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.

Tandoori Place - Ah, melting North Indian culinary delight at Gold Coast!

We were on a stroll down the amazing stretch of 'Surfers Paradise' at Gold Coast looking for an Indian restaurant to feast ourselves to after our tryst with Western food in the few days gone by.

We bounced into 'The Tandoori Place', a pure Indian restaurant serving predominantly North Indian cuisine. We didn't have second thoughts barging into the restaurant.

There is a lovely charm about the place and it and has a royal feel to it with dim yellow lights, chandeliers and portraits depicting ancient India. There is also some lovely olden day hindi music playing on the television screen. The decor seems rich and the surrounding area gives it a vintage flavour.

We ordered the following:
Soup:
We went for the tried and tested good ol tomato soup and it turned out to be really good and far better than some of the tomato soups I've tried back home. Made on a thick tomato puree, it had all the amunition going for it to make it a winner.

Starters:
Here we had the Panneer Kabab and the Masala Papad. The kabab's were really well made with a pasty mix of panneer and aloo inside those soft rolls and went along jocularly well with the green chutney. The papads usually can't go too wrong and it didn't. The unique feature about it was on the presentation where they shaped it in the form of a cone with veggies stuffed to the brim.

Main Course: On the Indian bread side, wanted to try something different apart from the usual Naan's and went for the Panneeri Naan which were made with home made cottage cheese and spices. And I must say it was a delectable fest. The naans were fluffed up with abundant smudged pieces of panneer and turned out to be resounding. We also had the usual Plain Naan and Tandoori Roti and they went along expected lines. For sides we chose the Palak Panneer which again was a star dish being done up really well with a seasoned aroma of palak with whitened pieces of panneer inset. We also tried the Dal Makhanwala. It wasn't the authentic black dal types but nevertheless wonderful to taste.

Dessert: We finished our course with a salt Lassi which was a perfect foil to finish a very satisfactory meal. It had a perfect mix of requisite spices and was a great tongue twirler.

Overall the food was remarkable and a mile beyond expectation. Never expected to eat such good close to perfect North Indian food in a restaurant far away from home. The service was top notch and our food arrived on the table without any really waiting time. Cost seems to be a little on the higher side but can be excused considering the great food on offer.

Conclusion: There aren't too many Indian options in the extremely buzzing Surfer's Paradise. This one though is a little gem. If you're in and around this area and craving for good Indian food, this is indeed the right place for you.