Live around here and I go here quite often.So its about due I wrote about them.
A little piece of Gujarat in Chennai, the people, the sights, smells...
The common chaats like Bhel Puri , Paani Puri, Dahi Puri, Paapdi Chaat , Dahi Paapdi , Sev Puri , Samosas and Kachori s are superlative.So is their Pav Bhaji.
If u are an adventurous person, leave your incline out at the door , because stuff like Chilly Cheese Toasts and sandwiches suck so bad :(
They sell some extremely good Dhokla, Khandvi, Lassi, Rose Milk , and other assorted North Indian fare.
They have an entire wall lined with rows and rows of ghatiya and mixtures in all possible permutations and combinations.I havent tried any , but im pretty sure they are atleast near authentic or atleast pretty yummy.
Besides the food , there s nothing interesting going on here.
Ambience : zero
Hygiene : well, just shut your eyes tight.(Shri mithai is waaay more spacious and the place/cooks look cleaner)
Parking : ha ha .
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Aggarwal Bhojnalya
Oh my God , people ! This place is a FIND !!!
For one, words are just not enough to testify for this place .
Like all things precious , getting here is a pain. How u'll park around here i have no clue . I always park in GGH where i workand take an auto to Patni plaza.(Which is quite a landmark in these parts, for reasons beyond me). So figure that out for yourself.
For a general idea , it takes a good deal of brushing against cows (or oxen , im not sure ), precariously stepping around flea infested stray dogs, careful of not getting in their bad books , and jumping mounds of rotting garbage ,to go from any point A to point B in this area.
Aggrawal is in the non descript lane near Patni Plaza. Enter in and you'll forget all the pain u endured to get here. Its a clean, old fashioned little room, with equally old fashioned tables, and plastic chairs. Absolutely nothing fancy.You pay for ur Thalis and then take a seat next to a random somebody.
There s the preliminary 4 cups .. with mango/garlic achar , mint chutney ,and chopped chillies in mustard oil.. it looks innocently plain , but serve yourself a bit of each. Its all delicious.
Then they served us the following :
Aloo and beans curry, dal,cabbage dal, green gram sabji .
Rotis.Complacently rotund. Smothered lovingly with ghee. Piping hot.And ofcourse, unlimited
And chawal. Tastes fabulous with the dal. Toss in a few of the aforementioned chillies, crush some roast paapad in and youre good to go!
Every one of these was finger lickin-yummy , to say the LEAST.
Cup of thick curd.
Its a long time since i left the place but im still reeling in the pleasant ,lingering memory of their fabulous food.(and stiffing my fingers every twenty seconds or so ).
The service was warm and home-like.
I strongly urge everyone to go here . You will love it just as much as i did if not more.
PS : Just get someone to blindfold you enroute and back, to avoid taking in the nasty vistas.
For one, words are just not enough to testify for this place .
Like all things precious , getting here is a pain. How u'll park around here i have no clue . I always park in GGH where i workand take an auto to Patni plaza.(Which is quite a landmark in these parts, for reasons beyond me). So figure that out for yourself.
For a general idea , it takes a good deal of brushing against cows (or oxen , im not sure ), precariously stepping around flea infested stray dogs, careful of not getting in their bad books , and jumping mounds of rotting garbage ,to go from any point A to point B in this area.
Aggrawal is in the non descript lane near Patni Plaza. Enter in and you'll forget all the pain u endured to get here. Its a clean, old fashioned little room, with equally old fashioned tables, and plastic chairs. Absolutely nothing fancy.You pay for ur Thalis and then take a seat next to a random somebody.
There s the preliminary 4 cups .. with mango/garlic achar , mint chutney ,and chopped chillies in mustard oil.. it looks innocently plain , but serve yourself a bit of each. Its all delicious.
Then they served us the following :
Aloo and beans curry, dal,cabbage dal, green gram sabji .
Rotis.Complacently rotund. Smothered lovingly with ghee. Piping hot.And ofcourse, unlimited
And chawal. Tastes fabulous with the dal. Toss in a few of the aforementioned chillies, crush some roast paapad in and youre good to go!
Every one of these was finger lickin-yummy , to say the LEAST.
Cup of thick curd.
Its a long time since i left the place but im still reeling in the pleasant ,lingering memory of their fabulous food.(and stiffing my fingers every twenty seconds or so ).
The service was warm and home-like.
I strongly urge everyone to go here . You will love it just as much as i did if not more.
PS : Just get someone to blindfold you enroute and back, to avoid taking in the nasty vistas.
Rendezvous , Pondicherry
We made spur of the moment plans to go to Pondicherry on Sunday ( the first Sunday i was free in a looooong time ).
We went here for lunch.This is a nice little place located on Rue Suffren.It is situated on the first floor , comfortably dim ,with a neat thatched roof , decorated garishlywith gold and silver paper stars ( if they were recreating the night sky .. bad , bad attempt ).And the walls had paintings from the Ramayana(Ravana slaying some bird ??). Quite a mixed personality , but it doesNOT seem to suffer from an identity crisis anyway.
What we ate :
Garlic bread : Absolutely melt in the mouth
Mushrooms tossed with garlic and onions : so SO light and fresh
Veg Shaslyk : an ok sizzler consisting of some curried rice and a skewer of grilled veggies and paneer
Veg ( lol ) Moussaka : i know , i know, there s nothing like a veg moussaka.
This imaginative version was layered with aubergines and potato ,curried black whole dal (!) and cheese.
It made for a little bit of a gastronomic adventure , within vegetarian territories.
I did look at the non veg selection of their menu . Way more stuff for you guys!
tThey are BIG on sea food , serving pretty platters of prawn , calamari etc
And they serve beer , i think.(The place being Pondicherry , and all.)
They have a huge crowd of foreigners , but the waiters remain obstinately indian ( "veg saasli " was how they pronounce shaslyk !!) Jai ho.
The meal came to between rs 500 to 600 for the 2 of us.
We went here for lunch.This is a nice little place located on Rue Suffren.It is situated on the first floor , comfortably dim ,with a neat thatched roof , decorated garishlywith gold and silver paper stars ( if they were recreating the night sky .. bad , bad attempt ).And the walls had paintings from the Ramayana(Ravana slaying some bird ??). Quite a mixed personality , but it doesNOT seem to suffer from an identity crisis anyway.
What we ate :
Garlic bread : Absolutely melt in the mouth
Mushrooms tossed with garlic and onions : so SO light and fresh
Veg Shaslyk : an ok sizzler consisting of some curried rice and a skewer of grilled veggies and paneer
Veg ( lol ) Moussaka : i know , i know, there s nothing like a veg moussaka.
This imaginative version was layered with aubergines and potato ,curried black whole dal (!) and cheese.
It made for a little bit of a gastronomic adventure , within vegetarian territories.
I did look at the non veg selection of their menu . Way more stuff for you guys!
tThey are BIG on sea food , serving pretty platters of prawn , calamari etc
And they serve beer , i think.(The place being Pondicherry , and all.)
They have a huge crowd of foreigners , but the waiters remain obstinately indian ( "veg saasli " was how they pronounce shaslyk !!) Jai ho.
The meal came to between rs 500 to 600 for the 2 of us.
Padmashree Foods
We were spending a jobless evening in the alwarpet area , so we decided to pop in for a quick bite.i
Its strange to note the way they ve done up the place.
Although they are professional bakers , there s a very homely feel to the place.. mind u , there are no fancy frills or flashy baubles around , it just feels like an extension of their own home, which is a pretty sweet thing ( the pun just happened).I had a slice of the Irish Coffee Cream cake , the husband ordered a Banana Fudge brownie and a Veg Sandwich .The Banana Brownie was really fudge-y and banana-y .
DELICIOUS !
And highly recommended.
The Irish Coffe cream (cake) was moist and yummy.Im not sure if its authentic Irish Cream and all that ,(primarily bcs i have not been to Ireland ) ,but bottomline is it was yummy.
Their servings are quite just the right size( who wants to eat an elephantine cakeand then run twenty miles to lose all the fat ).And starting atrupees 13 , I think its quite a neat deal. gGo there for a quick bite if u happen to be in the area.
They do good pre- order birthday cakes etc at reasonably good prices.
Its strange to note the way they ve done up the place.
Although they are professional bakers , there s a very homely feel to the place.. mind u , there are no fancy frills or flashy baubles around , it just feels like an extension of their own home, which is a pretty sweet thing ( the pun just happened).I had a slice of the Irish Coffee Cream cake , the husband ordered a Banana Fudge brownie and a Veg Sandwich .The Banana Brownie was really fudge-y and banana-y .
DELICIOUS !
And highly recommended.
The Irish Coffe cream (cake) was moist and yummy.Im not sure if its authentic Irish Cream and all that ,(primarily bcs i have not been to Ireland ) ,but bottomline is it was yummy.
Their servings are quite just the right size( who wants to eat an elephantine cakeand then run twenty miles to lose all the fat ).And starting atrupees 13 , I think its quite a neat deal. gGo there for a quick bite if u happen to be in the area.
They do good pre- order birthday cakes etc at reasonably good prices.
Courtyard by Marriot
It was our anniversary and we went here yesterday.
Its probably a 'Been there , Done that' place for most food lovers in Chennai . But im a relative noob in this city, and i have not been here before.
We had a LOT of plans ,which involved going to the temple around 5 pm , doing other things between 5 and 8 pm and finally hitting the place by 8.
Thanks to the weather +traffic playing spoilsport , we left the temple @ 5.30 pm , and reached Marriot @ 8 PM !!!! ( doing nothing in the meantime , but driving at a terminally-ill snail's pace , and me singing tTamil songs off-key, with the radio , to my husbands great annoyance).
At The Marriot they do a decent bomb check- ( perhaps after they bombed the Marriot in Islamabad ?)
For car : sniffer dog , burly guy with a flashlight.
For you : walk in metal detector , bag check. Thankfully they dont frisk you bcs its pretty out there in the open.
So ultimately you feel super secure for the next hour or two.Everyone knows there s no dearth of food here by any standards , so im not gonna list what we ate here .(Partly bcs its a huge list and i'm lazy to type , and also bcs there were too many names to memorize).
The cold salads were all brilliant. Essentially simple , unique flavors to each of them.
The chef seems to be addicted to basil ( reflected in the salsa they served with their complementary bread , AND in their pizza sauce ).
Now this is something every pizzeria could easily follow .Basil is the secret weapon , and yesterday i found out , there s no such thing as too much of Basil. It gives such an incredibe burst of freshness to every bite.
Pasta from the pasta counter was fantastic. Some of the asparagus was a little too thick to chew.Avoidable.
There was quite a spread of Indian gravies for the Naans. Everything worked well for me.
The Cheddar Potato , Veg Parmigiano were exceptional.
For rice there was Tamarind rice and curd rice . I completely skipped those, as im not a huge fan of either.But my husband loved both , and said the pickles were very authentic too.
I was delighted to find they had about ten icecreams on offer with abt ten toppings to boot !!I took small scoops of butterscotch , coffee and chocolate, with almond slivers.And that made my day :)
My husband liked mango and other fruit flavors .There were about 15 other desserts about which i have the following to say :
The Mascarpone and chocolate brownie : out of the world !!
Walnut brownie : best walnut brownie ive had
Banana herb cake : fantastic. had Basil in it (!!)
Reinforces my theory that basil tastes good with anything.
Some other banana cake : yummy.
Orange mousse (?) , some other fruit mousse : its ok to taste gelatin @ other places but I least expected it here. Sad.
All in all we had avery, very good time/meal .
Service : Very enthusiastic in .spurts.
( Dining air-hostesses are a major distraction to the waiters , so the boys tend to wander around in zig zag lines, at times :P)
My only gripe :The two seater tables are a tad too small. Since they have an impressive amount of space at their disposal ,the table could have been bigger by a few square inches.
Its probably a 'Been there , Done that' place for most food lovers in Chennai . But im a relative noob in this city, and i have not been here before.
We had a LOT of plans ,which involved going to the temple around 5 pm , doing other things between 5 and 8 pm and finally hitting the place by 8.
Thanks to the weather +traffic playing spoilsport , we left the temple @ 5.30 pm , and reached Marriot @ 8 PM !!!! ( doing nothing in the meantime , but driving at a terminally-ill snail's pace , and me singing tTamil songs off-key, with the radio , to my husbands great annoyance).
At The Marriot they do a decent bomb check- ( perhaps after they bombed the Marriot in Islamabad ?)
For car : sniffer dog , burly guy with a flashlight.
For you : walk in metal detector , bag check. Thankfully they dont frisk you bcs its pretty out there in the open.
So ultimately you feel super secure for the next hour or two.Everyone knows there s no dearth of food here by any standards , so im not gonna list what we ate here .(Partly bcs its a huge list and i'm lazy to type , and also bcs there were too many names to memorize).
The cold salads were all brilliant. Essentially simple , unique flavors to each of them.
The chef seems to be addicted to basil ( reflected in the salsa they served with their complementary bread , AND in their pizza sauce ).
Now this is something every pizzeria could easily follow .Basil is the secret weapon , and yesterday i found out , there s no such thing as too much of Basil. It gives such an incredibe burst of freshness to every bite.
Pasta from the pasta counter was fantastic. Some of the asparagus was a little too thick to chew.Avoidable.
There was quite a spread of Indian gravies for the Naans. Everything worked well for me.
The Cheddar Potato , Veg Parmigiano were exceptional.
For rice there was Tamarind rice and curd rice . I completely skipped those, as im not a huge fan of either.But my husband loved both , and said the pickles were very authentic too.
I was delighted to find they had about ten icecreams on offer with abt ten toppings to boot !!I took small scoops of butterscotch , coffee and chocolate, with almond slivers.And that made my day :)
My husband liked mango and other fruit flavors .There were about 15 other desserts about which i have the following to say :
The Mascarpone and chocolate brownie : out of the world !!
Walnut brownie : best walnut brownie ive had
Banana herb cake : fantastic. had Basil in it (!!)
Reinforces my theory that basil tastes good with anything.
Some other banana cake : yummy.
Orange mousse (?) , some other fruit mousse : its ok to taste gelatin @ other places but I least expected it here. Sad.
All in all we had avery, very good time/meal .
Service : Very enthusiastic in .spurts.
( Dining air-hostesses are a major distraction to the waiters , so the boys tend to wander around in zig zag lines, at times :P)
My only gripe :The two seater tables are a tad too small. Since they have an impressive amount of space at their disposal ,the table could have been bigger by a few square inches.
Sparky's Diner
I dont know if its a jinx but everytime i go out to eat , I seem to have a minor adventure.
Someday ill write a book about how i slayed seven headed dragons (breathing fire, ofcourse ), sailed raging seas, fought deadly pirates and climbed icy mountains, all for FOOD.
Yesterday a friend and i decided to hit Sparky s for lunch, braving Cyclone Nisha(!!) , resultant eerie , flooded subways, and waterlogged roads.
As expected we were the only ones there. I thought the decor and stuff was nice and typically American Diner to the point of slightly overdoing it. But enough of that bcs most of you have seen the place already.
What put me off was an EXTREMELY local looking waiter, in a very grimy outfit, trying to talk in an AMERICAN accent !!! Over and over again. Completely annoying. Would have loved for him to buzz off!
Anyway the food is a different story.We ordered up some nachos with salsa.
The nachos were fantastic , but the salsa was just regular .Not at all bad though.
My friend ordered a Hippie sandwich . It was Huge (expected) and was wrapped in a thin flat bread , with lots of Hummus and fresh veggies. Very good and an interesting option for weight watchers.
Also there was a tiny, slightly cute(:P) , loaf of white bread , which looked like a sleeping baby hamster.It tasted like pita but was actually a loaf, and not flatbread.
I ordered the Bourbon Street pasta . (The annoying waiter's recommendation).
The sauce was so different from the bechamel sauce/arabita sauce that seems to be the norm in the average Indian resto. And for the first time , I thought I ate penne that was properly cooked. This sauce had a caramelized onion and cream sauce. Smokey, mysteriously dark and rich. Loaded with zucchini, 'shrooms, peppers, ... oh its a veggie dream.
It came with a complementary salad.I didnt care for the wilted lettuce , but the mayo was outstanding.
We had a good meal. I recommend both the above dishes , if you're vegetarian.
And no ,we didnt have dessert :)
Someday ill write a book about how i slayed seven headed dragons (breathing fire, ofcourse ), sailed raging seas, fought deadly pirates and climbed icy mountains, all for FOOD.
Yesterday a friend and i decided to hit Sparky s for lunch, braving Cyclone Nisha(!!) , resultant eerie , flooded subways, and waterlogged roads.
As expected we were the only ones there. I thought the decor and stuff was nice and typically American Diner to the point of slightly overdoing it. But enough of that bcs most of you have seen the place already.
What put me off was an EXTREMELY local looking waiter, in a very grimy outfit, trying to talk in an AMERICAN accent !!! Over and over again. Completely annoying. Would have loved for him to buzz off!
Anyway the food is a different story.We ordered up some nachos with salsa.
The nachos were fantastic , but the salsa was just regular .Not at all bad though.
My friend ordered a Hippie sandwich . It was Huge (expected) and was wrapped in a thin flat bread , with lots of Hummus and fresh veggies. Very good and an interesting option for weight watchers.
Also there was a tiny, slightly cute(:P) , loaf of white bread , which looked like a sleeping baby hamster.It tasted like pita but was actually a loaf, and not flatbread.
I ordered the Bourbon Street pasta . (The annoying waiter's recommendation).
The sauce was so different from the bechamel sauce/arabita sauce that seems to be the norm in the average Indian resto. And for the first time , I thought I ate penne that was properly cooked. This sauce had a caramelized onion and cream sauce. Smokey, mysteriously dark and rich. Loaded with zucchini, 'shrooms, peppers, ... oh its a veggie dream.
It came with a complementary salad.I didnt care for the wilted lettuce , but the mayo was outstanding.
We had a good meal. I recommend both the above dishes , if you're vegetarian.
And no ,we didnt have dessert :)
Amethyst
Went here today for an evening snack.
My husband ordered lemonade and this mushroom appetizer.
The lemonade was so bad , both of us couldnt jointly finish it :(
The Mushroom-Whatever, was basically sauteed 'shrooms on bread squares, all grilled. Unfortunately the bread was CHARRED . But we managed to scrape off the charred parts and eat our way thro it.
I ordered the Carrot Cake which was good , if not fantastic.
The cake had a slight whiff of cinnamon going on, which was nice. And the orange zest , in the frosting added a nice tang :)
I agree its a lovely place but i dont know about the privacy . Maybe because today was a holiday, but the place was drowning in people .
And sadly we sat next to a table full of noisy, cackly people and that ruined a little bit of the feel of the place, for me.But its definitely one of the places id like to hang out at, once in a while, because ive had better experiences here before .
My husband ordered lemonade and this mushroom appetizer.
The lemonade was so bad , both of us couldnt jointly finish it :(
The Mushroom-Whatever, was basically sauteed 'shrooms on bread squares, all grilled. Unfortunately the bread was CHARRED . But we managed to scrape off the charred parts and eat our way thro it.
I ordered the Carrot Cake which was good , if not fantastic.
The cake had a slight whiff of cinnamon going on, which was nice. And the orange zest , in the frosting added a nice tang :)
I agree its a lovely place but i dont know about the privacy . Maybe because today was a holiday, but the place was drowning in people .
And sadly we sat next to a table full of noisy, cackly people and that ruined a little bit of the feel of the place, for me.But its definitely one of the places id like to hang out at, once in a while, because ive had better experiences here before .
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