TechieFoodie

I’ve been to Shaack in Anna Nagar about 3 or 4 times, and I’ve ordered home delivery from them, another 3 or 4 times over a period of almost 1 year. Except for one instance where their delivery person messed up big time, my experience with Shaack has been consistently phenomenal throughout. Before I go into elaborating my most recent experience, let me tell you one thing about Shaack: Shaack is one place where you just cannot go wrong. Be it their Italian, be it their Pan Asian Cuisine, everything is just perfect. I’m not a big fan of Pan Asian cuisine, but Shaack completely changed my perspective. Now for the experience (I’ll keep it as short as possible, giving you more time to go through the food shots) In our most recent visit, we ordered for: Pho Soup Veg, Cajun Spiced Potato Wedges, Clay Pot Rice Veg, Malay Potato Curry, Tender Coconut Souffle, Red Velvet Cake in a Jar.  In our previous visits, the dish we had enjoyed the most was  Blackened Cottage Cheese ...

I had been to Sketch – The Cafe, Nungambakkam few weeks back (2nd October to be precise), after a standup comedy show in Music Academy. I was quite hungry and decided to visit Sketch around 9.50 PM. This was not my first visit, though during my first visit, I had only tried their Bruschettas and had loved those. To my surprise, when I walked in, I noticed that they are in the process of closing down. So I checked with them if they can serve me, and to my surprise, they were quite eager to serve me ! (Not a very common thing when you happen to walk into a place when they’re obviously closing down for the day and that day being a public holiday). I promptly ordered a Vegetable Filo Pastry, Spinach and Mushroom Pasta, and a Miracle Mix . Vegatable Filo Pastry:  I don’t understand why they’ve named this as a Pastry, since there was nothing “pastry”-ish about it. But hey, who am I kidding? I loved this ! Filled with Cheese, it was our Indian Samosa’s...

After a great meet with Headstart folks in CCD, we went on to Apoorva’s Sangeetha Veg. Restaurant (ASVR) nearby for a quick dinner. Pradeep, Charen, and Sandeep from our group settled for Dosas, while Jim ordered for Rotis and I ordered Garlic Naan. Jim and I ordered a Kadai Mushroom for splitting between ourselves. Garlic Naan : It was more like Garlic butter naan and it was quite good. Kadai Mushroom : Yummy ! Service: While the overall service was good, there was small peeve that I felt: We had specifically requested to bring all the food items together so that we can all start eating together, rather than one person waiting for their item to arrive. However, the Kadai mushroom and Naan arrived some 10 – 15 mins after all the other items had arrived, making that particular instruction meaningless. This was the only negative point I felt. Price: I don’t remember the exact bill amount, but I remember it to be somewhere around 600 odd, which, for 5 people, is quite VFM...

I’ve been to this CCD Outlet in Anna Nagar West (15th Main Road) numerous times, and sadly, their only consistency has been with their drop in quality and service. In fact, it has been dropping so consistently like that something that drops from the trees when you go out wearing a new shirt. Thus, the week before last, when I went here, it was with some apprehension. I was proved right with my apprehension. I ordered the Pomegranate Lemon Frostea, which was mentioned as Rs. 95 in the menu. This is how the conversation went: Person at CCD Counter (Him): Rs. 174 sir Me: But how? It shows Rs. 95 Him: Taxes extra Me: Taxes add up to almost twice the price is it? Him: Flavors are also there na Me: What flavors? Him: Pomegranate, Lemon flavors Me: But I didn’t ask you to add the flavors, I just asked you to give me what’s listed in the menu Him: Sorry, but that Rs. 95 is only for plain iced tea. Me: It clearly mentions Pomegranate Lemon Iced Tea Him: No, we’ll bill tho...

I went to Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) – The Square in Khadar Nawaz Khan Road, Nungambakkam couple of days back, to meet some new friends from Headstart Network and to discuss about Headstart Chennai Chapter. Since I reached a bit early, thanks to me living less than 6 Kms from the place, while the rest had to come from the other end of the city in the evening traffic, I ordered for Veg. Momos and Mocha Square to kill time. Veg Momos: Dry, but otherwise tasted decent. But they were most definitely overpriced at approx. Rs. 170. Heck, I could get much better momos for Rs. 55 near my home in Anna Nagar. Mocha Square: Bleh. I thank god I didn’t take my GF over here. She would have poured the coffee on my face and broke the cup over my head. It was a grave sin committed against coffee. Description says this: The espresso with swirls of chocolate sauce topped with steamed and foamed milk. Reality: It was thanni (water) with some amounts of coffee podi (powder) and milk added to it, ...

Me and couple of my friends met couple of weeks back, after a long gap of almost 2 years. While we were trying to decide on a good place to dine out, we decided to try out Prem’s Grama Bhojanam for its unique offering and also for the fact that it’s been our list for a long time. The usual drill of meeting up, waiting up, catching up followed, while we placed our orders. We ordered for Thatte Idli, Dhavangere Benne Dosa (2 of them), Samai Kuzhi Paniyaram, Ragi Roti, Kambu Roti, Ragi Uthappam, Sukku Coffee (2 of them again). Thatte Idli, Dhavangere Benne Dosa, Ragi Roti, Kambu Roti: My friends had these and loved every single bite of it. It met our expectations and were also tasty. Nothing extravagant, just healthy. Ragi Uthappam: Loved it ! It was quite filling and tasty too. Much better than the regular Uthappams we get from other hotels. Samai Kuzhi Paniyaram: Another hit ! Sukku Coffee: Divine ! No added milk, Sukku coffee as it should be added. Overall bill came to R...

I had this sudden urge to taste yummilicious South Indian saapadu (meals) sometime back and I was looking at ‘authentic’ places (fate of the present) that serve a great Andhra cuisine. We zeroed in on Krishnavilasam since it was in our list for a while and I wanted to try it out. So we called them up and checked about the availability, and made the move. When we went there, we were greeted politely by the stewards and made to sit comfortably on our table. The ambiance was quite pleasant for the time which was neither afternoon, nor evening and we started relaxing a bit, while we waited for them to take our order. After some deliberation, we ordered a Vazhapoo Vada and Krishnavilasam Saapadu . Vazhapoo Vada : At Rs. 135 per plate, for 2 pieces of Vada, I really miss to see what is so special about this one. The vada tasted the usual and I really missed the point where it deserves to be priced that high. Krishnavilasam Saapadu : Usual fare of meals, nothing special, and most ...

My friend’s team had planned a Friday dinner at 400 Degree Barbecue (400F) place couple of weeks back. Since friends and family were invited, my friend had called me and I joined them for dinner. I wish I hadn’t. In fact, I wish they hadn’t chosen this place for dinner. From the beginning, it was a complete fiasco from the service side. The booking had been made couple of days back and roof top was specifically requested. The booking was again confirmed on the morning and rooftop availability was again confirmed. But alas, when we went there, the floor in charge refused to open the rooftop citing It might rain/We don't open rooftop/It'll be hard for you to eat outside and all that. When we insisted, he refused on our face and told we can only eat inside. But we couldn’t even contemplate that choice since ours was a fairly medium sized group (About 30 or so people) and they said they couldn’t give us joined tables inside, and we cannot move freely inside ei...

We went to Sankranti, a restaurant in Anna Nagar East, that serves Andhra cuisine primarily. It was a chance visit, since I hadn’t really decided on Sankranti, and it was more on the lines of whichever is open at the time, since we went there around 2.50 PM, while most restaurants close for the afternoon at 3.00 PM. Boy, I’m now thankful I went here. We went for a Soup, starter, and 2 meals. Our order: Miriyalu Carrot Rasam (The Soup) Punugulu (The Starter) 2x Bhojanam (The Meals) Miriyalu Carrot Rasam: This one was an intense and passionate dance performance on our taste buds, with the soup being spicy enough to make a hard core pickle eater cry, while still being irresistibly tasty that I went back to it till it was finished. Loved every sip of it. Punugulu: Nothing special to mention here, tasted good, though my companion got some pieces which weren’t cooked/fried completely. Bhojanam: The usual Andhra meal fare: Nothing extraordinary, nothing too bad. Service: T...

I had tried The Perf Blend smoothies sometime back. I called them ahead, placed the order, and went to collect it (It’s operated on Take-away/delivery model, and since the place was close to my home, I opted for take away). I had also availed Sudharshan’s advise on choosing the blend. Smoothie: It tasted well, but the consistency was not that of a smoothie. It was more like a juice. Having said that, since it’s quite new, and has a passionate foodie behind it, I’m sure it’ll only get better and better from here. Rating: 3.5/5