Robot Restaurant

Happened to visit India's first Robot restaurant located in Porur for lunch today. It is located in the first floor of the building where Paradise Briyani is housed. Waiting time was about 15 mins though there was not much crowd. After the kid's photo shoot with the robots standing near the entrance, we were called in to be seated.

There are some four or five robots walking in a big circle. Tables were arranged to be on either sides of the circular line. So it was basically a conveyor belt, but engineered to look like a robot to deliver the food. Ambience was bit dark, but well lit above we each table.

This place serves majorly indianized Chinese and Thai dishes. They recently started including biriyani as well. We ordered an egg biriyani, sezhwan chicken fried rice and a dragon chicken on the tablet kept on our table. Though there were robots, the food was actually cooked by humans. So there was a little waiting time to get the food ready. As time flies, our curiosity switched over from robots to biriyani. We were looking at each and every robot that came out of kitchen to find out if it got our food.

After a wait of around 20mins, a robot came up with our egg biriyani. Eventually it stopped near our table and turned towards us. And it was just standing there as no waiter was visible near to our table. So my wife had to take the food from the tray and then pressed an exit button for the robot to continue it's march towards the kitchen.

Biriyani was good for the kid as it was little bland, less greasy. Had two boiled eggs and the usual onion raita and brinjal gravy as accompaniments. That's definitely not a bad choice. Next Schezwan chicken rice and dragon chicken were delivered by the robots. Dragon chicken was tender, little sugary, good enough for at least 3 or 4 people. Schezwan rice was good but not much spicy, quantity was large for a couple. Had to pack some leftover fried rice. Total bill was 900+. But got a 10 percent discount as I had a coupon. Should we come again? That's what my daughter wants to do. Anyhow, they have a lot of Thai dishes to try on our next visits.

 

Location:

Chennai Express

Recent addition to Chennai food scene is the rail themed restaurant named "Chennai Express" located in the campus of rail museum at villivakkam. It is actually a LHB coach converted into a restaurant with fascinating interior, vibrates at regular intervals to create train travel effect.

Ordered Paneer Tikka as starter. Hard and spicy... certainly not worth for what we paid (260₹).
Non-spicy Hyderabadi chicken dum biriyani(175₹) was delightful. Punjabi lassi was yummy(130₹).
If it's a visit with kids, it is better to spend some time at the rail museum with a joy train ride.

Address: Next to ICF Furnishing Division, New Avadi Road, Villivakkam, Chennai

Google Map:

Haunted Restaurant

Kids(including the kid in me) want a theme restaurant visit for the weekend. And I am not in a mood for long drive. So, finalized "Haunted" which is pretty near, located near Kandaswamy Naidu college and few yards away from the rear of Anna nagar East metro station.

 

It is a spooky theme restaurant having few ghost-like structures in dining rooms. We were seated with no wait(that's the fun in staying at Chennai during Diwali period) at the first floor. Quite interesting to see an Ouija board as table top. Adults are not much frightened (or interested), but the kids were bit nervous and screaming whilst going room after a room.

Let us come to the main part, the food. Nizami mutton sheek, haunted special ghostly chicken kabab and banzara fish were the starters. Both sheek and kabab were abnormally spicy. Banzara was a flat-style fish fingers...mostly crispy...lacked meat. Would not mind them on next visit.

Next came the mains...dindigul mutton biriyani, cheese kulcha, butter naan and butter chicken masala. Biriyani was seeraga samba rice based...perfect for us as most of us don't prefer spicy basmati. It had medium sized mutton pieces with bones. Certainly worth to order in future visits.
Couldn't find any difference between cheese kulcha and butter naan apart from the price. Both tasted good when eaten with butter chicken masala.

Lunch set us back by 2217₹ for 4 Adults and 2 kids. Food is not that pricey considering the location. However, it may not be interesting on further visits for adults. But what can we do if kids want to go again ;)

Address: Block F, F-13, 2nd Main Rd, Block F, Annanagar East, Chennai.

Google Map: