Nothing gets the point across like saying exactly what you mean. Thick Shake Factory does that and does that well. No distractions. Just thick shakes. No distractions in the name, the interiors or anywhere.

While the menu has sufficient variety, considering that these are just shakes, the possibilities are endless with Shape Your Shake. That is what we got two of. First, a chocolate base, Level 1 mix in was Choco Pie, Level 2 was Hide n Seek (the biscuits) and the topping was Gems. The second drink had a base of Hazelnut, Level 1 was Ferrero, Level 2 was banana and topping was butterscotch nuts.

I know I got the gems topping but as I took my first sip, gems came through the straw. That for me was unbelievable. It wasn’t just a topping, but had boatloads inside. The chocolate ice cream was the strongest and the choice-pie, the weakest of the flavours. Honestly, I couldn’t taste any of the choco-pie. The second drink was similar with the Level 1 mix in. The hazelnut ice cream lent its nutty flavours, Ferrero was non existent and banana flavours shone through. Again, loads of butterscotch nuts that kept coming through the straw.

The portion looked small, but was terribly a lot, simply because of the consistency. I won’t be surprised if I held the cup upside down and nothing fell. It was super thick. We couldn’t finish the drink and it doubled up as a post dinner drink the subsequent night.

Priced between Rs. 140 and Rs. 190, Thick Shake Factory on KNK road is a fantastic new addition to Chennai’s grub scene. Unpretentious, clear goals and excellent shakes. I only wish they tweak their recipe a little bit to enhance their Level 1 mix flavours. I would have loved a little more choco-pie in my shake! 

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Cold Stone! A decade or so back, this failed to create ripples in Chennai with chefs taking out ice creams and mixing them with multiple spanks and adding toppings and spanking them again and again, creating this ice cream chutney, very much on the lines of the Kothu Parotta a street side favourite that no Chennaiites would have missed. This simply was the dessert version for the city!

But in 2016, the cold stone is making a come back of sorts, but for very different reasons. The ice cream is made in a jiffy from scratch right in front of your eyes. No fancy liquid nitrogen! Just the really really cold stone that instantly freezes the ice cream mix that is then cut and rolled and hence the name. While this is available in the streets of Thailand, I didn't know it originated there! Or at least that is what Roll Over claims. 

We had two of their premium ice cream rolls, the Caramel Popcorn and the Guava Chilli. Served on the waffle base with some candied and crisp pop corn on top, the caramel popcorn rolls were excellent.  The guava chilli was a little subdued though and while the salt and chilli mix that is traditionally used to dip the guava before the bite did add some zing to it, it was frozen guava juice at best.

Their signature dish, the Chocoalate Karma was a masterchef take on simple rolled ice cream, with a glimpse of theatre! Vanila ice cream rolls with a big ball  sitting on a crunchy base on one side and a hot chocolate sauce on the other, you pour it on the ball which melts and reveals a, rather tiny but yummy, brownie inside! When mixed together, they give you the flavours of the usual, but very well made brownie with ice cream.

Priced at Rs 99 for the premium flavours and Rs. 249 for the Karma, our bill was Rs. 519 including taxes.

Roll Over is located on 2^nd Avenue, Anna Nagar, bang opposite Santosh Supermarket.

For a price point of about 650 bucks, the standards that ABs sets is unbelievable. From being the best chicken wings in my opinion to doling out fabulous starters and desserts, ABs has got it right. But when there is a festival menu doing the rounds there for which CFG organises a bloggers table, it is hard to resist. Meeting up with old blogger friends was rather fun and was enough to make the evening fun, but the dinner here was a story to unfold.

Service being the usual super friendly super efficient, they went out of the way to tell us that each dish was made just for the festival. Their usual fantastic prawns were the same, just spicier. The fish was similar, the other starters on the grill were all similar, but spicier. I was starting to wonder if the festival was just an increase in the spice levels. My favourite chicken wings was missing and I wasn't smiling. For almost 20 odd minutes, we were eating spicier version of their usually fantastic starters. Not good. They kept telling us that the marinade was different, but I didn't taste it. Except, of course, being spicier.

Then slowly, but steadily the good stuff started coming out. Their usually awesome chicken wings had taken another equally awesome avatar. Super flavour. Juicy. Yummy. Then, the featured dish, their Leg of Lamb. With a spicy, but super nice (what they call) the Carribean marinade. The lamb was cooked to perfection and we all loved it. Two more festival special dishes, a baked type of fish and cutlet together finished the line up. And then, just before we forgot that we ordered mocktails, they bring this pineapple with a straw stuck to it. While the drink was pretty good, the visual appeal made it so much better and more than made up for the lacklustre starters. And it really captured the popular image of the Carribean!!! And in true Carribean style, the waiters launched into a dance at about 8 pm much to the amusement and applause of the guests!!!

Like I usually do, most of us completely skipped the main courses and I even skipped their wish grill as I was full with the overdose of new starters and dived straight into their signature dessert, the Paan Ice Cream. Though the guy advised against it, I added sprinkles and chocolates to it and loved every bit of it. The fried watermelon was a nice try and was pretty good, but you can go to ABs, eat just the grills and dessert and you would have got more than your money's worth.

Unfortunately we went on the last day of the festival, so its gone and you won't get the lamb leg piece now, but hopefully next time, I can visit these festivals early enough to blog about it before it gets over!!! Chao! 

My tryst with Movenpick was like everybody else's! Started off great, then went downhill, then a friend took me there and I loved the ice cream and then service was bad and then it shut down!!!! A few days back when we were driving down, we spotted Movenpick on Nungambakkam High Road and we all wanted to test it out, so after a dinner meet, we landed here for some ice cream. Interiors are smartly done, with seating for about 30, but a cramped 30!!!!

After tasting a few ice creams, we settled for one Raspberry Strawberry ice cream which was nice, but a little sour, nice nevertheless if you like those flavours. We asked for a mini pancake with ice cream for which we chose my favourite Movenpick flavour - the maple walnut! It was brilliant - the pancake was nicely flavoured, there was some maple syrup on it (not the real one, but the 2% one)! We also got ourselves a Belgian waffle with Cappuccino ice cream. The waffle not even close to Belgian, but was nice! The cappuccino ice cream was excellent, will probably replace Belgian Waffle as my favourite in Movenpick!!!

The pricing is very funny - the single scoop was priced at Rs 150, but the mini pancake was priced at Rs 175 (plus tax, it was Rs 200), the waffle with ice cream was priced at Rs 250 (plus tax), so the total was Rs 650, so it makes it worthwhile to order a mini pancake or waffle price wise!!!

3.75/5

The new Movenpick is located opp Khader Nawaz Khan road!!

I saw an ad in the newspaper about the new ice cream outlet in town and was pretty excited especially when I was told that it was some kind of an international chain. So that night a few of us went to KNK road only to find that everyone had seen the ad and the place was nothing short of a stampede. After placing orders for the ice creams and being told that they have run out of cones and that we had to adjust with cups, we ran to a table that just got free and waited.....and waited.....and waited, and when we were beginning to worry if they ran out of ice creams, our order was called out.

After tasting the first two, I was taken aback, for the name could not be more apt, everything there was just cream and fudge and nothing more. We ordered five different ice creams/sundaes and all of them tasted the same, a vanilla base with added flavor. The chocolate fudge was pretty good, while the apple crumble was decent, but everything else tasted the same to me and beyond the first few bites, I had to force myself to eat. All five of us tried to eat amd finish each other's dish with little success.

We went back a week later to see if the previous experience was due to the large crowd. We had the apple crumble and a few sundaes, and the results were the same. So, if you like the vanilla based icecream such as milky way and creamy inn types, you will have a ball of a time here. If you wish your ice cream had original flavor, then stay away.

And till today I don't know what that cold stone does to the ice-cream, so I would be glad to have an insight.

Food 7/10
Ambiance 8/10
Price 8/10
Service 7/10

Cream and fudge is on khader nawaz khan road, opp barista and next to cafe day lounge.

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Baskin Robbins was the first 'premium' ice cream I have ever had in my life, about 15 years or so back! It was so nice that every other ice cream tasted yuck and then suddenly BR started dwindling in quality and quantity and number of stores and everything and soon it faded off my mind! BR is back (or has been back for quite sometime now) and how!

Among them, the stand out for me has to be the Bavarian Chocolate - Imagine chocolate ice cream, with nuts, some liquid chocolate inside and some extra nice chocolate and multiply this whole thing by itself - yes, thats how I felt when I deviated from my usual favorite - the Fig n Honey! The fig is just awesome and the flavor rich! My friend tried the bubble gum flavor and it brought back the whole bubble gum that you can swallow feeling! Their mango is very nice too and they all taste even better when had in their chocolate dipped waffle cone!!!! Slurp!!

Ok, enough, go n get your share now!!!

Food 10/10
Price 10/10
Service NA
Ambiance - varies with each store!

I know its there in Express Avenue, near the food court, on RK Salai near Stella, on OMR and on Kilpauk down the road from Fruit Shop, but there is a whole lot more!

The funny shaped building behind KNK Road houses Movenpick on the ground floor. Probably the most eclectic of the ice cream parlours, Movenpick has probably gone through the phases of fantastic starts followed by falling business and is now trying to resurrect its old charm.
The atmosphere is fantastic, with a mix of bar stools, regular tables, a library that is very private and cozy and an innovative floor seating. The place serves some brilliant ice creams and sorbets. In their bid to adapt to the markets, they even introduced sandwiches and paninis, none of which was received well by the crowd, though an occasional chicken panini is not a bad offering.
Coming back to what they originally set out to do-serve good ice creams, they have more than just managed it. A few years back when they first started out, this place served fantastic ice creams and sorbets with never heard before choice of flavours. Their strawberry, lime, walnut and hazelnut flavours were almost like eating the fruit (or nut as the case may be) itself. However their flagship is probably the sundaes. Coming in various sizes, shapes, options and accompaniments, these are a delight. You have sizes catering to a single person, a couple and up to even a group of 6. They will let you change the original ice creams and let you choose your own flavours which will be served with the accompaniments of the sundae. The sundae that has 6 scoops is served in a large bowl with lots of accompaniment and is a good 'bonding' experience if a group of friends want to catch up after a long time, though you will find a group of giggling girls going ga-ga over it and fighting over the scoops. Must be enjoyable!!!!!
You have a few cake options as well and their chocolate cakes are richly coated and 'sinful'. You have options of getting chocolate over your cake or vice-verse or however you want them served to you. They also have crepes, pancakes and waffles, and the Belgian waffle that is served with maple syrup is just simply amazing! Its crispy, large and ideally should be had with icecreams and toppings. Hmmm........
Their quality slowly dwindled to a point where service was bad, flavours were not available and the place was out right not enjoyable. In fact I stopped visiting that place for a very long time. On the insistence of my friend, who digs by Movenpick, I went there last week and I must admit that I have been missing these ice creams for a long time. Service was back to what it was a few years back and so were the flavours. In fact the two of us had 2 sundaes just to celebrate me getting back to Movenpick (no pun intended).
A great place to go for ice creams and the cakes though the sandwiches and short eats are only an eyewash. So if you have had a great lunch or dinner somewhere, its worth giving up desserts there and driving here for them. You probably won't regret it.

Service 6/10
Ice Creams and cakes 8/10
Short Eats 4/10
Ambiance 8/10

Movenpick is located on the road opp Fruit Shop on Greams Road on a glass tower shaped building. It can also be reached via Kadhar Nawaz Khan Road beyond Barista towards Egmore.

Pav Bhaji Style Ice creams is what it is at Cool Nature.
Cool Nature at Ispahani Centre serves ice creams in an unique style-you choose your ice creams and toppings, and you get it smashed on a sparkling granite stone. How the stone enhances the taste of the ice creams (if it does that is) is beyond my comprehension, but the atmosphere is relaxed and chilled out. The place also serves pastas, sandwiches and other short eats, however its best to keep yourself away from them (you can have some food at Marrybrown and get here for the ice creams) and stick to the ice creams.
When you get to the counter, pick a couple of flavors. The guy will place the icecreams on the sparkling stone and kind of mash them, however the ice creams do not get to the liquid consistency. He just kind of pokes at it with two large spoons and you can decide if you want your toppings to be mashed along with the ice cream or just have them as toppings on your icecream.
The other option is to go for their fixed mixes which you can order from the table. It comes in two sizes and a number of flavours. The best one is called the 'Snow white' which is a fantastic lichie icecream with banana toppings. The hide and seek is alright while the choco dip has a strong cocoa flavour and hits you hard however you could try the chocolate gelato with some other toppings and you will not be dissappointed. They have a grilled sandwich with chocolate and hazelnut and banana, its kind of small but tasty.
They have some flavors worth trying and some of the gelatos are really good while some are average, as is to be expected from any ice cream parlour. The choice of toppings are quite wide and you also get some Kellog's stuff, kit kat etc as toppings. The concept is exciting, but if it serves no purpose, I guess its charm will be lost soon. Do not compare it to Fresco Italian Gelatos, though the atmosphere can be compared with Movenpick outlets. However the flavors in both these places are almost entirely different from the ones at Cool Nature. The waiters and the guys on the stone are not too fluent with English and one of them infact struggled to keep up a conversation with me, but they are very friendly and service is good.
Prices are alright, Rs 49 for the small and Rs 59 for the medium gelatos with 2 toppings. Each extra topping will cost you Rs 9. The drinks are priced at Rs 59 and Rs 69, the shakes atRs 79 and Rs 89. Sandwiches and salads are priced between Rs 49-Rs 69.

Ice Creams- 7/10
Service- 7/10
Concept-Blah
Ambience-7/10

Cool Nature is at the first floor of Ispahani Centre, Nungambakkam, above Marrybrown.