A friend from US was craving for Indian food and after a lot of debate, we decided on Bombay Brasserie. The idea was to go in quick, get her food, get us some nibbles and then head out to meet every one else for dessert.

Quick didn't happen!

The order was simple. A Galouti kebab, 2 Garlic naans, one almond kofta gravy and one biriyani! The galouti had so much mixed reviews. I quite liked it. Both my other friends didn't. Our US friend is vegetarian! I don't know what they didn't like. I mean, it wasn't the greatest on earth, but certainly not bad enough for me to have to finish the plate. It was super soft, creamy, yummy and had a small bread. Maybe the bread, not being great did not add to the flavour, but the kebab it self was nice.

But the reason for this blog post is the gravy. I don't know we all loved, but the almond kofta gravy was fabulous! I mean, I could have just drunk the gravy without the garlic naan! Loved it, really loved it! The biriyani was white when the dough was removed, but when mixed, it took the colours. It was a good biriyani!

We headed out for dessert and the above cost us Rs. 1650! 

I wonder why there is a sudden rush for Arabian like food in Chennai! It must be doing well and if the trend goes, we might soon has Indian Arabian, just like we have Indo - Chinese. None of the dishes are Arabian really, but, of course, one cannot open a restaurant for people who want authentic food and price it low. They have to play to the market and going by the crowd at Laham, with a simple but nice interiors, quirky posters, I think the owners have found the sweet spot.

Three of us walked in and found that both brands, Laham and Tas Tea, belong to the same person. Tas Tea, is a bubble tea that I have had at Malaysia and I was keen to see how well they have fit the concept to the Chennai market. So we ordered for chicken shawarma, Shish Tawook and Chicken Sheekh Kebab. Apparently the restaurant had just opened and a lot of dishes on the menu was unavailable.

The bubble teas came up first and though the 'bubbles' were similar to what I have had before, the tea did not seem to have any tea in it. Only then did I realise that I had ordered the crushed ice bubble and since there was no crushed ice at all, it didn't seem like it and I presumed I had ordered tea. The other two guys had their tea and I tasted them both and they were fine. The bubbles are nothing but small flavoured tapioca balls added to the tea and the straw is large enough to suck them through.

The owner recognised us as his school seniors and joined us for a chat. He told us about his previous experiences with restaurants and told us his plans for this restaurant, which included bring in sheekh kebab burgers in both chicken and lamb. With a vast background in food, he seemed to know what he is doing. But I found the shawarma to be like a Bengali kati roll. There was no veggies, no pickled veggies, no french fries - just a pita roll stuffed with chicken. So if you like your roll to be full of chicken, you will like this, if you're like me, wanting a balance between the chicken and the veggies, then you wont. The roll was tasty, it is just not shawarma for me. The chicken sheekh kebab was juicy and very tasty, while the shish tawook was very differently spiced and not what I am used to. There is a lot of gravy and roti on the menu that we did not try.

The owner refused to take the bill and said that the place was just up and running and he was glad to get feedback from us and waived off the bill. He has asked us to visit him again in a few weeks once his full menu is up and then we could pay! So I am not rating this place yet! Prices of dishes are between 80 and 200 for most dishes and a meal for two should cost about Rs. 500! But this is Indo Arabian, not Arabian and with an almost full house, I guess it has clicked.

Laham is right at the Kelly junction in Kilpauk with a parking space for about four cars.

There is no way comparisons with Great Kebab Factory will not come up, so I am not going to resist the temptation. After looking for a nice place for dinner on Saturday, we zeroed in on NH1 - after knowing fully well that this was the sit down kebab buffet - the exact same style that TGKF introduced to Chennai a few years back! We booked a table for 3 and my brilliant friend did not give his name or phone number, so when we landed there and asked for our table, they pointed to three people who had just started dinner and they told us that they asked those guys if they had a reservation and they said yes! So our table was gone!

So, we waited for 20 minutes as the restaurant was packed! We kept seeing the menu and pinching ourselves as there were 7 starters each (ok, bringing the TGKF - it has 5), no Gulouti Kebab, a round of Indian Breads, four gravies, two biriyanis and one dessert! So we decided that 20 minutes is worth the wait.

For those who have not been to the Great Kebab Factory, this is a sit down buffet where you make the choice of veg or non veg and then all of the dishes are brought to your table. The soup arrived first and was reasonably ok! The starters arrived, unlike TGKF, on a plate that was left on our table. It had about 4 or 5 pieces each of two chicken, one fish and one prawn kebabs. The Prawns were brilliant, juicy and perfectly cooked, both the chicken kebabs were pretty good. The fish was outright spoilt - no second thoughts or doubts - we sent it back and the next set was equally bad! We asked them to stop serving us the fish and settled for the two lamb kebabs and the third chicken kebab that landed on our table, all of which were pretty nice. We also nibbled on a couple of vegetarian starters - the paneer was alright and the potatoes were just about alright too! We saved space for more carnivore starters!!!!

And then came the round of breads with the gravies - both the non veg gravies were just about alright, they were a little too runny for my liking, the mixed veg gravy was decent, but the dhal makhni was brilliant. Even though we were stuffed with starters, all of us ate two butter naans with this wonderfuly dhal makhni!!!! Both the biriyanis were just about decent.

Thankfully there was only dessert compared to the four you get at TGKF. To put things in perspective, TGKF costs you Rs 1600 nett, while NH1 costs you Rs 600 nett , so for the price, this place is a huge value for money. I mean if you can get two good starters, some naan with gravy and a dessert for that price, you should be happy with the current prices in Chennai, and at NH1 you get more than that. Food will not taste the same when you compare to TGKF, but leave that part alone and you will come out of the restaurant feeling reasonably satisfied with the food and definitely more than satisfied with the quantity.

Service was very good that day even though they were packed. Waiters were attentive and polite and encouraged you to eat more! Ambiance is very blah!

I would rate this experience a 3/5 !

NH1 is on Pycrofts Garden Road - you can access it via Haddows Road or via Wallace Garden road. It is above La Shakahari

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So as an extension of my mystery shopping experience at Aloft, I had the choice of having either the buffet dinner or a-la-carte at Estia. Estia is their mediterranean restaurant and it is tucked away inside the main restaurant. There is no way of knowing that the restaurant exists as there were no boards or no signs of this, and even after you enter the main restaurant, you only notice that there is a separate section and if you don't ask for it, you might just think that it is an extension of the main restaurant!!! Now that was one long sentence, but it kind of tells you about the location of Estia. Just enter Aloft on OMR and ask for it!

I asked what is their specialty and we were suggested a few dishes of the menu. The menu was colourful, but not one that has a pleasing look as it was sticky all the way and sort of cramped. We decided to have a chicken soup and it was called AVGOLEMONO and since I was doing mystery shopping, I could not ask them to email me the dishes, so I had to write them all down! The soup was refreshing! We had a cheese borek, which is cheese with greens stuffed in puff pastry and it was ok! We asked for two main courses, first we asked for GAMBAS PIL PIL which is tiger prawns on a bed of polenta, then asked for MELANGANE PARMAGIANNA, which was supposed to be like a greek lasagna, but when I saw SOUVLAKI KEBAB on the menu, I changed my mind. The tiger prawns were cooked to perfection and tasted great, while the souvlaki kebabs were super juicy and super tasty. They were served with flavoured rice and stuffed pita bread and I had them with the pita bread! The pita bread could have been better, but the kebabs more than made up for it. But the waiter messed up the order and forgot to cancel the parmagianna and so we were left with three main dishes. Knowing fully well that I can write off the check to the hotel, we decided to taste and it turned out to be great!!!!! Glad we did not return it.

Being full with a nice meal, we were craving for dessert as we wanted something sweet, we asked for baklava and I spotted a white chocolate creme brûlée on the menu which I asked for. The baklava tasted good, but it was not the typical baklava with layers of puff pastry and stuff, but some kind of a rolled baklava. I am not sure if this is baklava and it certainly was not a great baklava, but it was not bad. The white chocolate creme brûlée,  which might look very nice on the picture tasted pathetic! I had to leave the whole thing behind as it was very watery and wrongly flavoured. The total cost of the meal was Rs 1600 something, but if you remove the extra main course that we had, you can easily have a meal here for Rs 1200 for two.

But in general the meal was very good and I am surprised that Aloft is not promoting this restaurant! There are not too many Mediterranean options on OMR as far as I know and obviously I cannot compare this to Kryptos or Azulia,this is not a bad place for a meal!!!

I would rate this experience a 3.5/5


Estia is the mediterranean restaurant at Aloft on OMR. It is right next to the Sholinganallur four road junction.

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I am starting off this new year's blogging with the restaurant that I started my blog with, the Great Kebab Factory. Well, this time around I was at their new outlet in Egmore in the Radisson Blu premises, and we got there after we almost tricked a friend into treating us for dinner as 'his wedding gift' to us! I say almost because we ended up going dutch and paying it all ourselves, but had no regrets doing so! For those who did not know, the Great Kebab Factory is a "sit down and let us serve you the buffet" kind of place. The only decision you make is 'Veg' or 'Non Veg' and after that everything is brought to your table in a particular order. You can ask for more (if you still have the space)!

The place is not as fancy as their main outlet near the airport, in fact, I would not imagine that this is the Great Kebab Factory if the board was not outside and the ambiance is very so so, considering the fact you pay a grand and a half for dinner! But everything about the ambiance, the price and any thing else you can think to bring this place down disappears when the first roti and a small cutlet to be spread lands on your table - the Galouti Kebab! I have had this kebab elsewhere and you tell yourself that 'Hey, it is not bad', but the minute you have it at TGKF, you know that the others are imitators, at best. I wonder how they make it here and since it is the first kebab that is served, it sets a very high standard and makes the rest of the kebabs look bad. As soon as you put it in your mouth, it disappears like magic! The prawn grill was another brilliant kebab, juicy, succulent and super tasty! The lamb sheek, the other chicken and the fish were all good, but paled in comparison the first one! In fact, I would not mind going here and taking 5 or 6 helpings of the Galouti and heading out. My friend, in his second helping, took two galouti in a single roti! We all took the help of the wonderful lassi here to send the other kebabs inside, but galouti did not need any help!

Then came the rotis, the gravies and the biriyani and all of them were reasonably good! We were stuffed by this time and were glad that they served us only portion of the four desserts all of which turned out to be great! We all had a bite of each and could not ask for a second helping as there was no room in the stomach. In fact, given a choice, I would have rolled home!

Service was first class! Water was filled regularly and there was somebody who caught your attention if you need something so it was wonderful that way.


I would rate this experience a 4/5, if the ambiance was classier, I would have given it another half!


TGKF is located at Radisson Blu hotel, Egmore on the same road as Ethiraj College, towards the Egmore COOPTEX junction. For a classier ambiance, I prefer the one near the Airport!

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