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I wasn't too excited about mBessy. 'What is new about another resto-bar in a small hotel?,' I thought. Its the fashion these days! Tie up with a hotel that has the required 21 rooms and start off a watering hole! Hmm! Friends insisted on going when they launched and me, though dead tired that day, tagged along! The entry was typical. And the familiarity ended there!

This was a real fine dine setting hiding behind that typical-bar-door. We were whisked away to the first floor though and apparently that's where the action is. The setting is beautiful and eclectic. Completely different from the classy looking ground floor, this was a beautiful resto-bar! While I was still recovering from the beautiful setting that I least expected, we were seated in a nice eight seater with a low table. We can go down for the main courses after we are done with drinks and starters, said Mugesh, their manager. I have known him from his days at Casa Picola and he was as surprised to see me there as I was to see him there! 

Starters and drinks were excellent. I can keep going on and on about the starters as they were simply excellent. The crumb fried prawns, a bunch of nice big prawns, dipped in a flavourful crumbs and fried till crisp, was the pick of the lot, though the others were almost as good! Prawns took the cake as they I love them in general and was happy to not have to leave the shell on the tail behind. It was all done and you had to keep eating them! The Broccoli with cheese was quite excellent with the soft broccoli being coated nicely with cheese and the bruschetta that came along with it was fantastic. The other starter, the spicy chicken skewers were quite nice and didn't stand a chance compared to the other two, but that's okay. The mezze platter was pretty nice with fluffy pita bread to go with the dips. The drinks were excellent from a teetotaller's POV. Some had theatrics like smoke coming out to flavour a drink, but the mocktails weren't too bad. My drink had smoked pop corn on top and in general things were great this far!

And then they sort of went downhill. Being a bunch of six of us, we tried quite a few dishes and really none of them stood apart. By this time we moved down to the fine-dine type place with its rich looking decor and cutlery. Sadly, the food did not live up or maybe the starters were so good that the palate didn't like the mains. Whatever the reason, the pizzas were blah. The Australian lamb felt like it was being handled without care and was rather dry and leathery. The risotto was very very blah. Stuffed chicken breast was rather inedible. Dessert was slightly redeeming. While certainly not excellent by any means, it sort of cooled off the rather bad main course. 

 But going by the quality of the starters, I guess, this place since being rather new has a lot of scope to catch up and get on track with the mains. While the choice of menu is good, it needs some work to get it to match the ambiance and the starters! 

I'll be going back in a month or so to see how things have changed. Do the mains get to appetiser quality or vice versa? Only time will tell.

mBessy is in the ground floor of the newly revampING, Estelle hotel in Adyar, near the Aavin, the first building on the Bessy road. 

Places to host a little tea party are few and far apart. If there are, then you need to pick a fixed menu that varies between Rs. 400 and the sky and you get the same dish for everyone. Maybe okay for birthday party with 10-20 kids, but with three kids and 15 adults, my friend wasn't happy with a Rs. 650 plus tax for juice, soup, pizza/pasta and dessert type menu. Jonah's came to mind. I've been meaning to write about this place for a while, but never did. What stuck to my mind though was the little 16 seater part of the restaurant that is cut off from the rest and can be the right party place for a small crowd. And being a small place, a-la-carte would be great, we thought.

So after discussions, my friend decided to do it. We just blocked off the place for 16 people. Jonah's being Jonah's with their outstanding customer service that I wrote a few times about on social media, had absolutely no qualms about bringing a cake from outside. The kid's mom wanted a theme cake and Jonah's was super cool about it. Place was blocked and we had a blast. The ladies ensured that dishes that landed on their tables did not leave their tables!! The men though had to send what landed in our tables to the ladies. If not, there were glares!!!

I remember we ordering stuff left right and centre but these are the dishes that come to my mind!! Chilly fries - yum yum yum. We ordered almost three plates. Crab cakes - with six vegetarians and others not too fond of crab, just one portion was enough for the four of us who ate. The paneer with rice and gravy was yum!!! The fried calamari was equally yum.

At their Besant Nagar outlet, I had written about the really dry burger. Here it was juicy and nice. One interesting dish on the menu was the steak burger pizza. Its essentially the burger patty on the pizza for those who want to have the best of both worlds. I did not like it at all!!! There were lots more, but thats all I took photos of!!!

The bill for 15 adults and 3 kids was Rs. 9000 after a 15% discount that they offered for a group booking, which ended up being a steal for the amount and variety of food we had. Definitely better than the same soup starter pizza and a stale cake for Rs. 650 plus tax!!!! The minion cake was baked by Afsar's Magic Oven (9994088522)

Jonah's is on Kasthuri Rangan Road, the road next to the old Chola Sheraton, a few meters further down the Russian Culture Centre. 

From the time I have know Rhapsody, it had a identity crisis. Serving some fantastic Italian food, it had always dabbed with event nights, the best being the Jazz nights that they used to host with Alliance Franca-is for which, at that time, I was a regular patron. With an excellent ambiance, I have always felt that Rhapsody is not doing justice to its setting and now, finally, Rhapsody is trying its hand again at partying!

So every Friday, Saturday and even Sunday (I think), they have these pub nights with a live band and karaoke and that Saturday night when I was there, the crowd, though small, was in a total party mood and they lifted the night! Having just started off, the crowds are yet to throng this place and for me that was a good thing! Yes, I made a fool of myself behind the mic, trying to sing a song, but that was the whole idea!!!

The food was good in parts! That night they had a buffet that was quite far away from Italy with Chilly chicken being a part of the starters! It wasn't great! The grilled tenderloin was dry and chewy. Not good. Then the nice n juicy burger that was the first of the starters that was wolfed down by all of us, was followed by a cheese course. You know how much I love cheese, so I had a sample of every thing that was there and loved it with the outstanding choice of bread that you get! My friend who was the only pork eater in the group was raving and raving about the pork belly and the pork sausages! He was glad that he didn't have to share and I only managed the mashed potato that came with it! And it was super smooth and creamy and we fought off our pork eating friend for the mashed potatoes! There was another Indian starter that was excellent and saved the disastrous chilly chicken! The quiche was good enough and then there were salads and rice and a good round of dessert to finish off.

With the hostess offering a free shot for every one who tried their mouth at Karaoke, it was a fun filled night. Though the buffet happens only every two weeks, the Karaoke happens every Friday. The pub night with the buffet was priced at Rs. 1950 plus tax for food and alcohol, while there was a pricier version for unlimited imported spirits of which my pork eating friend had a glass of red wine followed by a glass of white wine. Not exactly a wine connoisseur type thing to do, but I don't think after the first round, he even cared!!!

The karaoke has ONLY English songs, so if you want to sing Lungi Dance, that option is not yet there!