Friday, September 12, 2014

Bombay Brasserie - Indian Food and French Renaissance !!

Finally dawned upon the chance to have a peekaboo into the most happening and trending restaurant in Chennai right now. I was simply taken aback by the sheer class of this place. Both the exteriors and interiors have been so tastefully designed that you just can't but marvel about the opulence glittering right across you. The picturesque setup and the different palate of colors esp. their signature Turquoise blue make it look so cool , chic , urban , quirky and delightfully appealing. This Hi-fi restaurant is totally designed to excellence and the place sure stakes claim for being perhaps the most good looking restaurant in town . The ambience is superlative and needs to be experienced to be believed.

Speaking about all the good looks , you wonder whether the food quotient will be able to match up to the class of the decor. This place primarily focuses on the culinary delicacies from the North of India. Started off on our foodie journey by having a Nariyal Aur Subz shorba which was a watery coconut soup with veggies mostly comprising of smudged pieces of cottage cheese. It was light on the tummy and felt like having rasam.

Coming to the starters and this being a predominantly Tandoori restaurant you sure were going to have a veritable Paneer affair on the cards. It is one thing which never fails to excite me and seeing copious offerings of it on the menu with different names decided to ask the waiter to help in choosing and the suggestion was Lucknowi Paneer Paraath. They were just 4 pieces but large in size and jawdropping in taste. They were succulently soft and marshmellowy mellow and you could literally feel them melting juicily into the mouth. It was also pretty unique as it was coated on top with a masala which looked like a layer of omelette , but whatever it was surely didn't let any stones unturned and was delightfully salivating. The non veg starters ordered met with a kind of mixed response.

For the main course , decided to go only with Indian Bread and ordered Naan , Chilli cheese Kulcha , Hare Pyaaz Kulcha. The kulcha's especially were soft and fluffy and loaded inside judiciously with the relevant toppings. It sure was intriguing and felt as if they could do justice on their own without any side dish.

However we did order couple of gravies , one being the Dum Ke Kali Dal and the Tarkari Masaledar. The Black Dal was good but the zing was missing somewhere and it wasn't as creamy as some of the Makhani's i've had elsewhere. The Masala gravy was pretty nice with an amalgam of veggies comprising Aloo , Gobi , Paneer , Capsicum , Peas etc.

Ended our dinner sojourn by having a Paper baked chocolate pudding. I envisaged this dessert in some way but the resultant was something else. It was basically fudged chocolate cake in one strata with vanilla ice cream on another and chocolate sauce to dip in a small bowl. The ice cream to accompany the cake was quite too little and nothing much to write home about on this one.

Overall had a mixed experience on the foodie side with some items standing out and some bordering on the decent category. In relative terms with the ambience factor , the food part has some catching up to do. The service was ok but the refilling of water and the add-ons could have been a wee bit quicker. The rates are on the high side but justified considering the location and the resplendent setting.

Nungambakkam is home to some of the finest dine outs and can boast of being the Numero Uno in the food circle of Chennai. With Bombay Brasserie , its reputation just got elevated a notch further up the ladder.