Dhabba Express - Nungambakkam

Expect no quality, wen u go for quantity!

Firstly, why is Dhabba Express hiding behind this building? are they tryin to avoid customers? it is impossible to know there is a dhabba here unless you sit on the net n search for a dhaba in nungambakkam like me and that too dhabba express? wow! i took the first chance to go there. The stairs look haunted and u ll wanna think there ll b no crowd at all inside, but surprise! there r soooo many ppl busily filling their plates from the buffet as you enter. The ambiance is typical dhaba expressish, open top, dirty plates/spoons/etc.and ofcourse the 'i-know-u-love-it' attitude service!

There was noone to guide me as to where i should pay, get the token and start my buffet, I was totally lost. The waiters are helpful, but only if u ask for help , maybe thats a lot to expect. The buffet is completely veg, 75 bucks. It includes, some dry tasting stuffed roti, good naan, low quality tomato rice, awesome sambar rice (i dono wat it was doing in a dhabba but i regret not takin more of it), some pulao rice, very bad curd rice, macaroni! (huh?), salads, yummmmmy raitha, gobi chinese style, a weird brinjal manchurian kind, half cooked ladies finger, dal makhani, one more gravy and ofcourse jelebi which was always empty and i had to ask for it some 10 times b4 it came hot hot yumm yumm to my table, wowwwww mouth waters at the very thought of it.

Warning! If you wanna avoid throwing up do not use/ or even look at the spoons. You dont have a choice on the plates tho. Do not drink the water. Order for lassi or buttermilk its good. You can also order a la carte other than the buffet, there is punjabi n chinese item esp non-veg since the buffet is completely veg. They also do home delivery, so carry the menu back with u. If you are looking for more hygienic environment, you can sit inside the small AC area and order too.

Ambiance - 3/5

Food - 4/5

Service - 2.5/5

Price - less than 200 bucks for a couple if u go for the buffet and a drink

Will i go bak? - wen hungry strikes and nothin more

Dhabba Express
112, 1st Floor, Eldorado Building,
Nungambakkam High Road,
Nungambakkam, Chennai - 600034
Phone 32549944, 28203636

Enjoy a typical dhabba express experience, value for money for sure!

French Loaf - Velachery

French Loaf But Indian Butter

I was so excited when 'French Loaf' opened up in Velachery cos i've heard a lot about the one in Harrington road and badly wanted to try out, but cudnt due to the distance. The sandwich was not just another sandwich, it is different from what you would get in other cafes, more cos you get to choose what is in it. Its absolutely yummy to say the least, and i jus loved it, moreover its not as expensive as i thought it would be.

Well thats about it! i was so expecting to give an excellent review on this place when i walked in. The service let me down badly. The waiter acted cranky to be precise. Do i look like a 5-year old or like someone who's seeing sandwich for the first time in her life? No! that dint feed my ego well. He was so intrusive, I started wondering if he's gonna dig into my sandwich basket at some point. I got obviously furious that i lost my temper as well as my appetite.

The bakery looks nothing better than a McRennett or Cakes 'n' Bakes (except ofcourse its inside a brand-new contemporary building). Maybe i expected too much but 'French' reminds me of 'Sophistication' and definitely not localised ambiance/service. I guess that explains the less-expensive food. I cant comment on the pastries, since the waiter kept following us trying to over hear our conversation and so we had to go back to our table. It is definitely not a premium place and does not attract such crowd for the same reason. For once, I atleast expected the waiter to speak in English (if not French you know!)

Ambiance - 3.5/5

Food - 4/5

Service - 2/5

Price - Maybe a 300 for a couple

Will i go back? - I wanna try the Harrington road outlet for sure and have the sandwich again!

French Loaf
Plot No 183 New Naidu Hall Door,
No 137 Ground Floor,
Velachery By-pass Road,
Velachery, Chennai - 600042

Phone 42022091

As for the Velachery outlet, I am not going back there even if i have to die of hunger otherwise!

Mansukh's Sweets and Snacks - T. Nagar

Finally, some fine snacks!

After readin a lot on Mansukh and its yummy gujju food, i went in search of this place. Now that the new flyover is on in t nagar, its more suffocating and irritating to get here .. but yea i found the place somehow! It looks like a small sweet shop from the outside, then y all the hype?

Well i look at the menu, self service he says in a rude tone. I wanted to ask whats special there, whats khandvi (or watever), wats this and whats that since m not a gujju by any chance but wanted try their best. But somehow i didnt feel like, due to the tone of this guy. Had the Khandvi since i am used to dhoklas, it was actually awesome and will def have again! So i went ahead and bought some sweets, the strawberry agra peda and jelebi were good. The aloo tikki was different and yummy. The ribbon pakoda was the best of all, packed in a typical dept store pack i dint expect it to be so fresh and crisp and tasty. Now i again went ahead and ordered poori with aloo suk, take away, but thats where i made the mistake, the food took a long time to come due to the crowd and it wasnt good either. I've had better ones on the roadside stalls and ofcourse Rangoli!

But overall i guess very good sweet and savories stall they have. The snacks are very yummy and unique (i fell in love with gujju food after i ate at Rangoli!). But if you want to dine in or take away from the food counter, mayb u shud try something else, not the puri and def not the aloo :). Dont expect service. Ambiance is typical of a sweet shop with few chairs to eat, but there are more ppl here since they have a proper food stall too. Mayb cos there are not much gujju specialty places in chennai, its definitely worth a try!

Ambiance - 3/5

Food - 4/5

Service - 2.5/5

Price - around 150 bucks for a couple (but u shud take some snacks back home, add that expense too!)

Will i go back again? - Yea... to pick up the ribbon pakoda atleast!

Mansukh's Sweets and Snacks
10, Ramaswamy Street,
Opp. Shree Temple of Gold,
T.Nagar, Chennai - 600017
Phone: 24341867, 243451258

You get Mansukh's snacks packed and sold in Spencer's and other food stores too!

Smokin' Joes - Purasawalkam

Lacking Professionalism

After waiting so long to taste the Smokin Joe's pizza, finally got a chance to catch it at a food court stall in the Abirami Mega Mall. One of the cheapest mall i ve been to, in terms of ambiance, but yea cant blame it on Mr. Joes in this case, but they can definitely hit places like citi centre or ispahani if they wanna maintain a class.

But i could say the mall and the outlet deserve each other cos the class of the food and service was good enough for a place like this. The service was very unprofessional and the pizza was too. The make-your-own-pizza thingie sounded interesting and we ordered a medium pizza with onions peppers pineapples babycorn and tomatoes. The pizza took a long time to come and that elevated my appetite as well as expectation a lot. But a total disaster called pizza came to our table, which tasted like the ones you get in local bakeries, the dough was so unfresh, the toppings were huge and irregular, twas bland and no chilli flakes were provided.

Dont even compare the place to pizza hut or pizza corner or even domino's for that matter.. (

Ambiance - 2.5/5

Food - 2/5

Service - 2.5/5

Price - 200 to 250 per couple for something thats worth less than 50 bucks

Will i ever go back? - Hell no! i am very happy its pretty far off from home...

Smokin' Joes
Abirami Mega Mall,
Purasavakkam High Road,
Purasawalkam, Chennai - 600084
Phone : 26651577

Joe's will win hands down compared to McRennet Pizzas, if you ready to pay 200 instead of 20 bucks tho!