Waterside - All day dining!

The Waterside is the 24 hour all day dining restaurant as part of Feathers, Radha Hotel located in Manapakkam. The outlet serves both Ala carte and Buffet and we as a bunch of foodies were invited to have a shot at the Sunday Brunch.

The place appeals instantly with it's wonderfully carved out woodwork which gives a very pleasant and soothing feel. The lighting is abundantly bright and the showpieces stacked across ignites a magnum presence and showcases itself to be a royal and ritzy affair. It's also well spread out with a large dining space and the musical duo belting out classics only adds further to the rendezvous. The water front at the passerby area adds to the surrounding environment.

Coming to the spread on offer, it traverses the length and breadth of divergent cuisines from across the globe bringing to the table an extensive and elaborate multi cuisine deal. They played the game safe by ensuring that something or other is available amongst North Indian, South Indian, Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Greek, Arabian, Middle eastern cuisine etc. The positive was it didn't seem like just making up the numbers and there was really a generous fare prevalent to please everyone's palette and appetite.

Listing every item in store would end up meaning to write a dossier and hence I would like to mention some of the key dishes pointing to the affirmative and a bit of the let downs which perhaps requires a tinge of amelioration. I must confess to immensely taking a liking to the Mexican Fajita rolls which were delivered beautifully and packed a punch with the right dosage of Mexican ingredients. The pita breads and the hummus dip along with other condiments too was a huge win. The Pizza's which were part of the live counter also hit the brownie points by being done up really well with the mix of exotic toppings on a thin crust base. The red sauce spaghetti pasta was amazingly flavourful and creamy and the continental based Mousakka also won the accolades by having the right content in taste and stuffings and satisfying expectations. In the starter section, the panneer tikka was top notch being served on a pan with plenty of juicy pieces which were super succulent and extremely delicious. The Arancini veg balls too were well presented with a dash of red marinara sauce sprayed along judiciously. The dessert draw was a complete masterpiece with virtually every item on the shelf being of high quality. The red velvet cake as well as the chocolate opera and the pista based chocolate pudding were delectable. There were also a reasonable mix of Indian sweets too to entice for the sweet cravers.

On the flip side, the opening encounter viz tomato and vegetable soup was a bit pedestrian. It was too watery in content and loaded with a bunch of veggies and the tomato in the name was just the flavour added and nothing more. It wasn't a great start to be frank but the things which followed more than made up for it. The starters were generally good but the jalapeno cheese balls could have definitely been a touch better if served with some kind of dip preferably of the chilli mayo kind. One other disappointment was largely on the North Indian curries which really didn't seem appeasing both on looks and taste. One surely expected more on this front considering the oeuvre was quite larger compared to other cuisines in the fray. And on the Italian side though the White sauce pasta looked tantalisingly classy and creamy, the taste was a bit sour lacking on the salt content and lack of flavours.

Overall however the good side of things far exceeded the negatives making it pleasing dine out at the end of the day. Despite disappointments, some items stood out shoulders above the rest forging us to go repeat on the same. The service was amiable and hospitable. At all points of time they were by our side and easily accessible and acceding to our requests. As the event was over an invite, pricing goes out of the question. However this is a solid buffet spread for the price which you wouldn't be cribbing too much upon.

Taking the large picture into equation, it ended up being a good little brunch meal ticking most of the boxes which you would usually expect. Most bases are well covered and some additional care on certain nitty gritties will only elevate the experience in dining out at the Waterside in Feathers Hotel.

Asia Kitchen stirs up a Chinese Buffet!

There isn't much to fault with Asia's kitchen by Mainland China. The ambiance is chinese centric with a powerful presence of red and black colors, lovely little woodwork with chinese script inscribed at places. There are also beautiful portraits showcasing Chinese culture in all it's splendour. The lighting is mildly dim and just perfectly apt for a dine in restaurant of this kind. Being situated as part of a hotel, you also have the advantage of having a shot or two of cocktails. Apart from this the seating arrangement is very comfortable with a number of 6 seaters placed exclusively for families and the open kitchen with the smelling aroma adds a beautiful buzz to the surrounding.

We were here on a weekday afternoon and I had a swish at the lunch buffet priced at 565 bucks. The options were plenty in number and it felt pretty reasonable consuming high quality chinese food for this rate. The soup which was a 8 treasure Island one was more in line with the sweet corn one but with much more veggies to the fray.

The starters which were served directly on the table was my most favourite of the lot. The veg spring rolls were wonderful to eat with the sweet chilli sauce, potato kafir lime which were loosely fine thin french fries based with a dash of lime was delightful. But what took the cake was the crispy vegetable chilli plum which had such a delectable confluence of a tangy taste with a bit of sweetness infused to the mix. Equally jaw dropping were the basil dumplings which I thoroughly enjoyed which had a beautiful veg stuffing inside those soft and juicy greenish momo's.

The main course section was kind of decent. They had a veg hakka noodles which was nicely flavoured and a usual veg fried rice which was more run of the mill stuff. The sides had a nice variety with the broccoli corn water chestnut in chilli garlic sauce and the vegetable dumpling chilli soya sauce. On the less spicier side there was stir fried chinese greens.

The desserts were a good way to end the meal. There was darsaan, hot chocolate rolls, cake, mousse, fresh fruits and ice cream. The darsaan had a nice sweet tinge to it. The rolls were cute and stuffed with chocolate sauce. The cake and mousse was par for the course and in ice cream they had 3 different flavours - vanilla, butterscotch and strawberry.

On the whole, it was a pretty good meal and very much worth for the price. The service was quick and they did a good job in refilling the plates. They were always available at our beck and call. Other facilities like parking is not an issue as they have valet facility.

Overall, a good place for trying out Chinese cuisine. The buffet especially is a very good choice for those looking to hog a lot without striking a hole in the pocket.

Nallai Allai - A humble attempt

Nallai Allai is a recent earworm that has stuck on to me incessantly. Shankarabaranam based melodies always turns me on and this one's as smooth as a soufle and smothered with sugar in abundance. A saccharine sweet melody that gets you hooked on instantly. Feel the magic of this majestic composition by A R Rahman for Mani Ratnam's Kaatru Veliyidai. This is a very humble attempt to try playing this song. I am just an amateur and play purely based on hearing the tone of the melody and I just jangled along using some own chords and movements. Please pardon me for the ignorance. Nalla irundha say, kevalama irundhalum tell.

Kailash Parbat - Delectably Vegetarian!

Kailash Parbat can be easily considered as one of the front runner restaurant's in the all veg dining category. They literally serve a sumptuous feast which will guarantee wholesome satisfaction to the palette. The variegated feast dished out here well and truly depicts vegetarian food in an all encompassing avatar. You'll never feel hard done being a vegetarian when dining here because the variety on offer is so widespread and will ensure that both the salty side as well as the sweetened surface get well and truly satisfied. The food is pre dominantly North Indian and bordering mainly into the Chaat mix of things and apart from these they also serve a pastiche of continental and Italian cuisine. This is the second stand alone Kailash Parbat after the immensely successful and hugely crowd pleasing eternal favorite of the North Indian families located at Chetpet in Harrington road.

The Koturpuram branch is slightly smaller in size but instantly appealing. Just on entering the arena, you find the area converged with lot of cute little thingies which are eye catching and brightens up the whole atmosphere. Signboards depicting interesting messages, miniatures hanging on walls, quirky wall arts, colourful portraits, cool lighting etc define the place. It instantly ignites the feel good factor and a very positive vibe is created. The other highlights happen to be the decor which is really well played and no words of praise is enough on the plating and presentation which deserves showering of the highest magnitude.

We began our sojourn with the evergreen favourite viz chaat platter containing bhel puri, dahi vada, papdi chaat and corn canopes. Presented in an odd shaped 4 way placement just a glimpse of it will get the tongue craving and rightfully so. The Dahi vada seemed the odd man out in terms of the looks as all others had a lot of yellow on them with podi, papdi, bhel etc. All of them were equally ravishing in taste and didn't take much long to polish spoon for spoon of each of the items. Next up was the Cheese Pav Bhaji and my god this was like the road leading the path to heaven. The pav's were bulky in size but super soft and the bhaji with a gregarious slathering of cheese floating over was breathtaking in taste. There are pav bhaji's and then there is Kailash Parbat's version of Pav Bhaji's which are simply a class apart and it was proved with authority yet again. 

We tried being a little tongue in cheek and went off the radar by selecting the garlic bread fondue. This was a little let down with the bread being crusty as opposed to being cushiony which didn't go well with thr syrupy fondue. The fondue too was done with excess of flour over powering the cheese and this somehow didn't cut the cloth in the right proportion for any of us. The potato skins however saved the blushes by being a great snack going jocularly well with the lovely dip it came along. The Mushroom on toast was another winner on the day with the breads being spread along generously with smallish pieces of mushrooms with an intermingling of cheese and it was jaw dropping good in taste. And we also had a chaat in mexican style with the pani puri tacos with chipotle water. This was quite an experiment and personally I felt they did wonders on this count giving the perfect mexican ingredient feel with beans, tacos, chipotle and sauces to boot. The traditional pani puri lover may find it a little off but this one for a change though radical worked to my advantage.

Having tried Mexican, we had to take the Italian route too and hence selected the four season pizza. This was a pizza with the slices being topped individually with different toppings viz corn, olives, jalapeno and capsicum. The one constant factor however was the cheese element which was oozing and melting in between the ingredients. The cheese did feel a little too strong but if you are a lover of it, you'll have no complaints whatsoever. Continuing on the unchartered territory, we also had a shot at a Panneer shaslik sizzler. This didn't appease much with the rice lacking flavour and also the general punch of having a red hot steamed sizzler was missing.

In the drinks and mock tail sections, we had quite a number of them but what ruled the roost was the immensely refreshing masala chaas. It was contagious and just perfect for the heat. We without regret had extra servings of the same. The other drinks too be it the jaljeera, ice tea, chilli guava, pine nut cola all were well delivered and seemed apt to have along with delicious food in parallel.

And on the dessert draw, we went first up with the sizzling brownie which just fizzled, sizzled and mizzled in unison with the molten chocolate layer, vanilla ice cream and chunky brownie all working in perfect confluence giving us joy in bundles on the taste front. With the expectation already laid out, we went to an all together different course with the fruit pizza. This was another stunner with water melon slices made to resemble the base of the pizzas and on top of it were steps of fruits, custard, sweet sauce which made it all fruity, juicy and sweety. It was like a swirl of colour enveloping over one another.

The service was amiable and extremely hospitable. They acceded to all our requests and were more than helpful in giving us suggestions. Also we never really had a long waiting time in between the dishes served. The pricing may seemingly feel on the higher side but for the quality on offer, you wouldn't be cribbing too much especially after the richness galore that you would end up consuming. Overall, it was a very engaging fare with Kailash Parbat amply proving once again that they are the boss in their own den.

P.S : Sharing a brief review about their outlet in Chetpet below:
I have experienced samples of Kailash Parbat in different malls before but this really was the real deal!.

It was my first visit to a standalone Kailash Parbat outlet and the excitement was palpable. It is located in a 2 storied complex that also houses French Loaf and Le Chocolatier. Seems quite a foodie area with Subway and Ox&Tomato located exactly opposite. The place looks really small from the outset but on arriving you find it's a lot more spacious. The ambience is colorful , vibrant and bright with nice easy comfortable seatings

The menu had a concoction to choose from an array of items comprising of Bread , Pizzas , Chats , Starters , Oriental , European , Sizzlers , Sindhi and Desserts. We ordered a plethora of items ranging from Pani puri , Aloo Tikki , Pav Bhaji , Chole Batoora , Spinach and Cottage Cheese Pizza , Veg Augratin , Veg Grilled sizzler , Masala Chaas and Kesar Falooda.

The decoration of the Pani puri was nice being brought in a thin rectangular plate and the puri's were ballooned with an interesting mix and the 2 types of Pani to go with it set the tone. The Aloo tikki were cooked to perfection and was perfect foil to have along with the Ragada Pattice and pinkish onions. The Pav Bhaji was decent with the Bhaji being yum but appeared a bit smudged , generally prefer it to be a skosh soaky. Had the Chole Batoora platter with 4 different types of Batoora which was thumbs up however the quantity of the chole was quite exiguous to satisfy 4 giant pooris which required an extra chole order. The Spinach and Cottage Cheese Pizza Bonanza was simply fantabulous loaded with oodles of cheese and spinach lingering along on top of diamond shaped cottage cheese , the veg augratin was liquidy cooked on white sauce comprising a mix of veggies with cheese floating all over. The veg grilled sizzler was pretty normal encircled with fries and rice in between an amalgam of veggies such as Bell Pepper , Baby corn , Mushroom , Zuccini , Cauliflower , beans , brocolli etc. The finale was Masala Chaas which was so-so but the Kulfi Falooda was truly a delight squashing the noodly falooda over a dollop of Pista ice cream and torpedo of Kesar kulfi.

The food overall totally lived upto the expectations and it was a wonderful lunchathon. The good thing is there are still so many items left to try and from whatever was consumed is anything to go by a return visit does not seem way too off the cards.

The service was excellent with the food being served quickly and with aplomb. The price is very upmarket and if you are in the mood to get down and dirty be prepared to splurge the currency. But rest assured , you get your money's worth as what you get in return truly salivates the taste buds. Simply put another very good restaurant in the city for the veg lovers.