Spoonbill, Alwarpet. Chennai

There is some thing special about this place. It is situated in the heart of the city, has glass walls to have food and look at the roads (It particularly would look great when its raining outside), and has a beautiful open kitchen. I have time and again written and emphasized on the concept of open kitchen. It excites the customers as they can actually see how the things that they ordered are being cooked while sitting in their cozy places.

The food is good. Indian and French food in particular is very good. I would recommend crepes (of all kinds). They were brilliant especially the chicken sausages ones. Also the sweet crepes could be tried in the end. Spanish side was a disaster. Tortilla was very bland in taste but you can ask for some customization. 

Overall the place is okay. Its a one time doer. Staff is friendly. Even the owner sits in the evenings and talks to the customers to take their inputs. Prices are also okay.

Mash, Elliot's Beach, Chennai

Mash, Elliot's Beach, Chennai

This is the closest you can go to Cafe Moca at Juhu Chaupati, Mumbai. Small cozy place on the main Besant Nagar beach road. You can either sit inside and enjoy the music and AC or can sit outside and have a beautiful view of the beach (if lucky you can enjoy the cool breeze as well). Coming back to the food, menu has limited options only. This place is best known for steaks. I have tried beef (by mistake) and chicken steaks both. I obviously liked chicken very much. Sometimes they don't have mashed potato so they'll top up your steak with french fries (argghh). If you are done with your main course and still some hunger is left, I would recommend Calamari. It was very decently cooked. I found it very soft yet crispy. The sauce that they gave along with this was the cherry on the cake.

Overall I would rate this place 3/5 because of the steaks and nice ambiance.

The Hole in the Wall Cafe, Kormangla, Bangalore

The Hole in the Wall Cafe, Kormangla, Bangalore

If an English breakfast is what you are craving for then this is the perfect place. It will take me some time to describe everything. The place is very much accessible since Kormangla is the hang out place for everyone. The joint is very nice and cozy. The neatly laid out plants in the open and the frames of Jimi Hendrix on the inside walls give you a fresh feeling. For book lovers, there is one room that has a small collection of books ranging from James Bond to 5 point someone. The only problem is you don't have so much time in hand to just sit and relax since the place is very famous and as such waiting queue is huge. Service is awesome. They don't take much time to serve you.

Menu is very appealing. If you want to have everything try All English Breakfast. Its a bit on the higher side but worth trying. It has beans,sausages, ham, fried eggs, toast, juice etc. Others can have fun with the Farmer's Breakfast which is not so elaborate but still very good. We also tried pan cakes and believe me they were one of the better ones that I have had in Bangalore. Beverage lovers will not be disappointed too. They serve Darjeeling Tea (my favorite) as well.

Overall I would very strongly recommend this place but make sure you are there on time. That is the only problem.

BUHARI, Chennai

In my various posts and blogs I have been saying that Chennai is a food paradise. All this while I have been trying to expose my taste buds to authentic Chennai cuisines but never got an opportunity to visit Buhari. Well a very different kind of ambiance it has- fine dining cum bakery shop. 

The kind of food served here is very different from what you'll get in other joints. Though we didn't order Biryani, it looked good. For my Bong friends there is a reason to smile. Typical "Hangla" kind of biryani they'll get. We tried many things from the "Buhari specialties" menu. Chettinad Mutton was a bit disappointing. It had too much pepper in it and a strong aroma. I have tried authentic chettinad joints and this is not what you get there. "Campbell Mutton" was very good. The mutton was cut in a different fiber kind of style (not the regular pieces). At one point I thought it is  fish that we are eating. Curry was of bright red color and very spicy (although they claim it's only medium spicy). 

"Jamali Chicken Curry" was another thing that we tried. Good and smooth I would say. The biggest surprise was the chapati which actually was a North Indian Paratha. I loved that.

If you have a sweet tooth as well then this may not be the right place to sit after your main course. They only have ice creams and fruit salads. Overall I would rate this place okay.

My ratings:

Ambiance: 2/5

Connectivity: 3/5

Food:3/5

Service: 2/5

TOTO's Garage Pub

Nothing personal.I like this place very very much and that is the reason why I have given it full points.The music played is metallica, queens, rhcp, nirvana even carnival of rust.This is exactly what I like. The service is very good.Guys are very friendly.Infact if you compare it with other pubs in Bandra you will find it quite affordable.Plus point is that no cover charges and so far totos has refrained itself from taking any such step.The only negative thing is that the place is very small and 9 out of 10 times you may have to keep standing in the arena where every passer by is making you turn east n west.Overall I would recommend this place to everyone who is fond of having conversation over a mug of beer.

Pal Dhaba, Chandigarh

Pal Dhaba, Chandigarh

What Paris is to fashion, Amritsar is to Punj food. But if you are not in Amritsar enjoying Paneer Kulches with Lassi, Pal dhaba is the closest you can get to that heaven. There are actually two hotels operating very close to each other by the same name and both of them are equally good. The staff of either of them is so unprofessional that if one is running out of stock of some delicious curry they will very innocently ask you to go to the other shop.

The place is really very crowded during evenings so it's advisable to visit the place only after 9 pm. Unlike normal Mumbai shacks, Pal Dhaba is equally admired by both students as well as families. They are super fast when it comes to service (the turnaround time is less than a minute and they actually take less time than what Tambi would take to give you the already prepared thalis). 

The menu had many awesome things in it but we played  safe and asked for the much coveted tandoori chicken. One full tandoori plate is enough to satisfy a group of 4. As expected it was very spicy. Degi Mirch was exploited very diligently and it actually gave it a very different taste. For the first time I realized that even the non-leg pieces taste good. Tandoori was served on the layer of grated gingers and coriander which was very presentable. The main course had lamb (my favorite) and kadhai chicken. While the chicken was giving a feeling more of the hariyali chicken than the kadhai, lamb was just fabulous. It had all the necessary ingredients (garam masala but cloves was the dominating stuff that I noticed along with the star anise flowers that are majorly found in Kerala) although it also had a milder sweet taste of its own probably because of the cardamom seeds. Overall it was a treat. Naan was though very disappointing and I would prefer rumali roti over it anytime. These curries looked very high in calorie but an extra 10 minutes run on the treadmill the other day will easily nullify the effect so do not fall prey to your diet rules.

My ratings:

Ambiance: 2.5/5

Connectivity: 3.5/5

Food: 3.5/5

Service: 4/5

Cafe MochaMojo, Bandra

Guys if you seriously wanna have big juicy burgers then this is the place. Initially I thought Gostana would have been a better option at Bandra but unfortunately the place has been shut down. Seeing no option I went to check out this place. My mind was pre-occupied with the thoughts of smoke all around but to my surprise the ambience was excellent. The place has an ac chamber inside but I would recommend to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful February sun while sitting at the porch. The couch is not so comfortable but then who cares when you have big mugs of beer in hands and friends all around. You can smoke as well. Coming onto the interesting fact:- they have all at all a different menu than other outlets. I tried Keema which was much greener than what any of its ingridient could have been. Taste was ok.Chicken Panino is their USP. It's an italian sandwich cum bread roll...very tasty indeed. Then I asked for the grilled burger as I crave for those big meat bites.

The burger was very much different as to what normal chicken would taste like. Even the coloring gave me an impression of the sliced roasted beef. It had the tenderness and taste of a stewed dish. They served it with lettuce and long slices of jalapeno. It was a perfectly served dish. People say they also serve some good desserts but I did not have desire to mix the tastes. Although it  looks bad but I will have to post a half eaten burger's pic just to show how good it was(My apologies).

Overall I would rate this joint very highly. Do not go with the notion of the regular Mocha in your mind.
Ambience: 3/5
Food: 3/5
Service:3/5
accessibility: 4/5