Asian food has really taken India by storm. While it was limited to Indo-Chinese and Thai, now Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysian foods have become the new comfort eat out foods. While a restaurant each for the cuisines may not be feasible for all, the Pan Asian minus Japanese, I guess is going to be in for a while and seems to have taken out the sudden craze for mid eastern cuisine that was there for a bit.

Va Pho is a jugalbandi of everything. Is it a fine dine restaurant? Nope. Is it a coffee shop? Nope. It is a fun space that happens to serve food. There is an auto right at the entrance for photo-ops and selfie crazes. Walls full of graffiti. A large space with seats on three sides and two round tables in one corner that will be perfect for a large group that wants to nibble on food while playing scrabble. Oh, you don’t have to take your scrabble with you, they give it you. And chess. And some more board games. A high bar table with no bar! Comfy corner tables with some privacy. It is indeed a platter of things. A real fun atmosphere with a menu that comes with all inclusive prices, so what you see is what you pay.

I was there twice. Once with the wife and once with friends on the invite of Va Pho so I am going to try to focus on dishes. The soup, both times I had the Beef Pho soup. Light and warm, this definitely wasn’t the best pho and doesn’t stack upto Benjarong’s festival pho, but it is not pretending to be that either. Glass noodles were yum on the invite visit while the Spicy Malaysian fried rice was fantastic on my personal visit. It was really really spicy, but the tongue asked for more. Inspired by the Jungle Fried rice in Benjarong, the fried rice here is brilliant.

The bau buns are the next best things. Super soft, loaded buns with nice smoky chicken, but the thousand island type dressing spoilt it for me, so I asked for one without it and loved it without the sauce on top. The chicken satay for us with a modified peanut sauce was nice. I didn’t really like the dim sums. Rendang with coconut rice was also nice and tangy. The beef was soft and pretty much melt-in-the-mouth.

The chocolate dessert was fabulous. A nice mousse with a chocolate disc and the crumbs adding the crunch with the cherry was a beautiful dessert.

Va Pho is above Tex-Mex and Hot Breads on RK Salai, but with a dedicated entry via the side road, but valet parking is on the main road.

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Take the dim sum out of the steamer. Dunk it in your mouth. Realise it is super hot and struggle to eat it. Then enjoy the second dim sum when it cools a bit! Right? Maybe, but when you have a curried dim sum, then it is a whole new ball game.
Nasi and Mee has been making waves in Chennai and I can see why. Promising Malaysian and Singaporean street food, the place itself is set up like a pub and the ambiance is inviting and laid back. With quirky stuff all over the walls and an almost Singapore hawker stall like feel albeit in a posh, up market set up, the place seems to have ticked all the boxes.
We were invited for the evening and were welcomed with a trio of welcome drinks, but nothing screams Malaysia more than Milo. Having a cult status in Malaysia and in parts of Singapore, the humble Milo maybe a health drink (a failed one at that) in India, but it is revered there. The Milo here was as good as the ones you get in Malaysia, chocolaty, a little dilute (since it is a thirst quencher and not a health drink) and chilled. The warm winter melon soup kicked off the proceedings and was a beautiful comforting soup, with large winter melons in a familiar Asian broth that my Indian palate was extremely comfortable with.
Then came the dim sum in question. I don’t remember having it before and so when the waiter said that the dim sum had soup in it, I was more than intrigued. I was asked to place the dim sum on a spoon,  poke a hole, let the steam out and slowly drink up the soup off the spoon and then dunk the whole dim sum in my mouth. There is a certain novelty value to the experience which over shadows the flavour of the craby soup, (yes, this is a crab soup in the dim sum).
The Nasi Lemak was the first main course to arrive. It looked very similar to the original Malaysian version, with the rice, peanuts and anchovies, but with an omelette instead of a boiled egg. The rice had the coconutty flavour while the anchovies were surprisingly and (for most of us, pleasantly) non-stinky, but the strong Belacan flavour of Malaysia was clearly missing in the entire meal. Now, this is not something that may go well with the crowd as the Belacan (shrimp paste) is what gives Malaysian food its strong pungent flavour, but there was almost no whiff of it anywhere in the meal. So this is a highly Indianised version of the Lemak. The Char Keow Teow is where I realised that Nasi and Mee is street food inspired at best and is not here to give you those flavours. A Char Keow Teow in the streets of Singapore will be a dark stir fried noodles and here it was no where close. The slightly burnt flavour that gives Char Keow Teow its distinct taste (with soy/fish sauce I think that is used by hawkers) was missing in its entirety. The Laksa arrived to much dismay as that wasn’t any Laksa curry that I’ve had. Not that I’ve had too many variations, but I simply didn’t know what it was.  The main course in general tasted excellent, but I felt like I ordered chilli chicken and was served an excellent butter chicken instead!
Dessert was definitely closer. I resisted from ordering a Chendol as I didn’t want to be served some payasam! Ice Kacang it was for me, while my friend ordered a fried ice cream. The Ice Kacang was excellent. It looked like the original and tasted very close to the ones you get in Singapore and Malaysia. It had the beans, the corn, peanuts, the green noodles and multiple flavours of ice. I should have ordered Chendol, I guess. The fried ice cream though is one of the best that I’ve in Chennai, with a crisp flavoured shell oozing out a nice vanilla ice cream. I believe they have multiple flavours for the fried ice cream.
The price point is killer. While I won’t be surprised if you asked to pay an entry fee to KNK Road in Nungambakkam, Nasi and Mee is priced extremely competitively. With most dishes priced around mid three hundred mark, a good meal for two at Rs. 1000 is doable with ease. With a nice ambiance and a street food inspired cuisine at a killer price point, Nasi and Mee should do well in Chennai. I understand that the restaurant needs to survive and do well more than making sure there was Belacan in your food, but I only wish that there were at least a few dishes (OK, at least 2 or 3) that could have retained the essence of the wonderful street food culture in those countries.

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China Town.

The name brought back floods of memories. During the last of my school days, when the eating scene in Chennai wasn't as vibrant as it is now, few places stood out! And China Town was one among them. If the 'rich kid' was throwing a party, it was here. During early college, when one wanted to celebrate an 'occasion' it was here.

I was also starting to wonder why I forgot this place. There are times when we look around for a not-so-expensive Chinese eat out and recently, my brain hasn't been recalling China Town. I was glad that the invite came from the restaurant!!!!

The greatest part of the evening was Chef Ram of Benjarong! Wondering why the chef at Benjarong was here? I was too! Only then were we told that China Town is now pan Asian and serves a variety from Vietnamese and Malaysian and Singaporean while having a large Indo-Chinese selection too! And being from the same group, Chef Ram co-ordinates with Chef Lee, the chef at China Town and since the latter wasn't in town, Ram jumped!

Dinner started off with a pretty nice wanton, stir fried! While the soft wantons were nice as they were, the saucy stir fry add a zing to it. This was followed by a Beef Noodle Soup or they call the Vietname Pho. Apparently a meal by itself, we were served a very small portion and it was heavy!!!! The fantastic prawn wrapper completed the starters!

This was followed by the trademark conversation with Chef Ram, while the main courses were getting ready. While most of us now know that Manchurian is not Chinese and we boast this knowledge, did you ever think how and why that name cropped in? Like they say that every rumour has a whiff of truth, sometimes minuscule, but there, Manchurian has one too! So apparently the first set of Chinese settlers settled down near Calcutta, now Kolkatta! While they have moved on to another place, quite far away, apparently it is one of the few places in India where you can get an authentic Chinese breakfast, between 6 and 8 am!! Afterwards, this becomes a market leaving no traces of what happened before that!

Okay, back to Manchurian! So, these guys tried to fuse our gobi with whatever they could find that was close to the flavour back home and thus Manchurian was born! Of course, it was gone through various iterations and we have finally been told that it doesn't really exist, but it turns out that it does!!!! At least, it wasn't entirely done by Indians, but Chinese settlers in India, so there is a whiff of Chinese in Manchurian!!! I can sleep peacefully!

OK, back to the food fest! Four types of noodles were served with a Hunan chicken for company! I loved the spinach noodles, which they home make here. There was a Mee Goreng, a Malaysian style noodles with sea food, a fantastic Thai flat noodles with minced beef and a typical Vermicelli! We loved the fantastic flavour of the Spinach Noodles and being pure veg, I was surprised and amazed!!!

While there were three desserts, only one caught my attention, the Banana Wontons!!! While it was excellent, the others weren't!

It was a fun evening, reminding ourselves of the old times, remembering China Town again, catching up with Chef Ram and the nice dinner. The Noodles Festival is on till the 8th of March, but obviously China Town the restaurant will be there after that too!!! So glad that the brain now has another option when it comes comfort Indo-Chinese beyond Cascade!

While heading to Sandy's, we spotted this Terrace Grill and Cafe on top of Crimson Chakra, KNK Road and we were rather intrigued. A different restaurant that has its entry via another restaurant? Curiosity got the better of us and we ventured in via Crimson and landed on the nicely set terrace after the manager convinced us that they had awesome 'world food.' The menu suggested that their version of the world was rather small, but we went ahead anyways.

We  wanted to start off safe, so we ordered a mutton grill starter from the CC menu, which came like badly made lamb satays. The crust was a little hard and chewy and was a complete disappointment. One steak with mushroom sauce which was quite nice and the second chicken steak with pepper sauce was quite nice too. So both friends got good food and my order a chilly beef burger was baaaaaaaddddd. I returned it after one bite and they replaced it with (we chose) chicken parmigiana. It was everything a parmigiana is not - it was fried too much with oil dripping, had no pasta (though it is not mandatory, it just goes well with pasta) and the cheese was definitely not parmigiano or parmesan which is an acceptable alternative, but a low quality mozzarella. It looked like it was not even baked with the cheese on top. Really? Why even call it chicken parmigiana? After the good chicken and beef dishes, this left a bad taste. Should not have ordered it.

To the credit of the restaurant, they took back the beef burger without any questions, came back to me with an explanation and did not charge me for the replacement Parmigiana. Kudos and I really appreciated that. Neat set up, nice terrace, two good dishes, two bad dishes, restaurant willing to listen and good service, so I will go with 3/5.

This is like a toned down version of Casa Picola (not the hookah filled later avatar, but the original outstanding one). Food has a long way to go, but they are just starting off and I might go back sometime, but to call yourself world cuisine, the menu is woefully small and has only Italy and Malaysia with a little bit of Indian and Nowhere thrown in. Essentially, an identity crisis! On KNK road with Sandy's, Tuscana, Khansama around the corner, that is not a good thing to have!

Expectation is a good thing - it keeps us looking forward to something! Sometimes when our expectations are met, we are very happy, when they aren't, we are not so happy. But there are times when expectations are neither met nor unmet, but thrown out of the window!

Pan Asian at The Grand Chola called me on a quiet Friday evening and asked to join them for their opening celebrations the following Sunday and I could not make it. 'Monday or Tuesday would be fine', I suggested. And after not being able to make it on Monday either, Tuesday it was and when friends from CFG said that they were invited too, I was looking forward to a night of exotic Thai, Singaporean (though nothing is really Singaporean) and Malay dishes and maybe a bit of Chinese here and there! The nasty traffic played it's part and I missed the 'Amuse', which was supposed to be an introduction to the cuisine. And yeah, the restaurant, a fine dining pan Asian one in a five star deluxe, one of a kind hotel (at least size wise) in Chennai was almost packed on a Tuesday evening.

A chef tasting menu is what we were supposed to have that evening. A Banana Blossom salad was served. I had no idea from which Asian country that dish was from, but the taste was outstanding - not exotic, in fact, it was rather simple, but outstanding. This was followed by Duck Carpaccio, now, I am not a fan of duck meat, in fact, I have had duck in some fancy places and I still stay away, but this duck was edible for me. The others thought it was fantastic and if I was not so prejudiced, I would have agreed. A simple but modified Thai classic salad came out next and was good, again, not exotic. Then a Sichuan style Crispy prawn - yeah, Sichuan, to remind us that China is part of Asia! Excellent, followed by the stir fried squid, which was nice too. And an excellent Wok Tossed Chicken followed suit to end the list of starters. Like the others, this had just the chicken, some nuts and a cucumber salad.

And then came the soup bowl, yeah, the soup bowl with something small in it. The soup came separately in a jar which we had to pour. The soup was simple with very mild flavours, but since the appetising was already done, I don't know how the soup fit in, but it was a break from the flavours thus far. By this time I had two mocktails already, a virgin Mojito and a chilly spice, both of which were very predictable.

A glazed salmon started proceedings for the main course, again, maybe I only like Salmon smoked, so I thought this was ok, but we soon had another excellent chicken, very similar to the nutty chicken starter - look and simplicity wise, but completely different in flavour. We then had an assorted seafood which was very nice too with Asian Greens and Teppanyaki fried rice - and what wonderful Teppanyaki fried rice. Japan is very much a part of Asia. We finished off with two excellent desserts to end what was an amazing evening. The dinner hit the sweet spot - left us full, but not stuffed.

The chef then joined us to explain the dishes, so when the dishes came we did not have someone telling what it was, but the food did all the talking - the chef only did the yabadaba doo. A meal for two should set you back by about Rs 5000, but if you want to spend more, you can ask for the Chef's table starting at Rs 6500 per person and you can go up to whatever number you want. But if you're at the restaurant and don't want to go through the menu ask for Chef Vikram and ask him to help you out. The menu has three sections - Chinese (with four different Chinese cuisines), Japanese and rest of Asia!

So, yeah, back to expectations - what to do with them? I went in expecting something, came out experiencing something completely different - simple flavours with excellent taste in a five star deluxe hotel. Quite an oxymoron isn't it? But since the meal left me quite happy, I would rate this 4.5/5. Whoa, two restaurants taking up the 4.5 in one week. I wish life continues this way.

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Whose name is Ming? That is precisely the question I had in mind when my patient mentioned this!!!! One evening one of my patients casually asked me, 'Hey Doc, you're a foodie right? Have you tried 'her name is Ming?'

'Whose name is Ming?' I asked

'Oh Doc, have you been to Hotel President recently?' he asked

'You must be kidding'

He laughed. 'Doc' he said, 'I know what you're thinking. For me this hotel was a place that even men could get raped in'

'That is not what I was thinking sir, but, Hotel President? For food?'

'Doc, do try this place out. It is fab'

And that's how I was intrigued to enter Hotel President for the first time in my life. The lobby was exquisite. There was loud music from the pub which is as soon as you enter the lobby. The lobby cafe had a buffer dinner for Rs 875 nett, but I was here to see ming. Of the two of us, I was the curious one!

'Ming is that side sir' chuckled a waiter and I was starting to get nervous.

We found Ming behind the lobby cafe and spotted only about 8-9 tables. Two tables had diners and the rest were empty. By the time we ordere the main course, the place was full!!!! The service was superb to start with. Each of the tables seemed to have a single waitress assigned and we were taken care, initially, rather well. We weren't too hungry so we ordered a wonton soup to share, a dan dan noodles, a grilled beef and a dessert.

Most East Asian cuisine restaurants have the wonton soup and all of them have this huge wonton in it that makes you look funny when you try to get it into your mouth. Here the soup was as good as it is in most good places, but with smaller wontons inside, which made life easier. We asked for the starter (the beef) to be served with the noodles and it was done that way. The dan dan noodles, which is a hand pulled noodle was very unique. This is the first time I am getting a portion of noodles with more chicken in it than the noodle. This was a noodle that was spicy and bland at the same time. Being hand pulled, the noodle did not take the spice very well, but took the other flavours well. I loved it. The beef starter had 8 medallions of beef, cooked to perfection with a little gravy on top. Brilliant!!!!

And then the service started getting slow. We had to wait at least 10 minutes to get the attention of the waitress and she came running, apologised profusely for the delay and suggested the pandan creme brûlée for dessert. The top layer was not evenly glassy, but the center part was, but the way it tasted, I could not care less. I am a sucker for Kaya, a jam made of the Pandan Leaves - you get it everywhere in Malaysia and this was a dessert made with that. Personally I loved it and if you love Kaya, you will love this. If you don't like Kaya, you will still like it if you like the pumkin type of pudding. Hell, if you don't like food, you might like this, so do try it if you get here.

The damages were Rs 1815 for the above. There was a service tax and a VAT, but no service charge - a principle that I adore when it comes to restaurants.

4 dishes and a one time try is not enough to rate a restaurant, but if what I had was any indication, I would rate this place a 4/5. Would want to go back and try more dishes!

The menu is rather seductive with a description of what Ming is supposed to do to you at every course. The last page ends with 'we hope she left you satisfied'

Hotel President is a very old hotel located on RK Salai, a few buildings after Citi Center. Apparently there has been a senior manager from Park who has taken over as VP of the hotel and has instrumented a change. The change seems to be working!

We were driving down KNK road looking for a new place to eat and after circling the are twice zeroed in on 3 kingdoms. After entering the new building and getting to the floor with this restaurant, we thought we had hit jackpot. The interiors looked well done, the staff were very polite and it looked like a great setting for a quite dinner, but the fact that we were the only ones there was not a great feeling, but since the place is relatively new, I thought we could pass on that. It promised cuisines from Thailand, China and Malaysia.

We got ourselves a malay chicken noodle soup that turned out to be great. Very filling, lots of noodles and chicken and vegetables and it was a really nice soup. It had a tinge of authenticity and had the flavors that I had tasted in Malaysia, but not too many people like that prawn taste in everything. We then got ourselves a pandan wrapped chicken (the Thai ones) and a chicken sumai (a dimsum like dish). Both left us completely disappointed. The pandan leaf chicken was very average and the flavors were very mild. I am not even sure if they have had the real thing in Thailand, it was so different. The sumai was equally average. We were kind of disappointed and the meal left us feeling a little uncomfortably full with flavors we did not like, it was a funny feeling. We left without ordering main course or dessert, we landed in Tuscana nearby to get a tiramisu to undo the funny feeling and it worked.

The bill for the three dishes was Rs. 745. If I was in that area, I would rather eat at so many other places with a similar cuisine especially since there is no price advantage here either. Service was by very good though, water was promptly refilled, we were explained what the dishes were and there always was a smile, but that day, I could not help but wonder if there is even a chef on duty. Not sure if it was a bad day for them or for me.

Food 6/10
Ambiance 8/10
Service 9/10
Price 7/10

You will find 3 kingdoms on KNK road, in the same building as Yoko sizzlers, or maybe I should not have told you where it is.


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Bee's Kopitiam, which literally means Bee's Coffee House, brings authentic South East Asian cuisine to India and has now open shop at the Express Avenue mall, food court! Being run by Malaysians, the authenticity is as close to eating in Malaysia as is possible. While Malaysian food (really, south east Asian food as a whole and very difficult to point it out country wise), may not be every one's cup of tea, I loved and still love Malaysian food during my stay there as well as occasional indulgences!!!

Typically, a large part of these cuisines are based out prawn or fish sauce and therefore not liked by everyone, but some dishes do not use them at all and can be very tasty! The murktabak and the satay are examples! While the veg murktabak is an Indian innovation (I think) and is not exactly tasty, the chicken and the mutton murktabak are brilliant here! With the right amount of stuffing, these do justice to the price especially the food court prices! Both the chicken and the mutton variations of satay are brilliant and while the peanut sauce is a little dilute for my liking, I cannot claim to have eaten better satay for that price in India!!! The poached chicken and rice is among my favorite foods, while almost everyone else who accompany me, cannot stand it, but I just love it!!!! I would stay away from lots of vegetarian stuff in this place as it does not do justice to the cuisine really! They have still not started their Kaya foods and I just cannot wait to taste them. Kaya, by the way, is some fruit out which a jam seems to be made exclusively in Malaysia and I have not heard of it anywhere outside of Malaysia! And I personally think that next to Banana jam, Kaya is the best jam EVER, so I am waiting to get a taste of it in India!!

Their Lemon Barley drink is also something I always get when I am at their food court, its homemade, simple and tasty. I am not a big fan of Ice katchang, another cuisine special, and so I did not try it out at this place, but I am guessing it is very similar to what we get outside!!!!  For those who cannot stand that unique taste that this cuisine seems to render, I would strongly advise you to stick to the chicken murktabak and the satays, but for those who are adventurous, you could try the whole menu and find your favorites.

Food 8/10
Price  8/10
Ambiance - Food Court
Service - N A

Bee's is located at the Express Avenue Food Court!

Pelita, a Malaysian cuisine resto in T.Nagar has had mixed reviews in view of its authenticity. Some people who have been to Malaysia say that it has nothing to do with Malaysia whereas a friend who has lived all her life in Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore swears by it. Well, the only thing that mattered to me was that the food was good and I dint care if it was authentic or not! Though I did keep telling myself that I was eating some Malaysian food.
There are two seating areas, one outside facing the road amongst trees and bushes and one on the other side of the glass doors and windows which is air conditioned. You can keep seeing the Chennai roads while you have your meal. The outside is a good option at night, though if a polluting lorry passes by (which invariably it will at least once during your meal), it might spoil your meal for a short while.
The starters, well, we had Chicken Satay which for me was one of the best dishes I have had. Though we ordered one plate for 4 of us, I went ahead and ordered one more just for me. The fried prawns were good too, its not de-shelled and so looks large, but its basically a full prawn dipped in batter and deep fried and its pretty decent. My friend who digs by fish ordered a fish head ( I don't remember the name of the dish and I am not a fish eater)-a full head of the fish with the eyes intact cooked to perfection. He ate the whole thing!!!!!!!!! I don't see these dishes in too many of the Indian or the 'Multi Cuisine' restaurants and that's another reason I kept telling myself that this is Malaysian Cuisine
We ordered Malaysian fried rice which was very very average, and tasted funny, something that I would not order again. The chicken mukthaba which is basically a stuffed paratha, thick with egg and chicken filling and is pretty filling by itself and tasted awesome. The waiter suggested a chicken gravy to go with it which really goes well with mukthaba. They have quite a few 'Malaysian' dishes that had some interesting names.
We were pretty full and so did not venture too much into the desserts but we tried an Ice Katchang which is supposedly a 'Malaysian' speciality. Its a huge pile of some jelly like thing with ice cream on top and you have to dig into the jelly to bring out nuts and some other goodies. Its pretty big and gets boring by the time you finish it. We ordered two for four of us, but would have been better off ordering just one. The best dish however is the BOM PAROTA which is parota stuffed with condensed milk and ghee. It literally gives you a high! Its a must try at this place! Juices are alright, nothing great nothing bad.
Overall its a nice place to go once in a while.

Food 6/10 (if you are willing to try some different foods)
Service 6/10
Ambiance 6/10

Pelita is on the same road as GRT Grand Days on the opposite side. Take a right at the junction just beyond the Sun TV office on Mount Road and you can see the resto on the left side of the road beyond GRT and Residency Towers.