COAL BARBECUE - VELACHERY

COAL BARBECUE
II floor, 17 & 18, Rajalakshmi Nagar, 7th Cross Street, 100 Feet Bypass Road,Velachery,
Phone: 044 33011572

CFG blogger meet planned and invitations circulated.. A small group landed at the new hot and happening COAL Barbecue in Velachery. If you are on the 100 ft road towards the Vijayanagar junction,  cross the BP petrol bunk, this comes on your left and you cannot miss such a bright sign

 

Ambiance: I know that a lot of time and effort that has gone into the planning of the place, the interiors and furniture. Having run a restaurant myself, understand the nitty-gritties and challenges one faces with a big setup like this. A modernized brick wall look, the seating is comfortable and you will definitely spend a lot of time enjoying it. Even the entrance/reception downstairs has been done up so nicely. Coal score a cool 8/10 points with that.

You are welcomed and seated according to the numbers present and are served an apple based fizzy drink (Green apple fizz). The service staff explains you the buffet in detail and the order of food that would come to the table. You can also keep track of things with the standee menu on your table. The coal bbq pit is placed and the skewers with veg and non-veg items are laid on them

Menu:  The boards below lists out all that is available and served to you. The prices are
Lunch: Rs. 649/- nett (Mon-Fri) Rs. 749/- (Sat-Sun)
Dinner:  Rs. 699/- nett (Mon-Fri) Rs. 799/- (Sat-Sun)
Children (4-9yrs): Rs.350/- nett all days

 

Do not miss the Honey Drop Brazilian Pineapple that comes on a huge skewer and sliced and served on your plate. This serves like medicine for digestion and is a rich source of vitamin C

Word of caution: While you are busy bonding, facebooking, enjoying food, have an eye on the bbq and not let the skewers sit on the grill for too long. The fun is to keep them turning it time-to-time to cook to perfection and not char/burn it beyond a limit. They loose their moisture, taste and will go waste.   

Tepanyaki Grill station: You are spoilt for choices in meats like duck, quail, turkey, rabbit etc. You let the chef pick the meats in small bowls and tell him what sauce to use (Lemon garlic, chilli garlic, hot n spicy, schezwan, manchurian, and butter masala). If you are confused about what goes best with what? leave it to the chef. He will hand you over tokens for the respective meats picked and starts to work his spatula and come up with a preparation which you can watch live and come to your table once done.
The only problem is there are too many bones in rabbit and duck..

 

One new addition is the bigger bbq grill that comes to your table and serves gobi manchurian. Are you wondering why??? so was I

 
Loved the size of the leg pieces that were really huge and tender. I wish this had come a little earlier.
I wasn't quite impressed with the biryani, Andhra fish curry or crab masala that I picked up from the buffet counter.









Mocktail: The watermelon based mocktail was a burst of flavors and helped ease the heaviness of all that meat and matter that went in non-stop the previous few minutes. This is not part of the buffet but needs to be bought separately

Desserts: You definitely need to make some room for desserts and somehow your mind and tummy coordinate well to provide you that:The North Indian specialties were good and the pastries, shots  and cakes were yummy.

Service: Focused service,  a service boy is allotted to a table and he takes care of the course of the buffet and items coming to your plate. The food and drinks kept coming to the table non-stop till we literally had to ask to stop. The early day teething issues would certainly be a thing of past with the constant training and team huddles everyday.

A few suggestions to the management:  Improvise on this concept that has been done and dusted. Though this is a welcome entry in Velachery, I would have personally liked a few things happen

1. Having options for people who want to eat less/limited quantity - A particular day/separate section/timing where people can eat smaller portions at a lesser price range
2. Exclusive dessert buffet in 3 ranges S, M, L - with different pricing
3. Main course buffet as a separate option as your USP is barbecue. This comes form the concern that people are too full to even venture towards that area or waste food
4. Reward for zero - less wastage. That way we could all save a lot of food going waste 

When it comes to barbecue "Coal scores a Goal" in Velachery! Wishing it all the best to get Bigger-Busier-Quintessential in Chennai

Wangs Kitchen - Gang Fa Si Cai Special Menu

 WANGS KITCHEN - CHINESE NEW YEAR MENU

 9, Harrington Road, Chetpet, Chennai

If you confuse this with the one at Gee Gee plaza Village road, Nungambakkam, then you are in for a round tour of sorts. Couple of them in our group had this confusion and ended up arriving late (therefore the above two pictures).  The "Mann-ki baath" (saying of the heart) was two outlets in pretty much parallel roads to each other and the ratings 4.1 and 2.7 for Village Road and Harrington road respectively ???
PS: A note to the "OC" PR team to list it on google maps as the place is not marked yet.

Few of the bloggers were invited to review their on-going new year menu 2016 "Gong Xi Fa Cai" - Chinese new year- the year of the Monkey. And so we unleashed our monkeys right away...

Ambiance: Situated on the ground floor has two-way access, one through the french loaf main entrance and the other on the left side (actual entrance of Wangs). Spacious, ubiquitous "Wangsy" interiors and BGM. All our north-east stewards and chef make up for the picture perfect setup

After the customary introductions of the Chef, the PR team and fellow bloggers, we ordered our

Soups: Being all non-vegetarians we went for the two soups of chicken and fish 1/2
Chilly lemon fish ball soup  129/-: Potato and tomato clean stock as a base added with own made fish balls with a hint of lemon grass. It tasted spicy enough with Hunan spices

Chicken red sky 129/-: The doubt was whether it was a broth or a soup due to its very thick consistency. But later, it became normal. The fried onions and the bread crumb powder overpowered the soup but in a good way

Appetizers: Chicken and fish
 Creamy Fujian 309/-: Thin slivers of chicken batter fried, peppery butter sauce spread on top more like a cheesy sauce and  crushed peanut powder,  de-seeded thinly sliced red and green chilly sprinkled upon. Would remind you of a pizza but this is very different
Shanghai crispy chicken 309/-: A variant of the batter fried chicken with a sweet and tangy raw sauce on top is for those who love many flavors culminating in your mouth at the same time. Initially, you would feel that it is too tangy but the taste quickly dissipates and you crave for more
Shanghai crispy fish 399/-: I requested the Chef to prepare something for me in fish and he obliged. Quickly popped into the kitchen and sent out the dish and  it was better than chicken for me... basa fillet batter fried with the same sauce topping

 (Had a discussion with the Chef at length about his inspirations, choice of ingredients and different regional influences of the Chinese provinces and styles. Also about his personal favs in Chinese etc. )

Main course: We informed the chef to reduce the portion size to accommodate all the items in the menu - 4 side dishes and 5 rice varieties. We ordered all the dishes together to mix and match and try out various combinations and no "monkey business" at that . It took for ever to arrive on our tables and the monkey in me wanted to jump up and down but controlled the primal instincts

Accompaniments: Prawn and chicken were the choices for side dishes. I would have liked a fish option but wasn't to be
(Top to bottom & L to R) Spicy peanut sauce, Shandong surprise, Pineapple & pepper Prawns and Royal Jinan

Spicy peanut sauce 329/-: Spicy and (pea)nutty concoction with shreds of chicken, capsicum and onion is good with ton Ton Canton mein. Could easily convert the haplorhine to rhine (read: dry nosed to wet nosed) huffing and puffing with spice
Shandong surprise 329/-: This to me felt more like a soup than a side dish only that the consistency was thick. It lacked on salt a bit and you could tell there is wine which is a key ingredient
PPP - Pineapple pepper and prawns 339/-: Reminiscent of the pineapple jam with batter fried prawns in it would be a sure hit with kids and those who love pineapple. The sweet sour taste lingers on and on. Could be combined with hokkein pineapple rice to make it a pilbulpul (pineapple in thai) gala
Royal jinan 329/-: Now this is the close cousin of the thai red curry. Cooked in coconut milk with red chillies and spices. This goes well with either Ton-Ton canton mein or Sichuan fried noodles in my opinion

Noodles and rice: 

(Top to bottom & L to R)  Ton-Ton Canton Mein, black bean chilli noodles, Sichuan fried noodles, hokkein pineapple rice and hunan rice in Thai roasted chilli

 Ton-Ton Canton Mein 219/-: Thin noodles with tid-bits of peanuts sauteed with chicken and topped with an open egg omelet was good
Black bean chilli noodles 219/-: True to its name and the beany-saucy flavor lacked bit of salt and was oily. Nevertheless, a good dish to try
Sichuan fried noodles 219/-: This had a nice gingery-aroma to it and the flavor was well infused with the rice

Hokkein pineapple rice 219/-: If you like pineapple and have tried kashmiri pulav before.. you will go for this right away

Hunan rice in Thai roasted chilli 219/-: The spicy option of the rices also has fish sauce mixed to it. The rice is a little fluffier and hot, went well with peanut spicy sauce


Desserts: There ain't any desserts on the new year menu and need to be ordered separately. We went for the following though my heart monkey was jumping up and down for Brownie

Fried Ice cream - A small ball of frozen ice cream dipped in a corn batter , rolled in coconut powder and deep fried in oil. This has been on their menu since 1994 and the preparation style has been consistent ever since. This will always be a hit with the customers
Coconut momos with Vanilla ice cream: This is the Chinese version of South Indian "kozhukattai" stuffed with coconut and sugar with vanilla ice cream doused with honey

 

 







Service: The Steward who serviced our table was very professional. He not only gave us suggestions but also explained in details what was better, at times the preparation and also  ways to eat a particular dish.  Chef was there all the way to explain the dishes and also duly apologized for the delayed main course.

Overall rating: This is "outside-the-ordinary" regular menu. The Chef has been given a free hand to test his culinary expertise and research on what works with customers. And you have mix of flavors to try out and enjoy from this special menu. Hurry up as it is only till 28th Feb!

When hunger "Pangs" strikes, "Wangs"  delivers.....