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Where shall we dine?
As I had anticipated, The Metroplus Food Guide to Chennaisold out in a few days of its launch and has gone for a reprint. The handy guide to the city's restaurants - from dhabas,fast food outlets, 5-star eateries, caterers and everything from specialties to multi-course dinners served at home - was certainly something the city needed. Eating out or ordering food home has become a regular feature of Madras over the last five years.
The launch found Chef Praveen Anand of the Park Sheraton's `Dakshin' outdoing himself as he served up a spread fit for the host of chefs and managers from other hotels and restaurants in town who turned up for the occasion. His vazhaippoo (banana flower) vadai and his kaadai (quail) roast were as good as Mother made them in the rural Deep South and his prawn curry, after I had tasted the gravy, nearly tempted me to reach for the forbidden crustacean. My only grouse was that whole quail was hardly the dish for stand-up dining when you were also supposed to be on your best dining behaviour. Be that as it may, it certainly was a meal that re- flected the high rating The MetroPlus Food Guide had given the Dakshin for food.
Other restaurants rated highly for food quality were Akasaka (Japanese), Benjarong (Thai), Cedars (Middle Eastern), Copper Point (GRT Grand, pan-Indian), Eden (veg. multicuisine), Golden Dragon (Taj Coromandel, Chinese), Great Kabab Factory (GRT Radisson, Northwest Frontier), Hip Asia (Connemara, Pan Asian), Kumarakom (Kerala), Mathsya (veg. South Indian), Murugan Idly Kadai (veg. South Indian), Peshawari (Chola Sheraton, Northwest Frontier), and Six-O-One (The Park, multicuisine).
If one takes into consideration other factors such as Ambience and Service, Hip Asia at the Connemara and The Patio at the Taj Coromandel emerge very well. So do Aqua (The Park), Cedars, Dakshin (Park Sheraton), Golden Dragon (Taj Coromandel), Great Kabab Factory (Radisson GRT), and Upper Deck (Fisherman's Cove). The best bar with food is The G2 Lounge (Park Sheraton).
The high overall ratings for Hip Asia _ as hip as they come _ in the city's oldest hotel in business, the Connemara, are indicative of how hard this grand old home-awayfrom- home in Madras is working at regaining the position it enjoyed for nearly 75 years as the best hotel in the city.
It was the Imperial Hotel established in 1854 that became the Albany in 1886 and the Connemara in 1890/ 1891, after it was taken over by Eugene Oakshott of Spencer's and was managed by his partner James Stiven. Its contemporaries on or off Mount Road were the Buckingham, Dent's Garden, Elphinstone, Elphinstone Branch, Royal and Victoria. In what is today's George Town were Belgravia, Esplanade, Harbour and Napier. On South Beach Road was Capper House, in Vepery Central and location unknown Wenlock. Describing itself as a "really first class hotel", the Connemara proclaimed loudly, "Excellent Table Guaranteed". The tradition would appear to continue, to judge by the latest assessment.
S. MUTHIAH
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Metro Plus
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Chennai
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