The menu card is handed to us on an exam pad. Lifting the pages to pick our order, it’s impossible not to smile — it’s like we’re flipping through answer sheets in the exam hall in school. MadrAsian, the new pan-Asian restaurant in town, earns brownie points from the start; from the elaborately painted tropical wall (they say that it was done by a city-based artist), to the cane lamps handcrafted by a local artisan, the restaurant has a quaint, café-like air about it.
We start our dinner that Sunday with the Vietnamese pho , a clear soup with chicken (there is also a choice of vegetables to pick from). Mild and fragrant, it’s flavoured with cinnamon and has flat noodles and tofu. It has the effect of a hot cup of green tea, and leaves us feeling all warm and happy. We skip the salad — although we were tempted by the ramen salad, a crunchy salad with assorted vegetables — and head straight to the starters.
Mushroom with lemongrass and basil, a dish in which mushrooms are tossed with nam prik pao (Thai chilli paste), is initially quite nice. The mushrooms are served whole without the stem and are a burst of textures in the mouth: spicy and soft, they still had a bit of crunch to them, and the deep-fried onions added to the flavour. We pop in one after the other, but soon find the herbs a little overwhelming.
But the crispy chicken winglets (deep-fried chicken tossed with a tangy Asian sauce) are much better. The tangy flavour goes well with the crispy exterior. The chicken satay is mildly spiced in comparison. The grilled meat is served on skewers — we pack it home, and unfortunately, the peanut sauce that it’s supposed to be served with, is missing.
Speaking of takeaway, our doggy bag is a brown paper cover, and the containers are made of paper. More points for being environmentally conscious.
Ramen soupy noodles, which our waiter recommends, has just the right spice levels. The serving is big — it can make a hearty meal for one or even two people. The soup is spicy and tangy; and our chicken version comes with a good portion of vegetables as well.
Some more soup The art and decor adds to the regional ambience of the place M Karunakaran
But the evening’s winner is the laksa (Peranakan noodle soup). It comes to us in all its sunshine-yellow glory, topped with a sliced boiled egg. The aroma, the creamy coconut base, the lingering sweetish-spiciness… it’s so good that we even forgive them for not having dessert on the menu. Under dessert, they have a note that asks us to walk to Amadora for ice cream downstairs. Oh well, we don’t want anything more after that killer laksa .
MadrAsian
Annai Velankanni Road, T46 A, 7th Ave, Besant Nagar
Hits: Laksa, crispy chicken winglets
Misses: Mushroom with lemongrass and basil
Cost for two: ₹800
Call: 8608374444
