Hoppipola Pub - Spring hotel

HOPPIPOLA 

 Basement, Spring hotel, Kodambakkam high road, Chennai

Hoppipola means "jumping in puddles" in Icelandic..in my mind I was like "wait till the monsoon, u can jump in puddles even in Chennai" :).  A group of us bloggers, reviewers were invited to showcase what hoppipola is all about and here is how it panned out

Ambiance: Walk down the stairs to the basement and that's where the magic begins. Be it the beer pong table, life-size jenga blocks, board games, books and puzzles.. The seating and the wall decor looks like a set of a nice Bollywood song shot in Mediterranean indoors. The walls are adorned with various classic radios, tape recorders and sound related things making one feel nostalgic of their school/college days. Even, the crowd that patronizes this place seem to be college kids and teen groups.

Food n drinks: Courteously greeted and seated in one corner table set for our big group. Each of us had a choice of drink to pick and I stuck to the "king of good times" as always. The line up of all the items made everyone raise their brows wondering how they were going to finsih it all. But like a seasoned foodie, you plan it , pace it and polish it off :)

PS:the list of items served mere many more but could capture only these on cam

Mocktails: Ginger twist, water melon and basil crush and orange passion frappe were the ones I tried and they tasted decent to start with sans the ginger twist.

Starters: We were a team of  ~12 and any food that approached the table would vanish within seconds. We tried a bit of everything and what we liked, we ordered for extra portions.
 
Veg starters:
Cheesy fries: French fries topped with cheese sauce - good
Totopos: Tortilla chips served with tomato salsa and sour cream - must try to balance out the drink
Smoking Carlos: Crispy Mexican cigars with tomato salsa - ordinary
Mojos: Potato wedges with spiced rub & mayonnaise - standard
Tomato And Feta Bruschetta: Marinated tomato, olive & feta on Garlic toast - crispy n yumm
OMG: Crumbed fried cheese mushroom with sour cream  - not impressed

Non-veg starters:
The Harissian: Grilled fish skewers with Tunisian Spices - I loved the harissa sauce with the basa
The Wingman's chicken: Spicy chicken wings - fiery hot for even my taste (beware!!!)
Chiseled prawns: Prawns tossed with Basil & aglio olio served with toasted garlic bread & grilled lemon - Mind blowing taste.. must try!
Lambada: Mini lamb patty on peta bread served with Tzatzaki - not that great

Barman: There were a few bar table tricks that he asked us to try but we failed miserably in all. He then concocted some flame shots for and we did what we do best  - "gulp it down" one shot after another. He then briefed us about how he came up with these interesting flavor trails and new improvisations in his shots and techniques. A very interesting conversation indeed

Main course: We hardly had any space for food or drink but the loyal foodie never does injustice and we said "bring it on"
Her Majesty's favorite:  Classic Roast Chicken with mashed potatoes & rosemary jus - just pass
Cheeseie Pizzness : Thin crust 4 cheese pizza - "could have limited it to 2 cheeses" as there was no distinctive difference between the cheeses
His highness favorite: Pork Sausages with mashed potatoes & rosemary Jus - Please change your sausage vendor

Desserts: To finally end the night on a sweet note were served a couple of desserts, already a few had bid adieu and the others were creeping and crawling around like zombies with bloated GI. This event serves as a good example for "killing one with hospitality" :)
Rum pum pum: Rum flavored bonifie Pie - didn't get to taste but folks said was good

Molten mouth: Hot chocolate fondant with baileys ice cream - Was too sweet for my taste and also  wished to be a gargantuan that moment alone to make it through (only not to to waste)

 

Service: Inspite of all our cacophony, the manger patiently took us around to show the property, explaining in detail about every minuscule thing around and why they are done a certain way, and also about the trophies,various fun competitions and bets that you can win! Kudos to that.

 Happy customers are repeat customers

Verdict: If you decide to pamper the playful, childlike, youthful self with food, fun and full booze here is where you should head to.  Yo'll Chennai! say Ippo pola to Hoppipola... :)

For the record, I messed up the name on air a few days ago.. @  https://soundcloud.com/kiran-kumar-maasi/hoppipola

Please forgive me...any publicity is good publicity after all :)