This is short note, not an essay!

First visit a few months ago was pretty bad. No writing, no nothing! But a few weeks back somebody said, "Try them out, now". That stuck in my brain, because this is one cuisine that is so wrong in Chennai! Yes, I did rant about it a couple of blog posts back.

So, the visit was a pleasant surprise. While it leans towards being Tex Mex from the flavour profile and having only the popular stuff and not having the many popular things from Mexico, I think it maybe too much to expect Mexican Mexican from any place in Chennai and there are bound to be overlaps. Especially since there is real overlap between Tex Mex and Mexican.

I had only 3 dishes. A chicken burrito and a chicken Taco. Tacos are available in both soft shell and hard shell. While Mexican version is mostly soft shell, I like the Tex Mex version and went for it, so I don't know if their soft shell is corn or flour tortilla, the hard one was corn. The fillings are all from a bunch, so whatever you order they will be similar. Almost like a Subway, so now that their fillings are similar to the Mexican flavours, both the burrito and the Taco were pretty nice.

What was surprising though was the Churros. While it is a Spanish dish, which is available in Mexico, I am not sure if it has a Mexican history. Who cares? Because when done well, it is a simply beautiful dish. Normally a breakfast dish. And as simple as it can get. I mean, it is just fried dough! But when done well, it is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The churros here, at least that day, were fried to perfection. The chocolate sauce was bordering on ordinary and barely complimented the churros, but the churros were nice!

The burrito was Rs. 179 and the churros and taco were Rs. 79 each. Plus taxes.

So, one more place besides Spoonbill to douse the cravings for these flavours. Want to see how their nachos is!

Una Mas is on Kodambakkam High Road a little further down Palmgrove Hotel, but on the opposite side. 

Street food in an air conditioned ambiance? Such a contradiction and one that is a tad difficult to pull off. First of all, the expectations. Street food shouldn't cost 3 figures right? Well actually, they do. Good stuff abroad costs somewhere in the range of $2-3 sometimes more, so even an actual conversion will take the cost to over Rs. 200.

Great, now that we have the price out of the way, Spoonbill for me has been a place that almost pulls of the really difficult street-food-in-a-classy-ambiance cuisine! Over the last couple of years and more so over the last couple of months, it has doused my inner flame for street food. Once Swiggy happened, I didn't need the classy ambiance. Street food came home!

While there are definitely some misses, the hits more than make up for it. For example, the Wurst. Yum. May not be accurate, but pretty close in flavours and the Madras Curry Powder is oh-so-awesome. The Donner Kebabs are fabulous!

But what prompted me to write this was the home delivery last evening. After a cancelled meeting and no dinner at home, we decided to order a quick something and for various reasons I have been having a Mexicany craving for a while. A couple of places were dousing the cravings, but clearly, they weren't doused enough. Saw nachos on the menu and it was a one second decision.

The package was near-perfect. The entire sauce with the sour cream in one box, the nachos in a packet. The only thing I would change maybe is to serve the sour cream separate on a home delivery. After doing the plating honours, the first bite itself was perfect. Spoonbill is one of the few (maybe the only one in Chennai) getting the Nachos sauce flavour right. There is the hit of corn and the unmistakable essence of Mexicany flavours in the mix. The sour cream was a good sour cream which added the much needed spice relief. And I had to write this as a tribute.

Now I know exactly where to go when I want those Mexicany flavours. It is the best available in Chennai!

Spoonbill is on TTK Road, above Coffee Day! 

Can a Tex-Mex survive the Chennai heat?

Hard to tell. Habanero, with quite decent food didn't survive. It really didn't do much wrong. OK, service was close to pathetic, but reviews in forums were thrashed. And anyone who dared to write something good about it was also thrashed. Honestly, service and attitude let them down, but the food wasn't bad. And the complaints were all about the food. So Tex-Mex and Chennai? 

Welcome Chili's. I hope you survive this one! 

I think it will! 

So, the ambiance is a lot more happening and the music is nice and reflects the cuisine to a large extent. Chili's is in general more Tex than Mex and the Mex flavours are more of a foreplay. It is outwardly American and proud of it, so don't expect Mexican flavours to bombard your taste buds. 

Clearly, the person who made our Guacamole on the table didn't do a great job. Clearly the chef in the kitchen knows how to make a Guac. So our on-the-table guac wasn't any good. We returned it and the one that came from the kitchen was more like it. Nachos. Bang on. Guac. On. Bring the rest on! 

Glad they have the mix and match for starters, so you can take a pick of 3 or 5 starters from the page of a combo price. We picked Boneless Chicken Wings, Chicken Strips and Onion Rings. Chicken wings were tangy. Really tangy and I loved the flavours but missed celery sticks along with it. Would have been great. The chicken strips were large compared to most quick service places like KFC, but the onion rings are something that you may like or hate. I din't like it so much, my friend who came along loved it every bit. It is thick and flat and the batter is thick and there is more flour and batter than onion. I prefer the golden crispy ones! Drinks were large. All mocktails, obviously, but large portions. My pomegranate margarita was yum while my friend refused to share his. I won't know why, but will have to go back! 

My friend who had the baby back ribs could not stop raving about it for a couple of days. I will leave it at that as I have no idea what it is. Since he wanted to have that, I had to order my own main course and between the burger and the fajita, I chose the latter. For Rs. 195 extra, the black beans and the rice add a lot more flavour to the fajita considering that these are not corn tortillas but flour tortilla. So with the add on beans, the guac, the rice and the grilled meat, the fajita was complete. 

I forgot the name of the cake we had, but it was heavenly. Creamy, crunchy and soft across the layers, this was a fitting finish to the meal. 

I want to go back and try the steaks and their burger!!! Express Avenue finally has an a real restaurant with great music!!! Meal for two will cost about Rs. 1500 but considering the portion size, a meal for 4 should cost your about Rs. 2500. 

Again. Welcome Chili's. 

What better name for a Tex Mex Restaurant!?! A chilli, an exceptionally hot chilli, produced largely in Mexico today and used extensively in Mexican cuisine. While Tex Mex is the Texas version of Mexican cuisine, there is quite some similarity and large differences between the two. OK, what's there in a name? The rose would still smell the same under any other name, isn't it? Now, who is the poet who said that? Never mind. OK, Habanero might be a better name for Mexican and a not so apt for Tex Mex. Moving on.

We were in a hurry, but I was adamant. I haven't had good Mexican flavours in a while and so we decided that we will get one dish each and leave. So we tasted only two dishes in the restaurant and while that is no way to judge any place, we quite liked it. So which two dishes? There was a buffet priced at Rs. 499, with a live Taco counter et all, but we stuck to a-la-carte. Remember? Time only for 2 dishes. So we narrowed it down to Nachos and Fajita.

The nachos arrived first. Smothered with guacamole and veggies and sour cream and salsa and grilled chicken, it was quite nice. Not as nice as having it abroad, but hey, everything from water to the chilly to the ingredients are different, so I'll cut some slack. The nachos was my friend's order and he liked it so much that he gave two mouthfuls with a grudge! And then my fajita arrived grandly on a sizzler, a plate loaded with toppings and a box with three tortillas (yeah, corn roti), very similar to how it is served in Hard Rock Cafe. It was my turn to grudge and I made one roll for him while I rolled up two for myself. Fajita's is almost like paav bhaji when it comes to the quantity of the bhaji to the pav. You always have to ask for extra pav. Why can't they just give you two more? Ditto with fajita. There was enough filling to roll up 4 or even 5 fajitas, but they gave only 3 tortillas. I ate the remaining with a fork and spoon. Oh yeah, it was quite nice too and since I rolled it up the way I like it, there was nothing to complain. The quantity of both the dishes were very satisfactory.

Since any place that served alcohol attracts that extra tax, we had to pay a service tax, a VAT on the bill, so essentially, about 25% more for tax. I don't remember if they charged us a service charge, but the bill was about Rs. 750 for the three dishes. Service was very polite and friendly and the menu tells us the story of the restaurant. An Indian boy and an American girl met, fell in love, married, decided to come back to India, gave up their corporate careers, roped in a chef and established this restaurant.

I was at the Koramangala Branch, but they have two more in Bangalore. Sadly, I heard from one of their consultants that Habanero's entry into Chennai is delayed for now. Maybe forever. Sigh!!!

I have confessed my love for Mexican and Tex Mex foods many times and when I even remotely see something similar to Mexican or with the name suggesting Mexican, my entire body itches and pushes me towards that restaurant. So, you can imagine my brain reaction when I see a restaurant named Mexican Griller, not very far away for me. Imagine me having been there and not writing about it for so long.......

So we had just two dishes - a nachos and a taco salad. The only thing that had the Mexican flavour was the corn tortilla and I am reasonably sure that the reason it had the flavour was because it was ready made. The guacamole wasn't great, the sour cream wasn't sour, you get the point? The taco salad had absolutely no Mexican flavour. Basically, except the name, I don't think anything else is Mexican here. The menu had some quesadillas, some nachos, no tacos and predominantly continental food. I don't remember seeing a burrito, but I don't know if it was an oversight. I don't know if it was their bad day or if I should have tried something else, but if a Mexican restaurant cannot get their nachos and their tacos right, I don't know if they can get the rest of the Mexican food right.

I am not going back there. Food is not bad tasting, so don't get me wrong, but there is very little Mexican in it. But I would like your opinions too! The service was friendly and rather quick, so the problem here is that the flavours are not right.

Mexican Griller is close to Loyola College, where you take the left when coming from Sterling Road.

The burger is dry. There. I said it. It is off my chest. Phew. *Shakes shoulders*. Let's get on with my experience now. Hard Rock Cafe, finally, opens shop in Chennai at the luxurious Phoenix Market City. A little different from Bangalore, the Rock Shop is on the ground floor and the restaurant is located in a single level at the second floor with an exclusive lift from the Rock Shop. The ambiance is very typical of any HRC, with fancy guitars adorning the walls, an exclusive performance stage and nice friendly waiters. Chennai has been missing a place like this for a long long time and personally, I love the set up. So what prevented me from giving HRC, Chennai 5 stars? This might have been the first time I would have rated any place as 5/5, but that did not happen.

So on my first visit, we ordered just three dishes, a fajita, a legendary burger and a cheesecake. The fajita was excellent with a nice round of sides and is a make-your-own-fajita type dish. There was a good serving of cheese, veggies, sour cream and a sizzler with grilled chicken. I loved it. But the burger was a let down, only in terms of the juiciness. The flavour was great, the onion ring inside was excellent, but the burger was dry. Almost bone dry. I asked for it to be medium and I felt like I need to smother it with sauces. The cheese cake was excellent. The damages were Rs. 2200, of which Rs. 1600 was for the food and the remaining for the service and the government.

My second visit was on a Thursday where there is a live band playing and the ambiance takes a whole new level. The sound quality was good, the crowd was good and if you go early you can get a seat or else, it is like a mini rock show and so the entry fee of Rs 400 of which you can redeem Rs. 250 inside is no big deal. Of course, I don't know how many were friends of the band, so it might vary everytime, but that night was excellent. I asked for the burger, hoping last time was a one-off thing and bang. It was dry. This time, even though I had specifically mentioned not to add bacon, bacon was added to the burger. Not good. But on a band night, I guess their service takes a beating.

So, Hard Rock Cafe has arrived, without alcohol for now. Just missed the mark, but that said, I hope this sets the trend for more such restaurants to come to Chennai.

4/5, could have easily been 5/5 if the burger was juicy and they did not mess up the bacon, the second time. Though I hate to say it, the HRC in Bangalore is closer to the HRC's around the world. 

Sparky's has always been a great place to eat American, Mexican, Carribean, Hawaii and the likes, with a good dose of authenticity. So if you are looking for chicken tikka masala tasting pasta, then do not even attempt this place. But if you want a taste of what the west eats, then yeah! Sparky's is located in a spacious setting in Egmore in what was earlier a go-down I was told. The setting is fantastic with red interiors and collectibles from all over the US with a great number of US car number plates and a lot of curios.

After a few unsuccessful attempts at ordering the right dish here, followed by a few successful ones, I dragged 3 more of my friend to attempt the Sparky's Buffet, a weekly affair here, with a friendly price! What we saw shocked most of us. Never have we seen so many different non veg dishes for that price (or even higher prices) anywhere in the city (or outside). So we set off to discover each of them and found that quite a few were of great quality and taste!

To start of, I placed some salad on my plate, with some ranch and honey mustard dressings on top! I helped myself to a mini burger bun and stuffed it with some celantra dressing,a lettuce and a chicken patty! The burger was yum and I repeated it with the beef patty which was equally yummy! My first helping also included minced beef which I ate with some dinner rolls and which was heavenly to say the least and some BBQ chicken wings, which were pretty bad! We were served some tortilla soup on the table, but the soup was very average and is best avoided to save space for some good food!

My second helping included some beef mousaka, baked mexican chicken, a chicken hot dog, which i had with mayo and honey mustard dressing, some pasta (which is a live counter) and plain Grilled Chicken which I had with the veg bourbon sauce (which is one of my favorites at Sparky's,)! The bourbon sauce was not, how it used to be in the Al-a-carte, but it wasn't bad either. The beef mousaka was alright and so was the Mexican Chicken Bake. The hot dog was almost perfect, almost because that slight crunch when you bite through in a perfect hot dog was absent! I helped myself to some more minced beef, this time i had it in lettuce and some burger buns!!!!!!

My third helping was to satisfy myself with whatever I liked in the first two, that being the burger, the minced beef and a hot dog! On my return trips, they now have chicken strips, some Korean bbq beef which was very very good and some very average foods like a veg rice bake, a Mexican veg bake and stir fried vegetables. I would stay away from those.

Their iced teas and lemonades used to be very good, but somehow recently they are just alright. But you get bottomless drinks for just Rs 40 and you can switch between tea and lemonade and is a honest fare! I would not mind paying a few more bucks for a better iced tea though!  The last time I visited the place, the pasta sauces were horrible and I left the full plate of pasta behind!

The desserts were very limited, just brownies, chocolate/vanilla ice creams and a fruit bake. Something was wrong with the ice cream, there was a funny taste to it, but the fruit bake and the brownies were decent!

Overall a great buffet dinner! The place was packed by the time we were half way through our dinner. I did not try much of the vegetarian dishes, so I really cannot comment on those!

Service was a little slow, but you usually do not expect much in a buffet. At Rs 295 a person, this is a great deal. If you can have a burger, a hot dog, some good Sloppy joe and some veg bourbon sauce with grilled chicken, you would have gotten your money's worth, so don't bother about the rest of the dishes.

A-la-carte, I would recommend their burgers, the nachos with grilled chicken, the Bourbon street pasta and their Korean Bbq chicken. A number of times you could end up ordering the wrong stuff and never come back to this place, but if you do order the right stuff, you will keep coming back here for it! Consistency is good and predictable!

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

Sparky's is located opp to Palimar Restaurant in Egmore, near Spurtank Road, a few meters beyond the Egmore Subway.

As you get to the new Coffee Day in Egmore (opp Apollo Children's hospital, further down the road from Movenpick Ice creams), you cannot help notice a bull horn sign leading to the first floor above the Coffee Day! A bull's horn rarely depicts anything other than Mexican or Texmex and this one is no different.

The first floor leads to a small place with simple interiors and pictures of ranches and cowboys in an attempt to give you some 'Mexican touch', but the striped tables (although very pretty) give away the fact that the place is not as serious about Mexican food!

Food is good, though it is at best 'Inspired by Mexican or Texmex'. It was too hot to be called Tex Mex and certainly quite far away from authentic Mexican. As the food arrives, you cannot help but think that the owners have considered Chennaites to have absolutely no knowledge of food. Consider this - you ask for salsa and you are given a small bowl of chopped onions. The 'Ranch' dip that they give you is actually Thousand Island salad dressing, sour cream was Nestle Dahi whipped up and definitely not sour!!!!!!!!!!!!

Food tastes good, mind you! We had a cheese quesadilla, a chicken burito, a chicken fajitas and a couple of non alcoholic margaritas. I am not too sure if they serve fajitas anywhere without a tortilla, but here they do. I will certainly go back here as the food is very good, tasty and with decent portions, but I just wish their salsa is salsa and the sour cream, sour!

Portions were good, prices were good and service was very good! Names were wrong, food is only Mexican inspired!

Food 6/10
Ambiance 6/10
Price 6/10
Service 6/10

Mexican Fiesta is located above the Egmore Coffee Day, further down Movenpick Ice creams (on the road opp to Fruit Shop on Greme's Road!