Haven - Sampoorna - Velachery

Sampoorna Global restaurant was in my wish-list for quite sometime. By the time, our gang could attack, they changed their name to Haven Sampoorna. We went there with quick lunch in mind. It's a very small place near Sri Krishna Sweets, 100 ft rd, velachery. The interiors are functional, Hollywood-Quote photographs catch your eye. They are veg and their menu had more of continental stuff...which is actually scarce here. We ordered pasta, baked vegetables, diet lunch, french fries, & lunch combos. The starters were vegetable rolls. My pasta had too much cheese, but baked vegetables was awesome. They give more quantity unlike a saravana bhavan where quantity can be measured in spoons! Diet lunch (2 chappathis, subzi, soup, salad)was good but that was not worth the 115/- they charged. The fruit salad that came with the diet lunch was a winner. The lunch combo came with parathas & veg pulao. It didn't disappoint us. The prices are also not too heavy on the purse. (came to around Rs.150 per head) Overall, its a welcome addition to velachery.

Sri Krishna Sweets - Velachery

Wanted to blog abt this for quite sometime.But.....

Well, The latest addition to the colourful landscape of velachery is Sri Krishna Sweets - on the 100 Ft road - more towards Guru Nanak College. Within a week of it's opening, I landed in the well decorated shop. Parking space is much better than the other shops on the road. They have caught hold of a good corner space. Immediate attraction is the centrally placed - Sweet Buffet Stall...It is really huge and there are upteen varieties of sweets & savouries..Since, I'm on this 'Diet' mode, I skipped the center piece. The restaurant, which is on the periphery, is kind-of cramped with tables and chairs put very closely. I knew the hiccups of a newly opened eatery, so safely ordered a simple - Dosa.

Man, what a disappointment! The waiters had no clue about serving the customers. I had to do a mini-dance to get the attention of a waiter and then gave my 'big' order. Then , I joined the 'There is no sign of the food ordered' fellow people. A good ten minutes passed and I was really getting restless. It would have been OK..if people who came before me were getting their orders. I saw only one pongal, two chaat items being served in a crowded place. After another 5 minutes..the couple who sat before me got their orders. I told the waiter to hurry up - After all, its just a plain dosa. Another five minutes passed, the waiters are running up and down, I wonder for what!I had a good mind to walk away..and finally my dosa arrived ..but...hey..what a pity - it was a cold-dosa. Had it been on another day, I would have returned the dosa..but that would be mean another 15 minutes of argument and was already running late. So, quickly ate the food and made a hasty retreat after paying a 'thendam' 25 Rs.

Would not write them away after the first experience..Another visit would go into the decision making exercise.

McDonald's @ Velachery

Saturday Lunch was at the newly opened McDonald's at Velachery - a few blocks away from A2B ( towards Pallikaranai). Didn't disappoint.
Surprise: I could spot a sizable school population..(Hmm..flashback..never actually went out for lunch in school uniform...)
Our group ordered the customary Burger (Rs.45), Veg Paneer Wrap (Rs.66),nudgets, ...all of them were good...The meal was an easy option - A burger, finger chips, coke - 95/-..Wish the sauces were more manageable. Didn't like the experience of tearing sachets while eating.. sauce sachets belong to door delivery only.
Inspite of the surging crowds, the place operates like a well oiled machine. It's a duplex structure, so ordering had to be finished downstairs. Not sure what happens, if there is an extra order during the course of the meal..Do we have to go down for every order?
The order and delivery happened quickly and we had a sumptuous lunch with gossip being the main course ;-)

The Soup and Salad Cafe

Somebody did hear this?

Visited the newly opened Soup and Salad cafe on TTK Road, Alwarpet, opp to Raj Park. Amazing Ambiance is what that struck me first. Was greeted by friendly waiters. The menu was exhaustive, and it is not just Soups and Salads, they have sandwiches, wraps, smoothies, desserts, etc. But the names are mumbo-jumbo! We ordered a Soup-something Italian and Mexian - corn & pepper salad with mayo dressing. Both were awesome. Soup was heated just in front of us. They have a soup & salad counter and we could actually see whats going on.

The first visit culminated with only a soup & salad. Guess, we need to go as a big group to taste all the stuff. And hey, not all salads come under the 'healthy' tag, there were many salads with boiled potato, chips and paneer as ingredients ;-) The prices are a bit expensive - soups 50+, salads - 70+ but OK..when chaat can be 50+, it is worth paying for a salad. And something remarkable happened afterwards, I got a thankyou mail from S&S team. [ I had left my mail-id in the feedback form]. That was a nice touch to customer service.

Kailash Parbhat @ Velachery

Kailash Parbhat is the latest food joint to set up shop in velachery. It operates out of Naihaa complex on 100 ft road, along with Noodle House and French Loaf. Around a month back my friend and I weren't impressed much with the first tryst. Wanted to play safe and ordered Kailash Parbhat special - it looked good with lots of yummy curd but it was too spicy for my taste, emptied almost two glasses of water before finishing off the dish. My friend had ordered corn basket and that was a joke with just a smattering of corn here and there.The place was also full of flies..did not suit the upmarket chain image they are part of. But it was a different experience the second time around. We had Samosa, Channa tikki, dahi papdi everything was damn good. Did I tell you.. the chaats.. all have a distinct flavour that is different from everything else in chennai (gangotri comes a distant second). The pricing is a tad expensive. A third visit would help me decide to give a thumbs up or down ;-))

Velachery's Uncle Mess

With Mami's mess cornering all the glory in the food world, can Uncle's mess be far behind? For long, Uncle's mess has been famous in velachery - catering to the ever burgeoning bachelor population. They were previously operating out of Dhaneshwaram and the current place is behind ICICI bank, Vijay Nagar bus terminus. We went around 12. 45 p.m, there were few people around. But by 1 pm, the mess became very crowded. Guess.. North Indian culinary has an the upper hand. Soft chappathis with two very tasty subjis, sambar vada, poriyal, mor kozhambu, rasam, curd completed the simple menu. I would have preferred a sambar, extra poriyal/kootu. Anyways, the food had the home-made feel and a certain freshness associated with it. Overall Rs.45/- well spent. The 'Uncle' sits with the curd cups and appalams. He seems to be very shrewd, he could spot me as a new customer and in the course of our meal, he kind-a of urged me to come in the evening to taste aloo paratha (which uncle's mess is famous for).

Velachery's Chocolate Room

Chocolate is Good for you!
The above said board welcomes you to the newly opened The Chocolate Room at velachery[100 feet road - opp to spencers/foodworld]

Yummy! For all those choco addicts and for those not so fond of chocolates too, The Chocolate Room offers quite a handful. Very impressive decor. The menu itself was interesting, the detailed history behind the breads, drinks etc was neatly laid out. We tried out assorted stuff like Greek Salad (dressing was great ++, too much onions --ve), vegetable stuffings [all had fancy names], Hot chocolate with pancake, chocolate with icecream, mocktail..everything was simply great. Diet flew out of the window and we ransacked the entire 'room'.

A welcome addition to the ever widening foodline in velachery.

Noodle House - Velachery

Decided to hit Noodle House for lunch. Noodle House is located in 100 ft road, velachery - Naihaa complex...French Loaf was also there, but it was closed for renovation. The interiors were good and the ambiance - very 'china'. The menu was exhaustive but for a poor veg - the scope was very limited. Decided to play it safe and ordered a combo - clear soup, fried rice, icecream [decent - rs. 125]. Starters - Veg rolls, Dumplings tasted good. One of my friend had ordered spinach noodles..that was yummy... All the combo deliveries were good..but an order of Hongkong noodles [some non-veg stuff] proved to be a downer. Icecream was ok..but fruit salad was pathetic [served in the smallest bowl I have ever seen]. Overall, once in a while its ok to come to this place, just for the heck of trying out a different cuisine and definitely, it was not a disaster like kumarkom. But for a staunch veggie, Noodle house may not be a good hangout.

Onam Sadhya - Kumarakom

We are a bunch of enthus..would never miss an occasion to go out and hog. After some hectic parleys on where to eat out on Onam, we decided to celebrate our national integration feelings at Kumarakom, velachery [None of us are from god's own country..u get the drift?]. At 12.30 p.m kumarakom was brimming with festive crowd..we joined the fun with Rs.200 per head..We managed to find a table for six and I adjusted with an extra chair. With amazing speed plates were served..porclein plate for rice and platic/thermacol (not sure) plates for side dishes !, plastic cups for water!..we should have sensed what was coming..the GRAND ONAM SADHYA was just reduced to just spoonful of assorted kootus, avaiyal and poriyal. It tasted good ok, but the quantity was abysmally less..It was supposed to be unlimited, but getting to serve the extra dish was painful..[can you get that light green dish?] And even though we were mentally prepared for the red-kerala rice, when it was starring at us, we were kind of unsure about our decision. But then there was no option to look back..with some sambar, rasam and buttermilk, we made a mixture of all dishes (didn't know what to eat first, eat with rice or not?) and had a go at it..The worst case was the crowd was building up every minute and the waiters were clueless about managing the crowd [ but they were dressed up nicely, we couldn't differentiate them from the customers who were wearing ethnic dress]..We finished it quickly and were back to office even before the closure of our usual lunch session. The lone consoler was the payasam.
Lesson learnt: Never eat 'onam sadhya' on onam...that too in a restaurant. With a tongue that is eight foot long - nurtured by full plate tamilnadu meals, it was a wrong decision to try out bland coconut stuff.

Mylapore Karpagambal Mess

This place just stands still in time...It must be an envy for all the big time AD guys..not a penny spent for promotion, yet the Mylapore experience is deemed complete with a visit to Karpagambal mess.

Just today, had the pleasure of Degree Coffee (whatz a degree in coffee?) & hot hot idly sambar.But my biggest grouse is that the hotel can definitely make some arrangements for cleanliness. A first timer will get a heart attack seeing the pathetic way in which it is maintained. The owners are sure raking in money...wish they could spend something on creating a better ambiance.

Mylai Karpagambal mess is bang opposite to Bharathiya Vidya bhavan near Kapaleeshwarar temple.