Restaurant Review - Arusuvai Arasu, Chennai.

This joint by the king of delicacies (Arusuvai Arasu) Mr. Natrajan. He is thus also called Arusuvai Natrajan. It is located in East Coast Road in Chennai and recently a branch in G N Chetty Road has started.

Sri Arusuvai Natrajan has been caterer to many Indian marriages for very many years and this venture is by one of the best man in the industry.

Arusuvau Arasu is a pure veg south Indian restaurant. It has all traditional south Indian menu including a-la-carte and meals. Recently they have also introduced chat items. But I would consider south Indian cuisine to be their forte. The one at ECR has better ambience than the one at G N Chetty Road because of sea breeze, more area and location.

The pluses of this hotel would be good food quality, minuses would be some items being bit costly.

This is one good place of food I would recommend to south Indian cuisine lovers.

Restaurant Review - A2B Restaurant, Adyar Ananda Bhavan, Chennai.

Ananda Bhavan or Adyar Ananda Bhavan as it is known famously is a chain of restaurants which opened initially in Adyar and expanded in areas like Mylapore and T Nagar.

This started as a sweets and snacks shop but diversified into a restaurant chain called A2B Restaurant. This is a multi-cuisine restaurant. I would consider this to be the cheapest and best in Chennai. But then non-availability of some items especially in Mylapore joint makes one feel bad. The one in L B Road, Adyar is much better with some new items like kambu cholam dosai and ragi dosai and specialities like bread pakoda and chat items. I love the bread pakoda available there. It consists of bread coated with groundnut flour, fried in oil and stuffed with masala and paneer. Paneer in bread pakoda makes this really special. Apart from this, I also love chat items like bhel puri, sev puri, dahi papdi etc and special chat items like special tokri chat and katori chat. I would recommend people to taste the special delicacies at L B Road branch. Veechu parotta is really superb. It may not be available on all days, but is very tasty.

The quality of specialities here are very good and food is really available at reasonable price. But do not expect much in terms of ambience in mylapore branch. L B Road branch has better ambience.

I would suggest people to visit this place for lunch and evening snacks.

Restaurant Review - Murugan Idly Shop, Chennai.

Murugan Idly shop, Chennai.

Started as a humble idly shop in Madurai, this expanded really as a south Indian high quality restaurant in Madurai and Chennai. In Chennai, it is located in Besant Nagar and T Nagar.

(Murugan Idli Shop at G N Chetty Road, T Nagar).

The speciality with this is the tradition it has maintained. It serves distinct south Indian traditional cuisine including tamarind rice (pulianchaadam), chakkara pongal, ven pongal. Apart from this there are usual iteme like idly, dosa, vada, uttapam etc. Take it from me, you cannot get all of these traditional delicacies together in any other joint.

There is one lunch (mini meal) available for around INR 50 which contains Tamarind rice, sambar rice, curd rice, sidedishes and appalam. The one at North Usman road in T Nagar also has a separate floor for unlimited south Indian meals.

But you may find big time crowd during lunch hours as there are lots of companies located nearby. Service may get slow during that time.

All in all, I would rate this restaurant from good to very good.

Restaurant Review - Saravana Bhawan, Chennai.

In my opinion and as far as I have heard, this is the best south Indian restaurant in terms of food quality and uniform standards of food preparation and service. Saravana Bhavan is a chain of restaurants head-quartered in Chennai and located at many places in India and around the world. There is one in Connaught Place in Delhi and many in Chennai.

The best thing about this is that they are time-tested. They have rendered quality since day 1 and are continuing to maintain and striving to improve quality even to this date. They also have diversified into Italian, Gujrati and Rajasthani cuisines wherein they have performed decently well. But South Indian cuisine is their forte. The yummy dosas, uttappams, vadais, rice items, meals etc are hallmarks of this chain of eateries. 14 idly is a speciality of this place. It is nothing but 14 small idlies in a small tray drowned in yummy sambar. A more recent addition has been paneer dosa. It serves masala milk in the evening which is again a Saravana Bhavan speciality. It has self-service as well as full-fledged service restaurants. So, this caters to all segments of people.

Pluses: Quality, standard, good service, self as well as full service and diversification into other cuisines.

Limitations: Some people, especially Chennai's locals find this place too costly. They have another complaint, viz. quantity of food has reduced considerably over the years vis-a-vis the cost. For example the size of Dosa or uttapam or quantity of rice has reduced.

But still, they have maintained the same flavour and taste in their delicacies over a period of time, which many restaurants have failed to do.

Restaurant review - Gyan Vaishnav Dhaba, Chennai.

This mini Punjab in Chennai has big history of its own. Earlier, Vellore (In Tamil Nadu, South India) lacked good restaurants. There were not many restaurants near the bus stand and railway station. This dhaba was started initially in Vellore. For this reason, this dhaba is also called Vellore's Gyan Vaishnav.

The owner, a sardarji is wonderful and courteous. Gyan Vaishnav dhaba is a specialist Punjabi joint. I bet this is one of the best dhabas in Chennai. And am big fan of this.

You can find lot of portraits in the dhaba- One features the owner standing with Shah Rukh Khan, and the other, with Amitabh Bachhan doing the grand gala innauguration of the great dhaba.

I have probably diverted too much away from the topic 'food'. Ok ok... Let's come back to the main matter. The dhaba is pure veg as the name 'Vaishnav' suggests. It is completely air-conditioned. It attracts huge crowds during lunch and evening times of the weekdays and week-end evenings.

The menu consists of a sum total of all Punjabi veg items. You can start with one or more of the manchurians and 65s (Gobi, Paneer). Some prime dishes being Tandoori breads like Naan (Plain, butter, garlic, kashmiri), Roti (plain, ghee, romali, makki), Parantha (Tava, Tandoori, Paneer, Aloo, Gobi, Meti) , Kulcha, Chole Bhature. The sidedishes are malai kofta, chilly paneer, kaju paneer, paneer butter masala, kadai vegetable, bhindi do pyaza, baingan bharta and scores of others. Apart from the a-la-carte items, the dhaba also offers thali or meals. Apart from Punjabi thali, a special Jain thali is also available. Jain thali does not have onion and garlic. Still the dhaba has expertise in bringing flavour and taste to the Jain thali.

You can finish your delicious lunch or dinner by having badam kheer or lassi. These two dishes, though not being part of the meal, is irresistible because of the flavour.

This dhaba is also not devoid of its limitations. Some people may find it a bit costly. You may find it crowded almost daily. Lassi is sometimes a bit too sweet than required.

But all in all, this dhaba has some really good authentic punjabi cuisine. It is located in mount road (anna salai) in Chennai near Anand theatre.