Fusion 9

I chose this place to catch up with a friend of mine for lunch. We reached there about 1 - 1:15 pm and about 5 tables were occupied. They informed us about the buffet available for Rs. 500, but we decided to check out the A la carte menu. We didn't order any starter and jumped straight to our main course. I did order a pizza, but they later told me their oven was not working. So I ended up ordering a quesadilla while my friend ordered a chicken steak.

The menu for buffet also seemed interesting and looked worth the money. The service was pretty quick on that day. My quesadilla was nice and yumm and my friend was enjoying his food as well, especially the sauce of his steak. The only negative aspect about this restaurant is there is limited choice for vegetarian.

Overall it's a good place to have lunch or dinner. It's one of the few restaurants in Chennai, which serve you alcohol. Price-wise, each dish is priced around Rs. 300. Would definitely be visiting this place again

Kryptos

I had been to Kryptos long time ago, while my husband didn't like it much, I loved that place.  We thought it's time he gives it a second chance and went there along with my MIL on Saturday for dinner. The decor is classy and as soon as you enter, you are greeted with a warm smile. We were given a corner table along with welcome drink, which I think tasted like peach iced tea (I'm not really sure about it but I liked it). 

It was easy for my MIL to decide what she wanted while my husband and me were confused. My MIL went along with the Veg Salad buffet which comes along with Soup. We ordered Kalitsounia for starter. It's a pastry filled with Ricotta cheese, pumpkin and asparagus. For Main course, I ordered Kritiko Boureki and hubby ordered Spanáki kai Tyrí Kotópoulo. I was not sure how to pronounce the names but the waiter took care of everything. He would explain in detail about the dish and make you feel comfortable. 


The service was quick. The starter came along fast and the first impression that they serve only 4 pieces!!! The starter came along with tzatziki dip and aubergine chip. It was the first time I was tasting aubergine chip and quite enjoyed it. Even though the starter looked small in portion, it is super filling. 

The main course followed soon. My Kritiko Boureki was a pastry filled with potato and cheese. Hubby's main course was big in portion and I immediately knew he would not finish it. He kept praising about his main course. I saw chicken breast, potato wedges and tzatziki on his plate. ( Since I'm a vegetarian, I really can't comment). Coming to my main course, I really enjoyed it. I generally tend to like more spicy things but wanted to try something different. My main course came along with a small portion of rice, channa and veg saute (There could be different names in Greek for the items mentioned). I truly enjoyed my main course and couldn't finish the entire portion.


While we were relishing our food, MIL quite enjoyed her soup and salad. She liked the variety and flavours in salad. We were debating for a while if we should order dessert. Of course, we couldn't step out without having one. We ordered Milopita Nissiotiki, which is ricotta cheese cake with orange topping. It's the best ending we could have to our meal. It had a nice richness and freshness to it. It added quite a zing to my mouth. Absolutely refreshing dessert.


I think the bill came to about 2k for our dinner. Overall, hubby changed his opinion about this place and we are sure to visit this place. 

The Madaras Kafe

I had seen the hoarding at Ispahani Centre and read about it at http://aromasofkitchens.blogspot.com. While shopping on Saturday afternoon, I wanted to grab a quick bite. I thought it was the best opportunity to try this place. It is at the basement of Ispahani Centre. It had a decent store space which can accommodate about 40 people. They have tried to bring the Madras feel in the decor.

My husband had been to this place earlier and wanted me to try the fried podi idly, while he had Lime Mint cooler. The fried podi idly is mini idly, which is fried and coated with podi. While it was still crunchy on the outside, it had a softness on the inside. It came along with coconut chutney. We then ordered Gumman Kuthu Idly. This was again mini idly sautéed with onion and tomato served with coconut chutney. The flavour was fine but I still did prefer friend podi idly over this. 

Overall, the service was very quick. Price-wise, the place was good. For above 3 mentioned items, we paid Rs. 130. I was not wowed by this place that I would go to this place to eat. If I happen to be at Ispahani and I'm hungry, I would definitely go down and eat

5 Senses

5 senses is one of the new and happening restaurant in Chennai at the moment. I've visited this restaurant earlier with my husband and loved it. We decided to visit the place once again with my Sister-in law's family for dinner yesterday. The restaurant is huge and the interiors are very well done. You have an option to sit in the open area or inside. We decided to sit inside. The lighting in our seating area was a bit dim and the waiters gave us torch to read out the menu card.


The waiter took a while to take our order. For appetizers, we ordered Mezze Platter (Vegetarian) and Minestrone soup. For main course, we ordered Roma basillica pizza, Cilantro cream poached prawns, Veg lasagna, Assorted veggies and Spaghetti, and Baby corn cannelloni. We did order Spanish Sangria and midsummer dream to drink.


The soup was quick to arrive and absolutely fresh. The Mezze Platter was fine. I found that the portion was quite small. We were waiting for quite sometime before our Main course arrived. But, we got 3 of our Main course, leaving out the pizza and cannelloni. We started digging into the ones arrived. The presentation of the food were brilliant. The food is a complete treat to your eyes. The portions are fine. One person can easily finish a dish. 


We all finished the food served to us and were waiting for the pizza and cannelloni. We figured they might have forgotten and tried to call the waiters. They just don't look at you and all are lost in their own world!!! After a long time, we tried to get the attention of our waiter and asked him about our order. He came back to tell us that the cannelloni had gone to another table by mistake. When I questioned if the pizza had also gone to another table, he gave a stupid response saying they are still making the pizza. I'm surprised that it takes more than an hour to make a single pizza!!!


Anyway we got our food in the next 10-15 mins. The pizza was yumm and so was the cannelloni. They didn't serve any seasoning for the pizza and that took another 10 minutes to arrive. We were pretty irritated that we didn't try the deserts :(


Overall: the food is amazing and service is bad. It is a bit expensive but you are paying for the quality of food, presentation of food and service. The third factor did let me down big time. I'm doubtful if I want to try this place again because of the service. I'm trying to convince myself that I did go on a wrong day and should visit this place once again. If the service does not improve, this place is a big no-no in spite of amazing food