TAJ FISHERMAN'S COVE

THEIR PRIVATE BEACH
MY MIL SITTING ON ROCKING CHAIR
ONE OF THE MANY SITTING POINTS

This weekend we went to Taj Fisherman's cove for a overnight stay.What a beautiful place it is!..we had a villa on the sea side, with a beautiful scenery..tall coconut trees swaying.hammock and rocking chairs with lots of greenery and many restaurants.And Taj's hospitality is something to be seen..they have so many people all around for safety and help and they assist you in everything with a smile.
Their north Indian vegetarian food was delicious and they had a sea side see food restaurant..a delight for non vegetarians, but for me the smell emanating was a put off.and there was AN UPPER DECK ..restaurant for Mediterranean cusine

We tried the spas also..it was Ok..I dont think in luxurious place we can think of anything which is value for money, and me being a VFM person found it Ok, not very good.

And they have their own private beach with life guards and all..so all in all a very good place to relax and enjoy and worth a visit. MY son booked it for us, so we went otherwise my husband would have never taken a leave.being workalcohalic:)

MATHSYA-T NAGAR

This one I have blasted in my earlier posts. But then we had tried only chaats. But still I take back my words.This time we went inside and had south indian , Dosa and sambhar vada both were very delicious. And inside its a\A/C--very first requirement in chennai's weather and ambiance is also very good.
We had north indian dinner also like daal makhani, butter pneer masala,haandi paneer, stuffed kulcha, methi parantha and naan.Butter paneer masala and stuff kulchas were very good, though a little spicy, but daal makhanai and other things were also good.
We are ordered coffee also, and liked.
So I would say this restaurant rates--
very good in ambiance
very good for idli dosa
good for north Indian also
and rates are also not very high..

CHOLA SHERATON- CHENNAI

This is located on cathedral road, The entrance is Ok but the lobby is not very impressive. They have several restaurants, we decided to go for Peshawri. Here the ambiance is that of Afghani style, all the staff dressed in afghani salwar, and kameej with jackets and all.Inside on the walls are the paintings with something written in urdu.

• For the appetisers they had cold drinks, jaljeera, canned juice and mocktail.all just ok, mocktail was too sweet......it was a fruit punch.........and absolutely no presentation. But the mini variety of masala papad was good ,served on the house. all drinks are in range of 125/ to 150/--.
• For the main dish, very selected varieties-----dals----just one--peshawri, but it was good, in fact quite yummy,in the vegetable section they didnt have much, more of the paneer varieties only, we ordered paneer makhani and liked it.all in the range of 400/--450/
• For raita... they just put tomato, onion and cucumber in curd.......very disappointing to see.In good restaurants one expects something special, here they didnt even put normal spices.
• For the Rotis they had stuff kulcha, kurmi naan,plain naan, khasta roti, pudina parantha.kurmi naan is naan with grated cheese and sauce on the top, and in stuff naan they had the filling of paneer, both were good and in the range of 125/-- to 150/-.
• For the desserts......kulfi,rabri, gulabjamun are served

The ambiance is not much to say about and seating is not very comfortable.
Food preparations are good, but with a limited variety.
Service is good

COPPER CHIMNEY-RESTAURANT IN CHENNAI

Finally I have found a restaurant with good north indian food. Actually My SIL had been to a restaurant of this chain in Mumbai and there the food was good, so he recommended it.

• Its location is also quite convenient, its on 74 cathedral road ( ph n0. 28115770). It was quite crowded, but since we had booked the table in advance , we didint have any problem.
• Ambiance is not very good, its like in a hall they have put the tables and quite close to each other, so one gets to hear a lot of noise and to compound it they keep the TV on.
• In the food section...................
• For the appetisers they have soups, jaljeera ,lassi and cold drinks-------soups in the range of 70/---------- . and then there is bread basket ( assorted bread one can order with the soup for rs 30/---) ,we ordered tomato soup and jaljeera, both were OK.
• For the main course in the vegetarian.....in Tandoori section usual variety is there..........daals ..... 115/..), other vegetables in 185/----. Veg. jhalfrezi and palak paneer both were very good,with just right amount of oil and spices.
• masala papad was also good.
• In the assorted basket they serve 7 types of variety like naan, stuff naan, parantha and all that, and all of them were well prepared.
• we were really stuffed by the time so we didnt taste desserts.
• All in all, a good place to have tasty food. I would recommend it.

Food Court in Spencer Plaza-Chennai

On the third floor ,in Spencer Plaza, food court is there. It has many restaurants like.......
Pathankot---it serves north indian food like daal, sabji,naan etc and there are many others likw Qwiky --cafe and others for south indian, and bakery items and chaat even. But since it was quite noisy, crowded and I felt suffocated , so we didnt sit there. But outside there is one sweet shop. It is a Chennai version of Delhi's Haldiraam. almost exactly same menu-like all the sweets including jalebi:), Dhokla..........in all, the varieties, like sandwiched one and all..........it is a rarity here, atleast I havent seen anywhere else, then Chaat counter, chola bhatoora and all that. we took orange rasagullas..........they are my favourite since I ate them first in 1975 in Ranchi in Uday Misthaan bhandaar in lalpur chowk ranchi-----there they were really out of this world...........now of course I always find--if i find at all..........a poor version of that, and here also it was OK.............actually for me anything is better than nothing:), then we tried Raj Kachori---it was good and quite filling.
Then there is one Arun Icecream outlet, I never tried it, as I always thought of it as something local, we had only kwality walls, because earlier also we tried Vadilal in MP but never liked it. But Arun's is quite good , we took---single scoop of Bengali badshah-it gives you a very authentic taste of Rajbhog in icecream--quite a unique concept, and then we had one with strawberry flavour and sauce, it was also very tasty

PLANET YUMTUM---FOOD COURT-CHENNAI

• This is in Ascenda IT Park, Tharamani road near Tidel park. Its very spacious and covers most of the cuisines, has a good seating arrangement.
• As soon as we enter on the left side is KFC--a little unnerving for a vegetarian like me.
• Next one is Mcdonald--- they have most of the variety, we had a soft serve and softy on the coke, both were good.
• In the front we have PALIMAAR--vegetarian restaurant with all the north indian and south Indian fare and tea coffee. We ordered Idli, Mysore masala dosa,matar paneer, kulcha and pudina paraantha. Except paraantha everything was very good. Serving quantity is good. with Idli dosa they serve coconut chutney and tomato chutney and sambhar, everything in good quantity.
• then there is Pizza corner, Noodle house--famous restaurant for chineese food,one outlet for frankies and other dishes like that, Qwiky;s cafe-----they have pastries,coffee,doughnuts,and different types of bread and all.
• Movenpick: they have sorbets, ice creams coffee tea, sundae and all that, this is the one exorbitantly priced, one scoop of ice cream with strawbwrry sauce and banana chips was 75-90 and sundae were in the range of 175,255,455, a bit too expensive.
• one counter for all juices and north indian chaat---quite exhaustive one.

Here the ambience is good, and ACs were also working well, as despite teaming with people it was cool and its a real value for money.Outside Planet yum tum, Cafe coffee day is also there.
Enough parking is also there and at no extra cost.

sarvana bhavan--restaurants in Chennai

Of course everybody knows sarvana bhavan, as it is one of the most popular chains of restaurants. First time i tried it 4 years back on the central railway station. Food and service both are superb there. Now when we are staying in Chennai, we usually go to its joint in KK Nagar. Food as usual is very good, service is also good, but on sundays it is very crowded. One has to wait a long time to get a table and then sometimes even share the table. There is no enjoyment of dining out, its just fulfilling the basic need hunger.So much of noise is there one cant hear even mobile ringing. but I was surprised at the musicbeing played there--IT WAS HINDI FILM MUSIC----to be precise instrumental version of Chandni songs-how the Chennai has changed !

MATHSYA-restaurant in chennai

I heard so much about Mathsya in Egmore that when i saw this restaurant in T nagar-Thanikchalam road that I wanted to see it. Since they have a Chaat counter , we went there first. Its outside in the open. I thought it would be warm, but it was not so, it was quite comfortable. When we saw the menu, we were thrilled as they have mentioned more than 30 varieties. But while giving order we were disappointed to see that there were hardly anything available out of the dishes. So we asked him to bring us a plate of Aloo tikki and a plate of chana tikki first. What he brought was enough to dampen our spirits. For tikki they prepared small balls fried, with some bread mixed in, and he served it cold with the chatneys, no curd. Of course he put it after we asked him. We were there in the evening and no wonder there was nobody there.
Inside they have air conditioned restaurant, again with all the dishes and buffet dinner also. But for chaat the preparations are same, from outside only it goes inside. After tasting their tikki, we didint have any desire or apetite to go inside atleast that day. We may try some next time.

Verandah--Taj Connemara-chennai

• It is a multicuisine restaurant and they have a special brunch on sundays from 12.30. Its a poolside restaurant with good ambience.
• For the drinks they have smoothies, fruit juices,wines,beer,martini etc.
• In the starters.......a lot of variety in different breads, cheese, kababs,momos and all in veg and non veg both plus a chat counter with usual items like-aloo tikkis,dahi papri,moong daal pakora, golguppas.
• In the main food---veg----chole,lehsuni spinach,aloo tamatar ( very ordinary), ma ki daal, paneer, gobhi tehri (very good), plain boiled rice, with many types of papad ,stuff paranthas and naan. I liked gobhi tehri and stuff paranthas and yes dahi bhalla.
• Desserts---here the variety is their forte, it has---indian sweets like-baalushahi, gajar halwa, rabri,firni, something like shahi tukda, all different smoothies, then in the bakery section a multitude of cakes and pastries and fresh fruits also and icecream. I liked gajar halwa best and then balushahi.
• yes they have different type of salads also and in the end one can opt for coffee.
• Damage to the purse----1210/net per person

It is on the binny road just besides Spencer plaza. Service is very good but I would prefer if the seating is more spacious .Chat counter is hopeless. Without coriander chatney chat is never complete and moong daal pakora taste better if server hot & crisp, but here they serve with chatney and all put together, so its soggy. Kababs are also very soft while they should be crisp.

Rathna Cafe

This is one of the oldest chains of restaurants in Chennai and has many branches in the city.Here the idlis are so soft that it just melts in the mouth, but never try north Indian food here. We ordered stuff kulcha, and we had to search the stuffing, plus no paneer dish in summers, on top of that Koftas were so hard that we couldnt share it without a knife.The rates are medium here.One more thing I have found here in the restaurants that sharing the table among the diners is a norm over here, nobody minds it, no privacy issues and even the seating arrangements and ambiance in most of the places is quite basic type, in comparison Hyderabad fares much better in all these things including the rates.

restaurants in chennai---dhaba express

I had heard so much about Dhaba express that this is a good restaurant for vegetarians and then my son also used to praise it to skies, so curiosity got the better of me and I thought of trying it once, the first time we went there it was in the afternoon around 3.30, so they said that they closed in the afternoon from 3- 6 pm. Next time we went at 6pm, they said that they opened at 6.30, again bad luck, we were quite irritated, but this time we were hell bent upon trying it so we just loitered around for half an hour and came back. So far so good. There he asked us we would like to sit in AC or outside,since we had come here to have a dhaba experience ,we opted to sit outside.Personally i am not much for dhabas, for me they are good only if you are on the way, but for dine out experience i prefer something better.We ordered corn methi malai and matar paneer for two of us with kulchas and mango panna to drink. The waiter comes after 10 minutes to tell us that they dont have corn and methi, so can we please order something else. We said fine, we will then prefer stuffed kulchas and add curd. Can you imagin what he says--no sir, your plain kulchas are already prepared,vegetable is not there and they have prepared rotis first:(, but still we agreed. Then the fellow comes after 5 minutes-sir, we dont have peas, can you order something else, now that was sufficient for my husband to explode, and that he did, and for once I dont blame him.and we came back without food.
One thing puzzles me a lot that why many restaurants close in the afternoon or serve the dishes with specific timings, one goes to the restaurant for different reasons, sometimes to taste something we cant or dont prepare at home and sometimes one is outside for some purpose and needs something to eat, and both these requirements are not fulfilled.

Murugan Idli shop-chennai

Just the other day we went to see the beach in beasant nagar, I like that area very much, as it has a very old and good temple-Ashtlakshmi temple and a very good neat and clean beach, with many eating outlets, plus it has all type of shops, and on the roadside very good cotton material for salwar kameej is availabe and yes all types of pearls and trinkets in a reasonable price.So we went to this Murugan Idli shop, this is a good outlet, neat and clean, air conditioned ( a must in Chennai weather). Here they serve the food on Babana leaf and there is no bowl or spoons, (they supply spoons on demand) but the preparations are yummy,cuisine is south indian, mainly dosas,idli, uttapam and all that.We ordered Idli vada and dosa and loved every bit of it.I would recommend it to everybody, and i forgot to tell that prices are also very reasonable

restaurants in Chennai

I have recently shifted to chennai, and initially whenever we went out I loved south indian fare at Sarvana or Sangeetha , but then I longed to eat north indian food, and here so far I have been unable to find a good north Indian restaurant, either there are five star restaurants far too expensive or road side type. There was a big hype about this restaurant-EDEN in Besant nagar, so we went there, ambiencewise its just ok but food and service is not even Ok. In this respect Hyderabad is completely cosmo and much more happening.
Here even Saravana doesnt have very good ambience, comparatively sarvana in CP Delhi is fabulous.