All you have to do is wait! Yes. It's that simple, I guess. First we had one, then the same thing happened twice and now we have two festivals every six months! I am talking about Food Weeks and now Restaurant Week India, the original, is back! This time also powered by Ola, so you can get picked up and dropped back as part of the deal. Wonderful places at a fraction of the price, so only thing left is for them to physically take the food and put it in your mouth.

Having been to most of the restaurants on the list, I was excited to see a few new places and I thought I will try Sunset grill at the Westin! It was cloudy and there was a chance that we may have to dine inside, but the rains were kind and put off plans till a little later. And that is how we were able to dine at this beautiful open air restaurant. The ambiance is beautiful to say the least and the beautiful weather made it a perfect evening out.

The menu is interesting. No single cuisine, but anything that is grilled and maybe sometimes not. So the menu is a good mix of finger food and sizzlers! As part of the RWI menu, you get a starter, a main course and dessert. I was surprised to see Ceviche on the menu! Don't remember seeing that anywhere in Chennai so that was my first choice, a Prawn Avocado and Orange ceviche, while my friend asked for crab cakes. The Ceviche was wonderful. Tangy, spicy, juicy and with quite a few pieces of prawns, so hearty as well. Served in a glass that is deceptive, as you keep digging, you seem to keep getting more! The crab cakes were blah! Oh, the bread basket that they serve is awesome. With a soft pesto stuffed bread being the best, the basket is beautiful.

We got an excellent dish for main course and my friend's choice was bang on - a Chermoula shaved Tenderloin. Nice and smoky (being served on the sizzler) and parsley flavours coming through, and also for a tenderloin that was cooked more than medium, it was soft and juicy. The chicken dish, I ordered was blah. Both were served with rice and beautiful potato wedges.

Dessert was wonderful. Both of them! A beautiful red velvet and mascarpone cake that was soft and almost like a red velvet take on the Tiramisu, while the Coconut and Jaggery Creme Brûlée was yummy. The bland side that was served with the creme brûlée was the perfect balancer for the sweet dish.

Priced at Rs. 950 plus taxes + Rs. 60 convenience fee for a 3 course meal with two Ola Prime rides to and from the destination (capped at Rs. 150 each way), this is a steal. Lunch is slightly cheaper (this restaurant is not open for lunch, but some others in the list are.) You can book below.

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My colleagues who travel to Bangalore more often that I do, have been bitten by the 'Eating Out' bug. Since they don't have a Bangalore Foodie blog, they have started eating out in new places and when I go to Bangalore, I am told what places to try! Ha. Yes. So this time, a couple of days before I went there, they had eaten at this place, they called ESCAPE and were dying to show off their find! So we landed at Indira Nagar 100 feet road and took a left somewhere and I was dragged into a small boutique hotel! As I learned later, the name was Bricklane Grill, a rooftop restaurant inside Escape Hotel.

I loved the outdoor setting! It takes you on a white holiday and with a swimming pool located right at the edge, the ambiance has been created with a lot of thought! Being a weeknight, it was rather empty when we went and so we got seated in a very comfortable couch right next to the swimming pool! They looked disappointed that we didn't order alcohol and we had a couple of hours to kill before taking our transport back to Chennai!

We started of with a very good, but slightly oily, chicken wrapped in spinach starter. This was followed by an excellent grilled chicken with a super smooth mash that we all loved! There was set meal with chicken tikka gravy and naans that was very average and had nothing to write home about. The pizza was very interesting on the board; a spicy chicken with sour cream, but while the chicken was very spicy, the cream wasn't very sour and so though we liked the pizza, it wasn't what we expected. We finished off with an excellent value for money dessert; a platter for Rs. 125. Apparently they had an offer running and we were lucky! Among the four, the lemon cheese cake was a kicker, followed by the chocolate with strawberry compote, while the tiramisu and the mousse cake were good too!

We paid Rs. 1730 for the three of us and were pretty satisfied with the meal. The ambiance here is the clear winner and though the food doesn't match the ambiance, it serves as a very good grill with a variety of food to choose from!

3.5/5

Bricklane Grill is located inside the Escape Spa Hotel at Indira Nagar, off the 100 feet road. 

What's up with Kati Rolls in Chennai? After the once famous Tic Tac became quiet for a long time, Tibbs Frankie filled the gap with the frankie, obviously not quite the kati roll, but they were quite popular and survived for long, possibly due the attractive price and reasonably good taste, Bay Leaf served (supposedly) authentic Calcutta Kati Rolls and The Hot Kati Roll Shop set up its service on RK Salai to excellent business! And now one more!

Tucked away in one of the outlets, completely away from public view in Wellington Plaza, Egmore (same one that has Donut House, Milky Way, Pizza Republic and a few more), is this new place called the Katti Kebab Company. Now, this outlet is meant to be the base for setting up multiple kiosks around the city and so there is almost no ambiance; just a glorified street shop with a couple of benches and two small tea tables.

But among all the kati roll shops in Chennai, this place probably has the widest choice. The two page menu has at least 30 options in various permutations and combinations and you have a choice of 'healthy' wheat kati rolls or the traditional maida ones. Unless I am eating one every day, when I eat a kati roll, I don't want it to be bland in the name of 'healthy', but I want it to be fluffy and full bodied and so, I did not like the wheat ones at all!

Today when my colleague and me went there for lunch, we had the chicken anda roll - one in wheat and one in maida and he ruefully looked at mine and took a few bites and conceded that his wheat was a bad choice and he loved mine. We decided to share a aloo channa roll in maida and quite liked that too! Most chicken ones are priced around the Rs. 120 mark, while the veg ones are priced around Rs. 100 and the mutton ones around Rs. 150. Good kati rolls with a wide choice for non vegetarians and eggetarians, a about 6 different pure veg ones.

3.5/5 for me!

So, there is another place for kati rolls and you have to walk behind the Wellington Plaza complex to spot it! 

"I went to a place called Moon rakers in Mahabs on my way back from Pondy, the place and food was horrible". "Oh really? What did you order there?" "I ordered a pasta and one lasagna and my friend ordered a chicken fry and food was very average".

This was a conversation I had with my colleague and you can imagine who said what. I have no idea why moon rakers has those things on the menu, but if you do not know what to eat here, then you will be disappointed and you will be missing something in life. This is a place you ask for your seafood to be grilled with the house masala and served with either rice or parota. Your seafood of choice can be a lobster, a tiger or jumbo prawn, a full red snapper fish or a crab. If that variety is not enough, you may add a fried calamari to your order and maybe a chicken dish to add more variety, but if you try ordering Italian, then God save you. Fancy restaurants have the"catch of the day", but here it is "what all I caught today".

My wife and me were there a day before my colleague went there and we both were super satisfied. We got ourselves a small red snapper and one portion of two jumbo prawns grilled with the house masala and both were brilliant. This place is among the few places I enjoy eating fish and I wish it was closer home. The prawns were super sized and I enjoy the experience of eating jumbo prawn that is not shelved, so you have to break the shell and bring out every bit of meat. I am not a big fan of crab, but the crabs and lobster here can sometimes be equally good. The fried calamari (squids) are a general time pass if we are a group, but that day, we had just the two with a portion of fried rice and two parotas.

You can actually bargain on the catches of the day. The waiter will usually settle for 75% of the price he quotes initially, but if he says that he cannot give it you cheaper and walks away, then settle for that price, cos it is worth it. Some groups come in and choose the biggest fish he brings, but avoid that as the flavor will not seep in well enough and you will have some ungarnished fish to deal with, so go with the fish priced to a max of Rs. 400. Just ask for the house masala and wait for your seafood to arrive and then it is bliss. Same with the lobster, instead of picking the biggest lobster, ask for a lobster weighing between 500 and 900 grams, they are the tastiest. Service is shabby and "local", but there is no service tax, while the ambiance is non existent.

I keep going there quite often........

Food 9/10
Service 6/10
Ambiance 6/10
Price 8/10

Moon rakers is in Mahabs, when you go from Chennai, the first big left after you enter Mahabs called Otha Vada Street, is the one which has moon rakers and their parking space is diagonally opposite the restaurant.

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