Once a while I try to attend events in my foodie fraternity, and last Sunday the event was at a relatively new place - Madras Cafe and Co which opened a few months back. The theme of the event was sea-food and I must admit it lived up to my expectations!
Inside, chances are that you would be wowed by all that cartoon/caricature adorning the walls, the typical south Indian kitchen paraphernalia lined up all along, and some creative usage of buckets to work as lamp shades! I would probably let my pics do a bit of describing the ambiance part and leave the rest for you to soak in when you visit that place.
As soon as everybody settled, we were served Inji tani, a drink which was definitely new to me by its name and by the drink itself. The moment I took a sip I developed and instant liking for the ginger punch it gave along with lemon and honey(I guess the sweetener was honey).
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| Inji tani |
All the tables had a plate of these. A set of chutneys - beetroot, ginger and gongura. The presentation was very photogenic I must say. They were equally good in taste and I felt the beetroot chutney definitely had an edge over the spicy ginger chutney and the slightly sour gongura chutney. It hinted at a bit natural sweetness blending in with the mild heat. All of them were great companions to the sea-food starters that we had.
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| Beetroot, gongura and ginger chutney |
The steamed fish that was served as a starter in the first round turned out to be a familiar one. The spice mix might be different, but the method of wrapping it in banana leaves and steaming is practised in few other states as well. The spice mix gave out typical south Indian flavors, a bit spicy, a bit sour. I am not sure of what type of fish it was, but I am guessing it to be basa (generally used in most establishments). I felt it could have been even better than how it was.
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| Steamed fish |
The gunpodi royyalu(batter fried prawns with "gunpowder" sprinkled over) had a mixed story for me. The initial set felt like the batter was a bit raw from the inside, but once I had gave my feedback to the serving staff, the next set that came to my table were nicely done. It ain't as spicy as some might thing, and it tasted delicious indeed.
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| gunpodi royyalu |
Nandu vadai(crab cakes or crab vada) were probably the best starters on the day for me. Absolutely lipsmacking when hot, I am not sure how many I gobbled up throughout the event! They aren't exactly bite-sized, rather one for two bites I say, and they had the freshest crabmeat mixed up in the batter to make those delicious vadas. The only catch - tasted best when piping hot. I must say I will want to have more of them on my next visit!
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| nandu vadai |
Time for the main course, and these are the dishes that lined up on the table - peethala pulusu, royyala iguru, malabar fish curry, appam, kothu parota, malabar parota. The most enticing dish was the malabar fish curry with its dominant coconut oil flavors. In fact I ate my dipped all the appams coming my way in this gravy to savour it. The royyala iguru and the peethala pulusu(crab pulusu) were decent enough. Some how I am not able to summarize or express their actual flavors in words!
The menu had yera pulao but I never got it on my table. Instead, they simply places plain rice on my table. I saw other tables being served, but then I was so full with appams and parotas that I chose not to ask for pulao (even for tasting purpose). I still would consider this as laxity in service.
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| peethala pulusu |
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| Malabar fish curry |
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| Royyala iguru |
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| vegetarian fare |
The sweets served were poornam tartlets and ella kozhukattai(honestly I dont know the meanings :) ) But they were not as good as the food we had before. I liked them, especially the poornam, which felt like it had been made of moongdaal(if I am correct). The kozhukattai was quite similar to a modak and other very similar sweets made in many parts of the country. I am not really comparing them with anything, but just that I wasn't quite impressed by the taste.
I would never say no to typcial Madrasi filter coffee after a heavy meal. Wasn't disappointed here as well! The coffee was just so beautiful!
Madras Cafe and Co definitely have a lot of specialty dishes rolled up on their sleeves and they know their mojo quite well! But I was completely disappointed with the service part. I had to literally stand next to my table to keep an eye on the server so that he does not miss serving on my table.
If you are on the look out for some good South Indian(Especially Madras style) then this is the place to be!
Ambiance - 4/5
Food - 4/5
Service - 2/5(they missed serving a dish!)
VFM - 4/5
