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.

Focaccia - An Italian masterpiece!

The signifying feature of all Hyatt restaurant's are that they are in an open space environment with the live kitchen being viewable from the outset. They may all be located in the large mass space but it never intrudes the privacy in any way. Focaccia is defined by lovely wood work and upholstery. The dim lights just about ignites the rightful feel for a quite feel good meal and the pleasant music playing at the background definitely adds to the charm of proceedings. Their large kitchen is stuffed with all need to do Italian ingredients and is well co-ordinated and has a buzz about it. You can even feel the aroma of the ingredients resonating creating an expectation of what to expect.

We were here for a special event titled "The Return of the Drama Chef". The menu was specially curated handpicking a few selective stuff. Story goes that the Italian chef recently happened to go to his hometown of Milan from which he was able to import varieties of chestnuts, truffles, Italian cheese et al which aren't usually easily available in India and hence these items comprising such stuff were specifically part of this concept festival menu.

Coming to the food, it was well and truly one of the finest Italian food rendezvous which I've ever had. The items served were nothing short of spectacular in virtually all angles from the presentation to the flavours to the taste and in a nut shell it was cut out class defined in every way.

The appetizer section had a couple of vegetarian offerings. One of those were the patata al uovo - a pastiche of potato and egg. Potato and egg when combined form a jaw dropping combination and when floated on a bowl filled with pecorino cheese fondue with truffles slathered along eleemosynary, it was divine and totally of the melt in mouth kinds. The other one was the giardino florito - somewhat equivalent to a salad. I don't recollect any kind of food being so appealing just to look at. This was constructed like an exotic garden planted with goodies in abundance. A whole bunch of exquisite veggies with truffles forming the signature fare imported specifically from Milan to get the crunchy effect and smeared with pecorino cheese fondue for that lilt. A work of art literally and foodgasm in it's truest sense.

 Surprisingly it was after the starters that we had our tryst with the soup. It was a pumpkin based soup and easily one of the finest I've ever had. Never felt the flavours of a soup to be so inherent and vehement. The aroma slithering in the pumpkin tasted heavenly with chestnuts floated in gregariously and garnished with casera cheese made from semi skimmed milk and made popular in Italy. It was not just some soup, the taste buds have seldom been tantalised like this ever before.

Moving on to the main course section with the pastas and pizza's, we got to try a Leek fondue Risotto, mascarpone ravioli and a gourmet truffle pizza. Risotto is the Italian equivalent of Indian rice cooked in a broth. I've never really been too fond of the Risottos I've tried out but this leak fondue risotto garnished with fresh black truffle was just kick-ass. It was rich in texture by being consistently creamy with just the right bit of stickiness and had a lovely lingering taste to it. The mascarpone ravioli was made with asparagus soup, parmesan cheese and loaded with truffles and was a sheer masterpiece. This one was a temptational tongue twirler. My oh my, the joy of creation of food just shot up another level. A dunk at this and the tongue gets all chiselled up and has no choice but to signal it's intentions to drool. The pizza was no slouch either being resoundingly rich on flavours and the freshness of cheese was so intact. We also had a shot at a spaghetti made with olive oil and garnished with pot holes of truffles which again raised the bar.

In the dessert draw, we tried the chocolate millefuille chestnut mousse which was presented beautifully with a soft cream layer inset a double decor chocolate biscuits part. This was quite crunchy and delightful in taste. But truth be told, it was the chestnut soft cake with a hint of rum which stole our hearts. It was marmalade smooth moist, caressingly creamy and delectably delicious. This one had all the ammunition to melt waftly in the mouth.

On the whole, it was a sterling dinner made riveting right from start to end. Each dish competed with each other for top stakes and our meal only kept getting better and better with hardly any blip noticed. The chef was really engaging and made our overall experience really pleasant. As it was an invite over an 'on the house', I refrain from mentioning about the prices.

Foccacia, no doubt is one of the premier restaurant's serving Italian cuisine and just going by this particular Italian affair, they are just streets ahead of the pack. Without a shadow of a doubt, this outlet serves the most sublime Italian cuisine in the whole of the city of Chennai.

The new Coco Jaunt 1728! @ Teynampet

It's been a short stint for Coco Jaunt 1728 of less than a year but within this space they have created quite an impression already. They are unique, willing to experiment and have put the daring steps forward. I really appreciate the fact that they are very willing to offer something different to the table and in a large way have been successful in achieving their goals.

Having forayed into the market via their Anna Nagar outlet which was launched just half a year ago, they have opened their 2nd outlet in the quiet street of Sriram Nagar in Teynampet. And from hearsay it looks like more outlets are going to crop up in other areas across the city very soon.

This one is a bakery cafe trying to bring the best of both worlds. In essence the quintessential bakery products in addition to the stuff you usually get in an upscale cafe. Another positive factor is that all their products are made in house and there are absolutely no preservatives. They are hard bound on this and it's really appreciable that all the things right from scratch are all made in the kitchen rather than depending on the outside market for stuff. Yes, your food takes a little longer time than usual but factoring that everything is made 'in-house', one shouldn't complain as what you get is virtually equivalent to a freshly home cooked food experience.



We as a group of bloggers were invited to check out their new Teynampet outlet. This one's a little smaller compared to their Anna Nagar joint and is stationed across 2 floors. The basement comprises of your usual bakery products along with a couple of chairs and tables ideal for a quick bite whereas upstairs is the fine dining bigger enclosure showcasing the class of this place through it's lovely artifacts and travel embossed theme with a significant splash of their official color yellow which is predominant and in your face visible. The ambiance is quirky and has a nice feel good factor about it.



One thing I was delighted to see was that a host of stuff had been added to the menu. In my earlier visit to Anna Nagar, options were few and far between but now they have all kinds of items ranging from beverages, toasties, fries, sandwiches, bunny chow, wrap, pizza, pita pilaf&potatoes, salad and desserts.

We visited them for a pre dinner meet at around 6ish. A set menu was given to us and our quest began with a couple of quenchers in the form of Green Apple Granita and Blue bay curacao. If you like your drinks to be icy and considering the heat this is an ideal foil. Liked both of the drinks with more pointers for the green based one which had a nice punch to it. Those averse to the icy drinks were given hot chocolate as substitute. Next was the turn of french fries. You might think what is there to rave about fries - I tell you it is their dips. They complement the fries so well and their different variants ranging from peri peri, onion&herbs, mexican and mayonnaise will ensure that your taste buds have a field day smacking their lips with excitement. Then we went on to the official starter section and were served paneer tikka garlic bread. I have tasted garlic bread of so many kinds over the breath of the country but this was the first time I was having them in a paneeri avatar. Needless to say I loved having a crack at those long layered panner slices tossed up with the requisite masala and finely chopped chilli's grated over with melted cheese on top and the peri peri dip matched the spice levels perfectly.







We then headed on to the main course and first on was the peri peri panneer sandwich. It wasn't spectacular by any means but liked the big fat chunky pieces of cottage cheese interspersed in between the bread. Then it was time to attack the pizza's for which we had 2 choices in veg - vagabond and Alphagama Feta. Both were thin crust and lovely. The former was filled with an assortment of veggies and had a nice crunchy taste to it but it was the latter which blew us away being the perfect amigo for the Italian pizza loving aficionado. It was greenish with a pesto sauce base and filled with olives and feta cheese. Just had the right amount of juice in it to be endorsed by the excitingly craving mouth. It was different and truly worth it. After that was the turn of something usually unheard of called the Bunnychow. It has it's roots in South Africa where you are served a filling inside a piece of stuffed bread bun. The stuffing for us was a panneer masala. I kind of enjoyed having it. Best to eat with your hands and make them dirty. The masala makes the bread soggy and it's a delight relishing the soaky bread with gay abandon. Kudos again for trying something way off key and bringing to light a dish from the African safari.





Next, we had a bunch of desserts to round off the evening. The platter consisted of a German chocolate cake, bitter and blanc with vanilla sauce, a cookie and a caramel based chocolate. On the liquidy side we had our hands and mouth full with Brownie shake and the Nutty caramel shake. They all tasted great but somehow I didn't get the same taste and feel as I got in the Anna Nagar outlet. It could also be that I was too stuffed with all the food not really having the wherewithal to do a proper justification of the dessert spread.



Overall, it was a definite win. It's heartwarming to see Coco Jaunt raising the bar and from the looks of it they will continue to garner and foster praise by keeping up their creative ideas and love for food intact. For me personally, it was a wonderful fun filled evening enjoying the food fiesta with like minded fellow foodies.

Mainland China - The taste of South East Asia

We decided to do Chinese for dinner and the first option which came in mind was Mainland China and pronto decided to head there. It is located on a small by lane perpendicular to Cenotaph Road and it's impossible to miss as the restaurant is huge and in your face. Valet parking is very convenient and never an issue.

Large doors and big sized statues embrace you on entering Mainland China and as you step in you sense the feel of China through the smell , look , wardrobe and mild music playing along. The ambiance feels quite and peaceful much in tune with the chinese culture. You would find Red and black being the predominant colors and you would find a lot of them at this place on the chairs , walls hanging articles etc.

Now coming to the food started off with the Peppery Lemon soup. It was light and flavored heavily with pepper and a tinge of lime with veggies floating along like mushroom , brocoli , carrot , cabbage etc. It was burning spicy but still felt it to be decent enough and set the tone for the larger picture.The starter which we had was the Mushroom Chilli garlic which was flavorful and nice on the mouth , the fungi were extremely soft and almost chewable kind and there were few other assorted veggies added which went along well. For main course had the golden garlic fried rice along with stir fried vegetables. Found the rice to be bit plain and not up to the mark , the strong garlic flavor also wasn't prevelant. The side however was nice with an amalgam of veggies in a black gravy.Ended the dinner sojourn by having one of their mock tail oreo crushed with mint which I really liked. The cookies were grated very thinly and had a nice lingering taste along with the chocolate shake.

The service is top notch and the waiters really know well about the items in store. The time taken to bring in the food also was fast barring the main course which took a little longer still nothing to complain about. The rates simply put are expensive. It's a granted fact that you have to shell out excessively if you were to dine here.

Chinese is not my most favorite cuisine and I tend to get the feel that most chinese food in different restaurants across the city tend to taste roughly the same. But with Mainland China you are guaranteed of consistency and a good eating experience which makes this quite a favorite for many. It's definitely one of the prime chinese outlets in the city and will always continue to be so.