Bananaa Leaf, TTK Road

Yes, the name of the place is spelt bananaa with 2 ‘a’s. The place is air conditioned and serves Chettinad cuisine. The restaurant is located in a house and hence the seating is quite unlike other restaurants and is split across a number of rooms. The place probably seats around 75 pax. I think beer is available in the sly, not sure.

Going For

+Parking – One may park around 4-5 cars outside the restaurant, else you can leave it with the valet.

+ Timings – It opens at 7am and remains open through the day. There is a different menu for breakfast, lunch, post lunch and dinner. I happened to go there for lunch.

+ The meals was a typical South Indian spread and both vegetarian and non vegetarian thalis cost INR 125/-. There are gravies of chicken, mutton and fish with the chicken and fish gravies having a small piece of meat in them. The entire spread with the veg dry curries, the sambar, the rasam and the works is quite filling and quite tasty.

+ Karuveppilai Kozhi – this dry chicken fry is spiced with red chili and fried with curry leaves leaving a wonderful flavor of the curry leaves on the meat.

Not Going For
- Lax / slow service
- The rice was not served piping hot as was expected.
2 meals + 1 portion of the chicken dish cost around INR 430/-.
Reco – Worth a visit.

The Spirit Lounge, HAL Airport Road

This joint is diagonally opposite Total Kemp Fort on HAL Airport Road.  Although, the place claims to be a multi cuisine restaurant, it is essentially a bar and the cuisine is predominently Andhra cuisine.

There are air conditioned and non air conditioned sections.  I happened to go to the air conditioned portion.  The air conditioning, though on, was not very effective.  The place can seat around 70 pax, is dimly lit and probably doubles as a dance bar on special occasions (but then again, maybe not).

Going For

+ Nellore Chilly Chicken - spicy chili chicken - similar to chicken 65 - chili coated fried chicken.

+ Mushroom 2009 - green chili and mushroom fried.

Not Going For

- Service - the hapless waiter was conversant with Telugu only (I hope), he did not know either Kannada or English or Hindi.

- EggChilly - batter fried boiled eggs - quite a mess.

- Ambience - a dark and dingy booze joint!  I should mention that even @ 6.15pm, when I was there there were some guests in the table next to mine who were served a portion of biriyani!

30 ml Teacher's 50 costs INR 210 and 30 ml of Bacardi INR 110.  A beer costs INR 110/- for a bottle. Non - veg dishes (dry or starters) cost around INR 110 and vegetarian ones cost around INR 70/-.  A masala peanut cost INR 35/-.

Reco - Not recommended for ladies - either by themselves or escorted by gents.  Given the price, there are other shady joints one can go to for a quick gulp of hard liquor or for a quick swig of beer!

Serengeti, Total Mall, Madiwala

This restaurant is located on the top floor of Total Mall along with a pubm(Zanzibar), belonging to the same group.  There was sufficient parking when I went, but doubt if place would be availabe during weekends when there is more footfalls in the mall.

This is a theme restaurant, as the name suggests, sports an African theme.  The false ceiling is covered with dense plastic leaves, the pillars are covered by tree trunks and there are birds, monkeys, squirrels and other animals all over the place.  There is also an artificial rain fall in the middle of the restaurant, and the waiters are dressed up like forest officers - in khaki.

The place can seat around 100 pax and serves 'Awadhi' cuisine - cuisine of the Moguls where food is more often than not slow cooked over a light flame and in 'Dum' style - by encapsulating the smell and flavour of the meat and the spices.

Going For

+ The Theme - very refreshing and different, worth a visit.

+ The welcome - you are welcomed pleasantly and seated without having to wait for too long.

Not Going For

- The music - this forest themed restaurant plays old Hindi film songs.

- The music system - the Hindi film songs are not well heard, and on top of it you keep hearing the loud beats emanating from Zanzibar.

- The service - very laid back

- The food - the Raan - E - Sikandari - was a leg of mutton which was supposed to be slow cooked.  But was smeared in Tandoori Chicken masala and was not done very well - the meat was not very soft.  The Awadhi Ghost - a spicy (flavourful with Awadhi masala) gravy - was very ordinary.

A pitcher of draught costs INR 475/- and a mug INR 150/-.  Cocktails cost around INR 350/-.  The Rann, the Awadhi Ghost, 5 Tandoori Rotis and a Dal cost around INR1100/-.

Reco - Can go to experience the new ambience and theme, that's about it!

Prego, Taj Coromandel, Nungambakkam

Prego is an Italian restaurant in the 5 star hotel. It is located at the basement level, can seat around 60 pax. The interiors are not too bright, nor too dark, the ambiance is quite good as would be expected of a restaurant in a star hotel.

Going For

+ Tasty food - Veg Broth (Minestrone soup) - served hot and as good as a minestrone soup gets. The spaghetti scampi (with some squid ink spaghetti along with the normal white spaghetti and scallops), the risotto scampi (prawn risotto) and the tenderloin tartare were all tasty.

+ Pleasant service

+ Good ambiance - as mentioned earlier.

+ The passion fruit cocktail (with white liquor) was quite good.

Not Going For

- Very few prawns in the risotto - 4 nos. - considering the dish costs INR 700/-.

- The tartare, while tasty could have been a bit more acidic / lemony. It was a bit too bland.

- Lazy service - certainly could have been better for a star hotel!

- Limited menu - The menu is very limited and I do not remember seeing any Pizzas in an Italian restaurant.

- Badly arranged menu - The menu is not very well arranged either by way of meats or by way of types of dishes or by way of starters and main courses.

The aforementioned 4 dishes cost around INR 2600/- fair for a 5 star hotel. The cocktail came to around INR 375/-. Scotch was costly as expected with a 30ml of Teachers highland cream costing around INR 400/-.

Reco - Not bad. May not be worth it!

Spicy Spoon, Shoolagiri, NH-7

This restaurant is in the same HP petrol bunk complex that houses the veg restaurant - Sri Krishna Inn and a Cafe Coffee Day.

This place serves non-veg cuisine, is not air conditioned and can seat around 60 pax.

Going for

+ Location - ample parking, availability of relatively clean toilets.

+ The chicken masala was tasty.

Not going for

(pretty much everything else)

- The chapatti and parotta (kerala parotta) were not served hot (it was mildly warm - probably kept in a hot case).

- The service is quite poor - untrained / lack direction and a couple of the servers kept sneezing and coughing even as they were serving - God help!

- Expensive - a plate of two parottas or chappathis and a portion of chicken masala costs INR 60/-.

- The menu is limited and what is available is less than 50% of what is there in the limited menu.

Reco - AVOID

La Boulangerie - The French Bakery, Kotturpuram

Another one on this bakery...since it is quite close to home.

It is essentially a takeaway with a variety of bakes, pastries and breads.

Going For

+ Pleasant service

+ Some tasty bakes - The veg puff and the chicken puff are very good. The filling is well done and the crust is soft and flaky. The almond croissant was good too, though a bit rich.

+ Parking is never going to be a problem outside this shop. (On the road, of course)

Not going for

- The walnut brownie - was a bit dry. Had a strong dessicated coconut taste - why add coconut to the brownie?

- Chocolate muffin - not the best muffin I've tasted. A bit dry and a bit too buttery...leaves a thick buttery feeling on your palate.

- A bit on the costly side

Veg puff costs INR 25/-. Chicken puff costs INR 40/-. Chocolate muffin is INR 35/- and the brownie costs INR 50/-. The almond croissant costs INR 60/- (while the size of the puffs and the croissant are a bit above par, the brownie is certainly small).

Reco - I would still say it is worth a try....just don't buy the chocolate muffin or the walnut brownie.

Au Bon Pain Cafe, MG Road

This cafe is located at the entrance of 'Spencer's' on MG Road. Its got a small outdoor seating area which can seat around 30 pax and overlooking MG road.

Going For

+ Different Menu - It is slightly different compared to either a cafe' or a salad bar or a bakery. There is a bit of everything here. Breads, sandwiches, soups, salads and of course coffee and pastries.

+ Walnut Brownie - Was very tasty and not too sweet!

+ Location - It is always nice to have a hot cup of coffee and a brownie or a sandwich looking at the bustling crowd on MG road.

Not Going For

- The staff need to be a bit more trained to guide the customer through the ordering / billing.

- Since it is on MG road, expect no parking unless you are in luck!

A walnut brownie comes to INR 50/-, a espresso INR 25 for a single shot and a cup of hot chocolate INR 50/- (+ taxes).

Reco - certainly worth it! I will certainly go back to try out more of the bakes and the sandwiches.