Toscana - Tantalizingly Italian!

Toscana is located in the busy and bustling Dame Street which is packed with restaurant's aplenty. When most eat outs these days are hardly in existence for a year or two, this one sees it's entrance from way back since 1999. One good thing with most eateries in Dublin is that they place the menu along with the prices right at the outside giving a glimpse of what to expect for the customers. I happened to see a two course lunch meal for a price of about 20 Euros and decided to give it a shot. The rate looked like quite a deal especially since most singular items themselves cost around the same and with this you get to try 2 items for more or less the same fare.

Being a vegetarian however, options are limited to the bottom. With less choices available at hand, it wasn't much of a hassle choosing the appetizer and main course. In the appetizer section, I went in for the 'Suppli' which are basically Italian breaded rice balls in the form of a croquette. There were 4 of them and the plating was done up nicely with each of them given separate space and coming along with a garlic dip. The arborio rice inside stuffed with mozzarella tasted quite creamy and fresh.

On the main course side of things checked out the Vegetarian Lasagna. This was pretty tantalizing with cheese infused all over the plate surrounding the layered sheets of pasta which themselves were quite hard hitting and deliciously creamy comprising major portions of broccoli florets along with pomodoro, courgette, spinach and ricotta cheese. It would have been nice if there could have been a piece or two of garlic bread to additionally complement it but however the dish overall felt quite full fledged and nice on the tongue.

The service was quite quick with hardly much waiting time. They were also quite sweet to check in regularly if things were fine. The rates in general seem a bit on the higher side but thankfully with this combo deal didn't really set back too much. The ambience is designed in the form of a pub and gives a laidback insouciant feel with dim lights and dark color palette doing a tango. Overall a nice little eatery for craving Italian delicacies which has been serving customers right from even before the turn of this century.

Pondy Calling Chennai - Bread & Chocolate

Pondicherry's charm comes to Chennai in the form of it's illustrious venture Bread & Chocolate. Pondy is known for it's bakeries and known to dish up a variety of stuff especially on the sweetened side and it makes sense too since it does happen to be a French colony. Hence the presence of vintage French style cuisine is pretty evident.

The pizza's, breads, croissants, creme brulees, macaroons, crepes and a whole lot of chocolate and various other sweet tinglings find much footing in the shores of Pondy. Hence the presence of Bread & Chocolate, a premium Pondy outlet putting up it's venture in Chennai is sure to seethe in some bit of excitement.

The outlet here is located in Senotaph Road, Teynampet in a two storied building. You feel the whiff of fresh bread and smell of cream as you set foot inside it's territory. The ground floor is for takeaway and has an array of delightful stockings layered up for you to choose. The portion upstairs consists of the dine-in restaurant.

The menu is a simple one pager compartmentalized into 5 categories comprising of toasts, bowls, plates, hot pressed sandwiches and drinks. The initial three form part of the breakfast and is available all through the day whereas the latter two options are available only from lunch onwards. This apart, the stacked up assembly gives you plenty of options on croissants, cakes, babkas, quiche, focaccia etc.

I have been here once for dine-in and tried their super famous best seller 'Summertime Tartine'. This was one dish which I had been drooling about ever since I had a glance at the picture and I must say it was worth the wait. I've normally consumed burgers of the messy kind but this one is a toast loaded to the brim and it only gets more yummyliciously flowy once you give a poke at it. It is a toast packed to the punch with fresh ricotta, marinated onions, roasted tomatoes, poached eggs and basil pesto. The scramble of ricotta spread across the toast with the effervescence of a glorious pesto and a ballooned up egg which smatters the yolk once you give a tilt at it makes the experience quite exhilarating. This has been a long pending item to consume and glad to finally have had a shot at it. There are quite a lot more options on toasts which I guess would be reserved for a next time.

Other than this, I tried more of their snack based items. A little disappointed to have still not got a crack at their lemon meringue croissant which I've been badly wanting to try. The palak panneer quiche was big in size and I really liked the spinach cream breached oozingly across the flaky bread. The pizza focaccia was decent albeit not something to glorify upon. I personally felt a little extra zest was missing on it. The chocolate cake was quite nice thought not too memorable.

Overall, it has been a fairly interesting experience trying out selected items from the fray. I am looking forward to try some of their sandwiches and also drinks perhaps on a later visit. This can be considered a great place for breakfast especially and if you're looking for that fresh dough bread experience that is famous in Pondy, you do get a selective dose of it right here in very own Chennai and that's something which is certainly a bright spot. The place is out and about buzzing in full steam and with more of these fresh stuff coming to Chennai, it's sure to set the registers ringing.

Cafe De Bangkok - Inviting Travel Vibes

Bangkok is a known to be a foodie's paradise apart from being a frequently hunted travel destination. It is known for it's mélange of cuisines ranging from Pan Asian and spreading across to continental, Pizza's and a host of bakery products.

Cafe De Bangkok is a new venture bringing the best of the world of Thai to the shore lands of Chennai. The place is located on a main road and the ambiance depicts a swirl of Thailand drawings with a diaspora of cute flower bouquets for infusing the vibration. Palettes of white and blue mostly adorn the surrounding.

The menu boasts of a mix of varied cuisines. I began proceedings with a broccoli soup encapsulated with shrivels of cheese which seemed to be a pretty good way to start on a cold evening. For the starters we tried the loaded fries which was basically potato fries topped up with salsa and cream. The fries were crunchy and the texture was just about right and it went well with the mix up. We also tried a bao in the form of cottage cheese & sundried tomato. This was one of my favorite dishes with the buns being juicy soft and stuffed inset were spicy rectangular chunks of paneer and dried tomatoes with the combination working very well. Another cottage cheese starter was attacked this time in the form of a skewer. This was of the Cajun variant and the pieces were fresh and somewhat in line with the traditional Indianized version of paneer tikka just that it was served in a different format. We also had a shot at the Thai spring rolls which went jocularly well with a lively tangy dip.

On the main course front, we went with the double cheese margarita pizza. I wouldn't say this was top notch. It was decent enough but somehow not melt in the mouth stuff that I expected it to be. The khow suey however was well dished up having a lovely aroma inherent to it. All the condiments added on made it quite an item to remember. This apart, a pink sauce penne pasta was also attempted. This one was creamy with the right stuffing and seemed well cooked and also tasted yummy.

They do not have too many options on the dessert front as of now. They had a chocolate danish and a blue berry cheese tart which seemed strictly average at best. I believe this is an area they are still working up to stack more options in the fray.

Overall it was a pretty pleasant experience. The waiters were friendly and the items were brought in at regular time intervals. The pricing seems par for the course. The ambiance and vibe works quite well especially if you're the kind who is looking forward to a pleasing experience. This cafe can definitely be tried for it's diverse epicurean cuisine.

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.

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.

Sitcom - The cafe enticing Friends & Food

Sitcom with the caption 'The Drama Diner' is one of the latest cafe's to hit tinseville. From the name it's rather apparent that it borrows heavily on the theme of tv series and this is where they cash in with their set up. It's located on the lengthy stretch of ECR in the Neelankarai road in a complex occupying 2 storeys. The downward side is predominantly a bakery cafe consisting of plenty of stuff like puffs, pastries, quiches, mousses, eclairs, sorbets and a host of other items in the attic. And on the upstairs is where the real dine out cafe action takes place.

The ever popular Friends and Big Bang Theory are the 2 serials which make a big impression on this place. They have quirky dialogues from the sitcoms plastered on the doors apart from having posters depicting characters and footage from the show. In tune with the drama culture, they have also placed sufficient tv screens playing episodes of these shows. I believe these large screens will also cater to sporting action as and when they occur. The decor feels laid back and relaxing with those bent orange couches igniting the comfort factor. It looks like an ideal place to come as large set of folks to spend quality free time and in the process also do some binge eating.

The menu touches different borders with American cuisine being the most significant. Whatever an outlet tries to showcase through it's ambiance, there's no denying that food plays the numero uno part and everything else takes a backseat. In that line, I must say for a new place the food served appeased quite a lot especially with the starters being of the highest order.

We began our dinner sojourn with a french onion soup which was wonderfully presented in a large bowl with a circular piece of soaked bread immersed right over floating on top of the soup. The sprinkle of caramelised onions was well played and this one was really flavourful and a good way to begin proceedings.

The starters totally lorded the show. First up, I fell in love with the Mozzarella cheese sticks. The orangish cheese sticking inside that hollow tunnel covered on the exterior by a breaded texture was all gooey and drool worthy. Dipping it with some chilli mayo added to the excitement. The cheese stuffed mushroom croquettes were not far off from the show. Just childishly poke these balls with a fork and you will witness cheesy awesomeness enveloped all over juicy chunks of mushroom. The outer layer comprising the breaded texture was super solid and the interior had a molten perfect liquid material oozing out providing for a delicious confluence which can be felt when inserted in the mouth. To add a crispy touch were the onion rings which was a great snacker to consume along side the white cheesy dip.

They have an interesting combination of momo's and we tried 3 veg versions viz spinach & corn, mushroom and the sticky rice dumplings. The former two were lovely to munch with just about the right bunch of ingredients and being delicious in taste but what really stole the headlines were the sticky riced one which was quite a revelation. They almost looked like a porcupine with thorns holding up firmly on all sides of the momo's and when picking them up they were so soft, floaty and loose that you almost wanted to play with them. It had a nice curried veg taste to it with the ingredients melding and mingling well. This was truly one of a kind and very interesting and innovatively made.

In the main course section, it was the pizza that was top notch. The 7 cheese pizza was messy with variants of cheese meltingly flowing across all directions but the joy I tell you of biting this cheesy delight was another level. The Sun-dried tomato pizza may not have had the same level of attraction as it's predecessor but it was strong on the base and that's what mattered. It was really delivered well and gave that feel of eating a good thin crust pizza. On continental, we tried the Fettuccini with Basil. I kind of felt this was slightly short on expectations and pretty pale on flavour not really embarking the desired taste. We were also served a thai green curry which was remarkable. It was a little darker than the usual one's I've had but the aromatic presence of coconut cream was hovering all over and it was lovely to eat with plain rice.

They have an extensive array of desserts and we just tried a sample few. The Peach flan was soft and creamy. The Mississippi mud pie was one amazing chocolate based cake. The choco caramel mousse could have been a tad better as the caramel taste was hardly prevalent. The Tiramisu was strictly okay and I've surely had much better ones. We also had a bite at few exotic pieces of little chocolates in various flavours and they were all nice. We ended the evening with sorbets where both the raspberry and blood orange hit the bulls eye. The iced chill which you get complementing a fruity sweetened essence is quite a surreal feeling. It was like the perfect tonic and it doubly sure ensured to end the show on a high.

Looking at it from a holistic picture, it was a very satisfying and engaging dinner with majority of the items denoting a plus point. The ambiance can be spruced up a little more as there are lots of empty grey spaces where lot more can be done. It felt a little gloomy and a dash of colour could invigorate the place all the more. From the little sample that we savoured, the food can be termed a real win. They have lot more stuff such as burgers and steaks which I'm looking forward to try. On the whole, Sitcom is a lovely little cafe in this neck of the woods where you can shower in a bit of nostalgia with the place invoking you snippets from memorable tv series from the bygone era and which also serves some appetising food to rejoice to your heart's content.

Chocolate Haven - A heaven for the chocolate aficianados!

The Chocolate Heaven prides itself in serving a plethora of stuff based predominantly on chocolate. Their menu is large and a majority have a presence of this brownish substance and the title of this outlet having the moniker 'chocolate' comes as no real surprise. Apart from the diverse variants of waffles, pan cakes, shakes, desserts etc, they also have reasonably good stuff on the savoury side much akin to a cafe style playbook.

The ambiance is fairly straightforward. It's a pretty small joint covered up with a nice green patch depicting the words inscribed "India's ultimate chocolate cafe". Apart from that there are wall arts highlighting food pictures and a few quirky quotes. The decor is colourful with mild alternative colours and the brick art which is mostly brown goes well in sync with the surrounding. The subdued dim lights also hold good stead.

We were here on an invite and tried pretty much most things on the menu. It is a pretty large one at that running into a number of pages. We loved most of the one's with overdose of chocolate in them. Immense liking was towards the waffles and pancakes. The Nutella one was just gooey and lickalicious. Absolutely insane it tasted. The waffle with mud biscuit pieces were no less and one other with layerings of 3 different versions of chocolate - white, dark and milk was totally sinister. The monster shake was an avalanche of chocolate with lovey dovey bits flowing across all directions. Even the other shakes be it the Ferrero Rocher and the kitkat was terrific. Chocolate is well and truly their forte and they got it bang on right on almost every item which had it's manifestation.

Contrary to the chocolate brilliance, the other items were a tad average and could have been better. The fries were the usual with the masala version not being special in any way with just powdered chilli rolled on. The pizza's were decent but felt like they were home made with the cheese rightly giving it away. The Mac'n'cheese lacked flavours and the salt content could have been managed better. The other cream farfelle pasta though was fairly good. The sandwich and the burger were par for the course but nothing really exceptional to mention about. The signature cheese fondue didn't really appease with neither the cheese being really flavourful nor the sides being good enough to back it. Nachos were topped with oodles of cheese with the bottom portion being exposed. And more so, the taco chips lacked crispiness. The drinks were overall okay but some had an extra sweet tinge which didn't go along well.

On the whole, the chocolate stuff reigned supreme and it's fair considering that's their flagship. And also with 80% of the items having it's influence, it can be easily said that it was a pretty satisfying experience. The other sides though can be aced up a wee bit in order to make the overall experience even better.

The service was fast with stuff coming to our tables in rather quick fashion. They were also helpful in going about with our orders and always willing to address our concerns. The outlet as such is located right on the dot at TTK road and it's difficult to miss . Parking could be a bit of an hassle but with streets adjoining here and there, shouldn't be too much of a problem.

If you are a lover of chocolate, there's no second thoughts that you'll end up falling in love with the Chocolate Heaven. This cafe is designed for the out and out chocolate loving aficionado.

Fat Boy - A pizza lover's delight!

There are a lot of Italian restaurant's in the city which obviously serve pizza but when you think of the dish as a prominent factor all by itself, only the well known branded MNC's come into picture. And it's the usual expected fare which you get from these Americanised chains and nothing beyond that. So when a little known outlet sprang up by the name "Fat boy" priding itself of serving pizza's, I was pretty curious to find out what they have in store and what difference they bring to the table.

The place resembles a fast food joint through it's environment. The decor is plain and simple and so is the surrounding ambiance which has been kept neat and tidy without any obvious over the top decorations. It gave a pretty clear indication that this place was cut out to have a quick bite and not much in tune with a fine dining setup.

I smelled something nice about the food but it ended up being far beyond expectations. Most of the stuff served was very good and their flagship product "pizza" was remarkable and truly top notch. The menu was a cute booklet not comprising too many sheets and just zeroing in on the variegated fare of pizza's along with a few starters, sandwiches and desserts.

The cheese garlic bread made of day old sour dough was super soft and meltingly lingering. A special word for some of their in house dips of 5 kinds viz siracha mayo, garlic aioli, mint&feta, spicy salsa and blue cheese which ignite excitement and are totally slurp slurp. The starters also had a couple of potato based ones barbecue and buffalo. Both were of baby size and roasted with the former comprising of a smoky mix sauce and the latter having a slight sweet twang. I immensely loved both of em which turned out being great snackers. The Parmesan stuffed mushroom was another highlight with the buttons of mushroom being stuffed inside with a pasty parmesan mix. The cheesy nachos weren't spectacular but I liked the way the salsa was spread across in an even proportion not alienating the taco chips at any point.

On the main course, the pizza's lorded the show and ended up being absolutely brilliant. They make half and half pizza's with fresh ingredients on a wood fire base. The 4 cheese and margherita half&half aptly titled The Fat boy & Hey boy respectively was really well delivered with a softish thin base and covered with just about the right dosage of cheese and sauce. The other two vegetarian which we tried made on the same base included the star boy which was packed with all the veg ingredients you could think of and the Hot boy which was also loaded with veggies but made in a fiery hot sauce and very spicy. I felt the confluence of the flavours did the trick. Each of them were distinct yet carved their own individual style and I must admit having loved all the 4 versions of vegetarian Pizza's that i had a crack at. It was not only about the pizza's as they have a wide offering of sandwiches as well and the one we tried was the "Good Boy" which was heavily infused with pesto and the flavour was really hard hitting and the added buffalo cheese added along went really well.

We also tried a couple of their shakes such as the oreo peanut butter and the caramel Parle G milkshake and also a cooler in the form of a masala lemonade. The drinks and shakes were rather nice albeit not of the highest order. We closed the evening with a Brownie sundae with caramel popcorn which was delicious. We also got a Theobrama which is sourced from outside and it was indeed a delight biting into every piece of that sinful delicacy.

The service was spot on and we got our food in regular intervals of time. The couple who own the restaurant were very sweet and more than happy to accede to all our needs. The pricing is not mentioned as it was over an invite. A glance at the menu may seem that the prices are at an upper trajectory but the pizza's are all '12 inches and hence feels justifiable. Only slightly felt that the rates of the starters seem a wee bit on the higher side. The outlet is located in a small lane off TTK road in a compound where there is sufficient space for parking vehicles.

To adumbrate, the experience at "The Fat Boy" was very pleasing and it was a pleasure to consume such high quality pizza's which you don't get so easily. I was definitely more than happy and am already looking forward to come again to have a shot at more of the stuff dished out by the Fat Boy.

La Porschetta - A little road side Italian delicacy at Surfers Paradise

La Porschetta is a very nice little Italian restaurant by the road side serving some great Pizza's and Pasta's. It is very simple in its appearance with nothing much on the interiors and there is just a few plastic chairs and tables underneath a roof. The place also has a small seating space inside.

It feels like a perfect getaway spot to gorge on some tantalising Italian food while shopping by the wayside. We ordered for a pumpkin based salad, veg pizza and a gnocci with pesto sauce and all of them turned out to be pretty sumptuous.

The salad was well tossed up with leafy veggies to go along with pieces of pumpkin and balls of cheese. The veg pizza was a lovely thin crust one with veggies nicely spread across. The Gnocci was another good dish to round off proceedings with the chewy potatoes floating around a lovely aromatic pesto sauce with herbs added on.

The service was fairly quick and the rates seemed reasonably nominal. A pretty nice place to have an easy laidback Italian meal.

Pedreno and Giant sized Pizza's!

'The Padrino' is a nice little addition to the roster of ventures serving Italian cuisine in the city. Padrino when translated refers to 'Godfather' and that happens to be the theme of the restaurant and you will find some interesting portraits and famous dialogues from the movie etched on the walls.

It has a lovely laidback feel to it and the woodwork making up the interiors adds to the charm. It is minimilastic in design with a professional color palette and avoids being too quirky. The decor comprises of both sofa seating as well as simple chairs with even some elevated stools giving itself a more 'cafe' kind of outlook.

The menu is predominantly Italian with a skosh of American and Mexican too thrown in the woods. We began our lunch sojourn with the Bruschetta Napoli and the Crostini Garlic Bread with cheese. They didn't really appease with the breads being hard and not at all fresh. They also happened to be burnt a wee bit adding to the misery. The other starter "eggplant parmesan style" however salvaged some pride turning out to be pretty delicious.

For mains, we zeroed in on the "30 inch pizza of which we chose the 'Ultimate crispy cajun veggielicious'. The pizza was gigantic in size and appeared way larger than what we envisaged. This was a behemoth creation and truly one of a kind. It had a bunch of toppings ranging from zucchini, brocolli, cauliflower, etc. Tastewise, seemed passable but that 'X' factor was missing making it a little underwhelming.

For desserts, we shared an assortment of Gelatto's and this part was the real highlight of our meal. The ice creams were simply put spectacular and we thoroughly enjoyed slurping every single spoonful of these sinful delicacies. The Gelato's are made in house through a specially imported machine and we also got to sample freshly made Hazelnut ice cream which was absolutely brilliant.

No complaints on the service and they were fairly quick with the food. The pricing seems on par with any other restaurant of this range. Parking is conveniently available and even if one runs out of space, being placed near a secluded lane, stationing a vehicle won't be a hassle.

Overall, it was a mixed bag experience. It's still early days for 'The Padrino' and they are already more or less thereabouts and hope the going only gets better with time passing by.