'Haunted' as the name suggests is all about the horror genre theme. The place literally gives the creeps and induces the fear by bringing about a plethora of spooky elements to almost give you the feeling of watching a scary movie in the middle of the night.
It is a 2 story building engulfed with darkness all around and you find the spacing divided into further enclosures and there are different rooms inside such as the spider room, horror room, antique room and lock and latch room. And adding to all this you have posters of the scariest movies ever made, portraits of the most haunted locations in Chennai apart from skeletons, zombies, voodoo dolls, oujha, skulls, scarlet based miniatures, snippets of Matilda and a host of other stuff. You even have ghostly music being played in the background from memorable horror movies to increase the chills. It is appreciable the way they have pulled off this daredevilry of a paranormal theme in all it's gory. Lovers of fantasy will surely be appealed with such a ghoulish theme.
Having said all about the ambiance which richly deserves the plaudits, the food did let us down a bit. They serve a mix of North Indian, Italian, Chinese and a little bit of Arabian cuisine. We started our dinner foray with the Veg Hot and Sour soup. I would like to add an extra adjective and coin it as Hot, Sour and spicy soup. It almost felt as if even the soup wanted to petrify us by being so hot making your tongue burn with red. Nothing wrong with the taste perse, but surely needs a little cutting down on the masala front. For starters, we had the Haunted fries - a spruced up version of potato fries which was rather nice, however lacked consistency on the second serving. We also got to have the mushroom buttons which were deep fried and infused with cheese on top and was one of the signature dishes of the night. The other one we tasted was the Panneer Manchurian which had a strange texture to it with a few pieces being soft and others hard. Surely some working is required on this. For main course, tried the White sauce Spaghetti which appeared a bit too milky and overtly cheesy. It didn't seem to have blended well and could have surely been much better. The schezwan noodles standalone was nothing much to rave about and perhaps could have done better with a chinese gravy booting it. The Indian Breads however were fluffy, soluble and seemed to go well with the Kofta gravy.
The biggest disappointment of the day were the drinks served, none of which cut ice with any of us. There were some weird concoctions and heavy essence thrown in which just didn't seem to gel. I really hope something is done on this front as mocktails form an essential part of a meal. The desserts however restored some sanity by being decent albeit not great whether it were the Sizzling Brownie, Chocolate Balls or the coconut based one.
Overall the meal could strictly be considered under the average bracket. With a little more care and extra efforts, it could surely be elevated a notch further. The service was fast with food being served to the table in quick time. Also they seemed very welcoming to suggestions and feedback which is a good sign. Can't comment on the pricing as we were on an invite but at a glance seemed par for the course.
In conclusion, they have some aces up their sleeve with especially the theme being unique and one of a kind but the food really needs to improve to complement the ambiance and make the experience complete. They are still new and hope with time are able to ameliorate on the loose ends and be a force to reckon with. Wishing the team of 'Haunted' all the very best.
It is a 2 story building engulfed with darkness all around and you find the spacing divided into further enclosures and there are different rooms inside such as the spider room, horror room, antique room and lock and latch room. And adding to all this you have posters of the scariest movies ever made, portraits of the most haunted locations in Chennai apart from skeletons, zombies, voodoo dolls, oujha, skulls, scarlet based miniatures, snippets of Matilda and a host of other stuff. You even have ghostly music being played in the background from memorable horror movies to increase the chills. It is appreciable the way they have pulled off this daredevilry of a paranormal theme in all it's gory. Lovers of fantasy will surely be appealed with such a ghoulish theme.
Having said all about the ambiance which richly deserves the plaudits, the food did let us down a bit. They serve a mix of North Indian, Italian, Chinese and a little bit of Arabian cuisine. We started our dinner foray with the Veg Hot and Sour soup. I would like to add an extra adjective and coin it as Hot, Sour and spicy soup. It almost felt as if even the soup wanted to petrify us by being so hot making your tongue burn with red. Nothing wrong with the taste perse, but surely needs a little cutting down on the masala front. For starters, we had the Haunted fries - a spruced up version of potato fries which was rather nice, however lacked consistency on the second serving. We also got to have the mushroom buttons which were deep fried and infused with cheese on top and was one of the signature dishes of the night. The other one we tasted was the Panneer Manchurian which had a strange texture to it with a few pieces being soft and others hard. Surely some working is required on this. For main course, tried the White sauce Spaghetti which appeared a bit too milky and overtly cheesy. It didn't seem to have blended well and could have surely been much better. The schezwan noodles standalone was nothing much to rave about and perhaps could have done better with a chinese gravy booting it. The Indian Breads however were fluffy, soluble and seemed to go well with the Kofta gravy.
The biggest disappointment of the day were the drinks served, none of which cut ice with any of us. There were some weird concoctions and heavy essence thrown in which just didn't seem to gel. I really hope something is done on this front as mocktails form an essential part of a meal. The desserts however restored some sanity by being decent albeit not great whether it were the Sizzling Brownie, Chocolate Balls or the coconut based one.
Overall the meal could strictly be considered under the average bracket. With a little more care and extra efforts, it could surely be elevated a notch further. The service was fast with food being served to the table in quick time. Also they seemed very welcoming to suggestions and feedback which is a good sign. Can't comment on the pricing as we were on an invite but at a glance seemed par for the course.
In conclusion, they have some aces up their sleeve with especially the theme being unique and one of a kind but the food really needs to improve to complement the ambiance and make the experience complete. They are still new and hope with time are able to ameliorate on the loose ends and be a force to reckon with. Wishing the team of 'Haunted' all the very best.
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