HuTong - Smearing the aroma!

Hutong greets you with a kicking smearing aroma as soon as you land up at this place. The Chinese aroma is in all its splendor as you get in. The place is shrouded in a peaceful locality in the Seethamal Colony at Alwarpet.

It is a pretty small space with limited seating arrangements. In our recent dinner experience there wasn't anything to crib at all and everything went on expected lines. It's a Chinese outlet and the menu sticks to that.

What really felt impressive is they seem to play their cards close to the chest. They just specialise in what they are good at and that came out very vividly. It's a very selective menu with a few soups, starters, main course and desserts. The mains especially are in the form of bowl where your rice and noodles come with a gravy.

The aromatic veg broth soup contained the requisite veggies and had a very appealing taste. The lotus stem starter was crispy and crunchy. The presence od red chillies and roasted groundnuts certainly elevated it. The mushroom bao buns were decent and I felt it could have been a notch better.

For main course I tried the butter fried veg garlic rice with a blackened veg gravy. It was very good with the rice being really flavourful and the side gravy went along well with it containing tofu, cauliflower and few others. Ended dinner with a refreshing glass of chilled milo which was actually very nice.

On the whole, a really pleasing experience. The rates are really reasonable and absolutely worth the price. The service was quick witted and we got our dishes well on time. In essence, a really lovely Chinese alley down the side of Alwarpet.

Eating Circles - Crunch along to the finest of Karnatic tiffin variety!

Eating Circles brings the best of Karnataka cuisine to the shores of Chennai. It is largely to do with tiffin variety and a majority of the stuff they serve are very good. The name Eating Circles stems out of the fact that a majority of south indian delicacies are circular in shape such as Idli, Vada, Pongal and even Dosa in few cases.

The place is situated in a central location at CP Ramaswamy Road in Alwarpet. It's more of a quick eatery joint as opposed to a regular fine dining restaurant. But they've made all efforts to make it spic and span and it does project a neat picture. The open kitchen is an add on with the aroma smearing over you. The ambiance is well played. There isn't much to depict in a limited space but they've got a lovely optical illusion of coffee flowing from a tumbler.

Coming to the food, the menu is limited and they stick to their guns. They haven't really flooded it with options to make up the numbers which I think is a good thing as they play to their forte. We started with a refreshing rose milk and mint lemonade twister. The former is simply melt material and is easily one of the best rose milks you could have anywhere in the city. The lemonade drink was kind of different and pleasing with a hint of kesar added in.

We crunched along a number of delectable snack based tiffin items starting with rava idly. I'm not the one who is usually very fond of idli's but this greenish idli was simply superb. The neer dosa was quite good as well. The thatta idly could have been a tad better. It looked appealing but didn't really blow away in taste. All the dosa based stuff were very good be it the red rice dosa, mysore masala dosa, special butter dosa or the open masala dosa. The open masala dosa was one of my personal favourites being done up in jaw dropping fashion.

Other than the siege of dosa's, we also tried Khara bath pongal based on sabudana and it was arresting in taste with a subtle hint of black pepper. We also tried Medhu Vada which was reasonable, a crispy mettur vada and also Mangalore buns. We ended our eating encounter with an aromatically rich filter coffee served in traditional steel tumbler. The accompaniments in the form of chutneys were very good and I took a fond liking to the Bangalore sambar which is mildly sweet.

On the whole, it was a very pleasing experience. The rates are nominal and more importantly gives you your moneys worth. The service is quick and you will get your stuff in a jiffy.

If you like tiffin items and want to try them the Karnataka style, 'Eating Circles' Gate should certainly welcome you with open arms and will definitely ensure that you go back delightfully happy after consuming some really top notch stuff.