What do you do with a plate of food that looks pretty? I mean, like not just pretty, but a little too pretty. Like really really pretty! It took a while for me to take my eyes of the plate and think about all the things on it. The salmon looked beautiful. With nice fat lines this clearly was an expensive salmon. I don’t know where it stacks up on the world’s best, but while it may not be the best, it appeared to be among the top few. A pretty pink slice on tuna shone through. A couple of more sashimi, half a dozen tuna maki sushi, some pickled radish along with the ginger and wasabi completed the really pretty plate. I might have gotten full simply staring at it.

It felt like tearing into a piece of art, but once I was convinced that the art was how the food tasted and not how it looked, taking that pair of chopsticks was slightly easier. When something looks as pretty as this, you might be forgiven for judging it well even if it tasted a notch lower, but the chef at Leela clearly didn’t leave it to that. I’ll have to rephrase that. This is something that the chef’s had little role to play, since it was great quality sea food that wasn’t adulterated by anything. Not even the chef. The chef only made it look pretty and I must admit that he did a great job of making fish look pretty!

The single piece of salmon left me wanting for more. While I am a terrible eater of fish, sushi and sashimi, though paradoxically, are things that I’ve really learnt to enjoy. This salmon was simply brilliant. There is no other way to describe it. The flavours of the sea were intact without even a whiff of fishy aftertaste. The fat lines made sure the flavours were enhanced beautifully. A tamogoyaki, a kind of rolled omelette, was just the perfect thing to break the monotony of the sea. The pink, almost untouched tuna was beautifully fleshy!

The platter of sushi and sashimi simply took everything away from the rest of the meal. Yes, the tempura vegetables were nice, yes, the miso soup with the sticky rice was comforting, yes, the salad was fresh and had the Japanese flavours ticking the right boxes,no, the fish in the main course wasn’t my favourite, but the Bento box at Spectra, Leela Palace is simply about the platter. Nothing more, nothing less.

Priced from Rs 1200 onwards depending on what main course you choose, I would be super happy to simply get two such platters instead of a main course. 

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What do you do with a plate of food that looks pretty? I mean, like not just pretty, but a little too pretty. Like really really pretty! It took a while for me to take my eyes of the plate and think about all the things on it. The salmon looked beautiful. With nice fat lines this clearly was an expensive salmon. I don’t know where it stacks up on the world’s best, but while it may not be the best, it appeared to be among the top few. A pretty pink slice on tuna shone through. A couple of more sashimi, half a dozen tuna maki sushi, some pickled radish along with the ginger and wasabi completed the really pretty plate. I might have gotten full simply staring at it.

It felt like tearing into a piece of art, but once I was convinced that the art was how the food tasted and not how it looked, taking that pair of chopsticks was slightly easier. When something looks as pretty as this, you might be forgiven for judging it well even if it tasted a notch lower, but the chef at Leela clearly didn’t leave it to that. I’ll have to rephrase that. This is something that the chef’s had little role to play, since it was great quality sea food that wasn’t adulterated by anything. Not even the chef. The chef only made it look pretty and I must admit that he did a great job of making fish look pretty!

The single piece of salmon left me wanting for more. While I am a terrible eater of fish, sushi and sashimi, though paradoxically, are things that I’ve really learnt to enjoy. This salmon was simply brilliant. There is no other way to describe it. The flavours of the sea were intact without even a whiff of fishy aftertaste. The fat lines made sure the flavours were enhanced beautifully. A tamogoyaki, a kind of rolled omelette, was just the perfect thing to break the monotony of the sea. The pink, almost untouched tuna was beautifully fleshy!

The platter of sushi and sashimi simply took everything away from the rest of the meal. Yes, the tempura vegetables were nice, yes, the miso soup with the sticky rice was comforting, yes, the salad was fresh and had the Japanese flavours ticking the right boxes,no, the fish in the main course wasn’t my favourite, but the Bento box at Spectra, Leela Palace is simply about the platter. Nothing more, nothing less.

Priced from Rs 1200 onwards depending on what main course you choose, I would be super happy to simply get two such platters instead of a main course. 

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The proportion of meat and rice and veggies was almost as perfect as it could get for it to be a perfectly balanced meal! I guess every cuisine, especially the Eastern world cuisines, have these one pot meals. While most of them are soup based, donburi is entirely dry! Since Japan already has the Ramen bowl filled with rice, noodles and loads of veggies, it is quite amazing that they have a dry version of it with rice! And its got a nickname, DON. 

Three of us. Three non veg donburi on the menu! How convenient!?! A chicken, a beef and a seafood wala! The Chicken Katsu. Cabbage on a base of rice topped with three super large pieces of Chicken Katsu. The katsu is like supreme cuts of chicken, crumb fried! Quite hearty and we were all able to take a helping each.

The next dish was the best and since one of us in the party didn't eat beef, the two of us were lucky since it was one person less to share with! ;-) Sliced beef on a base of rice and cabbage with a side serving of a poached egg. The egg wasn't runny and I don't know if it is supposed to be, but the beef was super yummy and quite soft and the rice with its garlic overtones was yummy! Both the above were priced about Rs. 790.

Our friend's seafood donburi was the most meaty (and the most pricy at Rs. 1090). It had salmon, scallops, squid, prawns, some mushrooms, asparagus and cabbage on the same garlic-y fried rice! Personally, I don't like salmon in any other form than smoked, so I didn't like the fish part of the donburi, but the rest was all yum! They ran out of dessert, so we didn't get our sweet fix. Had to get some Tiramisu at Focaccia for the sweet fix!

Though called YAKINIKU, the restaurant menu also has some sushi, sashimi, soups and other Japanese stuff, so though the menu is limited, it does cover a lot of basics of Japanese cuisine. I believe they should make the donburi as part of their regular menu, because the three we ate were all super value for money considering it is a 5 star property! Yakiniku charges a 5% service charge on your bill! The festival is on till the 20th of November.

YAKINIKU is the restaurant that started off as a pop up and then became a full fledged, albeit small restaurant at Hyatt Regency Chennai! 

Yup, that is what the new chef, a South American returned, Philippines national calls himself. Jackie Chan! He may be Jed Ursal by birth, but he likes to be called Jackie Chan! He may not be the greatest Hibachi chef around with this tricks. Some were good, some were usual, the noises were typical of a Teppankayi, some missed eggs, some mistakes!

Thankfully, this guy's food is lot better than his tricks! The new menu is exciting and we didn't order anything from the old menu! He had us at our first dish, the SHIFFUDO MAKI. Unlike what I am used to in sushi with a single protein, this one is a mixed seafood, with some kind of vinegary rice topped off with some tobiko (fish eggs)! This was a stunning new experience for us and we loved it. There was some crunch and though it didn't feel too Japanese, with slightly more sauce than usual, it was a great package!

The next sushi was the Scandinavian Maki, with salmon and stuff. It was nice, but was no match for the Shiffudo Maki.

Then another stunner from the new menu, a soup. How good can a soup get? Well, it depends on the flavour profile and here it was super unique. A broccoli soup with seaweed! The balance between the two was simply perfect with neither overpowering the other! We were then debating between taking another starter and going with a main course. These days, we'd prefer going overboard on starters and sharing one main course! We decided to do both!

Surf And Turf. In Miami, a surf and turf denotes Steak and Lobster. In Teppan, it is Japanised as Beef, Prawn and Fish skewered and grilled and we were so glad we asked for it. It was a lovely dish with three different textures of meat and all grilled to perfection.

Between the two of us, we shared one chicken egg fried rice off the Teppan where our Jackie Chan did this tricks. Both the tricks and the rice were blah!

We finished off with Banana Tempura! Their prawn tempura which to date is one of the best we get routinely in Chennai is so awesome and somehow the banana tempura was sort of a savoury-ish dessert and didn't go well!

Trick in Teppan is to go big on the starters and slow on the mains and this has always worked for me. This time with the soup and the Shiffudo maki, the new chef has taken the starters to notch above what was already high by Chennai stand alone standards!

A meal for two will cost about Rs. 2000 for two starters, soup, rice and dessert! I am yet to try their set menus, but I am going back just for the Shiffudo Maki!

"Kaatru vanga ponen, oru kavidhai vaangi vandhen," sang a former super hero of Tamil cinema. It translates to, "I went to get some fresh air, but I came back with a poem."

That's what happened when I went to the Teppan Food Festival at The Flying Elephant.

OK, so the teppan is behind a glass, so you have to see the tricks with a glass barrier. Ironic. That didn't stop the guests from lining up in front of the glass to take a look and allowing their phones to do the same at the teppan Chef Lalit doing knife tricks while making some awesome Seafood Fried Rice!

While Park Hyatt invited me over for their Teppan dinner, they are not going to like this piece of writing. A little tea hijacking the evening! Can't blame me. They simply had a tea that was brilliant!

Back to Teppan. Dinner started for the four of us with Beef Carpaccio. Brilliant cut of beef soaked to perfection. This was followed by an excellent scampi starter and a wonderful mushroom salad. But man, the tea was Oh-so-good.....sorry. Focus. Focus.

The mains started with Chicken Teriyaki and tea. One piece of chicken, one gulp of tea! Focus. Focus. While the Chicken Teriyaki and the sea bass were pretty good, they were no match for the Seaweed salad that had all the elements of a Japanese and Teppan feel and taste to it. No, the tea wasn't Japanese, but hey......OK. Focus on food. Focus.

This was followed by some display of chef and knife skills by their new Teppan Chef from behind the glass and lots of guests joined us in viewing him chop the omelette with Ferrari speed and Omega Precision! I actually had to look at his fingers to make sure my doctor skills weren't needed! We loved the seafood fried rice long before it was served on the table. I wish The Flying Elephant sets up a Teppan table, but I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon (or late)! The seafood fried rice went well with the Tea! (Pun intended)!

Dessert. Yay! Nothing Japanese about it, but the dessert platter left us gaping and gasping for more! I had to divert my food pipe towards the heart and wished I had a larger heart! As large as the tea pot that carried that tea! He he. But if there was one thing that competed with the tea, it was the dessert platter. The salted caramel profiterole was a stunner that night. Perfectly salted caramel with a fantastic choux pastry. The tart and the macaron and the cake popsicle and the tiny orange pastry all complemented the profiterole. And the tea!

So what was this tea? It was an English Breakfast tea with Orange. As simple as that. Served cold on a hot summer day, this was so refreshing with the perfect balance of tea and Orange juice. I had more than a few glasses and that might have played a role in filling up the tummy leaving barely enough space for the dessert (that then had to be diverted to the heart)!

The festival is on till the 29th, but the chef is here to stay! And so is the tea! 

Eat Dessert First - Some wise dude!

I saw this at Sandy's, but never acted upon that advice, till Thursday night. After dreading a long wait, was surprised to get a table quickly and since we were only two of us, we got a table immediately. The place was almost full on a week night.

The dessert craving hit and the history of their Banofee Pie was a little too much to resist. Before the menu came, we asked for the Banofee pie, much to the surprise of the waiter.

So, my last visit here was mixed as I wrote. Mainly because I was expecting the Bangalore's experimental menu. This time, open mind!

So, Banofee pie was half polished off, enjoyed and left the half for the actual dessert!

We were not exactly in a pig out mood, so we completely skipped main courses and had three starters. The grill platter from the bar nibbles menu, a shrimp dim sum and a spicy sweet potato fries. The dimsum was super yummy. While it definitely wasn't as thin as a fantastic one should be, the flavours helped by the burnt stuff on top and the sauce more than made up for the lack of skill in making a transparent dim sum. Yum. Check.

The grill platter was lovely. With two pieces each of Yakitori, Indonesian grilled chicken and satay, each served with complementary sauces, the peanut, the soy and the coriander (I think it was), was lovely. Add the spicy sweet potato fries and the polished off remains of the banofee pie and we had a reasonably healthy dinner on a weekday and ended up not feeling too guilty!!!

At 1550 for the above, it was a little pricy for a week night, no special occasion type of meal, but the not guilty part made up for it!

Yo mama!!!

Want to try this at home? Use coupon code "CF1" and order using the link below for Rs. 100 off* on your first order.


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I'm sure you know of my paradox. Loving breakfast but not wanting to get up for it. Especially Sunday. And an Asian Brunch? Where I know there are no waffles and pancakes and dosas. Forget it. Did it once for Chef Vikram at Pan Asian and would do it every Sunday for his food, but otherwise an Asian Brunch on Sunday is not very appealing for someone like me who struggles to wake up for dinner on Sundays, forget brunch.

But a new chef is in town. And he has stepped into the shoes of somebody I (and a lot of foodies in Chennai) adored and loved and while we wished him the very best for Tian (ITC Maurya, New Delhi), we secretly wished he stayed back here. I know it is going to be unfair to compare two chefs, but with Pan Asian it would be inevitable.

Especially if we are doing a chef's table where good is not enough. Excellent is the only way out. At a chef's table nothing matters. Not the name of the restaurant, not the waiters, the service, nothing. Its the chef all the way!

Our brunch started off with a Sashimi. Presentation was fantastic and portions sizes were perfect when you need the space for a 9-10 course meal. While the premium fatty tuna and salmon was great,  what I loved even more where the subtle ones - the fresh wasabi. I've never seen what it looks like and have never tasted a freshly grated one and I loved every morsel of it. It is less pungent, but equally flavourful and added a beautiful element to the sashimi. This with the Shisho leaf and Hanaho flower made up a great first course. Oh, there was little sea urchin full of flavour sitting right at front of the plate! Bang, we're on!

Next came a stunning Asian interpretation of the classic Fish n Chips. At least the fish part of it. A crispy fried John Dory (not the man, the fish), with a hint of garlic and chilli, shaped like hand cut potatoes fries. Everything about the dish was great!

This was followed by another first for me, a scallop dim sum with salmon caviar (or caviar-like). It was a different experience to have scallop in this form and lovely nonetheless. This was followed by the the grilled black cod that was mouth watering, but the smaller element, the poached pears were refreshing and added beautiful supplement to the dish.

Then came the course I had to refuse to complete. Completely didn't like the duck at all. While I'm not a fan of duck meat, in most chef tables, I end up liking them, but not here. Completely put me off!

Thankfully, the duck was followed by a beautiful lamb! Again, while the lamb was great and all, the chef added an interesting element, a hand rolled puff pastry, like a cigar that complemented the lamb really well!

Then came two not so great courses to finish off. While the platter with the chilean sea bass yellow curry and wok tossed lamb came with noodles and jasmine rice, it was non-flattering and simply did not live up to the first three quarters of the meal.

Desserts were a hit and miss. The platter had some strawberry with yuzu, a chocolate and hazelnut thingy and a macaron. While the chocolate hazelnut stuff ( I don't know what to call it) was yum, it was the only thing in the platter that was nice. The macaron was soggy and the yuzu curd with strawberries were blah!

The first set of courses more than made up for the last two as we were stuffed. While theatrics are minimal here with the focus on plating with ice and smoky, Pan Asian has an able new chef at the helm and I would like to look out for him and hope to discover more of his food.

I also have the feeling to just take a plane and go to Delhi and go to Tian right away!!!

Brunch at Pan Asian without Sashimi costs Rs. 2350 nett/ and the one with Sashimi is Rs. 1000 more per person. There is no buffet, the chef just doles out course after course and all you have to do is make the decision of veg or non veg, sit back and enjoy. And long. We went it at 1 PM and left at 430 PM, so it is a nice long brunch!

The juices from the pop up dinner at Food Consulate was just settling down in my tummy when I got the call. It was intriguing. I've heard of pop up dinners, but a pop up restaurant? Where does it pop up from? And what happens after the restaurant popped up and then went on to the next place? The whole thing was confusing for me and I actually cancelled an appointment to make it for the launch of this.

My confusion was put to rest when I saw that the bistro at Hyatt Regency was converted into this pop up. Ah. So it just didn't pop up in the middle of the lobby like I thought it might. But from a bistro to full Japanese? Nice job nevertheless. 

Being the opening day and with the restaurant filled with people, I think the little bistro wasn't prepared to handle the crowd. Waiters were running around, clearly overwhelmed. With the top honcho of Toshiba doing the honours (which I missed), I learnt that there was a Japanese population of about 30k people in Chennai. No wonder so many Japanese restaurants are coming up, popping or stable. OK, bad joke. 

By the time I went, friends had already gulped down a giant brinjal - done Japanese style. I saw a few orders going by and was tempted, but thought of the sushi and stuff to come along made me leave the brinjal alone. Unfortunately the sushi was blah for me. I like fatty salmon and that wasn't the case here, but there was something amiss in the sushi and I don't know what that is. Sashimi was just as average.

Leave those two and the rest were lovely. The Japanese pancake, though my friends thought was a little doughy, I really liked it. Its like a big stuffed pancake and since the non veg version had pork, I had to do with the veg. I think for meat lovers, the non veg might be a great option too, if you don't mind a nice dense savoury pancake. And the best dish of the day was they call the Niku Tofu. It's sliced beef in a broth served with fantastic tofu. Loved every morsel and would have liked the plate!!! The tempura prawns were also a little blah and something was missing in the batter. It wasn't entirely light, but there was definitely something wrong with the batter.

Dessert - I don't remember the name of the jelly like dessert as it was average, but the other one was excellent. A Green Tea Tiramisu. I've had their Green Tea Cheesecake in another restaurant (STIX) and wasn't impressed, but this was fantastic. Just the right amount of green tea for the flavours and lots of mascarpone. 

It's great that we are having pop up dinners and now even restaurants popping up. While these place had both good and bad (like most things), I really believe that this is the start for something that Chennai can start looking forward to when you are bored of the same old restaurants. Kudos for bringing this concept in. 

YAKINIKU stays popped up till the 10th of December!