Kalinga Restaurant - Velachery

i suggest u first visit an andhra mess!

Wat a name! Wat a location! as you pass through velachery by-pass road you cant miss the Kalinga restaurant along with Kebab Court, the lighting and the newly constructed apt looks too inviting. An andhra speciality restaurant.. hmmm interesting ..seems like a must try.

Finally, i plan up a lunch jus for sake of tasting the cuisine of kalinga. The ambiance is great, spacious and bright. Service is ok, no complains.We ordered an andhra thali (95), paratta (25), masala vada pulusu (90) (got carried away by the name), pista milkshake (70) and lassi (40). The Jevarisi vadam served on the house was so tasty and crispy and went very well with the pappu podi and ghee provided. Period.

Nothin after this was edible. I mean not to the extent of swollowing beyond the first bite. The vada pulusu was jus tamarind water and yday's vada dipped in it. Really do the telugus eat this tangy? I expected spicy hot stuff, which actually was not there! This dish was like eating thick tamarind paste, they cudve atleast diluted it a bit for gods sake :( after losing appetite tasting this, we had to eat the parattas with the gongra and tomato chutney.. which i dint like either.. everything is sour and tangy including the curd. The thali was nothin specially just the usual meals, which was not yummy either.

Worst part was that the lassi was served hot. Note i didnt say it wasnt cold, it was actually hot! Ice cubes were added on request, with an explanation that was lame. The menu is too less for veggies, n m not entirely sure if this is how andhra's cuisine tastes, cos i ve ate in local andhra mess and the meals are mouth-watering there. The place is a bit expensive compared to its counterparts in velachery.

Ambiance - 5/5

Food - 1.5/5

Service 4/5

Price - a minimum 300 to 400 per couple

Will i ever go back? - not even if m dying hungry, anyway there is kebab court literally next door!

Kalinga Restaurant
No. 1, 100 Feet By Pass Road,
Velachery, Chennai - 600042
Phone 22591272, 22591273

if u do end up here by chance, order plain white rice and enjoy it with pappu podi and vadam!

Barbeque Nation - T.Nagar

RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE!

and this aint even a three star hotel! Nobody has ever heard of Shri Devi Park Hotel until BbqNation sprang up with this innovative concept which attracted the typical wannabe crowd of the city .. so its undeniably happening.. that explains the pricing and the careless service. I wish they bought the waiters a mic and some confidence before they start work.

The ambiance is quite different, of course the starters being grilled on the table is part of it! But seriously, the kebabs are already cooked and ur actual kidding urself tryin to burn it further on ur table! I felt like playing 'kitchen kitchen' when i was five! Vegetarians PLZ STAY AWAY, dont get carried away by reviews written by ppl who have probably ate in the Bangalore bbqnation! Theres nothing in the starters for veggies except for the usual paneer crap u can find anywhere and Thai baby potatoes which was not bad (a big let down afetr reading so much about it online).

Hence to do justice, i ve got the reviews from meat-eating friends too. The chicken (Singapore style) and the prawns were edible. The stuff that actually tasted good was the ones that were directly served on the plate, viz the crispy babycorn was sooooo yummy and the fish in oyster sauce was great too. Since we were advised to spend a lot of time with the starters, we were ready for more disappointment in the buffet.

The buffet was just the usual. The veg biryani which was recommended wasn't there to be seen. There was the usual gravies, Chinese stuff, noodles, curd rice, etc. naan was served on the table and the dal was actually really good, compared to the bland taste of the rest. The desserts were average, esp the mini-jamun with ice cream and the butterscotch 'something'. Nothing else was worth remembering. The bar menu was extensive and had everything from around the world, which is quite amazing for such a place. But be ready to spend a fortune if you want to have a good drink. They have some innovative cocktails, the masala margarita was good with chaat masala on the rim! NO! there is no complimentary drink with the buffet as falsely reviewed by many all over the internet!

As such, the buffet costs u around 450 including tax, if u planning to add anymore than that, carry ur mastercard! But if i had a lota money to blow, i wud choose much much better places in the city, than being blinded by mere hype!

Ambiance - 4/5

Food - 2/5

Service 2/5

Price - Close to 1000 bucks for a couple if you dont open the bar menu (else u can forget ur math)

Will i ever go back? - Are you kidding me?.. not even if ur payin!

Barbeque Nation
Shri Devi Park Hotel,
Near Soma Sunder Ground,
1, Hanumantha Street,
T.Nagar, Chennai - 600017
Phone 42694481, 42694482

Whatever said and done.. you can try it once for novelty sake... if you go back again.. not my fault nemore!

Crystal Jade, Checkers - Saidapet

Worst-ever restaurant in the city!

Checkers! i used to wonder how this place is not so famous sittin in such a place in the city. So decided to explore this place when i had to treat some friends, but was disappointed so much. The hotel looks great and the buffet at Stimulation (the cafe at lobby level) had a very scanty menu priced at 400 bucks and smelt like a bar rite from outside.The quality of food was apparent and wasn't worth payin so much for sure. I wish i had been to GRT or Residency towers instead for almost the same price or just a lil more.

We had a savior we assumed, the chinese restaurant (completely empty) in the 2nd floor looked good and smelt much better. I ask the waiter 'Do u have a buffet' and he says ' No mam, only Chinese!' .... No comments... Jus went ahead and opened the menu which was again very less and the veg items were even lesser. Service is ok, not bad. The soup (Tom Yum) was like horrible and tasted more like south-indian rasam, the starters spring rolls (bland), veg balls 'q' (only good one) and onion rings (had to gulp it down with a whole glass of water to void mishap) were nuff samples for us to kno how much to order in the main course.

The main course were schewan fried rice (wasnt spicy, i guess no salt too), pan-fried noodles (good and only thing to fill the tummy), thai green curry (awful), and five-spiced veg balls gravy (i lost my sense of taste by then, so don rem) and yea the dim sum (duh!). Whatever! desserts cant b that bad anywhere. Who says so? The strawberry milkshake was bland. The banana fritters were the worst i ve ever had, we ordered a plate for 5 of us and still had half the plate unfinished when we left. Thank god the fried icecream was unavailable. And for this quality of food, the place is irritatingly expensive, the decor's good... now m not here to pay for ur interior designing.. i am here to eat!

After paying hella lot here, i went to a local south indian fast food and had good food - tummy-filing and heart-filling - for less than 100 bucks :)

Ambiance - 4/5 for the looks but 1/5 for the smell

Food - A BIG O / on anything!

Service - 3/5

Price - 800 bucks for a couple which u can as well dump into a dustbin!

Will i ever go back? - NO! and U BETTER STAY AWAY FROM CHECKERS!

Crystal Jade
The Checkers Hotel,
No. 30, Mount Road,
Little Mount,
Saidapet, Chennai - 600035
Phone 43994399

Did you really want the address after all this?

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!

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!

Bombay Blue - Nungambakkam

You asked for it.. wannabe cream centre!

Upon invite to the Bombay Blue restaurant as they did on an effort to disprove my review on chennai.burrp.com, i went there for lunch with 2 of my friends. The food is on the house now that didnt make them think i ll come bak to review a 5 star here i hope. Before i forget to mention, the service has gone down already, the more the crowd the less they care about the customers, to the extent that they forget the invitees waiting for 30 mins (although reservation was made) and ask us politely if we need reservation! uh what? and yea the waiters stopped jumping at you (the rosy days were too short i guess) but now they start forgetting your drinks and compel you to order something else, wen u want something else! Some waiters dont even know the name of the dish they are serving, the guy brought us cheese amigos n said here are ur fish sticks! (we were 3 veggies at the table with a 'whaaaat?' on our face). Okay, lets taste the food now and try to forgive the service ...

Soup

Italian tomato - big white bowl - little soup in the bottom
we needed some croutons
'bread for the soup plz' - 'yes ma'm'
'excuse me we asked for some bread cubes' - 'sure ma'm'
'hello? our soup is getting cold' - we get nothing but a smile with a are-u-talking-to-me look!

Appetizers

Onion rings - no salt in tha batter compensated with chat masala on top! is that bombay isthyle????????
Nachos (a speciality here) - not available!
Mezze platter - soft pita bread, bad hummus, some tomato gravy indian style, good ranch
Cheese amigos - probably the only edible item in the menu we had to fill outselves with. (mozerrella-stick-looking jalepeno poppers)

Main course

Chenna Batura - No chenna 'shall we serve with paneer?' NO! plz! what do we look like, guinea pigs?
Veggie sizzler - not bad, but hmm personally i have lost my taste for and not gonna order sizzlers anymore anywhere (u mite wanna think its cos of this experience).
Chilli cheese baguette - soft bread but was it baguette?
Cottage cheese chimichanga - i don wnana decribe this particular dish, i might get brutal, wish i cud give less than one star to BB! It was so burnt and tasted of a yr old oil from some local tea shop bajji, oh well i jus said m not gonna talk about it! so shhh!
The penne pasta with red sauce - we were despertely looking fwd to this dish to bring life back to our dead tongues, but it was equally lifeless, flavorless and cold.

Drinks (That came very late since they forgot it the first time)

Lemon ice tea - pushed to a corner after the first sip
Lassi - passable
Cold coffee with icecream - who can make a mistake on this one? hmm.. ok lets say passable too ..
Orange sunshine - wowww!!! the savior of the day,, incredible drink not to miss .. did earn BB the one star!

Desserts

Apple crepe (or watever) - Not available
Peach melba - Not available
Brownie sizzler - typical cream centre material...good nuff
Hot Fudge Nut Sundae - more of vanilla but yea yummy
Malai Kulfi - was good but tooooooo sweet to handle..

If only i was asked to pay for this culinary torture! wouldnt put myself through this even if they pay me next time .. i hope there is not!

Ambiance - 5/5

Service - 2/5

Food - 1/5

Price - shud be around 500 for a couple

Will i ever go back? - Not even in my dreams!

Bombay Blue
College Road,
Nungambakkam, Chennai - 600034
Phone: 044-43596633

Lets forget it as a one-time nightmare!