Inkum Kavale - The chivalrous Kaapi!

Call me late to the party but I got latched on to the song Inkum Kavale pretty behind time to the mix. The inherent Ilaiyaraaja vintage feel of yesteryear was what smeared me in and you get a zany yet vibrant feel that tailspins on you instantaneously. The number is sashayed with good ol aroma fueled degrees of filter coffee.

Kaapi ragam stands out for me because of the subtle up and down curves as well as the judicious use of alternate notes which usually tends to be the hallmark of most Raaja ish kaapi's. This one by the newcomer Gopi Sundar totally re kindled the good ol fashioned charry charm of Kaapi.

Juxtaposing across notes makes you fall flat unless you've got the grip sorted out through practice and my amateur attempt did see me stumbling a bit on those convoluted potholes. It was however more the joy of attempting this refreshing melody that mattered at the end of the day. Not sure how it came out but it has certainly made me admire and fall in love with this chivalrous coffee (kaapi) composition.

Cafe CakeBee - Luring in time and again!

Cafe CakeBee is another recent cafe which has cropped up in town. Located in a quaint location in a small suburb in Alwarpet, it rings the right noises. The space is quite massive with very nice open seating arrangements in the lower tier on top of a closed air conditioning surrounding at the top. You are also greeted to some lovely looking desserts and bakery products displayed as you enter.

We were here on a weekday evening and just had a couple of stuff. We started our foray with a starter in the form of New way Mac n cheese. These were fried nugget balls comprising inset a swirled up layer of mac n cheese and coming alongside a raunchy tomato dip.

For the mains, tried their Primavera pizza which was aced artistically. It had the cheese, the veggies, the sauces and the crust. All of them intermingled with each other delightfully giving the tongue a soul satisfying taste.

To round up with desserts, we had the brownie with salted caramel ice cream. It was gooey, chocolaty, fudgy, crumby, saucy, salty, icy and all that. It was wonderful to polish this one off.

On the whole it was a satisfying experience. The service was neat and tidy. The rates were little on the upper side. Overall, though Cafe CakeBee passed the test resolutely and if you're the kind looking for a cozy cafe associated with good food, this outlet can definitely be checked out.

P.S : I have been visiting this place time and again and have thoroughly enjoyed some of their crafty creations which I am specially describing below based on my experience.

Saffron Cream Sauce with splash of vodka pasta:
This was done up immaculately and simply watered along the mouth. Swish, swash, swirl - this pasta possessed the firepower to induce the taste buds to have a glorified gala.

Pistachio basil pesto pasta with pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes:
Relished slurping this one up. Deliciously creamy and a hard hitting flavour of pesto to give the requisite smack.

Mezze Platter:
A good old fashioned Mezze platter comprising all the essential Mediterranean goodies to sizzle up a feist!.

New York Cheese Cake with Sorbet Ice cream:
Simply devoured this mouth watering melting new york cheese cake with soft slushy marmalade mellow orange sorbet. Ended up being a dream combination and the mouth just floored delicately with excitement.

Cafe Central - Striking the right chords!

The cafe culture has caught on big time in Chennai. There is no better place to spend some lazy laid back time than in a cafe. Earlier these were generally perceived as a mid evening hang out spot but nowadays they have even become a viable option for lunch and dinner. There are no dearth of cafe's in the city​ and are spread across every nook and corner and Cafe Central is the latest one in the fray having spread it's wings in Dr Nair Road in T Nagar.

It's constructed in a 2 storey building having ample parking space. The ambiance strikes of being quirky and trendy. It doesn't adopt a particular theme but gives that shiz vibe about it. The rustic wall setup, the woodwork in place, the sparkle of different shades in the seatings/pillow designs, the colour papers sticking out, the lighting etc all give a lovely new age feel to it.

The menu in a newspaper style in different sections with a predominant red shade is quite elaborate. They are well categorised and options available almost equate to a fine dining restaurant. This is impressive as it gives the customer plenty of choices to gorge upon. We were here on an invite and below is a brief summary on the dine side of things.

- Fries in Ishtyle : Fries have become too cliche off late coming in different concoctions but what we got were the namma fries smeared with podi and infused with ghee. It had a liquidy bright dripping touch to it and we even got additional cup of ghee as condiment for the fries. This was totally different from all the kind of fries I've tasted and signalled a buttery way to start proceedings.

- Fry it out : Under this section, we got served the crumb fried paneer and I must say this was delightful. It came with potato wedges, salad and a dip for company and the rolls were well battered and breaded with juicy pieces of paneer going well with the accompaniments.

- Tit Bits : Here we got served the beer vengayam with the onion rings battered with beer with curry leaves and a dash of lemon giving it a chettinadu twist. They were fairly decent in taste but I would have preferred a more spicier dip as opposed to the regular mayonnaise.

- Cold Beverages/cold press/smoothies/milkshakes : We tried quite a bit in this side of the draw and what impressed were the healthy&mazedaar cold press juice which felt very fresh with a tonic of several fruits and the kiwi soda where the frothy layer over lemon ice cream did the trick. The melon breezer beverage was kinda nice but lacked the punch and the vanilla frosty was rather decent. Beat the Heat comprising beetroot, coconut water and flesh just didn't set ice with any of us and had a very putrid taste.

- Salads : Took a shot at the Greek salad where instantly I was appealed with the immaculate presentation. Feta cheese, olives and lettuces always do the job well and needless to say this one hit the mark.

- Mummy Ka Magical Maggi : This maggi thing has picked up quite a bit and I see lot's of places adopting the same. Different flavors of maggi are whipped up and what we were served was the chilli cheese version. It felt a little dry and being more soaky would have helped. Maggi being a home made snack, the jury is still not out on me regarding the feasibility of paying a higher premium for something you always eat in your house as a quick bite.

- Burger : Tried the Don't call me burger which was more of the usual stuff. It felt well curried with the insertion of tempura fried chilli pickle which added a bit to the zing.

- Sapad : In this section, we had a bite at the Mac & Cheese which was undoubtedly the star performer of the day. They nailed this one completely with the melting cheese macaroni being super slurpy and going jocularly well with olives and jalapeno's in being partners of cheesiness. The soft pieces of garlic bread were added joy. Every one of us thoroughly enjoyed this lip smacking dish. The other try we savoured was the Indian based Ghar ka Khana containing ghee rice, jeera aloo and dal makhni. This one too didn't lack intensity with the black based lentils being absolutely spectacular and enjoying a tete-a-tete with the flavoured rice. The jeera also too was made to perfection having a riveting aroma to it. You give particular importance to the main course especially and this one won the day hands down.

- Desserts : We had a shot at all 4 of the one's which were mentioned in the menu viz drunken doughnuts, crazy custard, golden ice cream and treslechees. Especially took favour to the fried coconut golden layered ice cream with tinge of jaggery. The drunken doughnuts infused with a chocolate coating and cream was pretty nice too. The custard and mango based one didn't really set the ball rolling. The waffles served with the maple syrup though was really soft and great to munch.

Overall it was a full on very satisfactory meal. We got to try a number of items from the attic and a majority of them were rewarding. Extra brownie points especially for dishing up the main course which pleased us to punch. The service was bang on time never really making us wait and also felt very friendly and hospitable. Pricing goes out of the picture as it was via an invite but however must say they are priced to the point and competitive.

Cafe Central is definitely a nice little place to head to if you're looking for a relaxed and comfortable time to spend your day over with the much important supplement of good food for company.

Cappuccino @ Crowne Plaza - Coffee never goes out of favour!

'Cappucino', the all day dining restaurant at the 'Crowne Plaza' is up and about with it's newly launched menu titled 'Unconventionally Conventional'. It's basically a twist to their existing menu along with adding selective special dishes from across the globe. Some of the stuff fall under the radar of 21 dishes to try during your lifetime. It's pretty exotic and curated to bring the best of the Western world right in front of you.

We were here on an invite to sample some of the items from the new menu. We began our journey with an immensely refreshing litchi cooler. The tall glass had a lovely frothy layer and a gulp of that sweet drink was energising. Then our tryst with food began with the super food salad in the mode of a waldorf based one with plenty of apples, berry tomatoes, strawberries, cabbage, lettuce and roasted flax seeds. It was dressed up with honey and mustard which had a subtle essence to it. The tanginess and flavour of apple diluted the spread but the taste of the salad made it's presence felt. Then we moved on to the Asian summer rolls comprising of a unique mix of crisp vegetables, ragi, vermicelli, sprouts and being covered in thin rice sheets. This seemed pretty opaque with a glassy layer and for company was the sweet chilli sauce. It felt a tad different from the regular spring rolls and lacked the usual crispiness but had a hint of sweetness to it. It's hard to classify if this will be lapped up and I personally found it pretty nice but not extraordinary by any means. Then came one of the show stealers of the day in the form of the Pesto and Garlic toast with a cup full of cheese fondue as condiment. This three cheese fondue was totally drool worthy and possessed the ammunition to melt waftly in the mouth. The breads were superlative and it was a delight squishing those crusts in that melting layer of fondue and crunching it over. Just as we were relishing our breads dipped with fondue, came the roasted garlic tomato soup which was well delivered having a lovely smoky aroma to it.

One of the highlights in the main course section was the gargantuan one metre pizza being made in a length of over 3 feet and comprising of 5 variegated toppings of both veg and non veg. It was massive in size and a major star attraction on the night. And further on main course, we tried the Orcheeti Al dente pasta. These are pocket sized pasta sheets with a saucy layer inside those conch shells and the interesting thing about them is that the sauce never remains on your plate when you eat these thumb pressed delicacies. We also had a crack at the eggplant zucchini which had a tantalising layer of cheese bottled up over a bunch of veggies with a strong odour of the egg plant.

Desserts section we literally had a ball and got to savour one after the other bombshell. The presentation was immaculate and especially the Hazelnut creme brulee and chocolate cheese cake were the silver linings and stood out from the rest of the pack. The blueberry muffin like cake was also fantabulous but the Tiramisu missed a little of the zing.

The ambiance is very coffee book style. It characterises a free open style ambiant giving it a very laid back and breezy feel. The decor is cozy and comfortable and overall it's designed in a very inviting manner. The open kitchen also adds to the mix. The service tended to be a little slow but it was because they wanted to take extra care of the proceedings and I must say we felt really hospitable dining at Cappuccino.

Taking the full ensemble into equation, Cappuccino works on a number of fronts and I can confidently say having had a fair share of the sample from their new menu that the outlook points towards the right direction. As a vegetarian, my choices were a wee bit limited but still I loved most of what I had. For the meat lovers this menu is gregarious and an absolute largesse with exquisite stuff such as Shepherd's pie, Cichetti and many more as part of the deal.

Cappuccino is a nice little restaurant to dine and can be categorised as an ideal place to have a relaxed and whole hearted meal over some easy confabulation.