Ashvita is more renown for it’s art gallery than it is for its garden cafe… but for those of you who haven’t bin there, you’re missing something. Unlike most “orthodox” coffee shops, Cafe Ashvita is located away from the noise and hustle-bustle of the Chennai streets. The atmosphere is very calming and it makes an ideal place where you could go to catch up with friends on a sunday evening!
Choose the garden only if you’re sure you can cope with the heat though
The walls as you’d expect are filled with paintings.. most of which are “modern art” which might scare you if you stare too long
Anyways.. getting down to the eatables! What you get here is more or less what you get everywhere. A decent selection of starters, sandwiches, pastas, beverages and desserts.
The starters have the usuals.. paneer fingers, onion rings and the like.. nothing much to write home about. Ashvita offers a decent selection of sandwiches.. ranging from the Chilli cheese toast (Rs 35) to my favorite- the Schezwan Paneer Sandwich (Rs 65). Theres a wide selection of non-veg sandwiches too..I’ve been told that the Crispy Hot Dogs are out of this world!
There are around 6-7 varieties of Pastas to choose from. I would highly recommend the Fettuccini with Butter Garlic Sauce (Rs 75) and for you non-herbivores the Rigatoni with Italian cream sauce
which is served BBQ chicken strips is a must!
Beverages is where Cafe Ashvita really specializes! Theres a HUGE list to choose from, ranging from Iced/flavored teas, “Chais”, Coffes (Cold and Hot) .. all priced very moderately!
Ashvita offers a decent choice of fresh and canned beverages too.. including coconut water and coconut lime!! Canned juices include the regulars - apple, orange, tomato, guava necter, cranberry etc ..
And for you addicts, theres Pepsi (normal and diet :D) , 7 Up.. (YAWN!)
And to end a wonderful evening, get their yummy fudge brownie!
Cafe Ashvita is the kinda place you don’t go to to eat, you go there to meet! Even though its located in the heart of the city, that little distance away from the main road makes a world of difference.. the peace and quiet is most certainly welcome!
Cafe Ashvita is located at 11, Second Street, Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai, Mylapore.
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If you are wishing for some authentic Chinese food and variety of dishes that is not easily seen elsewhere, then you deserve to go and treat yourself at China Town. Located right in the middle of the city on the famous Cathedral Road and just opposite Chola Sheraton its easily accessible.
It is in a complex that houses 4 more restaurants, Zara is one of those that has already been reviewed before. Anyway, you’ll have to walk through a passage before you reach a landing from where you take an elevator up to China Town. Once you enter, you are greeted with pleasant lighting and a relaxing décor. I must say, in many ways it reminded me of Cascade. And it was confirmed when I saw the menu card. The menu was quite similar with a wide variety of non vegetarian dishes with enough to keep the veggie happy too.
To start off, you have a long list of starters and soups which come in generously sized proportions. The main course consists of many different variations of rice and noodles. Non vegetarian dishes range from poultry, sea food, etc. You also have a long list of side dishes in both veg and non veg to choose from. All the items on the menu seem to border on expensive, but the quantity makes up for it. They do have different types of desserts too. One of those, for which China Town is quite famous is the fried ice cream. Its ice cream in cube shape that is fried to have a crispy surface. Its something innovative and is a must try for anyone visiting the place.
One of things i was not happy with was their lack of response. You’ll have long periods of wait, before you can place your order and even longer waits till you get your food. So, if you are looking for a quick meal, this is not the place for you. Rather, if you want to just relax over the weekend and not bother about the time going by, then this would be just fine. On an average, a meal for 2 people would work out to about Rs. 400 which is quite reasonable.
I am not sure about the address, but I will just elaborate more on the location. If you are coming from the direction of marina beach on cathedral road, then take the U-turn immediately after the Music academy flyover near Chola Sheraton. Once you’ve made the U-turn, take the road on the left side of the fly over and you should find China Town immediately on the Left.
If you live somewhere in Chennai’s IT Corridor, i.e. Adyar, Indira Nagar, Taramani or Thiruvanmiyur, then you have a reason to party. Hot Briyani, a venture of Food Delights, as an inaugural offer is giving out Chicken Biryani, Muttton Biryani, Chicken 65 or Vegetable Biryani FREE on June 12th 2007! So mark that date in your calendar and remember to order online immediately so that you don’t miss out on this wonderful offer.
Do note that they are also offering free home delivery. You also get to choose your delivery time as per your convenience which makes the offer even more better. So go ahead, order biryani from Hot Biryani and enjoy!
Having spent close to a year in the Land of Biryani, all types of food including chaat had taken a backseat but now that I am back in Chennai, my mind goes to my favorite joints like the Sandwich Shop in Egmore and Gangotree in Cathedral Road which rank on the top as far as hangouts and eatouts are concerned.
Anyways, today afternoon I was sitting at home, wanting to eat some chaat and decided that I wanted to eat samosas. Immediately, two places came to my mind - one is Grand Sweets and Snacks in Adyar and the other is a road side shop on R. K. Mutt Road, Mylapore. The samosas that are made in Grand Sweets is completely different from what is made in that road side shop and yet, both are good in their own ways.
Samosas at Grand Sweets: I guess all of you know where Grand Sweets is but assuming you don’t, enter Gandhi Nagar and take the road that leads to the Padmanabha Swamy temple and keep going straight for about 500m and you will find Grand Sweets on the left. It is very difficult to miss with a large number of vehicles parked around it. I’m not sure of the rates but I think it costs around Rs. 8, probably more than that, definitely not lesser. The samosa is big (trust me it really is), filled with cashews and is really tasty. I’m sure it is difficult to eat more than two though, more because of the size than anything else. Almost everyone in Chennai is familiar with the samosas from Grandsweets and if you are among the ones who still don’t know about Grand Sweets and their samosas, you are missing something great in life.
I must also mention here that quite a lot of people feel that Grand Sweets could do away with the cashews or atleast reduce the quantity of cashews in each samosa.
Samosas at Mylapore: I am going to have a difficult time trying to describe the location but here is my best try. When you are going from Mandaveli to Mylapore on R. K. Mutt Road, after you cross P. S. High School (on the left) and the Universal Temple (on the right), around 100m further down the road, keep looking out for a small shop with a green wooden gate. This place opens up early morning and serves breakfast for office and school goers. They close at around 10 in the morning and open again at 1 P.M. or so to serve lunch. But if you want to eat their delicious samosas, bajjis, vadas and other sweets and savories, you have to be there between 3.30 and 4.00 P.M., any later and they might run out of stock. These guys make all this right it front of your eyes and serve it hot and that’t why they have a fairly large clientile. The samosas are big but not as big as the ones in Grand Sweets and do not contain cashews but are very tasty nevertheless. They are reasonably priced at Rs. 3.50 so you can have twice the number of samosas when compared to Grand Sweets. I strongly recommend this place and if you either live in Chennai or if you do plan to visit Chennai, then do spare some time and check out this place.
BTW, this shop is closed on Sundays
If anyone else has eaten exceptionally good samosas elsewhere, do leave a comment and I shall add it to the post
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