotel, Le Dupleix, is located in a quiet street and looks much more 'heritagic' than most heritage hotels in Pondy. I called in at about 4 PM to a table reserved for two at 730 and walked in at about 7 to find that we were the only ones there. Rains were looming and the waiter suggested that we sit inside, but we insisted on sitting in the open courtyard and said that we will move in if it rains; reluctantly, he agreed. The courtyard, though small, looks very nice and we wanted to eat there!

They were having a Mango Festival going on with a special menu and we picked a couple of dishes from that! We started off with a prawn bisque soup and a grilled chicken with apple starter! The soup was very very bad and we moved straight to the starter, which was excellent. The waiter came back after 1 million years and noticed that our soups were almost untouched. After telling him that we did not like it at all, he changed it and gave us the French Onion soup which was alright! But except the soup, the rest of the dishes were excellent.

For main course, we had a grilled fish and prawns with creamy fettuccini, which was very very good. The fettuccini was nice and creamy and the flavour of parmesan was distinct and just right. The fish was grilled to perfection with lemon butter and the prawns had herbs, garlic and lime and were grilled just right! The roast chicken with herbed rice and grilled vegetables were quite good too! We had a nice mango inspired apple pie for dessert and it was excellent with a tinge of mango and chocolate on the classic apple pie.

The damage on the pocket was Rs 1250, including all taxes, which I thought was quite reasonable. Service was very slow as we were the only ones in the restaurant the whole time and the waiter came in only to serve the dishes and came back when the next course was ready. Needless to say, the bill took quite some time to come, but though slow, service was very courteous.

4/5 for this quaint little courtyard restaurant at le Dupleix. The hotel is at the junction of Rue Suffren and rue Cassern at the French Quarters at Pudducherry!