Solid Smoke

Wishbone is a relatively new restaurant at Kuravankonam Junction (just beside Cafe Mojo) offering healthy and/or tasty dining to the city folks. The restaurant is overseen by Ms. Lalitha Appukkutan, a nutritionist who occasionally appears on TV shows (related to diets). The restaurant almost exclusively focuses on chicken, besides its choice of vegetarian dishes. They have two menus -  Ultimate Wish & Heavenly Wish . The Ultimate menu is for the calorie conscious and the Heavenly one is for those who wish to honour their taste buds. Both menus have veg & non-veg dishes, but I found the Heavenly menu more attractive because it had more chicken dishes :-) The restaurant is very well furnished and give off a comfy ambience. The place is not very big and sometimes it does feel a bit crowded and noisy depending on who your neighbours are. But the food is really good. All curries are served steaming hot and have a distinct freshness about them. Serving quantity is ...

The news of inauguration of a 3-star hotel near Pappanamcode by K.B. Ganesh Kumar had appeared in local news papers a while ago. The new Hotel White Dammar is located a little further from Pappanamcode Jn. (less than 1km), towards Neyyattinkara/Nagercoil side. The name of the hotel did enthuse us and we decided to try it out. If you too decide that way, be aware of a few caveats. Their website (which is still under construction, btw) lists a veg. restaurant, a multi cuisine restaurant, a 'high spirit' restaurant and a coffee shop among the facilities at the hotel. Being strong non-vegetarians, our eyes were of course set on the multi cuisine restaurant. However (sigh!), the hotel itself was still under construction, and only "Anna Bhavan" - the veg. restaurant was open. Only a veg restaurant at a 3-star hotel? Hmmm.. Anyway, we decided to give it a try, hoping for some steaming vegetarian food. The next shock was the menu (or the lack of one). The only items avail...

We had planned to try this 'Government' restaurant at Pettah when it opened last May. It was only a couple of days after the inauguration and Kurian, our reliable scout, reported that they were severely understaffed and not able to keep the tables running. So we had moved on to some other diner that day. Anyway, I paid a visit to the 'Chicken Restaurant' a couple of days back for lunch. The restaurant is pretty decent in the inside, although the air conditioners were conveniently put off. The place looks real nice (especially for a Government concern) and the tables are comfortably spaced. The lunch menu, however, was not very exciting. Chicken Biriyani, Chapathi, Chicken Fry & chicken Curry! You don't need a menu card to tell you that, right? And they didn't have one either. Anyway, we ordered the Biriyani and chicken fry. I must say I wasn't disappointed with the food. The biriyani was not top-notch or anything but was tasty and quite good. For about R...

Curries is a new take-home counter from the famous Amritha Hotel group. It's at Kowdiar, right next to Cafe Coffee Day (yup, the old Nikki-Nikita place). The attractive food counter had a number of non-vegetarian dishes in the offering, but only one vegetarian dish. The servings are measured by weight and reasonably priced (250g chicken curry costs Rs.80). I tried the chicken curry (what better to try at a restaurant named curries ?). It was not very spicy and had too much potato content for my taste. The mutton fry (not too dry) was very spicy and quite good. The Gobi Manchurian was fine too. But the best part of the meal was the Rotis. They had little or no maida and were delicious enough to be devoured without any curry. To conclude, Curries shows lot of promise (unlike the previous occupants of that place). Do checkout their chicken bartha , it looked interesting...

Zinc n Rock is a stylish new café, located at the Vanross Junction. These guys have placed ads on every nook and corner of the city, and so we decided to check it out. It's a delight to walk in to this stylishly decorated restaurant. The theme seems to be 'Red & Black' everywhere and of course, rock music. An electric guitar adorns a wall and there's a durbar at a corner, where you can sit down on the cushions on the floor (if you are capable of bending your knees, that is!). But the constant rock noise (I dare not call it music) from the shabby speakers gets on your nerves after a while. I really cherished the moments of pause between tracks! The menu too is quite attractive with a variety of sandwiches, burgers and beverages. The prices were reasonable too. We marked our orders on a list provided and the waiter was very prompt to collect it from us. And then our loooong wait began. It took about an hour for our sandwiches/burgers to be served. When enquired, the...

"Mezbaan" - how does that sound? Well, if the title didn't tell ya, it's a new restaurant claiming to specialize in Malabari cuisine. It's on the ground floor of the Vyapara Bhavan building at Manjalikkulam (down the Gandhari Amman Kovil Road, towards Thampanoor). The restaurant is not very big, accommodating less than ten tables. The place looks okay enough. The palm-leaf and bamboo walls and kerosene lanterns (കമ്പി റാന്തല്‍) (they're just decorative, of course) are mixed with Chinese paper lanterns/lamps to give a colourful and mildly weird ambience. The menu is very attractive although the prices are slightly on the higher side. Chicken/mutton biryani are priced at Rs.100. As always, we (three of us) went for variety and asked for a sizeable number of dishes. To our disappointment, we found a large disparity between what's listed on the menu and what's actually available. The kitchen seemed to support only 30% of the menu :-( The menu claims th...

Hotel Teekay Palace is a tall but otherwise unattractive building, at Aristo Junction, near Thampanoor. Just a couple of days after its opening, we had spotted it while dining at the roof-top restaurant of Hotel Horizon. :-) The reception desk of the hotel is good enough and the restaurant welcomes you with the promise of Indian, Chinese and Continental cuisine. Unfortunately, that's pretty much everything good I've to say about this restaurant. The substandard quality shows in the dirty table cloths, scratched chair cushions and a washroom that doesn't have running water. All that could've been forgiven (if not forgotten) if they had served us some lip smacking food. Unfortunately, that didn't happen either. Apparently, their idea of 'ularthiyathu' (ഉലര്‍ത്തിയത്) is burnt food. Both beef ularthiyathu and prawns made us cry over the lost money and appetite. Grilled seer fish was a let down too. The chapathis were dry and hard and the all-maida naans were n...

Flavors is a small trendy diner at Women's college Junction, Vazhuthacaud (right after the Bata showroom), promising to deliver a different experience . Walking towards Flavors, one notices attractive blue lighting and more cafe style settings. The place is too damn small to be a serious restaurant. There's hardly 4 tables, and a bar table, but with no place on the other side of it! The menu seemed to be predominantly continental, but I was surprised to find 'kozhi biriyani' (AFAIR) in the offering. Apparently, they've little bit of everything in the menu, including Chinese. I can't say anything reasonably decent about the food though. This place doesn't offer anything to the serious gourmand. There's no 'difference' to be felt here. There are several places in the city where you get far better food. The fried rice and the chicken curries (I don't even remember the ones we ordered, they were so forgettable) don't deserve much appreciation...

Walking in to the lobby of Hotel Pankj (yes, that's at Statue, opposite to the Secretariat), we were offered three choices - Maya, Nisha & Sandhya. Sounds hot? Just that these are the names of their restaurants. We chose Nisha, the roof-top restaurant. I won't go on much about the food since it wasn't very good. The pulao wasn't terrible, but wasn't that good either. The food is just okay and not worth the time (or money) it takes to get it. It seemed that people visited this restaurant only to have couple of drinks in peace. Mirinda for the kids, beer for the uncle and whiskey for the dad - that's the way things were flowing. As for me, I came down with stomach ache and fever the very next day. To be fair, Ashik , who too ate everything we ordered (including the sliced pork with capsicum), was just fine. I guess my hard earned pathogen-burning skills have diminished over the years :( Note to self: Must have more practice and regain digest-all powers!

"Spaces to work, places to play" is the tag line of the Keys Hotel (near Housing Board junction). Well, perhaps it's true, but this is definitely not a great place to dine. It's not a bad place, but it's not good enough, especially for the price. The hotel lobby, though small, is beautifully designed. The ambiance gets you all cheered up when you walk in. This hotel apparently has American funding (see Berggruen Hotels ) and that somewhat shows in their layout. The restaurant is on the mezzanine floor but the rest/washrooms are on the first floor. So, if you happen to want to wash your hands, you need to board the elevator (or lift?). A buffet dinner here costs less than Rs.400, almost at par with SP Grand Days , my favourite restaurant in town. It was Kurian's treat (for his promotion, but who really cares, right? ;-) and we opted for the buffet, assuring ourselves that the à la carte menu is within arm's reach. The food leaves nothing to brag about. It...

'Spice Hut' - how's that for a restaurant's name? Clichéd, but good enough, isn't it? That's what I thought too. This 'Family Restaurant' at the Pattom junction, just around the corner of the Pattom-Marappalam turn had been in my cross-hairs for quite a while. Dinner with two friends at the 'Spice Hut' may not exactly be the ideal way to spend the Christmas eve. The restaurant is not too big, but is comfy. Unfortunately, that's the only good thing I can say about this place. To save you from the blabbering, here's a quick list of things we had: 1. Cream of tomato soup - Terrible 2. Chicken 65 - Even more so! 3. French fries - Horrible! 4. Roti - Not bad 5. Kadai Chicken - Pretty bad 6. Chicken kothuparotta - Not bad 7. Veg. kothuparotta - Not bad 8. Fresh orange/pineapple juice - Good All the dishes were drenched in some weird oil with lumps of turmeric in the chicken! This place may not be so tough on your pockets, but when it comes to...

Thiruvananthapuram doesn't have its fair share of coffee shops (read 'hangout place'). Traditionally, we've been addicted to tea rather than coffee, and that's probably for the better. Anyway, a new coffee shop opened yesterday at Ambalamukku (just after the junction, on the left hand side when you're coming from Peroorkada). It's called 'HotSpot Cafe' and it's all painted red (Cafe Coffee Day Redux?). Me and Viswajit stopped by today to check it out. To get decent review value (and for that alone, I swear!) we ordered quite a lot (at 6PM) of stuff. I'm sure the owner was pretty happy and wished the business were this good everyday. Being fresh new, they didn't have a menu card - but that didn't stop us from getting through our routine. We had chicken hot dogs, two types of sandwiches, coffee mousse, cappuccino, cold coffee with ice cream, hot coffee with chocolate etc. etc.. Okay.. I admit.. I'm exaggerating. There's no '...

തിരുവനന്തപുരം നഗരത്തില്‍ മത്സ്യവിഭവങ്ങളില്‍ 'സ്പെഷ്യലൈസ്' ചെയ്യുന്ന ഭക്ഷണശാലകള്‍ കുറവാണ്. വഴുതക്കാട്ടെ സാഗരയാണ് പേരുകേട്ട ഒരെണ്ണം. കുറച്ചുകാലമായി, ബേക്കറി ജംഗ്ഷന് സമീപം (റിസര്‍വ് ബാങ്കിനടുത്ത്) 'വര്‍ണ്ണം' എന്ന 'സീ ഫുഡ് റെസ്റ്റോറന്റ്' തരക്കേടില്ലാത്ത വിഭവങ്ങളായി പേരെടുത്ത് വരികയായിരുന്നു. ഇപ്പോള്‍ അവര്‍ ഒരു 'കുട്ടനാടന്‍ ഫുഡ് ഫെസ്റ്റിവല്‍' നടത്തുന്നു. നമ്മളില്ലാതെ എന്ത് ഫുഡ്, എന്ത് ഫെസ്റ്റിവല്‍? ഹും... ഇന്നലെ ഇതറിഞ്ഞപ്പോള്‍ തന്നെ ഞാനും ലോലനും (അതായത് സുല്‍ഫിക്കര്‍) ഡിന്നര്‍ പ്ലാന്‍ ചെയ്തു. ഓഫീസിലെ മറ്റു തീറ്റ ഭ്രാന്തന്‍മാര്‍ ശബരിമല സ്കീമിലായിരുന്നത് കൊണ്ട് വിളിച്ചില്ല. ;-) "കണമ്പ് ഇട്ടൂസ്" - എപ്പടി? നല്ല പേര്, അല്ലേ? പോരട്ടെ ഒരു പ്ലേറ്റ്.. കൂടാതെ "ആവോലി തന്തൂരി", "കാരി കറി", "കൊഞ്ച് ഫ്രൈ" പിന്നെ പുട്ടും (നല്ല കോമ്പിനേഷന്‍ - ഓര്‍ക്കുമ്പോള്‍ തന്നെ വായില്‍ വെള്ളമൂറുന്നില്ലെങ്കില്‍ പിന്നെ എന്തിനാ ഇത് വായിക്കുന്നേ?). ലോലന്‍, ആസ് യൂഷ്വല്‍, 'റുമാലി റോട്ടി'! പൂയ്.. യെവന്‍ പണ്ടേ ഔറംഗസേബിന്റെ പിന്‍ഗാമിയാണല്ലോ.. എല്ലാം ...

"Kabab - Taste of Arabia " - how can any honest glutton ignore a signboard like that? And so we (me, Sandeep & Adarsh) decided to pay a visit to this restaurant at Pattom (opposite to LIC/Railway/BSNL building) for dinner yesterday. Kababs, Kababs and more Kababs! but.... As the restaurant's name goes, there are several Kababs on the menu. We were confused by the choice that was offered. Having come here for the first time (and for no other reason, honest!), we decided to go for variety and ordered 'half' servings of three different Kababs - Malai Kabab, Kalimirch Kabab & Arabian Kabab (whatever that is). When the dishes were served, all confusions (about choice) vanished. They all looked exactly the same! We asked the waiter boy to point out and he did his random 'this is that, and that is this' routine. Anyway, it didn't matter much because they all tasted the same. Absolutely no difference at all (or perhaps our taste buds are not sensiti...

Had dinner at the 'Rain Forest' restaurant in Vazhuthacaud, Thiruvananthapuram. It's on the right hand side (when coming from Vellayambalam), after the SriMulam Club Junction. The place is not 'on' the road side and hence it's silent, comfy and of course clean. We (me, Kurian & Ashik ) ordered chicken noodles, Spaghetti Bolognaise (or Bolognese), Sandwich (ലൈറ്റായിട്ട്!), chilly chicken etc. as the main course. This was of course preceded by a generous serving of soup and starters: fish fingers and chicken gold coin (it doesn't look as yummy as in that link). The verdict The fish fingers were awesome. Some of the best we've ever had. Highly recommended. Chicken gold coins, unfortunately, were terrible. Drenched in oil, these were no fun at all! Spaghetti Bolognaise was quite good and the noodles was not bad either. The chilly chicken, again, was burnt and was a let down. Overall, this place is quite cool; but not all dishes are up to the mark. Lov...

The 'À la carte' restaurant has been running (it better be, away!) at Kesavadasapuram, opposite to M.G. College. It's in the infamous 'Pazhoor Plaza' building (infamous only because of the computer shop: Pazhoor Ideal Systems). Had dinner there today, with my father. The ambience was better than I expected and had some class. But all was lost when the food was served. It's pretty bad. We had chilly chicken, mushroom masala, chilly gobi & roti. Except for the roti, everything else was quite terrible. The dishes are somewhat pricey too. I wasn't very excited to see Rs.30 for the grape juice, but it turned out to be the best part of my dinner. So, if you've spotted this restaurant and have been thinking about paying a visit, you can safely let that feeling pass. There are far better ways of spending those Rs.100 notes, and you'll get much better food in return too. ------------ PS: In case you didn't know, À la carte is a French phrase meaning...

How do you feel when a restaurant claims to be 'the only place where you get Kerala's traditional tastes in the heart of Trivandrum city' . A tall claim? Anyway, this restaurant on the Gandhari Amman Kovil Road, Pulimoodu/Statue (opposite to VIP Bag World) is a pretty good place for enjoying Travancore cuisine. I had noticed this place yesterday while shopping for some other stuff, and today it's mentioned on The Hindu Metro Plus supplement. The restaurant is sufficiently large with lots of tables and the ambience is nice and comfortable. We ordered 'Puttu' and generous servings of chicken, mutton and fish curries, not to mention the Travancore Beef fry and Netholi fry for starters(gluttons, you say? I prefer the word 'gourmand' ;-) The restaurant also offers 'combo' packs with Puttu/Chapathi/Appam and choice of curry. I tried the so called 'Erachi Puttu (chicken)' which was nothing more than a 'plain puttu' with some grated chick...

Just had dinner at the [relatively] new Dakhani Degh restaurant at Chacka Jn., Thiruvananthapuram (just around the corner – towards the Petta-Palayam road). I had heard good words being spoken about the place and couldn't wait to check it out. The very thought that there's a potentially good untested (by me) restaurant in the city had made me restless. Talk about the pressures of being the local gourmand ;-) Dakhani Degh is a restaurant (probably a chain of restaurants) specializing in Hyderabadi cuisine - most notably the Hyderabadi Dum Biryani (or HDB - as these people call it). To be frank, I have never tasted authentic Hyderabadi Biryani, till now, that is. The word 'Dakhani' is derived from 'Deccan' - revealing the Hyderabad connection and 'Degh' is the copper vessel used for cooking (info from the menu card). The specialty of the restaurant is of course the Biryani - with very less oil in it. In fact, their USP is non-sticky fingers once you'v...

After getting disappointed at the Taj Residency , I paid a visit to the new SP Grand Days hotel at Panavila Junction (near Bakery jn.). This time, I had my parents with me, both vegetarians! I'm told that the hotel has been operating for about 2 months now. I must say I was really impressed by the ambience and the service. The restaurant on the 2nd floor was not too roomy, but very well set up. The ambience and the feel was just great. I believe they are not yet up to full steam, since the menu card was a bunch of A4 printouts, stapled together. After confirming that there were ample choices for vegetarians in the buffet menu, we took the plunge. To cut the review short, it was Awesome!! . The food was great, but only 5 dishes in the non-veg menu. Unlike the Taj, the veg side had even more variety and the dishes were absolutely great. If you go there, don't miss out on the 'grilled fish', it's quite good. There were plenty of salads (both veg and non-veg), and the ...

The Taj Residency has been operating in Vazhuthacaud for quite some time now. A friend of ours had received gift coupons worth Rs. 3000, redeemable at any Taj hotel in India. Thanks to his employment in Canada (and his wife, another friend of ours, being a ghaas-phoos), he handed over the coupons to us, the friendly neighbourhood gourmands! All this happened a good 10 months back, and the coupons would expire in a couple of days. So we decided to act quickly and decided to give the Taj Residency (rather than Taj Green Cove Resort in Kovalam) the privilage of serving us. We were three - Kurian , Machi and me. Kurian, being in his Easter season, and Machi being a (Egg)Pattar were vegetarians. The Taj We had high expectations of the Taj ambience. The main hall was good, but not brilliant. The restaurant was a bit crammed with lots of noise - people chattering all around. Not what we expected from the Taj! We had the choice of buffet or à la carte, and being a true gourmand I convinced the...