Restaurant Review - Hotel Crescent - Anna Nagar

Name: Hotel Crescent
Address: Located near SBOA Matric School, Annanagar.
Introduction & Expectations:

Its a newly opened branch of the famous crescent hotel in Nungambakkam. Had tasted their Shawarma before, which was really good. Today we planned to go for a complete dinner there.
Ambience and Service:

Their parking space is sufficient for some 8 cars at a time, and there is also Valet Parking available, which was good. The ambience was just average, there was some very dim lighting (don't know why it has become a trend these days) and they have tried to place maximum number of seats into the available place, so the entire place looks a little cramped for space. Food:

We ordered for Hot and Sour chicken soup, BBQ Chicken full , Ghee rice and chicken curry , Falooda and Tender Coconut Paayasam for desserts. 

Hot & Sour Chicken Soup:

The soup looked good, but tasted bland. Only after adding a little of salt did the soup taste good. 

The Barbecue Chicken:

BBQ chicken was just awesome. It was not like the regular BBQ which you get in most of the Arabian cuisines. Their masala was diiferent and it had a tinge of spicy tang to it and the juicy chicken made the eating experience awesome. I could rate the food five on five if I had eaten only this item. It was too spicy, tasty and went well with the sauces provided. Main Course:

We had also ordered Ghee rice and chicken curry combo. The Ghee rice was plain basmati rice fried in a bit of ghee with a little bit of salt and dry grapes, much like the regular jeera rice in north Indian food. The Chicken Curry combo was like the traditional 'kari kozhambu' you are used to eating with all the spices in the right proportion. Overall, it was good but a tad too heavy, and definitely one person cannot eat that alone.
Desserts:

Coming to the desserts, the first dessert that me and my friends could not take our hands off was the Falooda.

It had more of the strawberry flavour to it, but was still heavenly in taste. The traditional mixture of cherries, then ice cream, then cut fruits and the jelly was perfectly followed to a T. However, I felt the quantity of Falooda was less for its price, but the taste was too good to complain.

The tender coconut payasam was even better than the Falooda.

It had some soft tender coconut pieces floating in some chilled tender coconut water and milk. After having such a spicy meal (BBQ chicken) , it was like a heaven drinking this one :) The bill came to INR 800 for three of us :) They accept Sodexo Vouchers too :) A big plus for IT guys like me :P A word on the service: the manager was very friendly with us. When the waiters were busy, he personally went to each table and helped them. My rating would be Food - 4 Service - 3.5 Ambience - 2 VFM - 3.5

Overall: 3.25/5.

Definitely Worth a Visit!

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Kumarakoam - Restaurant Review

Kumarakom - Restaurant Review

Address: V3, Near Tower Park, 4th Main Road, V Block, Anna Nagar, Chennai 600040

Expectations:

This restaurant had been in my mind for a long time and finally I had a chance to visit the place. Heard good reviews about this one, so my expectations were really high. I have had my Keralite friends raving about the authenticity of the food here, so thought I could give it a try. We went as a group of 3 here on a Sunday afternoon for lunch.

Ambience & Service:

Let me start from the parking. The parking was full when we reached there. They had a board which mentioned Valet Parking but no one was to be seen around. Even the security did not help us with the parking and finally we parked in a nearby lane. We got a table after waiting for 10 minutes (this seems to be the norm over here). The ambience was not that impressive, and the place looked very crowded with not so much space between tables to walk around. However, our table was laid out neat and clean.

The silver lining in the cloud was the service. The waiters were courteous and friendly. They were prompt to address any problems immediately.

Food:

1. The Starters:

We ordered for Cream of Mushroom Soup, Fish Fingers, Parota, Beef Masala , Steamed Rice, Chicken 65, Prawn fry and Malabar Fish Curry.

The look of the soup itself was pathetic in taste and it was not hot as well. the taste was too bland and the creaminess was missing. It was like mushroom boiled in water and served hot.

Among the starters, chicken 65 was really good and crispy with soft chicken adding to the taste. Me and my friends finished it within minutes of the arrival of the plate. :)

Fish fingers were too bad, the garnishing and presentation made the dish look good. But, we put one piece in the mouth and we realized that the fish did not taste fresh at all! Again, the fish fingers didn't have any accompaniments, not even the usual tomato sauce. That left a bad taste in our mouth.

Prawn fry was good, but you could feel the coconut oil's taste more than the prawns. But I guess that was the 'authenticity' that my friends had been mentioning about. The highlight of the dish was the soft prawns fried with tomato and onions but I guess the secret of the taste was the coconut oil used, that gave a unique flavour to the dish. I liked it, but my other friends didn't like the flavour.

2. The Main Course:

The Parotta was hot and soft and went well with the Beef Masala. It has been quite some time since we ate parotta that was so well made.

The Beef Masala was in North Indian style preparation and that was the best dish that we tasted that day. We were disappointed with the Malabar Fish Curry. The curry was also very watery as you can see below and didn't taste authentic (I know, because I have eaten at roadside shops in Kerala this same fish curry and they have tasted better). It was spicy, all right, but did not have the flavour in it.

By now, we had lost interest and didn't want to try any desserts. We later went out to Cream and Fudge for a separate dessert. :D

Value for Money:

Overall, for three people, the bill came around 1400, which is at the usual range you find in good restaurants nowadays. But some of the items being not so good, caused me to think whether it was worth the price we paid for. 

Overall, the restaurant did not meet my expectation and may be Keralites would like it more. Go for it strictly if you like Keralite style of food or if you like to experiment with different flavours in your food. Else, better stay away! 

My ratings would be 

Ambience - 2

Food - 2.5

Service - 3

VFM - 2.5

Overall Rating: 2.5/5

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