Pattukottai Kamatchi Mess

Happened to roam around Pondy Bazaar with a friend on a Saturday. He wants to eat some spicy traditional meal on the sunny day. Walked over to the newly opened "Pattukottai Kamatchi Mess" located at Singara velan street adjacent to Big bazaar.

Specialty of this eatery is the variety of gravies (called kolambu or thokku in Tamil) served along with the regular meal. First of this kind in Chennai food scene. Luckily we got seated immediately after entering the restaurant. Opted for a fish meal(300₹) for both of us.A big plantain leaf was placed on the table and few dishes like brinjal poriyal, snake gourd koottu, few peeled shallots and something like a pickle. Surprised to hear that it was not a pickle, but dried anchovies thokku. Also served a half litter water bottle which is included with every meal.

Karandi omlette (60₹) and a kari omlette (150₹) were ordered for sides. Both of them were made of shaloots...pretty hot and yummy ones. Kari omlette was pretty big, made of eggs and chicken meat along with some spices. Karandi omlette was 2 pieces in a plate, had to share among we two.

Initially my friend was disappointed to see only few spoons of rice was served and then a spoonful of chicken thokku. And then he turned at me and gave a "What the heck is this?" kind of look. Told him to wait and watch till the end. We finished the first round very quickly.

And then things have lined up for us. Served continuously with rice along with other gravy varieties like country chicken gravy, mutton gravy, prawn thokku, crab thokku, quail thokku, bone gravy, fish gravy. At one point, my friend started literally begging the waiter to not serve anything further. But still they served thick curd on a mud pot and a cup full of wheat rava payasam. Now my friend starts worrying on how he is going to finish all of this.

All these things went into our guts along with a big crispy king fish fry which comes along with the fish meal. One can opt for mutton chops meal, crab fry meal,...Good part is we also got few chucks of crab, nattu koli,etc.. along with the gravy. Waiters were happily serving rice and gravy rigorously with a big smile. That guy explained about the gravy before putting it on the leaf. Service is exceptionally great here. Hope they maintain the same over years.

I thought of finishing the meal with rasam, but had to drink the curd with no rice. At the end, had gulped few shots of payasam, but could not finish it. It was a hearty meal if you don't mind the large amount of stuff that goes into the guts.

Location:

Paradise Biryani at Chennai

Invited by a friend to visit the recently opened Paradise restaurant in Porur to taste mutton hyderabadi biryani. It is a new building with take away counters at the ground floor and restaurant at the first floor.

Surprised to receive a token before we enter the restaurant. After a wait for 30 minutes, we were allowed in the restaurant.

Ordered a half plate of reshmi kebab(160₹) and a full mutton biryani(315₹) as main. Another 30 mins passed before we received our first item Chicken kebab. Our excitement has gone away after seeing tiny pieces of chicken kebab served in a small plate. However after a piece had gone into the mouth, our happiness returned. Chicken kebab was juicy in nature and was heavenly to taste. Looks like they have marinated it in saffron water.

As the first starter was too small for our tummies, we had to order a half place of murgh sarfiya kalimirchi(187₹) which is nothing but a cardamom and red chillies mixed tandoori cooked two chicken leg pieces. Ohh my god. We fell in love after biting the first piece. Midly spiced chicken thighs. Very juicy and creamy in mouth.

And then we got the full mutton biryani which was bit spicy, but the mutton pieces were rich in flavour (may be due to the rose water ??). I would eat this meat alone without rice if possible. Biryani was served alongwith spicy butter milk, sliced onions and a gravy.

As the full biryani was enough for us two, we had to get a single mutton biryani(192₹) to fillup the remaining space on the belly. It was not spicy, but more of white rice. Advise the waiter on how spicy you want your biryani to be. Otherwise you may end up with too spicy biryani or just white rice.

Eating session was ended much more beautiful by sipping the "masalafied" butter milk.

Conclusion: The meat is better than the biryani.

Location:

 

Chetpet Eco Park

Happened to visit the food court inside the Eco Park at Chetpet for some food. Initially got couple of sweet lime juice(50₹) from "Juice King" to dampen down the thirst.

As it was too early for lunch, we just got a single chicken meal(160₹) and a crab omlette (110₹) from "Mansatti" stall. Crab omlette was a thick and moist crepe with heavenly aroma of crab meat. Bet you won't get such a good one at this low cost even in madurai nowadays. I know a big restaurant in Vadapalani selling it for 280₹ 😱

Chicken meal had a big bowl of steamed rice along with chicken gravy, chicken varuval, a boiled egg, potato masala(who needs it ?), rasam and curd. Despite the fact that the Chicken gravy was little spicy, it is one of the best gravy I had recently. Chicken varuval was fresh and juicy with lot of bones. Rasam and Curd were opt to end the meal.

One may try down the Fisheries dept. stall selling fish fries in the evening. Apparently it is a nice food court for both veg and non-veg foods and doesn't cost a fortune like in big malls.