"Don't judge a restaurant by it's lunch combo." Seriously. Some good restaurants have forgettable lunch combos, though a few do stand out in how bad the lunches are, in comparison to their regular menu. I had the lunch combo at CHAO and I thought it was a poor imitation of the wonderful food they otherwise serve and Kryptos' lunch buffet is best not spoken about. And then comes a lunch which, for the standards of the otherwise available lunches in town, packs a nice punch!

Yes, the restaurant is new and maybe they are trying to make an impression, but right now, this is probably the best lunch combo in town. My friend and I made an impromptu plan and landed at Woq-a-Toque and came out more than just satisfied!

Service started off with an excellent dimsum. Now the thickness of the dimsum shell is supposed to be inversely proportional to the skill of the chef and though these days, you get readymade stuff, you can see from the photo, how thin the dimsum is and how much meat is stuffed in it. Excellent is the word here. A stir fried fish that I could eat forever and my friend who is an even worse fish eater than I am had three helpings of, was next. A not-so-great fried wonton was then served with a good hot-and-sour soup and the starters finished with a good chicken satay! Unlimited servings of each of them were available and only your stomach's expansile capacity determines the portions!

For the main course, you are allowed one visit to the stir fry bar to put your heart's content of uncooked food onto a bowl which will then be tossed up for you! Comparison with Chap Chay at Rain Tree is inevitable which has more options, but to be fair to the restaurant, at this price point, a stir fry bar visit is a luxury and one that is extremely well done here! You can choose from four meats, four noodles and an array of veggies and they did a very good job of my choice, considering I used the one visit to shamelessly add lamb, chicken and prawns onto ONE STIR FRY. Yes, shamelessly!

Service concluded with a small platter of three desserts - none as impressive as the starters or the main course, but just there for the formality. At Rs 998 for two people, all taxes inclusive, this is one of the best lunch combos in that price point and with a service to match. The restaurant is dimly lit and because of the way the roof is designed, reflecting light for a good photo was a challenge and we gave up very early because the smell of the food was so inviting. Obviously restaurants are not designed to make life easier for food photography, but the interiors and the lighting was quite nice!

Woq-a-Toque is at Hotel Chariot, near Valluvar Kottam, diagonally opposite Vidhyodaya School.

Ok, just because a Nano costs only Rs 1 lac, it does not mean that it can be delivered without a steering wheel, or an engine. It also means that the car needs to necessarily run and you should not be required to push it everytime. Now that we understand that value for money needs to have SOME value, let me review whatever is left of 50 bucks!

We decided to try some new place for dinner last night and finally chose to dine at 50 bucks. We were nine of us and we started out with squid fry, french fries and onion rings. The squids were old, bad and nasty, the french fries were undercooked and tasteless, while the onion rings were alright. We then asked for some fried chicken which was again undercooked and tasteless! We sent back the french fries and it promptly came out all heated in a microwave and still undercooked! The drinks were not bad, but the rest of it was pathetic.

We asked for the bill, paid and left!

The ambiance is not bad for a place priced like this and the service was alright,but they had no idea why we sent back dishes! The prices are awesome, with the maximum price being Rs 50, but I would prefer to pay Rs 50 and have a great crepe at Creperie than eat here. This might be a little harsh and maybe we need to give them time to overcome their start up troubles, but if you cannot cook french fries the second time it was sent back from the table, something is wrong! I will only go back if someone else tries the place and swears that they have improved!

Food 2/10
Ambiance 7/10
Service 6/10
Price 9/10

50 bucks is located on R K Salai above the Domino's Outlet!

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.

A great joint to either have a quick lunch, an evening out with friends, a place for a good first date or to even have a business meeting over lunch.

The place started out serving only European dishes, did not do well, but like most good organizations learnt the Chennai market and adapted well to cater to both the average meal eater AND the clients who come looking for the 'old' Casa serving close to authentic Euro foods. There are three seating areas-the one on the first floor, a outside terrace that has about 2 tables and the roof top with cane chairs, sofas in a nice relaxed atmosphere (no points for guessing that its open for service only after the sun stops beating the water out of your body). The roof top is a good place to go for a date or to just chill out with friends. You also get to smoke hookahs in a variety of flavors here.

The starters were not great, but some of the soups and salads are extremely good. The beef soup is something to die for. Nice soft chunks of beef in a nice orange broth flavoured with the right kind and amount of herbs and spices. Extremely well made. Some of the salads are very good too, the best being chicken pasta salad. Nice chunks of chicken with penne or pasta dressed with mayo or ranch. What stands out in this place is that both in the soup and salads, the meat pieces are nice chunks and not lean bits and pieces. This adds credibility to the dishes and the prices. However Casa has now come up with a new menu that has some excellent starters, the best among them being Chicken Balls, Beef Chops and Stuffed Chillies. Chicken balls is a plate of 8 decent sized minced chicken balls in a great sauce-its just brilliant. The beef chops are like the chilly fried beef that we get in most good Chinese restaurants, just that this comes dipped in a nice tangy sauce-crisp outside, soft inside in a great sauce is a great recipe. The stuffed chillies are like the road side molaga bajji, where in the molaga (the chilly) is stuffed with mayo and herbs- the right blend of roadside food with rich mayo!!!

The main course has a wide variety of options ranging from sandwiches to pizza to entrees. I would personally stay away from the pizzas and sandwiches because, one, they are not great and two, the entrees and the steak are simply superb and quite filling. So I would rather not waste stomach space on pizzas that you should be eating at Bella Ciao or sandwiches elsewhere.

The oriental chicken steak is a personal favourite. Served with garlic bread, some vegetables, rice and either mashed potatoes or french fries (your choice), this dish simply stands out as a complete meal by itself. The spicy chicken entree is served in a slightly gravy consistency and is also pretty good, though not as great as the dry steak. The other dish that is worth every penny is the beef steak-served with the same accompaniments as the chicken steak, this is dressed with mushroom sauce (or you can pick your choice of sauces) and is mouth watering. I prefer it well done, but some the hard core steak guys prefer it light done. A couple of my friends have tried the chicken parmigiana and say that its as good as it should be. Their prawns are pretty good too and you can have them with our without the shell. The sea food platter is a new addition to the menu. Its a set of 3 fantastic crab cakes, 4 pieces of fried fish cutlets and 4 small prawns served on a base of tomato rice, boiled vegetables, fries and a tomato stuffed with herbed mayo. Its a meal by itself and a good one at that!

The desserts are just brilliant here. My favourite is the marble cake with ice cream. Its normally served with vanilla ice cream,but I suggest you try it with chocolate ice cream.Cheese cake is alright and they are now introducing a profiterole (I can't get the spelling right) which I have heard is very good too. They also have a very good walnut cake that is worth a try. The brownie and ice cream are like how it is in most places around the earth! Nothing special! Though you could have the chocolate gateaux with chocolate ice cream on top! That is worth a try!

Service is alright, nothing great, nothing bad. The price is worth what you get, but you will land up with a 12% hike that includes a variety of taxes and charges (which now happens in most places). This place has somehow managed to blend the restaurant with a coffee shop atmosphere almost perfectly.

Food 7/10

Service 5/10

Ambiance 7/10

Casa is located on Khader Nawaz Khan road, Nungambakkam above the Bang and Olufsen showroom near the Barista outlet

Also read the review on Casa Picola's Express Lunch

A great place to go for Indian food. Slightly on the expensive side, but hey, what can you expect from a hotel of that standard. The food is authentic to a large extent.
This review is based on the food served to a group of 11 people, 6 of those were vegetarians, and 3 people had alcohol. The setback- Rs 7800.
The starters, we had murgh chicken, lemon garlic prawns, chicken porichadhu and a couple of fish starters, the names of which I cannot recall. All of them were excellent and very well made. The prawns were specially good and succulent and the right size, the chicken was also very good, juicy and well made. The fish was alright and the porichadhu was pretty good too.
For the main course, we had murgh malai biriyani which was not bad, and some mutton gravy that was not on the menu. The waiter suggested that we try it and so we did. Pretty good!
Desserts-were typical Indian desserts, nothing great, but not bad either. We tried gulab jamun, jelebi and vanilla ice cream.

The service- 5/10. Some of the waiters had an attitude that you do not want to see when you go to a restaurant.

The food-8/10. The prawn and chicken starters take the cake and the baker's wife too!

The ambience-6/10. The tables are placed a little too close to each other so you lack privacy in some tables whereas in a few others, there is no such problem.

Thirumana biriyani...

I must say that after a long time, I had biriyani close to the ones we make at home and close enough to the Muslim wedding biriyani...the biriyani with the brinjal curry was VERY GOOD!!!! It will cost your Rs 65 a plate and the chicken 65 ,Rs.50. They serve brinjal, onion raitha and sweet on the house and its unlimited. The serve pineapple kesari or pineapple halwa on most days and both taste extremely good. Though its on the house, its also unlimited so make the most of it! Rs. 115 seemed decent for a plate of good food.....Its crowded and you might find a stranger sharing your table if you are a group of 5. They seat 6 people on every table immaterial of the size of the group, so prepared to lose your privacy. Anyway, its not a place for business discussions. Its a place to eat and get out!

They also serve pepper chicken, fried prawns and plain biriyani amongst other side dishes.

Vegies, dont even think of entering this place!!!

Thirumana Biriyani is located on Greme's Road, Egmore, bang opposite the Seashells restaurant.

Here's a complete review of the Sunday Brunch (Dated Jan 2007)

EXPENSIVE!!!! 375 plus tax, it cost us Rs 840 for two!!!!
Book In Advance!!! Good that I booked early, because it was full when I went there and only the two reserved tables were free!!!! Its a small place so gets full early and people spend forever there so few chances of getting a table cleared. However when you call to reserve a table, do not be suprised if the guy at the other end of the phone seems lost. However do not judge their service level with the pathetic service on phone reservations. Their table service is in fact very good.

Food

If you like exotic food- 8/10
If you dont- 2/10

The menu is of four parts- The Buffet, The table, The pizza and The egg.

The pizza and the egg are made to order and they are not bad...Not great either!!!

The buffet
Its a good spread.....The grilled minute steak was AWESOME!!! I could live my life on it....Try it with the brown bread and its bliss...Had a huge helping of that!!! The honey roasted chiken was impressive and very well made....The mushroom crepe was GREAT!!!! Lots of salads are available and a choice of 3 breads....The pita bread was brilliant with most of the dishes!! The dished vegies were a pass...infact they were bad!!! But the other items more than made up for that!!! You wont be able to eat a hearts filling of everything coz there is tooo much!!! My friend said that the fish starter was great, but i am not too much of a fish eater so i did not try it, I was happy with that steak thingy!

The Table.
For the main course, the principle table orders are the Schwarma and the Falafel....Its not the full shwarma and falafel but shawarma pockets and falafel pockets, so they are small in size (you can order as many as you want to). Both were good but nothing extrordinary!!!But good to eat!!! Tea and coffee at the table too!!

The desert part!!!
Well you can have pancakes and waffles served at the table. The ice cream, cakes, muffins and mousse are at the buffet...Get the waffle to the table and rush to the buffet to put icecream with honey, chocolate sauce, ice cream and mousse on it and you wont mind dying the next day!!!!! Simply superb!!!

You have a choice of iced tea and a fresh juice at the buffet!! The service
Simply impeccable!!! Prompt, very very courteous and always smiling!!! Do i need to add more??

Final Word
Worth the money.

Cedars is located on Kotturpuram High Road, bang opposite the Adyar Villa.

Had the express lunch at Casa! Hmmmm.....Lip smacking.
You choose your soup, your salad, your gravy/pasta and a mocktail! The mocktail is served first. He offered us a watermelon with lime mocktail. Superb!

The best part is that the whole lunch is served in one setting. So in a nice huge tray, you get the three things you chose along with two slices of garlic bread (it was fresh and super tasty today, and its the first time I am having such lovely garlic bread at Casa, hope they can maintain that bread) and a bowl of herbed rice. We had a beef soup (I cant get the name but there is only one beef soup, so ask for it, it was stunning), chicken salad which was like, well, chicken salad with macroni. Nothing special about the salad, just simple, cold and tasty. I had the stroganhof while my friend had the spicy oriental chicken. Mine was simply superb, however the spicy oriental was very average. It tasted like some local chinese hotel's dragon chicken gravy (but i guess thats how its supposed to be, being oriental). The herbed rice went well with the gravy and is a very good accompaniment. The gravy is not watery and is of the lasagna consistency, so you can actually eat it by itself.

You also get a dessert with that- We chose a caramel custard, which was again, simple, good fresh caramel custard. Nothing special, but good enough to finish the meal!

Its priced at Rs 149, but after all the taxes and service charges, it comes to Rs 172 per person. Considering the portions (they look small, but will fill you just right, not over fill you) and the variety you get to eat, i think it was neat! And if its two of you, you can get to taste two entirely different set of soup, salad and gravy so its really neat! The more the merrier,unlike a buffet where you all eat the same thing.

Also read the complete review of Casa Picola