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 :)

Madurai Kumar Mess - Vadapalani

Madurai Kumar Mess

The building next to Lakshman sruthi near Vadapalanion 100 ft road

If you are driving down from Koyabedu, go past  vadapalani Signal and this comes to your left just before the Lakshman sruthi (the music place) cross road junction.

 Ambiance: As you enter, while your mind starts gathering the 90's songs starting with madura marikozhundu vaasam... all you hear is clambering of cutlery and plates and murmurs from tables.If you are a seafood lover, the boneless crab and prawn fry glow sign boards would hypnotize you to order it sooner or later

7 of us fit ourselves compactly in a table for 6 leaving no space for any dishes to be placed and not knowing who is eating from whose leaf. However, the guys who attended to our table were quick to clear empty bowls and cups and get us new dishes

Service: Was prompt and suggestions kept pouring. May be after seeing us clicking picks of every single dish, they arrived like "machaan peru madhura... rekka katti parandhu varum rendu kaalu gudhura"


Food: I missed out on the mutton kola urundai 200/- and pigeon meat 240/- which my folks told me was just ordinary.  I joined only from the below items :(

Ayira meen kozhambu 220/-: This is a "romba pamous" dish of Madurai as these tiny fish just melt in your mouth. There is a cumbersome process to clean these fishes with milk and water to remove the tiny sand that might be. It tasted good if not for a friend picking up a long hair strand "idhu ayira illa mayira". The steward rushed to our table, picked it and romped back to the kitchen only to bring it in a different container :). We didn't make any fuss about it.

Brain fry 200/-:  Soft egg like tasting goat brains. you either like it or hate it. It gets cooked with a lot of ginger garlic to do away with the strong odor (kavichi vasanai). Aatu moolai saaptu nee aatu mandaiya

Suvarotti 200/-:  I would have liked both these dishes to be a little spiced up

Goat spleen rich in hemoglobin and iron good for pregnant/anemic women to supplement their iron requirement.

Suvarotti/wall sticker peyar karanam/naming reason: Back in the Villages, the spleen that is very moist unlike liver, is patted on to a fresh cemented wall and it sticks to it and becomes hard as the wall absorbs the moisture. It's then peeled off of the wall and cooked .

Mutton chukka 200/-: Mutton which must have been cooked dry was a lil wet here and tasted okay

 

Mutton biryani 180/-: My bench mark of any seeraga samba biryani is Dindugal Venu. This one didn't even come close to it in terms of the taste or the pieces of mutton or the mutton dalcha accompaniment.
Once we recently had a far better tasting biryani from a small resto near Tirupur train station. The memory of two of us huffing and puffing to catch the train with two packets of it and how we hogged and looked back at each other wanting more and licking the dalcha off the fingers. A "must try|" if you go that side of the state.

The 3 Vs of fish fry: Vavva 240/-, Vral 200/-, Vanjiram 200/- (in that order and if you pronounce it the server way):  A simple masala fry of all the the 3 fishes and they tasted decent just like how we do at home. Glad that they didn't add ajinomoto

Boneless grab 280/-: A small cup of crab meat cooked with spices and curry leaves was fresh and tasty.

Grab omelet 280/-: And so we did grab it and was unanimously rated the best among all the dishes that we had. (Mind voice: Dei oru kilo nandu 140/- at vanagaram/Redhills market)

Rice 75/-: Was a bowl of rice with accompaniments of fish soup, mutton gravy and chicken gray with greens fry and read beans and cluster beans (kothavaranga) fry (no appalam), rasam and muttermilk (moru) are also served

Bill: Was 4480/- for 7 but everyone in the group felt it should have been 2.5 to 3K max for the quality, quantity and taste. They are just riding the Madurai name wave but not for long.. people will fish out after one try

Verdict: Expensive rates for ordinary tasting food. Nothing registers in your mind or stands out to try it another time. You rather go to your usual Pandian hotel where you get the same food at a much cheaper price

Sumar moonji Kumaru - Rate thaaru maaru "oru vaati try pannalam" and you return home singing... Raasathi en usuru ennudhilla, Kaara veetu thinnaiyila karikku manjal araikalaye.... marudhayila vangi thandha valavi odayaliye...

Bawarchi Shabbir - Meh!

Bawarchi Shabbir 

At the whites road junction (coming from Sathyam parking gate),  if you take left you reach Sathyam Cinemas, Take the right and this is the 2nd building

Moment I saw a post on FB about a new Hyderabadi biryani place in the city, I couldn't wait to visit it. Shabbir should have been so popular that his name features part of the name board. As we drove down,  I was restless thinking what if it is jam-packed?, what if  I don't get it today? what if the biryani gets exhausted? etc (such is my love for Hyderabadi biryani - have lived on it literally my 6 years in HYD). And you know how it is to miss your fav food living in another city (you long for every possible opportunity to get a sight, a whiff, or a morsel of it ). I was also happy thinking that there is going to be stiff competition to Charminar Gopalapuram. And, I seriously wished they win but alas...

Ambiance: A small place accomodating about 6 tables (~24 seater) One of the walls had the iconic Charminar painted beautifully for photo moments, comfortable seating, and fresh cutlery.

Menu: A small slate with handwritten menu is handed over to you. There is always fun finding mistakes (I repeat that I ain't a grammar police or perfect) when you are trying to order or waiting for your food to arrive,  these things catch your eye and makes up for some entertainment
The guy who wrote this must be a huge "Mohun bagan" fan to write "baingan" this way
Chicken koruma - Chicken ku oru MA - saridhaan
and pullover for some Puloa
and finally Kacchi (raw) is Kaachi (enatha kaachi?)

Food:
Mirchi ka salan and raitha: Salan was thick and tasted good compared to the ones I have had in and around Chennai and raitha was yumm too.

Biryanis chic 160/- and mutton 180/-: The one with the half egg is chicken biryani and the other two are mutton. It wasn't tasting any better than plain rice and I asked for them to serve me some masala and the little cup he brought again didn't have any. The shahjira, cinnamon, cardamom blend to give it that divine flavor which was missing.
I then realized that it tasted and looked familiar. It struck me that it was the same biryani that I had in Mana Andhra - disaster part I and now I am served part II under a different banner. All that enthusiasm, the craving fizzled out like an un-tied gas balloon

Service: Was very attentive, informative, and courteous and he was the one who burst the bubble about OCBL owning both this and others :(

Dum ka murgh 120/- : This tasted good but there were only 4 bony pieces leading to another heart-burn of a portion

Chicken 65 125/-: Never in my entire life or my days in Hyderabad have I found 65 with bones (4 pieces).  This was not even close to what it should be. The ubiquitous chillies, garlic, the tangy sauce were all a miss

Bill: It might look deceiving but it is expensive considering the portions. A smart marketing gimmick

Finally, the bakras and the bakr"eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"d moment. We wanted to camouflage our disappointment in that fake smile. We didn't dare to order desserts and get disappointed again knowing well they cost 95/- per plate.

None of us could bear the bad experience and didn't want to go home unsatisfied. I quickly called up Charminar Gopalalpuram and asked for 3 double-masala mutton biryani. Took a parcel and reached the beach to enjoy it. Worth every penny and yes, they are a saving grace

To top it was the yummy, creamy malai kulfi with a bit of chocolate, cashew, almond and raisin on it. Heavenly!!! Spot this man opp. Vivekanandar Illam/Titanic fast food. He has been in business for 33 years and consistent in quality and taste

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.