Mister Madras

Occasion:     Mapilla festival Location:     Paprika, Courtyard Marriott, Teynampet Duration:     14th to 20th May 2018 Courtyard Marriott is at it again! Known for organising some of the best food festivals in town, Paprika’s latest offering is the Mapilla festival — a menu curated by Chef Saji Mohan from Kerala. I was one of the lucky few to check out the festival and here’s my experience on the same. Ambience I rarely write about the decor of a place that I’ve been to a few times but where Paprika stands apart from its contemporaries is how they transform the entire restaurant’s atmosphere into what that festival is all about. With serparate counters that surrounds the seating area, the counters — some live and some with plated dishes, are aplenty here. The starters,...

Occasion:     Simply Caribbean festival Location:     A2, The Park, Nungambakkam Duration:     18th to 27th August 2017 It’s quite rare to find a well researched and articulated menu in a restaurant, especially when it’s for a festival that involves food from a cuisine that’s rarely seen in the city. No wonder I was a bit skeptical when I was invited for the Simply Caribbean festival at The Park’s A2 restaurant. Talking about the Caribbean, I was expecting a jerk chicken and a few more basic dishes but boy, was I wrong. A2 is a world cuisine restaurant that focuses predominantly on Japanese delicacies such as Sushi. But they also do regular festivals and after successfully pulling off an Italian one, they’ve opted for the Caribbean cuisine. I’ve always been a fan of Caribbean food ever since I got to try is a decade back. I can’t forget those food trucks in Elephant and Castle that made some amazing chicken and beef curry which was very similar ...

Occasion:      The Royal Repast Location:     J Hind, Grand by GRT Hotels, T Nagar Duration:     The entire month of July 2017 J Hind is a restaurant that I’ve frequented a number of times after falling for it the first time I visited GRT for a night stay when they reopened after renovation. I was lucky enough to be one of the first to check out the restaurants in this amazing property. Do check out my take on J Hind and Bazaar as they’re some of the best our town has to offer. Even though the subsequent visits were good and ironically – paid ones that I went as a regular customer and not as a food blogger, I didn’t write about it. But this time, I was once again bowled over by their latest menu that’s got ‘royal’ written all over it. The Royal Repast can be called as the glorification of one of the best cuisines of our soil. Nawabi food is known for its rich opulence and when a hotel has ‘Grand’ in their name, we know we’...

Ah, it’s been a while. Been stuck with other posts that it’s been ages since I posted a food post, so here we go. After a long time, I was at Great Kebab Factory and for a change, this was the one in Radisson next to the airport (GST road) and not to the one in Egmore that I’ve been a number of times. My foodie pal Shabnam and I were invited to the Udta Ludhiana, the Punjabi food fest. Chef Gurmeet Singh had come in all the way from Punjab especially for this festival and this post is about my experience at this fest. And oh, apologies for the low-res images. The lighting wasn’t good enough to use my DSLR (not that it would’ve created a humongous difference). An amazing aspect about this restaurant is the fact that they have separate kitchens to dish out the veg and non-veg food. And if that’s the amount of effort they take, one can be assured about the utensils and plates they use too to be segregated. I love how they bring in the ‘factory...

After my first visit to Westin a couple of years ago for an event, I had always wanted to check out the restaurants this place has to offer. Luckily, a few months earlier, I had been to Five Sen5es during Restaurant Week India during which I got to try a couple of their Teppanyaki dishes and my all time favorite, Sushi. Post a lovely experience, I had planned on coming back to this restaurant, especially for their splendid Sushi. In a way to prove that their Teppanyaki dishes are as good as their Sushi, I was invited by the management for a tasting session for their current festival. Appetizers Chilled Green Tea Green Tea can’t taste any better. This chilled version with a perfectly spherical ice-cube served on a bed of ice was subtle yet refreshing. Miso Shiro (Salmon) A man needs his Miso soup for a man loves em. After trying them about a decade back in a Japanese restaurant, I’ve gone gaga whenever someone says the word ‘Miso’. The delicate yet exquisite flavo...