A stand up comedian, from Bangalore, a year or so back, cracked a "jokes", "You take a guy from Bangalore and put him in one of your five pubs in Chennai....................." He wasn't very funny even otherwise. Chennai has come a long way since then and pubs are mushrooming all over. However only a few of them stand out though. Maybe the comedian was right.

And Plan B will probably be one of them. Sometime back, my friend asked me if I had the steak at Plan B. I was like, what? Where is that? "You're a foodie? Really?" she snorted. And ever since then I've been wanting to try out Plan B, but never got the chance to, until last Friday. The place was packed to the brim so the three of us got seated right at the very end, next to the bar. And the fun began.

It all started off with the two mocktails and a whisky marmalade which my friend was praising all through the week. Apparently it was fantastic. I wouldn't know. My mocktail wasn't great. And then three fantastic starters as we were ravenous. Loaded Potato Skins! Yum, would be an understatement. It had a sort of crispy sogginess and loaded with chicken. They're quite generous with their meat as we found out during the rest of the meal. Beef Chilli Fries. While I would have liked fries loaded with beef chilli, this was the other way around. A handful of fries loaded with beef chilli. Again. Loads of meat and apparently the fries are just meant to keep dipping into the beef chilli.  And another fantastic starter, the Fiery Chicken. While I loved it, our drinker friend was getting happier . Not sure if it was the whisky speaking, but he was like, "man, this is like the perfect side dish," spicy and juicy and yummy he went on, till the main course arrived.

The burger arrived. Called the Jucy Lucy, it was presented extremely well. My whole body started to salivate just looking at the burger. The patty looked nice, the bun had crispy onions on it and the egg was inviting. Slowly, I took the bite. And. Then. It. Came. The disappointment. The burger, though called the juicy lucy was a little too dry for my liking. I should have ordered the one that had beef chilli on top of the patty. The Beef Steak was the exact opposite. Loaded with beef, it hid a beautifully smooth potato mash beneath it, the plating wasn't great, but the beef was just excellent. It was juicy, yummy and the sauce was very complimenting to the beef. Loved it. "What's a sandwich that doesn't have ham and cheese," said our drinker. He enjoyed his ham and cheese on his own as the other two don't eat pork. He was all praise for it!!!!

They have only two desserts, a 6 layer chocolate cheese cake and a chocolate tart cake. I can't believe I forgot the name of the chocolate cheesecake. Its a crime because it was decadent. The chocolate tart cake was fantastic, but the other one was just a tad better. Actually, no. Both were equally good. Actually no, the tart was better. Okay, final verdict. Both were excellent.

The pricing here is brilliant. A superb steak for about Rs. 350 bucks. A meal for two without drinks can be had about 1k or so, which is brilliant, considering the ambience! Rustic, music filled, happening and seems to be some sort of a melange between a loud bar and a quiet pub!!! Nevertheless, a great place for a Friday evening once you navigate the nasty road to get to it!!

Plan B is off Greme's Road, Egmore. Take the road opposite Sea Shells on Egmore and you'll see the sign boards. 

OK, after this post, there is going to be a break from Chennai Food! Yup. A Chennai wish list is coming up, so for a couple of weeks, be prepared to be bombarded! But while we are still in the Chennai food scene, two of us were at DG Grizzlers! Steak and Sizzlers are among my favourite things (Yes, I know I say that about a lot of FOOD), so we thought we'd breathe some steak in, before I head out to the United Steaks of America!

So it was a simple order! A portion of stir fried prawns, a strawberry margarita, a beef medallion steak and a seer fish steak! The prawns were excellent. Though I generally love these large prawns, I could live with small ones for dishes like these and we thoroughly enjoyed them! The non alcoholic margarita was excellent and the flavour was full bodied.

The steaks were very home style and I don't know if this was intentional! The beef steak was very well done, though the waiter repeatedly asked me if I wanted it medium! The fish didn't appear to be fresh and so it wasn't a great dish! The mashed potatoes that came with it were lumpy!

So its a decent place, but at upwards of Rs. 400 a dish, though the flavours were decent for the most part, I am not sure if a place that positions itself as a specialty steak place can get away with lumpy mashed potatoes and not very fresh fish for too long! I would like to try something else another time though!

Another place that has been making a lot of noise in the past few week!!! Every review, every post on FB. Every Tweet. Everything written about the restaurant thus far has been either to praise the restaurant or the three Serb owners! While I am writing this from the other side of the world where similar foods are dime a dozen, the three of us, that night went in, pretty late! And we were welcomed with open arms. Located, slightly in an interior, but very well connected road, Basil with a Twist is in a brand new building!

Seated in a nice, big table for four, privacy will not really be an issue in most tables! Of course, I am talking about privacy from other diners! The chef can see you and you can see him and you can exchange smiles, comments, praises, tomatoes, whatever! Run by three expats who are apparently out to serve, 'Non Indianized, traditional food from their home land,' service was fantastic to say the least! We asked for suggestions and went with those! 

A small salad to start off with, was a suggestion, that I will not go with again, not because it was bad, but it was ordinary! Especially ordinary compared to the food that followed! A steak, which I asked for medium, was reasonably medium! OK, slightly on the done, but, it was a fantastic dish! The mushroom sauce all around it was lip smacking! You could lick it all around and would be forgiven. The sausage with potatoes was just as excellent! Fantastic meat, well cooked and great flavours! The fish of the day, Mahi-Mahi, was very well grilled and was loved!

And then came two big disappointments! The dessert. While the cheese cake was a whipped cream cake on a soggy base at best, the baklava was served in a fashion that I have never had before. Both desserts tasted OK, but were very very different from what we were used to! For me a Baklava is nice and crisp, so having the same flavours in a melted cream wasn't appealing! 

Rs. 2650 for the six dishes and great service! I will go again! You should try it, too!

Why? Why? Why? Why does Chennai not have more places like this? As much as I hate to admit it, Bangalore's eating out scene is much better, but when I happen to visit a place like this, the feeling gets rubbed in like crazy. Located on the Indra Nagar 100 feet road, the ambiance is very eclectic with a small outdoor seating and two levels of indoor seating all set in white.

We were three of us and stuck to one dish each - I had the tenderloin steak, friends had a beef burger and a fettuccine in white sauce with grilled chicken. The first reaction to the burger was, 'Man, that's big!' The second reaction was, 'Better than Sandy's'. I can't help comparing, but the two burgers were a little different, but I quite liked the burger. The beef steak was excellent and I loved the sides and the beetroot sauce that went with it. The fettuccine was quite nice too, though the grilled chicken seemed a little under-flavored. In spite of being stuffed to the face, my friend wanted a dessert and so we narrowed the choice to the seasonal special, the Yule Log. In spite of being stuffed, the body found space for the dessert.

The damages were about 1.8k for the three of us and with nice portions, didn't feel the pinch. Service was quite attentive and glasses were refilled promptly, a nice bread basket was served at the start of the meal and the waiters were reasonably knowledgable of the menu.

4/5

Located at the 100 feet road, Indra Nagar, about a km or so from the Domlur flyover.

This place has been around for a really, really long time and though most of us complain that the quality of the food has dropped, occasionally, we still land there for a nice sizzler dinner! Has the quality dropped? Honestly, I don't remember the exact flavours from a decade back, but I won't be wrong to say that it has, at least marginally! So, when guy in the group was adamant that he wanted to have a sizzler, we debated everything else, even Duchess, but someone said that it is quite bad, so we settled for the known devil!

One starter, three main courses is all we had! The starter, with a fancy name, Dilwala chicken, was nice and had a nutty tandoori taste to it and this was the first time we had that and quite liked it! I wanted to have the Diamond Grill, but the fellow who was adamant in the first place could not quite make up his mind decided to poach on my order, so I reluctantly gave it to him and settled for a Chicken Breast Sizzler and the third friend asked for a full fish steak!

The diamond grill was excellent that night, and I say so, because in my previous visit, it wasn't all that great, but that night one part of it was excellent. The lamb was succulent and melting in the mouth, but the rice wasn't all that great. The chicken breast steak was very similar in flavour to the chicken minced steak at Blue Diamond and since I am a huge fan of that steak, this did not quite cut it for me. The grilled fish steak was very good, though I am not a fan of fish, I thought it was pretty neat. 

We skipped dessert as the portions here are rather huge and we were quite stuffed! Service was alright, very typical of a 3 star hotel and nothing to complain about, except that the bill took, I think, 1 million years, to arrive! 

3.5/5

Opal Inn is just off Nungambakkam High Road, on the road next to Barista. On weekends reservations are recommended, but though the restaurant was doing well that night, there were a couple of tables free when we went in at 930. 

I love the Worcest sauce and I love most things made correctly with the Worcest sauce! I stress on correctly, because, for me, there is a very thin line between an overpowering flavour of the sauce and the right amount of flavour. One of the best examples of the right balance for me is the sauce that comes with the chicken minced steak at Jewelbox Restaurant at Blue Diamond! I tried recreating a similar flavour, but served it completely different! This is a reasonably simple recipe and can be served with a host of dishes like rice, flatbreads, steak or by itself with condiments. Like most times I post a recipe, this is quite generic and the aim is to introduce a cooking concept that can be mixed and matched and played with!

What you need:

3 teaspoon butter and 3 teaspoon of oil
1 cup of chopped onions
300 ml of chicken stock
5 teaspoons of Worcest Sauce (more or less depending on how strong you want the flavour)
A few florets of brocolli
2 pieces of chicken breast, boneless
A little cornflour
Some salt

Heat the oil and and the butter (this is to prevent the butter from burning) and once hot, add the onions and cook till transparent. Add the chicken breasts and once the outsides change colour, add the chicken stock, Worcest Sauce and simmer for about 10 minutes, till the chicken is almost cooked. Now add the brocolli florets and if you time it right, the chicken and the brocolli will be fully cooked at the same time. Add a little cornflour to thicken the sauce and it is ready!


I plated it with ghee rice, mashed peas and some salsa on beans, but you can go crazy. If you don't add the chicken, you can add mushroom and use it as a sauce for steak! It tastes great when done right and it is quite easy! In a variation, I once added semi cooked rice to it and it became a one pot, one shot dish!