Reviews Posted by: Wasim |
| 16 Reviews |
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| "Large portions, Decent food!" |
18 Feb 2010 |
| KOBE grills have now opened up shop in Chennai right at the heart of town. Located behind Apollo Hospitals, in Wallace Garden, KOBE will now compete with Tuscana, Subway, Casa Picola and a million other places a stone's throw away. Apparently liked by quite a few people at Delhi and other places, they have franchised one now in Chennai.
As you enter, you cannot help but notice the simple, but nice and elegant interiors. I would have preferred more space between tables in a steak/sizzler joint with smoke coming from all directions, but that was not to be. Luckily we went in early (both in terms of restaurant opening day and time) and were the only ones for quite sometime before few more people decided to take a peek.
We were two of us and had only 2 sizzlers so I can only speak for those two. The portions are HUGE. We ordered a grilled beef steak with schezwan sauce and a grilled chicken steak with garlic sauce. You get a decent portion of meat with a number of different vegetables, all grilled, all around the steak and makes it look BIG!!!!
One pleasant surprise was that both the dishes tasted different sauce wise. It is not uncommon to visit a restaurant and order two steaks and find that the only difference was the meat, but here, the base sauce (although the same colour), was different for both. But the extra schezwan (which you can see in the picture, red and angry) and garlic sauces were poured carelessly over the steak on top! The schezwan sauce was overly, overly, overly spicy,something like andhra times andhra!!!!!! The garlic sauce was ok, but if I go again, I would avoid the sauces (and the extra Rs 20) you pay just for a jab of sauce. I completely removed the schezwan sauce and placed it on the next plate.
The beef was extremely tender....he did not ask me how I would like my steak, a relatively basic question that all steak joints will ask!!!! The meat was well tenderized and easy to eat, but hey, I like my steak medium done! I was not even offered that option. The chicken steak was decent. The veges served more than make up for the meal and you might not need any side orders. The steaks were priced around Rs 320 each, justified only by the size.
Decent place, would like to go back in a larger group and try out more steaks and steak burgers, but if my intuitions are right, we have another extremely Indianized steak outlet, nothing particularly great, but another place to eat!!!!
Food 6/10
Service 7/10
Ambiance 8/10
Price 6/10
KOBE is located in Wallace Gardens, behind Apollo Hospitals, or the road adjacent to Tuscana. |
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| "Sweltering Summer and Flooded Winters" |
23 Apr 2010 |
| Accord Hotel's coffee shop Seasons is where 14 of us head to for a friend's birthday treat! Usually for such large groups a buffet is the best bet and since none of us had tried this one in particular, the decision was sealed.
Its only later we knew why we have not been here for so so long!
Soup was served on the table and the choices were mixed seafood soup and mixed veg soup. Somehow, I believe that the soup in a buffet should be chicken for the non veg. Chicken is the most commonly consumed non veg item and quite a few non vegetarians do not consume prawns and certain kinds of fish, and its unfair that they have to choose a veg soup. The same happened to this group and 9 of the 12 non vegetarians had to choose the veg soup which was very average and disappointing.
We were served quite a few starters on the table too and the potato salad, the grilled chicken and one of the fish dishes was good. All others were an eye wash for a starter. So we moved on pretty quickly to the main course.
The main course had a 'multi cuisine' part and an 'Italian' part to it. I tasted almost every dish on the menu and was thoroughly disappointed. Except a few dishes like the beef lasagna, the seared chicken, the potato tikki, the singapore chicken and a few salads, rest were very very average for a restaurant in a hotel of this caliber. The biriyani was very average ( I am very strict with my biriyani standards, but most people in the party were not too happy either and hence the verdict).
There was a huge dessert spread and most of them were average. The fruit shots were an exception and were good. The pineapple custard cake was nice and the brownie was decent. The ice creams were HARD and extremely difficult to take and tasted like old ice creams.
Service and ambiance were good and no complaints on that front. But being priced at about Rs 845 per person, I did expect something more.
Overall, it was a disappointment on the food front. Seasons, though meant to give us variety, only showed us obscene winters and merciless summers with occasional pleasantness between them.
Food 5/10
Service 7/10
Ambiance 7/10
Price 6/10
Seasons is the coffee shop at The Accord Metropolitan Hotel on G N Chetty Road, T. Nagar. |
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| "Decent Sizzlers in a new attempt at serving!" |
23 Apr 2010 |
| After hearing about the 'rock' sizzler concept emulating 'On the rocks' from Park Sheraton, I knew I had to visit this place soon! And so when a bunch of people wanted to meet, I tricked them to come here. The place is an example of what good interiors can do to a place. This is the same place that had the 'Sweet Chariot' cafe, but looks completely different with a full make over! Decent, well done interiors and a few cozy corners in the ground floor for the romantics!
We ordered about 4 starters, 3 sizzlers, 1 burger and 1 pasta. I do not remember the exact names of the starters, but they were all decent both in portions and in taste. The mexican tortilla formed the base for 3 of the 4 starters and the corn filling, chicken filling and the mixed veg fillings were all good enough!
For the main course, we had an Arabian Chicken Sizzler, a Madras Curry Sizzler, and Chicken Stroganhoff and another chicken sizzler. The sizzlers are all served with a small portion of herbed rice, beans, carrot and a decent portion of gravy. The Arabian Chicken sizzler was with 1 large piece of chicken leg, potato wedges and the above. It was decent, but being priced at Rs 340 I definitely think it was small portion! The madras curry sizzler was more of a masala dosa with fried idlies served on a sizzler rock, tasted good, but again over priced. The chicken stroganhoff was nice and different, with a soaked bread base along with the traditional rice and the stroganhoff chicken on top. The dishes are served on a hard thick base instead of the thin sizzler, but is in NO WAY comparable to the concept of 'On the rocks' where the food is cooked right in front of you on the rock!
The chicken burger was very good, small diameter but tall and the patty was excellent. The pasta was alright, definitely not bad!
For desserts we had a custard pudding served with ice cream and a chocolate brownie with ice cream. The first one was excellent, while the brownie (served on a pineapple) was not fresh at all and spoilt the dish.
Service was pretty good. No complaints on that front and the food kept coming quickly, maybe because there were only 3 full tables. Will have to go back on a full day and see how the service and taste of food is when they have lesser time to pay attention to individual tables. But I certainly think the sizzlers are over priced for the quantity and size. KOBE sizzlers are also pricing it the same way. but alteast there one sizzler will kind of fill you. Maybe we have to get ready to spend more on food now.
Price 5/10
Ambiance 7/10
Service 7/10
Food 7/10.
Holy Smoke is located in Ishpahani Center on Nungambakkam high road, in the same shop that used to host 'Sweet Chariot' |
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| "Old Style, Decent Food" |
23 Apr 2010 |
| Kane n Abel, an old coffee shop that we used to frequent as a kid, in Breeze Hotel was where we headed on a sunday night for a quite dinner!
I am entering this hotel after a few years and was quite shocked to see the restaurant almost full, though the lobby looked empty. Nevertheless, we got our seats immediately and we settled in! With nobody in for a full meal, we ordered random dishes. The wife had a Spanish Omelette, mom and sister shared 2 pudhina rotis, 1 butter chicken masala and a dal makhni among themselves and I had grilled chicken sizzler, and we ordered one portion of golden fried prawns as starters and some fresh juices.
The Spanish omelette was no where near a spanish omelette, it was just a regular omelette with some cheese inside. Tasted decent. The rotis and the gravies were decent too, no special mention for them. The golden fried prawns were very good. Unlike most places, here the prawn size was pretty decent and had only a thin coat of the flour, but this was priced at Rs 525. The grilled chicken sizzler was very Indianized, but very good at the same time and was served with vegetables and jacket potato, but I would have liked some sour cream on the potato!!!!! We finished off with gulab jamuns which were alright.
An old magician comes around to each table and tries to entertain you with some old magic tricks, decent attempt, but he needs to move with the times I guess. Service was alright. The bill of Rs 2459 was more than what I expected. None of us ate really well and from the coffee shop from an old 3 star hotel, I did expect to pay around Rs 1500, so I felt that it was kind of expensive for the average food we had.
Food 6/10
Ambiance 5/10
Service 6/10
Price 5/10
Kane n Abel is the 24 hours coffee shop of the Breeze hotel on Poonamallee High Road.
Visit www.chennaifoodie.blogspot.com for more reviews |
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| "Fantastic South Indian Food!!!!" |
23 Apr 2010 |
| ID aka Idly Dosa is one of the restaurants at the Satyam Cinemas and it can give any full fledged restaurant a run for its money.
Located on the first floor, it’s a great place to have
your dinner before the movie (but get there early as waiting times can be chilling) or after it! The restaurant has an open kitchen, a bar like seating area around the chefs and a regular seating area.
I always like the bar part, as you can order your food to the chef straight away and you get to chat with him and see him make some perfect dosas and vadas.
Being a full service South Indian eatery, it serves some great stuff. The most eye catching of it is the Ulundu Vada (the vada with the hole). Probably the best of its kind in Chennai, this vada does not drip a single drop of oil and you do not feel like eating a heart attack! Tastes great, non greasy and wholesome. The trick is in the proportion of the ingredients and the temperature of the oil reveals the chef.
The various dosas, idlies and the likes are amazing. I was not too fond of their appams, but that’s a very personal thing and most people are quite happy. The lassi here is non consistent, I have had fantastic lassi and no so fantastic ones, but most items are fabulous here!
The atmosphere and ambiance are classy, neat tables, nice bar stools and clean chefs with food being prepared right in front of you. Above average service and slightly premium prices, but hey, this is inside Satyam and its cheaper than Saravana Bhavan with a classy touch to it!
Food 8/10
Service 7/10
Ambiance 7/10
Price 7/10
ID is located on the first floor of the Satyam Theatre complex near Mount Road. |
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