Al Maza - Annanagar

Al Maza

No-30, A Block, 6th Street, Anna Nagar East, Behind Titan Showroom, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600102

 

I was on a quest to find out a decent biryani joint around ambattur, villivakkam, annanagar area. Having tried the likes of junior kuppanna, Savory sea shell, parambriym, sanabel, hyderabadi, thalapakatti, we wanted to explore more. On a recent online link of the Chennai's top 11 biryani joints, we found this resto featuring in it. I have always wanted to visit this place (having heard positive things) and finally it happened last night. The resto is tucked inside the area close to roundtana. We were there at around 9:45 pm and saw a few tables being occupied with families and youngsters.

Ambiance: Spic n span interiors and very well maintained (considering the number of years they are there). Very comfortable seating and some techno music was being played (would have liked some arabian or hindi numbers) The see-through kitchen did look very neat and tidy and chefs were busy at work with not much mess around.

 

Menu: I liked the standee menu of "today's specials" displayed on the table. That is a very good strategy to attract customer's eye and did we fall for it "yes". The prices are slightly on the higher side considering the resto's location and rating.

Complimentary snack n sauces:  We got a shot of buttermilk. Roasted papad with 3 sauces  pineapple puree, tomato chutney and mint chutney. Except for the tomato one which had the absorbed the smell of the inside of the refrigerator the other two were good.

Food:  There are specialty grills, arabian and north-indian dishes predominantly. Mutton biryani is available during weekends and they also seem to have party buffets. I am not sure if they have regular buffet as the server said he didn't know about it. We ordered the following

Daria E aag 320/-: The river on fire "Daria E aag" was chunks of basa marinated with spices, ajwain more prominent and a tinge of WASABI (horse radish paste). This is so pungent and it can be easily identified in any dish. It did fire up the nostrils a bit. Basa in any form is yumm to me

Rubiyan chilli garlic  390/-: This was on their table standee menu of arabian aromas, since we already had fish we wanted to try the prawn which served with either rice or khubus n humus. The prawns were cooked to the right levels but what overpowered the dish was the wasabi again interspersed with whole pepper corns. Ordered an extra Khubus to polish of the green gravy on the plate

Chicken dum biryani 200/-: The service guy was very proud to say that they make real good dum biryani. But what came surprised us both, it had tomato based masala and look and feel of a hyderabadi biryani sans flavors or taste. Even the chicken was too dry that i almost chocked trying to swallow it.The khatta baingan was like mirchi ka salan (peanut based gravy) with brinjal pieces in it. Overall, it looked more of a confused biryani of types

Service: Staff were courteous- they kept on serving papad and the chutneys (3 times) till the dishes arrived.  The steward even clarified some dishes related questions barring this the newbies who had no clue of things and had to keep going back to their lead for clarifications.

Bill was approx 1K with no service charge and therefore we tipped decent and left

Verdict: Al Maza. Nil Maza! Was-a-bi(g) let down on biryani and okayish arabian.