Forgive me for spamming this blog with so many posts of restaurants outside Chennai, but I have been traveling a lot and courtesy Ramzan fasting, I have been eating outside of Chennai for quite a bit! But, hey, if you are traveling to these places, that's a heads up! OK, enough of defending my non-Chennai- writing!

While in Pondy, the heritage hotel, Le Dupleix, is located in a quiet street and looks much more 'heritagic' than most heritage hotels in Pondy. I called in at about 4 PM to a table reserved for two at 730 and walked in at about 7 to find that we were the only ones there. Rains were looming and the waiter suggested that we sit inside, but we insisted on sitting in the open courtyard and said that we will move in if it rains; reluctantly, he agreed. The courtyard, though small, looks very nice and we wanted to eat there!

They were having a Mango Festival going on with a special menu and we picked a couple of dishes from that! We started off with a prawn bisque soup and a grilled chicken with apple starter! The soup was very very bad and we moved straight to the starter, which was excellent. The waiter came back after 1 million years and noticed that our soups were almost untouched. After telling him that we did not like it at all, he changed it and gave us the French Onion soup which was alright! But except the soup, the rest of the dishes were excellent.

For main course, we had a grilled fish and prawns with creamy fettuccini, which was very very good. The fettuccini was nice and creamy and the flavour of parmesan was distinct and just right. The fish was grilled to perfection with lemon butter and the prawns had herbs, garlic and lime and were grilled just right! The roast chicken with herbed rice and grilled vegetables were quite good too! We had a nice mango inspired apple pie for dessert and it was excellent with a tinge of mango and chocolate on the classic apple pie.

The damage on the pocket was Rs 1250, including all taxes, which I thought was quite reasonable. Service was very slow as we were the only ones in the restaurant the whole time and the waiter came in only to serve the dishes and came back when the next course was ready. Needless to say, the bill took quite some time to come, but though slow, service was very courteous.

4/5 for this quaint little courtyard restaurant at le Dupleix. The hotel is at the junction of Rue Suffren and rue Cassern at the French Quarters at Pudducherry!

I was very skeptical when I booked this place for a weekend getaway - normally you can make ordinary things look good with great photography, but Villa Christophe was an example of how immature the camera actually is!!!

The villa was beautifully and tastefully decorated, the rooms were brilliant and our room was a masterpiece. There was a washroom on the lower level, while the bed was the level above. Nothing on the first level except the bed and a TV.

There are just three rooms in this house and you can book the whole house if you want, provided it is free. The others rooms were equally tastefully decorated, but the bed on top was an attraction for me. There is one cook and one helper in the villa and there is no real check in of sorts. The cook made us a simple but brilliant breakfast, laid it out on the table and woke us up! If you buy some fish or prawns they will cook it up for you, but we ate out for lunch and dinner! With lots of wonderful places around the corner, there is not dearth of good food close by!

The villa is only about 400m from the beach, and close to all the major restaurants and parks! Priced at Rs 3000 per night, it is a 4 star villa at 3 star prices!!! I did not find it on any hotel booking website and so booking with the villa is the best way to book I guess. Here is the link. 

http://www.villachristophe.com/

If you are wondering what is happening with Chennai Foodie, don't! My experiences about eating out are not going anywhere, but if you remember the blog is titled - Eating Out, Cooking, Traveling, Fun. Since I do a lot of research before I travel, I was asked by followers (if you are among them, then this last paragraph does not apply to you) to write about them. I started writing about eating out of Chennai and the stays will now follow!!! 

And hey, if you enjoyed reading this, please share it!

Ok, while this is not exactly Chennai food guide, but, Rendezvous is about 150 km drive from Chennai to Pondy! Since this place has a client list that drives down for dinner, I though I must have this place on my blog too! And I am eating here after almost five years, but the quality of the food has stayed the same!!!

Menu tries to accommodate everything and portrays a Multi Cuisine scenario, and that is where it gets all the bad reviews from! If you are looking for Chicken Tikka tasting food, then, they will serve you some Chicken tikka tasting food and will well NOT be worth your money or time! But move beyond that and have their house specialties, and you will be taken by surprise! Even lasagnas and steaks are not great here, just their house specialties, namely the ones written on a black board!

I think Pondy is the only place in South India, where you get the Sea Bass fish in local restaurants! Everywhere else it is an exclusive dish only available at five star! And Rendezvous cooks the Bass to perfection. Our Sea Bass cooked with cheese sauce was a brilliant dish - the fish was soft and was almost melting in the mouth! It is served with macroni, a veg salad and some sauces and is a must try here! Their house prawn are super yum! The price was Rs 500, and that had a super large fillet of fish (the picture only shows one quarter of the fish). The tiger prawns priced at Rs 400 for five large tiger prawns is a steal - they are cooked with the shell to perfection - you get to choose between cheese sauces, golden fry and shack style, and since the sea bass was being cooked in cheese sauce and shack style is also my favorite, I chose the shack style and it came out brilliant! The prawns are served with the same condiments as the fish! They also have a whole cooked red snapper and various other fish types, lobsters, crabs, oysters and the likes! The chicken breast steak cooked with the Worcestershire sauce was just ok, and the lasagna was pathetic. But like I said, Rendezvous is not the place for these, but I must add that their French Fries were amazing!!!!
For dessert, we had 'Death by Chocolate' - a chocolate sponge cake oozing with chocolate, and unlike the one served in Dominoes, this one has the right flavor of chocolate and therefore does not hit you! And for the first time outside of Austria, am I seeing a chocolate cake being served with cream - to me, this is the best way to eat a rich chocolate cake!

I have spoken about the service and their attitude, but I have not had a problem so far! Service is otherwise quick and attentive!They have a number of private dining rooms catering to families and large parties and a first floor seating that caters to most of us! The waiters here are known to have an attitude, especially towards Indians, maybe they are trying to be a little French, but like I mentioned before, service is quick and attentive, though you have to go there a second time to actually be smiled at!

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

Rendezvous is located on a quite street on the French Quarter of Pondy, near Bussy Street, bang opp the Citibank ATM at Pondy!