McDonals - Gandhinagar, Adyar

McDonalds

Brick house Bistro - Relaxed Lunch

BRICK HOUSE BISTRO - A simple lunch 

9, S-Block, 6th Avenue, Annanagar, Anna Nagar East,

Another Lunch experience with our gentle giant Gudduji.  We planned to pickup some pista house haleem and also pay a visit to our young budding entrepreneur Sudharsan of "The perf blend - smoothies delivery"  both of which are just a lane behind BHB. 

We knew exactly what we were going to order, it was past 3 pm and I had already finished my lunch. but couldn't say no to a burger invite.

Food:

White sauce pasta 215/- : Enough chicken chunks, black olives, grated cheese, oregano, other herbs and a rosemary sprig for garnish and perfectly cooked penne pasta. The first dish to arrive before the burger and we were stuffed with awesomeness. One of those nice white sauces pastas I have had

BHB special burger:  Meaner, bigger burger with Lettuce,omelet, chicken sausage, beef patty was very good except  it had a few chewy bits. I would have loved more caramelized onions in it to enhance the taste. The bread was intact and not crumbly and this is a major improvement to what it was earlier (kudos for working on that)

At work: The man who never tires eating out or helping his fellow community members (resto owners n chefs alike) makes it meaningful with his valuable suggestions and feedback.

Service:Very attentive and being a non-peak hour, we had a service boy attending to us fully and helping us with whatever we needed.

And, here are some of the pics from my last visit with another bunch of foodies and a nagging photographer

(Pics Top left to bottom) Chicken wings, cheesy gooey fries, chicken sandwich, fish and chips, chicken hot dog,  our camera man nags shooting away all the food we ordered and finally "how to eat burger" lesson by our popular foodie @candids nagarajan


Verdict: Lot of improvements from the few other times I have been here and keep up the good work and maintain it

Brick house bistro, the burger holds better! 

Lloyds Tea house - Alwarpet

Llyods Tea house - The Sunday Special BF

406, TTK Road, Alwarpet

The Sunday breakfast board in front of the resto is welcoming (Timings: 8 - 11 am).The first venue we recollect is the Avvai shanmugam salai (formerly lloyds road) branch. But a new one has opened on the TTK road

Our beloved Capt.Anand V is back on ground and in the food scene after 6 months of sailing. He  invited me and an ex-shippie friend Jason Lewis for a Sunday breakfast and we said "aye aye captain". We set sail on a fortuner and Scorpio to TTK road. I was thinking that it was in Goplapuram but quickly corrected that its ONLY in the TTK road outlet (were guided by the able navigator Capt. Andy). Being a Sunday was very relaxed and you love driving on those near empty roads of the city and a breakfast/brunch is a boon anywhere

Ambiance: The whole setup looks so simple in terms of colors (there is something about this blue that it mesmerized me), loved the world map cover on the sofas, relaxed chairs with arms, the pipe lines on the walls etc. Shippies had a special mention of the toilets to be very clean too

Buffet spread 375/-(approx. 400 with taxes):  Butter n jam chiclets, onion rings, bread (brown and white, can be toasted), croissants (two varieties), cake slices, cupcake, veg potato pie, baked beans, chicken sausages, bacon strips, pancakes (with maple syrup and honey), cornflakes with milk, watermelon, musk melon, ice tea and eggs made to order.  Mushrooms made to order (special request)

Food: The onion rings were tasty but cold, we ordered for another round of them which was fresh, hot, crispy and tasty. The croissants were ok, the cup cake was soft and yumm, cocktails sausages were juicy in the tomato herbed gravy. The bacon strips were too salty to my taste (to be had with bread to balance it), pancake was nice with maple syrup (the sap of a maple tree processed into a syrup has a distinctive flavor and taste) and honey, veg potato pie and baked beans were good too. I loved the french toast. Liked the butter herb sauteed sliced mushrooms were juicy and smoky. The eggs were ordered to be omelet folded so that it could be easily cut and eaten with fork (captains idea :). Lemon iced tea was spot on

Service:  Right from the start, the boys were very courteous and were always around to help you with whatever was needed. Served water and filled it as and when empty. Knives were not at the table and had to ask for it. I appreciate the fact that one of the partners rightly found a ladle missing at the sausage tray (since picking up some tomato based dry gravy with the tongs was impossible) promptly got it placed. Clearing the plates was also spot on. They got us on the house pink french toast with strawberry preserve and some sauteed veggies beans, carrots n baby corn

Verdict: Very very satisfying heavy breakfast for a Sunday morning. If you really want to stuff your face guilt free this is one of the places to go. Hope many of us patronize this soon

Lloyds left us with no Voids!!!

Kolapasi takeaway - Adyar

Kolapasi - Takeaway

Near Golden George nagar bridge, Mugappair

 

Started late one fine afternoon to check out this place and headed straight to koyambedu to join friend Gudduji and set out to Kolapasi. Famished by the time we reached the resto, were warmly welcomed by Santhosh (owner/partner) with the sampling cups. Of their many outlets in nungambakkam, and soon to start in Adyar and OMR, we went to the recently launched Mugappair outlet

Ambiance: Simple, neat and few tables to dine in was the concept.All the items are on display in the bain-marie (separate for veg and non-veg) and you get to see and ask for a taste. A place for everything and everything in its place neatly stacked up. TV is on a loop of their nice clay-modelling ad and others

Sambar rice and veg biryani taster 

Concept: If you remember the curry points of Andhra and  the sampling in ice cream parlors, blend them together and that's Kolapasi for you. Taste, see what you like and order only what you like (lot of issues are eliminated with this)

Menu: They make sure that the food tastes like how its cooked at home.The food and cooking style is influenced by the southern side of tirunenveli and nearby places

We being who we are, wanted to taste most of the dishes they had so that we could give a honest feedback to both readers and restauranteur alike. Ended up trying only the non-veg

First up was kolapasi spl chicken: Boneless chicken pieces cooking slowly for about an hour in a gravy of small onions paste and other home made masalas was just yumm. It was a bit on the sweeter side (attributing it to the shallots) but has been customized to suit majority of the customers palettes to keep it less spicy and this is supposedly one of their best sellers

Chicken chukka: This was the spicier version with red chilly and other special masalas makes you sniffle. The spice was just right for you to wipe it clean and there is no wastage as there are no bones to leave out

Kolapasi special non-veg combo 250/-: Biryani, chapathi, chicken curry, raitha, and beetroot halwa. I am not a fan of chapathi or chennai style biryani so both didn't impress me much. The brinjal was too thick and bland (gave suggestions to thin it and make it tangy). The sweet beet-halwa was the best with the right amount of sweet and ghee.

Seafood meals 190/-: Fish soup, hot steaming rice and prawn fry (was over by the time). the little that was left was given as sample and it was the prawn shallot version kolapasi fry. Fish soup was tasty but tasted more like a vegetarian vatha-kozhambu with a fish piece added to it (fresh water one). A small sea fish would have made a world of difference as meen-kozhambu needs to have that fishy smell. I guess the complaint about more bones made way for this change

Litchie cooler 25/-: This was one refreshing fruit drink with balanced sweetness n tanginess. I am sure kids and elders alike would like. 200ml comes sealed and Santhosh was kind enough to serve us a cup more without being charged.

Service: Santhosh made sure that we kept getting everything on time and was happy to customize it since we had to taste quite a few items. The dishes were served in microwaveable plates and even if taken away and had after a few hours, we can reheat in a oven and have it hot


Avinash Naidu (one of the partners) joined us and the four of us were discussing in length (~2 hours) about the taste, suggestions to make it better, improvisations etc. The vision of  Kolapasi is "kitchen outsourcing" where any house-wife or who ever cooks is tired to cook and feels like eating home food just need to make a phone call and the food gets delivered under 20 mins. This will help save so many man hours spent on just cooking related activities which can be used for other better things

Won't we all love it? but for this to catch on is a long-way road and wishing them all the very best with their venture.

In the end we were also introduced to the "Table -pastry in a bottle" by the popular Chef Shriram Rajendran.. I picked up the carrot cake and white velvet (yes not to artificial coloring) at 180/- each.

Both were so yummy and vanished in no time, though I wished to buy again the price feels a little on the higher side and makes you rethink :(

Verdict:  Cool ambiance, warm service, brilliant concept,visionary team with the right values needed to take it further. Home-cooked style easy-on-the-stomach (no msg, vanaspathi or colors) food is hygienic, safe but the taste is subjective, you might like your dishes cooked in a certain way (how your mother makes). That's why they say try the sample, if you like it go ahead, order and come back for more

Kolapasi - pudicha rusi, vandhu pusi!