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.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Maplai - the taste of Down south!
Maplai has been on my radar for sometime now and finally headed there on a weekday dinner to satisfy my appetite.
Good first signs with valet parking being available and it looked vibrant at least from the outside with colored lights glowing in a pattern.
It feels a small place and seems like they haven't spaced out the tables very well. Its polarised into different spacing with a couple of tables in each of the divided space. In a way its good because you feel away from a crowd and feels a place safe to have a peaceful meal. On the other hand it looks like they can accommodate very few people at a time and they will be hard pressed if people come in big numbers.
Enough of jabbering, coming to the numero part - the food. The menu seems to be quite interesting with quite a few innovative options. It's not a place for the vegetarian but if you like your eggs you are saved quite a bit. They have various variants of this oval shaped delicacy.
For starters , we ordered for a Chettinadu Bashed Potato which was brown in color and smeared with a fine powdery mix and spread across with karuga pilai and mayonnaise to accommodate. It was crunchy , delicious and perfect foil for starter material. Great start I should say.The other starter was Muttai Kalki which was smudged and soggily floating around and felt like having a caramel custard sans the taste. It was quite diiferent and found it palatable though nothing special about this one.
For main course ordered Egg Appam and Paneer Nilgiri. The Aapam's were nicely done up with the bullseye right in the center and well cooked. The paneer gravy was done up with mint and was tea green in colour. The curry was fair enough with the paneer in judicious quantity being deep fried and soft and chunky.
And ended the dinner sojourn with a thirst quencher in the form of a Bovonto Icecream Soda. Seemed a speciality dish of theirs , it was nothing but Bovonto mixed with Vanilla ice cream giving a flavorful feel and felt it apt after having this kind of a meal.
The real winner however about this place is the pricing. When every other restaurant charges the roof nowadays , you would be surprised to find quite a number of items at double digit rates for a place with a neat and clean enough ambiance such as this. It was pretty much a surprise I must admit.
If you love poultry or even if you are just an eggetarian , it's certainly a decent place to hog some good food and it just doesn't pinch your pocket much. Maaplai is surely worth trying !.
Good first signs with valet parking being available and it looked vibrant at least from the outside with colored lights glowing in a pattern.
It feels a small place and seems like they haven't spaced out the tables very well. Its polarised into different spacing with a couple of tables in each of the divided space. In a way its good because you feel away from a crowd and feels a place safe to have a peaceful meal. On the other hand it looks like they can accommodate very few people at a time and they will be hard pressed if people come in big numbers.
Enough of jabbering, coming to the numero part - the food. The menu seems to be quite interesting with quite a few innovative options. It's not a place for the vegetarian but if you like your eggs you are saved quite a bit. They have various variants of this oval shaped delicacy.
For starters , we ordered for a Chettinadu Bashed Potato which was brown in color and smeared with a fine powdery mix and spread across with karuga pilai and mayonnaise to accommodate. It was crunchy , delicious and perfect foil for starter material. Great start I should say.The other starter was Muttai Kalki which was smudged and soggily floating around and felt like having a caramel custard sans the taste. It was quite diiferent and found it palatable though nothing special about this one.
For main course ordered Egg Appam and Paneer Nilgiri. The Aapam's were nicely done up with the bullseye right in the center and well cooked. The paneer gravy was done up with mint and was tea green in colour. The curry was fair enough with the paneer in judicious quantity being deep fried and soft and chunky.
And ended the dinner sojourn with a thirst quencher in the form of a Bovonto Icecream Soda. Seemed a speciality dish of theirs , it was nothing but Bovonto mixed with Vanilla ice cream giving a flavorful feel and felt it apt after having this kind of a meal.
The real winner however about this place is the pricing. When every other restaurant charges the roof nowadays , you would be surprised to find quite a number of items at double digit rates for a place with a neat and clean enough ambiance such as this. It was pretty much a surprise I must admit.
If you love poultry or even if you are just an eggetarian , it's certainly a decent place to hog some good food and it just doesn't pinch your pocket much. Maaplai is surely worth trying !.
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