TMFM - 94, RK Salai, Mylapore, Chennai
When this was discussed on a food-bloggers forum, I honestly thought this was another upscale seafood supermarket opening in Chennai. Little did I know that this brand has major presence in the whole of SEA. Singaproe has about 26 outlets and even my mom has tried it (facepalm). I was then informed about a contest people had won themselves (a few known friends) a sea-cret pre-launch dinner. I tried my luck messaging in their FB page and got a call from Mr. Arjun and also got invited to the party. The place is opp to Marvel cards on RK Salai.
Walked in around 7:30pm and am welcomed by the whole service crew in a loud embarrassing chorus "Welcome sir" and got promptly seated at a table.
Was slowly joined by the brat gang which brought the roof down.
Riddle on the tissue paper: This sounded irrelevant in Chennai context as most of our fish from kasimedu travel all over Chennai on train. Try something else MFM
Ambiance: The wall hangings, the wooden framework, wooden tables and aluminum colored chairs. Mid-way through our meal, the master franchisor from Srilanka thanked the guests for coming, explained what the concept is all about and also mentioned how they took one whole year to do up this place. The hard work has paid-off in parts
Menu explained: If you can understand a north-eastern slang then go ahead, if not just grab it from him and read it yourself. By the time you soak in the ambiance, you pretty much have read what they do, from the walls.
The concept is simple: They have five types of cooking - Fried, poached, flamed, grilled, and baked . So you decide how your food should be. My vote goes for fried and grilled
Country fried mushroom 150/, crispy fried calamari 240/-: Batter fried mushroom/calamari served with honey mustard cajun sauce/chipotle sauce. Was a good start to the whole meal
Cream of Mushroom soup 100/-: was warm, thick and flavorful. I finished the whole of this
Garlic herb Mussels 260/-: If you have the mussels in the creamy sauce immediately after soup, you might doubt if the soup continues in a thicker consistency on the plate. This happens in many restos and this is no exception. The mussels were not so tasty and your could feel fine sand grains when you chew on it. The broth was tasty served with baguette
Manhattan flaming seafood platter ~900/-: Flame torch being used to slightly burn/brown the prawns and melt the cheese. My photographer friends for the want to good photos made the guy over do it and charred a few batter fried pieces.It is served with mayo, a jalapeno dip and one more (the SS cups were an eyesore as they look like the oil-podi kinnams in saravana bhavan).
Manhattan star platter 990/-: This was much better compared to the previous one, the squid was so amazingly grilled. The baked fish was very spicy (finally flared up the nostrils after the monotony of batter fried seafood was making you dull)
Mudpie 140/-: was delish, a really good dessert to try after all the seafood. Very smooth inside, the grainy top garnished with the choco syrup and crushed nuts.Yummy
Tropical breeze, Gummy bear and Citrus Mint 120/-: Tropical breeze was really fizzy and breezy in your mouth (loved it). Gummy bear was ok (another american flavor if you like), citrus mint was your regular lime mint cooler with crushed ice
Second floor: Their specialty floor for sound-proof corporate lunches, meets etc. Also a few casual seating arrangements which looked more appealing.
In-a-nutshell: American concept, choose wisely what you want to eat as too many can spoil your appetite. Each one is good in its own style. Food can be a bit bland for an Indian palette, so order for those fiery sauces to help you.
Service needs a lot of improvement as it was slow, cutlery was not given even when asked twice and order mess-ups. Hope you get your act together soon or there will be chaos.
A meal for two would be ~1200/-
Wishing you all the very best in Chennai and hopefully see those 4 more outlets coming up soon
Sea-you again soon MFM!
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