Mayflower - A melange of Multi-cuisine

Mayflower is a restaurant constructed out of an olden day house bungalow. It retains a lot of old world heritage and tradition and that seemed pretty appealing about the place. It is pretty spacious and you even have a compound space stacked up with books comprising the autobiographies of interesting personalities. The white pastel shades and the plants in the background give it an vibrant touch.

The restaurant is largely multi-cuisine tapering into a broad way of cuisines ranging from Continental, European, American, Italian, Asian, Mediterranean and many more. It doesn't stick to one particular nook and handling a finer variety of fare didn't seem to be hampering on the quality in any way.

We started our coarse with a broccoli soup. It was green and thick with laces of cheese stringed in. It had a rich taste and came well served up in a mug. On the appetizers section the dim sums comprising inset water chestnut, corn & broccoli were minced well and went really well with the range of dips. The crispy American corn as well as the lotus stems as the name suggested were crispy and well cooked. We also tried a Jamaican Panneer skewers which were a tad disappointing. The pieces were a bit hard and the taste didn't come out apparently.

The real show sealers were however on the main course section where virtually each of the items we encountered fought for bragging rights to be the best of the lot. The seven cheese pizza was marvelous. It was insanely cheesy with different variants and it was a joy pulling and playing with the pizza not to mention the delectable taste. We also tried an exotica pizza in addition as half and half along with another seven cheese version and this too was yum loaded with a mix of veggies and was also really cheesy. The one which smeared the aroma and roused the taste buds were however the khow-suey. It had a fantastic smattering taste with the Burmese aroma being really rich with a fine essence of coconut cream and this was insanely enjoyable. We also got to slurp a creamy pasta.This was a make your own version where we went with cream sauce, penne and a tinge of veggies. It was really cheesy with the contents floating dangling and dancing around and tasted fantastic.

In the desserts section, their stock is limited with just two specialized items namely the Orange Darsan Flambe and the Death by Chocolate. The former was quite nice with the orange essence over the crisp noodly pieces giving a lovely fine taste. The latter was decent but nothing much to rave about. I believe very soon there will be a few more specific stuff added to the attic. The drinks, beverage and shakes however are considerable in number. Among the ones tried, the Kit Kat shake easily stood out.

The service was friendly and suggestive. The pace of time taken to bring the items could be improved marginally as we had to encounter some waiting time. They are competitively priced and for the quality which you get as output seems justifiable. On the whole,a restaurant that specializes on a lot of stuff and also succeeds. Definitely worthy of giving a shot.

Bharat Bistro - Agmark Premium Quality!

There are some restaurants where you don't mind paying a premium and Bharat Bistro right royally falls in that list. Whatever little stuff we had was exceptionally good and that made the experience very pleasing.

We just had 4 items and all of them bowled us over. First the paneer tikka with 2 versions of cheese was simply superlative. It lauded up both on the taste as well as on the presentation side.

On the main course, the Amritsari Dhaba meal comprising of roti herbed rice, hara bara kabab, bhoondi raita, paneer makhni and pindi chole was just out of the world. We relished every single bite of this glorious dhaba styled meal. The picture itself will definitely depict a beautiful tale.

The other one we tried happened to be the Dal Makhni trio. I simply butterly fall for lip smacking Dal Makhni. This lissom lass conjured up in a trio of flavours certainly possessed the lilt to lure me in. It was all sorts of love and we were simply floored.

On the dessert section, we went for the delectable gulab jamun cheesecake. As eclectic and exquisite as it gets, this cake was interspersed with layers of Jamun and coming along side finely cut pieces of jamuns, strawberry and a motley of rose gulkhand ice cream. This dessert was truly mouth inspiring.

On the whole, it totally lived up to its worth. The ambiance is kind of nice with lots of new age interiors and giving itself a bright stark greyish touch. It's more like a crossover Indian restaurant modelled as a cafe. The rates are a little pricy but found it agreeable to the magnanimous spread and taste. The service however could be spruced up a bit. There was waiting time with regard to providing menu cards and refilling of water. However the little nitty gritty accounts for nothing when viewed on the wholesome effect as we left Bharat Bistro having had a delightfully crafty meal that pleased us to punch.

Seasonal Tastes - All Day Dining!

Seasonal tastes is the all day dining restaurant at Westin in Velachery. Though they also have an ala carte spread, it's the buffet which finds much fervour. It is located in the ground floor comprising of an open space and unfurled over a large mast of area. The interiors are done up magnificently and gives that inherent feeling of dining at a hi-fi star restaurant. The lights are bright and the surrounding gives an enchanting vibe.

The options on food are gigantic encompassing a mast area of eclectic cuisines and live counters. There was an arena separately for cheese, soups, salads, pita/hummus, breads/mini pizza's apart from a widespread north indian, chinese and Italian options and additionally containing live counters making pizza/pasta and not to forget an array of desserts.

There is too much in store and you have to be extremely strategic in picking and choosing in order to do best justice. I had a shot at majority of the items and they all more or less scored the brownie points. The Indian curries were really good and the flavoured basil rice had a very nice aroma. The mix veggie pizza felt a little bland sans the extra toppings but the alfredo pasta was super creamy and nicely blended with a festooned mix of veggies floating along the white sauce surface. The desserts were a mixed bag. The number was a lot but felt they could have played the game better by being a touch extra diverse.

Overall, it's hard to pin point complaints on the food as they serve the intended purpose of a large scale buffet. It's a lovely place to have a high profile dine out and something your client will surely be pleased about.

The decor as well as the elevated glitter lighting give it a very posh and royal feel. The seating arrangement is well thought out packing the food and the tables in a very even paced manner not making it difficult for you to get up and go every time.

One factor however which sticks out as a sore thumb is on the pricing front. A dinner buffet sets you back by almost 2k and you don't have the option of liquor thrown in the mix. For paying such a high premium they should have at least factored in a drink or two but alas it was not the case. Yes, the ambiance and food are definitely good but you do expect such stuff from a classy upscale dining place. The rates make it feasible only for corporate sponsorship and relegating it to very special occasions.

The food is definitely not of the complaining kind but it would be good to have a few unique signature dishes instead of cramming it with loads and loads of options. The pricing should definitely come with a package of drinks to make it attractive. A few ameliorations could help Seasonal Tastes bridge the gap towards the positive even further.

Prive - A vegetarian's fortress!

It isn't usually a very good sign when restaurant's pack their menu with cuisines aplenty because one really wonders what their forte is. While having an exaggerated spread is good because it gives you more options, to zero in on something and hoping it passes the test of the tongue is more out of hope. 'Prive' manages to buck that trend and in some fashion.

Prive boasts of a menu booklet running to pages and pages comprising of varied cuisines but what was really pleasing was that virtually everything on the house was resoundingly good. We tried a mix of Mexican, Italian, Chinese and Indian more of the tandoor and chaat kind along with a bunch of mocktails, shakes and desserts. It was really hard to find a blemish as more or less all the items served were really good and there were few which were exceptional.

In the mexican category, they got the Nachos and Tacos both bang on. Especially found the Tacos to be superlative bunched with a pleasing degree of stuffing inside with salsa, beans and white sauce to boot. The panneer was another area where they nailed it completely. The tandoor based one's were succulent and melt in the mouth types but what stole the show was the chinese based Chilli panneer. The pieces were super delicate and with the requisite spices as company, it just rolled onto our mouth tenderly. Perhaps one of the best manchurian based starters I've ever had. In the chaat section, the Dahi puri lorded over by being immaculate with just the right mix of curd and coverings and suited well to my liking. The puri's in the pani puri were the golgappa kind and very soft comprising a pasty mix of potatoes and were fairly nice. The North Indian array was again top notch be it the assorted Indian breads or gravies in the form of Panneer Lababdar, Babycorn Palak and Dal Makhni. The palak gravy was dynamic and the Dal Makhni with the lentils simmering in a buttered aroma was delightful. The Italian was no less in competing for top stakes. The veggie pizza was marvellous and so was the delectable Lasagne. The pink sauce Pasta was another star and it was lovely gorging over this slurpy creamy pasta. The mixed veg fried rice with a mixture of vegetables finely grated kept up the pace of brilliance and the teriyaki curry went along with it rather nicely. For drinks we had numerous choices ranging from the Blue Curacao to the Mint lemon to the Watermelon margherita to the Iced chilli slush and also a few shakes such as Ferrero Rocher and Oreo. Literally all of them hit the bulls eye with my special preference being for the watermelon drink and the slush with a twang of chilli making it really enticing. We also had desserts like the Malai Rabdi which was milky to the core and was a joy to lick every spoonful. The ice cream with chocolate fudge rounded off proceedings in sterling style.

Overall, it was a fabulous experience dining at Prive. The food just never ceased to amaze right from start to end. The service was in order and they did a good job serving the food in quick time with not too much time taken in between items. They were there right at our beck and call and it was a pleasure to be here and enjoy a sumptuous meal. As we were on an invite, it isn't appropriate to comment on the pricing. But one thing I must add having seen the rates of the menu is that for the quality of stuff served they seem fairly reasonable.

'Prive' referred to as private also wins on the ambiance front. There is a splash of red throughout and the place seems bright and professional. It is a fairly large place having capacity to seat close to 100 pax at a time. Also the space is well spread out ensuring you will get your private feel.

In conclusion, one of the best new restaurant's to hit townsville. Vegetarians will have a ball of a time and can eat to their heart's galore. Would definitely recommend it as a very high quality veg fine dining restaurant.

P.S: I had a shot at them in their Kilpauk outlet and the experience was equally good. Sharing the review below:

There are hardly few restaurant's in recent times which can place itself in the same pedestal as the much established names in the market and I would certainly certify 'Prive' in the upper echelons when it comes to a well etched vegetarian fine dining experience.

They have an extensive menu running into pages bordering across various cuisines traversing from North Indian, South Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Italian and Continental. Even street food is touched upon with a variegated fare of chaats. Also worth mentioning are their diverse portfolio of mocktails, shakes and desserts.

Getting my hands on to the real spread, it's difficult to say which is their forte as they have aced more or less all kinds of cuisines served in their attic. In the Mexican category, you should try having a shot at their Nachos and Tacos. The Nachos are beautifully laid out as elongated crispy chips flowered with cheese sauce and garnished with exotic veggies. To add to the delight are holders consisting of cheese and salsa sauce for you to customise and decorate it further. The tacos were presented out as stuffed bags punched with a pleasing degree of your quintessential mexican ingredients and dressed up with a spraying of Mayonnaise. To just make it a touch juicier, they are presented with sliders of salsa, red kidney beans and cheese sauce.

On the soup side of things, I immensely enjoyed the spinach cream based one which had a lovely aroma to it. The lemon coriander had a strong hinge with plenty of veggies inset. The tomato one was more on expected lines and the Hot n sour I felt could have been slightly better. In the chaat section, the dahi puri cracked a whip with the confluence of dahi and other requisite spices going along jocularly well. The pani puri's were ballooned up with a pasty potato mix and it was a delight to gulp this one down. The Bhel puri too was crunchy and having the desired ingredients.

Another signature was the North Indian starter fest. First up, the panneer tikka, both the regular as well as various other version were top notch. They were succulent and the flavours were hard hitting on every bite. The texture was so bang on right and it was quite a feast lingering them tenderly on to the tongue. Even the other one's on the platter viz potatoes, veg sheekh kabab and baby corn were pretty good. On the other starters, there were 2 cheese infused ones viz cheese pakoda and corn cheese balls and no much complaints there. They did the expected job being heavily loaded with cheese.

On the Indian main course side, I just got to sample a wee bit of the gravies and they were nice from whatever I had a bite at. The Dal Makhni was one of the better one's I've had with the lentils simmering delectably in a buttery aroma. Even had a crack at a panner based sizzler brewing along and the chunks of cottage cheese which were a tad roasted turned out to be super juicy and lovely to eat along with rice and french fries.

The Italian quotient was not far off from the action. The pesto panneer pizza was infused with cheese in abundance and the crust comprised of a lot of greenery. The Lasagne was another stunner with beds of veggies sponged underneath sheets of cheese. The pink sauce pasta was amazingly creamy and totally slurp slurp. And the verdure which was like a Mexican rice was rather decent.

The ending was more in line with the brilliance beforehand. You should surely try their mocktails and shakes in all sorts of colours and shapes. Some were icy, a few were milk based and some others were packed with essence of flavours. Overall it was a well rounded portfolio of drinks which were quite enticing and perfect for the heat. On Indian sweets, the Malai Rabdi was sumptuously creamy and will tingle the tongue of the sweet craving aficionado. A rainbow of ice cream scoops with chocolate fudge cake was quite a lovely way to get to the penultimate bit. And to round off the meal was a sizzling ice cream brownie. It was quite a sight to witness the chocolate brownie topped​ with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and being drizzled over with a molten hot chocolate sauce encircling and changing the entire plate to a sea of dark brown. You really cannot ask for more.

On a holistic picture, 'Prive' pressed the buttons right on almost every press on the food angle. The service was spot on and no real complaints at all on this front. They were always there at our beck and call and acceding to all our requests. Also no waiting time whatsoever with the food arriving faster than expected. The ambiance could be worked on a little bit. We were seated in a separate enclosure and it felt like more of a concierge/event based seating set up as opposed to a fine dining decor. The colour combination is more green here as compared to the splash of red in their RK Salai outlet. The pricing is not being spoken about as the event took place over on 'on the house' invite.

'Prive' is a a great addition to the roster of restaurant's serving a sumptuous vegetarian meal. Despite being quite nascent in the ever growing food circle of Chennai, they've made quite an impression and hit the bulls eye resoundingly. Would testify it as a highly recommended outlet for an ultimate vegetarian fine dining experience.

Etc - Quite an experience!

Introduction:
Etc has a lot going for it. The place is designed to excellence and makes you wonder at the level a place can be raised by the way it has been done up. It exhibits class all over and showcases vigour, vibrancy and vivacity. A vibgyor of colors envelop the surrounding and at no point of time you feel anything to stick out like a sore thumb. It's beautifully appealing and appealingly beautiful.

There is also a lot to reminisce and takes you on a trip down memory lane to the vintage years of 90's as they have a slew of artifacts and paraphernalia making you cherish and sweeten your childhood memories. It glistens with suave and swankiness and has a captivating atmosphere about it. Having been one of the early bird visitors to this cafe, this is one place which I can confidently recommend to my near and dear one's to try out. It's surely the most photogenic cafe's I have ever been to and if you're an avid shutterbug this is one place to call and place the shots.

Ambiance and Design:
It is located in a massive space on the posh Rutland Gate (5th street) area in Nungambakkam. It is a 2 storey building with the basement comprising of the restaurant and upper portion consisting of the cafetaria. The restaurant and cafe are further polarised into different enclosures of which there is a games room with a couple of tables depicting 'Ludo' and 'Connect the Dots' for you to play with, a snake&ladder drawing engraved on the wall, an area stacked up with books, board games and a fancy wind chime with kitschy bottles hanging in an angular direction, a cave like setup with a fountain, a kerala style tea kadai setup, a fish boat with net, chairs made to resemble olden style scooter shields, cycle with milk cylinder, aerated drink bottles placed as holder to plants, racquets and cool looking skateboards adorning the walls and attractive hanging paint boxes for splashing light and what not. The glass windows is another splendorous sight. There is no end to creativity here and you would not see one area left untouched. The design team totally deserved the plaudits.

                             

The Food:
On the food side, they predominantly serve North Indian, Chinese, Continental and of course a dash of desserts. We were invited as part of a bloggers group for the sea food festival currently taking place. Being vegetarian, I had my limitations but they were magnanimous enough to serve quite a sumptuous feast for the green folks as well. Listed below is a brief summary on the food side of things:

Soup:
For soup, I took a shot at the Cream of Mushroom soup which was well made with a aromatic flavoring of fungi. It was really creamy, suffused with a tinge of basil and basically set the tone for further things to look forward. 

Starters:
On the starter section, they were magnanimous enough to give us 4 varieties of starters;
- Crispy Corn Pop - A conical papad shaped cup holding crispy corn aplenty. The corn were fried well and gave a lovely crispy taste however the tortilla cups holding the same seemed a bit raw. The cups need to support by being crunchy which it was not but with a slight tweak this one can work wonders.

- Bharwan Panneer - This was deep fried and made to resemble a sandwich and was riveting along with the green chutney. Acts as the perfect foil for an evening snack.

- Olive Bundle - This looked pretty appetizing to look and the top half did melt in the mouth with an olive bunched along a layer of cheese. However the lower half of it had some sort of pasty mix which really didn't gel well.

- Malai Brocolli - Their signature creation and it really lived up to its billing. The presentation was delightful and the taste matched the looks to the 'T'. A little more judicious coating of cream can elevate it a notch further.

Main Course:
The main course had quite a number of items. The garlic naan was soluble, fluffy and well made. And the accompanying Malai Kofta was one of the star's of the day turning out to be a brilliant side dish. Just the right dose of cream and sweetness made it a delight to eat along with the Indian bread. We also got another gravy in the form of a Mangalore veg curry with a heady dose of coconut cream. Not many may prefer this coastal kind of dish to go with the naan but I fairly enjoyed it. It had the right mix of veggies and was pretty unique but acted as a nice substitute to the typical north Indian curry which you would otherwise usually get. Also got a shot at the kous kous rice with a brinjal based curry which was pretty good but however the last of the items the grilled tofu turned out to be quite a damp squib. It was pretty bland and tasteless and just didn't usher any excitement 
whatsoever.
                                   

   

                                             

Desserts:
The desserts are one area where ETC has a strong hold and boy they showed their class here. We were given 3 pastries - chocolate mousse, a sweetened puff roll and a white chocolate pastry and all of them competed among each other for top stakes. It was indeed a sweet way to end a satisfactory meal.

Pricing and Service:
The decor is comfortable with long elevated cushioned seating giving good space for the back to rest. Though this was an On the House meet, the prices seem on par with restaurants nestled around this locality. For the quantity served can be considered quite justifiable indeed. The service was exemplary with the staff wearing a smile on their faces and adhering to all our requests.

Conclusion:
On a pan optic view, Etc expanded as Etcetera wins on most counts. Go here especially to experience the superlative ambiance and the variegated cuisine.

Experiencing Avenue 195 !!

Avenue 195 is this new restaurant located just off Khader Nawaz Khan Road (on Mohd Shafee Road) and when you walk in you are greeted with a signpost with the wordings Global Buffet - "Your Gastronomic journey begins here". And as you are exposed to the oeuvre of the buffet , you are reminded of not one but 3 big G words - Gastronomical , Gargantuan and Grandiloquent.

Its like an avalanche of food , food and more food flowing from different cuisines across the globe.
In a nutshell , they have over 60 items on the menu comprising of 2 soups (1 Veg & 1 Non Veg) , 14 starters (7 veg incl. Chat & 7 Non Veg) , 5-6 types of Salad , Indian Bread , Biriyani , Plain rice , Raita , around 10-15 main course dishes , 10 varieties of Desserts (5 European & 5 Indian) , 4 flavours of Ice-cream and on top of this they have live counters of Oriental and Pasta where you get to make them your way ad lib style with the ingredients added of your choice.

Now coming to the food in detail , started off with the Veg minestrone soup an Italian style soup containing carrot, onion, beans, cabbage etc., it was pretty decent and I just had a little bit for taste as i was waiting to indulge on the bigger palate in store. Then started arriving the starters to the table with Chat making the first appearance. There was Bhel Puri, Pani Puri and Dahi Papdi. Generally in most buffets you find Chat just making up the numbers and they tend to taste very average but here it was anything but that and it was a refreshing surprise. The Bhel Puri was really yummy and made well with the right toppings giving a nice crispy taste , Pani puri also had a nice mixture inside and gave a good feel to the mouth and so was the Dahi Papdi chat which was simple yet delicious. This was easily the best Chat i have had at a place not specializing on this genre. And then arrived the other starters - Veg Tempura which is basically your traditional Bhajji with stuffing's of Carrot and Zucchini , Vol au vent which was a puff pastry garnished with a layer of corn , peas and cheese topped with olive ( A thumbs up to this one which made me have extra pieces), panneer tikka was succulent and a small dollop of Masala paste gave it a nice zingy taste and the last of the starters of Veg was Cocktail Samosa which were cute and small in size and on the inside loaded with potato , peas and herbs (A definite winner). I don't take Non Veg but from what I heard most of the items had the affirmative nod.

Just gorging on the starters occupied over 80% of the tummy capacity and so much of the spread was still uncovered. Tried my forceful best to have whatever little of the remaining which had items like Parsley with Cauliflower , Corn and Brocoli Chinese balls , Tandoori Ananas , Herb Potato , Baked Mushroom , Punjabi Chole Masala , Mutter Paneer , Dhal Makhani et al. The former 4 items could perhaps again get categorized again under the Starters bracket and among them the Ananas hit the mark by being juicy and tender. On the gravy side , just had the wherewithal to mildly taste and most of them deserve the brownie points.The salad bar also had some interesting things lined up such as Paneer Corn Bhutte and Lettuce & Egg salad.

Coming to the Oriental Live counter , they give you the option of sprucing up your own and you have 8 varieties of sauces to choose from - Chilli/Oyster/Plum/Soya&Ginger/Red Thai/Green Thai/Hot Garlic/Schezwan. The same ad-libbing style holds good for the Pasta where you not only get to choose the sauce - Tomato/Pesto/Cream/Mushroom but also the Pasta - Penne , Spaghetti , Fusili. Chose the coloured fusili with Cream sauce topped with ingredients of Brocoli , Corn , Bell Pepper and a dash of Chilli flakes and crushed black pepper as condiment. It left a lingering taste and you really felt like craving for more sans your stomach capacity.

Rounding off on the desserts you had a mix of Indian - Rosagulla , Kala Jamun , Bombay Halwa , Tuti fruti Burfi (the latter 2 were enticing) and western which had a green apple jelly and a few others like date cake , blueberry cheese cake (delightful!) et al. And not to forget you had the luxury of 4 flavors of ice cream to go along - Vanilla , Mango , Butter scotch and Strawberry.

Coming to the ambience , the décor isn't extravagant but decent enough and the portraits and hanging wall clocks showcasing the time zones of different countries gives a nice touch. So are the interesting foodie quotes from across the globes adorned on the leaflets.

There isn't much to complain about this place but if you however want to pinpoint a few things , these are some which could be improved :
1) It would be good to have a drink as part of the buffet (I know its asking too much when their spread is fit enough to feed a giant but come to think of it drink is essential and is a good add-on especially with the starters).
2) Felt the oil content to be pretty heavy in some of the items and they could be reduced a bit.
3) Minor issues like it was so hot inside and we had to request them to switch on the A/c's. The benefit of doubt can definitely be given as its a new place and these things get sorted out with time.

Having said this, these are just minor quibbles and the positives far far outweigh the negatives.
And the icing on the cake is the fact that such a lavish , humongous and monstrous buffet at the end of the day costs less than Rs 650 per person all inclusive. Truly value for money !!

There is really so much on the platter that you wish there was a magic trick to increase your intake capacity to 500 % of your original size in order to do full justice and truly enjoy all the dishes to your hearts content :).

Its unbelievable how all these amazing restaurants keep sprouting up on Nungambakkam time and again. And Avenue 195 is another welcome addition and raises the class of food in this area a notch higher through its epicurean delicacy.