Posted by Navin Ganesh on Apr 23, 2007 in
Bangalore I was at Bangalore for the weekend to attend an interview on Sunday. But it had been a while since I had gone hanging out in Bangalore. And being the rave I am for checking out new places, it was my cousin with whom I was staying, who ended up taking me to every place I had on my request list.
I, like any other visitor to Bangalore wanted to go to the ever popular Forum and Garuda Malls. For some apparent reason, they have been assumed to be the happening places. Anyway, my cousin played down my ignorance and decided to take me to Cunningham Road. I was mad at him for a while, but I slowly realized that I was in for a pleasant surprise and finally ended up thanking him for his wise decision.
Well, for a person like me, who is freaked out about crowded places, especially when I want to chill out for a while, the likes of a crowded Garuda Mall and Forum are not of much interest. We first entered Sigma Mall which you can find to your right on Cunningham Road (Its One Way). I was very happy to see a pretty much empty mall with lots of nice shops and eateries to check out. I really liked the place, and it has got everything that you would need, when you need to take a few hours away from your routine.
We then walked out to check out the other hangouts on Cunningham Road. Though I was not able to check out each place fully, I can give you an overview of the kind of places that you can find there.
As soon as you enter the Cunningham Road, you will find Café Coffee Day on your right and a little further and you have Barista to your left. A few more meters and you can find a building on the right side called Prestige Centre Point which houses Pizza Hut, Sweet Chariot Café and Aura (which is a restaurant cum bar). Keep moving and you will find Sigma Mall on your right. Directly opposite to Sigma Mall, you can find a Tea bar called Infinitea. Next to Infinitea, i.e. on the Left Side you will find a weird looking restaurant called Shezan. It said Indian, Continental and Chinese on the Door, but check it out at your own risk, and not when you are terribly hungry. And finally, after crossing Sigma Mall, you will find a Dominos Pizza outlet on your left.
I will be reviewing Sigma Mall in a separate post, as there is quite a bit to say about it. I really liked the place. So, look forward to that post. I would like to add a few words about Aura I talked about earlier. I only got to check it out from outside due to some time constraints. Its quite upscale and hugely expensive, so don’t go there unless you have a fat wallet. Also I heard it has a dance floor, but if I get a chance to review that place, will go into full detail. Anyway, the point being, it is a place worth checking out, especially on a evening when you are loaded with money and have lots of time to burn.
That’s about everything there is on Cunningham Road, but I would like to share one other place with you all. It’s this Chinese Restaurant called Chung’s. To find it, keep going straight from Sigma Mall, and take the first right. As soon as you’ve made the turn, you’ll find Chung’s on your left. I haven’t been there myself, but I’ve been told that the food is delicious and that too at very affordable prices.
Phew! That’s been quite a recollection I’ve had to make from memory. I’ve talked about Cunningham Road on the whole, but if anyone can review the places separately, it would be great to have those posts (especially reviews of Aura and Infinitea).
Posted by Girish Ganesh on Apr 21, 2007 in
Chennai If it is Chinese then its Mandarin for me. I love Chinese food and have tried quiet a few places but again and again I keep comparing them with Mandarin and now I just stick to it.
The first time I went to this place with my friend I wasnt really impressed as it is located in a small street adjacent to Gangotree and you wont see it unless you look for it but I was in for a surprise, the ambience inside is calm with soft music in the background and the lighting was not too bright; just perfect for a dinner with someone special 
My favorite is the Peking Soup which is a mix of non-vegetarian meats and lots of vegetables. Its absolutely delicious and wholesome in itself. They have starters which are good like Gobi or Chicken Manchurian and they go very well with the soup. I also love their Special-Mandarin Veg Chopsuey, Hakka Noodles and pretty much everything on the menu.
The best part is that all the dishes are served fresh and don’t have a lot of oil in them. They offer a wide variety particularly in the non-vegetarian category and if u are a non-vegetarian you will really love it. In addition to all this, they come at a reasonable price when compared to other places which offer chinese food, at around Rs. 70 per dish.
The desert section is not worth mentioning here. It is the usual icecreams, milk shakes, indian sweets and fruit salads that you get at every other restaurant.
The only drawback if any is the limited space. It is a small restaurant with a seating for around 50-60 people and most of the time it is full and has customers waiting at all times. With limited waiters attending, the food takes around 20 minutes to come but it is worth the wait.
It is a must visit for chinese food lovers in chennai.
Mandarin is right next to Gangotree and opposite to Stella Maris on Cathedral Road. And for those who don’t know either Gangotree or Stella Maris here it goes 
– 19, Thiruveediyan Street, Gopalapuram, Chennai.
Phone : +91-44-2827 7431.
Posted by Niveditha Ramaswamy on Apr 20, 2007 in
Chennai Heart of the city, neighbour to two famous city colleges, lip smacking food and ofcourse easy on your pocket. Its the magical combination that any eatery would dream of having.
Well it is the first place that strikes the mind at the slightest mention of the word ‘chaat’ in Chennai. Their quality and variety of food is unparalleled. Its almost addictive many a time. You just can’t stop eating till you are filled up to the throat.
My favorites are pani puri (5 servings) for Rs. 18, paneer rolls for Rs. 12 and dhoklas for Rs.12. You get a plethora of chaat items all being affordable at around Rs.25 to 30 each. More than affordability, the value of money is what is more impressive. The taste is simply irresistible and there is no compromise on quality either. The friendly guys behind the counters are ever ready to make you one of those mouth watering chaats. While you stand there watching them make it, its most likely that you are already picturing yourself savouring every bit of it.
It doesn’t stop with just chaats. You have the choice of sweets from all over India and you are pampered with a huge list of sandwiches (I love the chilly cheese! – Rs. 35), fruit juices, slushes, floats, fizz, milk shakes and ice creams and some other stuff which I’m not sure which category to put in.
The most famous Gangotree is on Cathedral Road, right opposite to stella maris college. Though its got a lot of tables, you will always find it cramped because of the floating crowd which keeps on flowing in. Go in the weekends, and you can consider yourself lucky to get a table. If you are not upto waiting through crowds to get a chaat, you can enjoy the same taste at other Gangotree outlets at Chennai Citi Centre, T.Nagar and Planet Yumm at Elliots Beach. Another fascinating thing is that its very clean inspite of the mad rushes that happen almost every evening. So, even if you are hygiene freak, you should be pretty impressed with the place.
It’s a great place to go out with your family or friends. If its just one of those days, when you are not upto a full dinner, then Gangotree is just what you are looking for.
You can find Gangotree at 42, Cathedral Road, Chennai – 600 086.
Other Gangotree Outlets in Chennai:
- Chennai Citi Centre on Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai.
- Planet Yumm at Elliots Beach (Besant Nagar Beach).
- North Boag Road in T. Nagar.
Phone (Chennai): +91-44-2811 1664, +91-44-4202 9475.
Posted by Gayathri Jagannathan on Apr 20, 2007 in
Bangalore Hey Bowling lovers…
For those of you who don’t want to just have food and relax but would like some entertainment thrown in, Star City at Bangalore is the place for u.
They’ve got a 12-lane bowling alley where you get 20 throws for Rs 75 on weekdays and the same for Rs 100 on weekends. The place tends to get crowded during weekends. For a bite or a gulp in between games, you get anything from cool drinks (to recover from the dehydration after bowling!, lol.. kidding) to finger chips, paneer fries (very tasty!!) and veg fried rice all at a reasonable price. Compared to other similar places, this one gets the thumbs up for its pricing and spaciousness. Apart from bowling u have arcade video games and even Karting which again are affordable. And if that’s not enough, you also have the fun world theme park right behind.
I was really lucky that my first office (just after MBA) was located right next to this place. Every other day, I ended up spending some time here after my office hours. It kinda made up for me missing my fun from college days Great fun! The crowd is predominantly working professionals who come over to chill out after a hard day’s work. Corporates can avail of memberships and so can regulars, who get a membership card and enjoy special offers every now and then.
If you are a pro, and just bowling to burn time is not your cup of tea, then make sure you look out for the tournaments and coaching camps organized by Star City.
You will find Star City on Nandi Durga Road, just off Mekhri circle. It is on the road that will lead you to the commercial market / cantonment station.
Location: Palace Grounds, Munireddy Palya, J.C. Nagar, Bangalore 560006.
Phone: +91-80-2354 3291, +91-80-2357 3287.
Posted by Kavitha Mohan on Apr 18, 2007 in
Chennai Long gone are the days when we used to do fun things with friends. Things like spending time racing each other and bumping into rubber tyres. You guessed right, I’m talking about karting. Karting was the “in-thing” a few years ago, but not anymore. Now people are more caught up doing the rounds of newly cropped up ultra-hep malls. Ahem!! I’m part of the herd that goes to the ultra-hep city malls too, but I don’t know what took over me and my friends last weekend, we decided to do something different. After much thought we decided to go to Beach Kart – a karting track just before War Memorial. It comes on the left hand side while going from Santhome to Parrys. Look out for the banner, its quite hard to miss.
Though I was nervous, I decided to go along with them coz I didn’t have much of a choice. It has been a while since I went karting and I definitely wasn’t very good at it even the previous time. I made up my mind to give it a shot and not chicken out as I normally do. How bad could it be? Its like driving around in a toy car. When we finally got there, I was all geared, yes you heard me right “all geared” to hit the track and give it my best shot. There were not many people at the karting zone. Obviously, coz the whole of Chennai was in the mall. I was quite happy, coz the lesser the people, the lesser the chances of me making a fool of myself.
The prices were much lesser compared to what they were a few years back. They charge Rs 50 for 2 laps, Rs 100 for 5 laps and Rs 150 for 10 laps. They also have an option for single or double seater. I decided to risk only my life, so I opted for the single seater, and coaxed myself to settle for 10 laps. The track is not as big as the ones that I have seen in Hyderabad, but big enough. There were around seven men or should I say, “trained professionals” who are ready to come to your rescue when you hit against the lined up rubber tyres or when you just go haywire. Their presence didn’t make me feel very secure, but it at least gave me the peace of mind that if something were to go wrong, there are people to help.
The race started, everyone zoomed ahead of me. Me being an avid believer of the moral “Slow and steady wins the race”; went slowly and steadily. At the end of 10 laps I realized that I was racing all by myself. LOL! That really was a huge blow to my ego. I decided to be part of the next race as well, and this time I forgot all about the moral and raced like there was no tomorrow. I finished second last this time, but I felt better than the previous time. At the end of the race, I wanted to race more, but our need to eat took over and we decided to head towards the mall coz the restaurant there didn’t look very appealing. I guess they should do something about it. If they have a decent restaurant, then the crowd will stick around for a longer time.
We blew up 300 bucks per head in a matter of 1hr, but we felt elevated. The high that you get after racing is something that you wouldn’t experience while doing the rounds of city malls. Overall, the evening was well spent, so was our money.
Posted by Narayanan Hariharan on Apr 17, 2007 in
Hyderabad/Secunderabad My colleague and I had some work in Dilsukhnagar, Hyderabad and were passing through L. B. Nagar when hunger pangs hit us. A few hundred meters away from Kamineni Hospitals, we found this surprisingly decent looking restaurant called High Street in an otherwise outskirt looking area.
High Street has a very good and pleasant décor and serves Indian delicacies. From the moment we entered, we liked the place. It was past three in the afternoon and both of us were very hungry. We ordered Veg Pulao and Kadai Vegetable and two cups of curd. The order came in about 10 minutes time and was very good. The Veg Pulao along with the Kadai Vegetable was more than sufficient for the both of us. Then they served curd which came in big bowls and was surprisingly better than the curd I have had at most places in Hyderabad. The best part was the bill was only a little above Rs. 200. All in all, it was a very nice experience eating at High Street.
A lot of people are not aware of High Street because it opened recently and more so because we don’t expect such good restaurants in the outskirts of the city. Being on the way to Ramoji Film City, High Street can be a good place for those who are on their way or coming from the Film City and are looking for a cheaper place when compared to the high cost restaurants located inside Ramoji Film City itself.
High Street is at 3-8-418/1, Suryodaya Colony, Road No. 4/1, L. B. Nagar Ring Road, Hyderabad – 500074.
Phone: +91 40 64545454, +91 98662 39997.
Email ID: info_highstreet@yahoo.co.in
Posted by Kavitha Mohan on Apr 15, 2007 in
Chennai I’m back in the city after a long time and there is so much to do and such little time. I had to meet friends, catch up with all the happening gossip, fill them in with whats happening in my life. All this had to be done and I just had time to do this over a cup of coffee. So there began my quest for a place that has a great ambience (preferably outdoors), good food, and no restrictions to express ourselves (my girl friends can get loud sometimes ). The first place that came to my mind was a coffee house situated in a calm locality in Gopalapuram, Chennai. No, No, I’m not gonna tell you about Cafe Coffee Day or Barista or any other run of the mill coffee pub, I’m gonna tell you about a coffee place that set the trend for many other coffee places – Amethyst. It also has a gallery where they have painting exhibitions, poetry reading, jewelery display etc. Its not just another coffee pub. It is that and much much more.
Amethyst is the ideal place for a group of friends to catch up. The neatly and accurately placed tables in the garden gives you the feeling of being at home and having your own tea-party or should I say coffee party I have been to Amethyst before, but today it felt like I was going there for the first time. The menu has changed from the last time that I had been there. Prices have increased by five or ten bucks, but who cares, all good things come with a price. I wouldn’t mind paying that extra ten for the ambiance and the experience that Amethyst offers.
After our animated hi, hello, how do you do, we got down to ordering. I ordered a Cafe Latte (Rs. 45) and a Chocolate Brownie (Rs. 55). There are other things on the menu that I would have ordered if only I hadn’t had lunch already. I’m told that the pasta here is very good, I will try it the next time I come to Amethyst. They also have milkshakes, cold coffee, pastries, desert, french fries etc etc. On the whole they offer a wide variety of food and drinks ranging from 35 (the normal coffee) to something around 200, (I don’t know for what).
Some feel that Amethyst is a bit too expensive. Yes it is, just a bit but I guess its worth it. The outdoor set up doesn’t make you feel restrained in any way. For a noisy bunch like ours, this is the ideal place. Amethyst is one of the few coffee pubs in the city that allow its customers to smoke. They have a non-smoking zone for people who are against passive smoking. Different people, different likes and thats exactly what Amethyst caters to. I had a wonderful evening sipping on my Cafe Latte and enjoying my hot Chocolate Brownie for hours. On the whole I would give Amethyst 8/10 just for its ambiance and for letting me catch up with a bunch of over enthusiastic friends.
Amethyst is at 14/30, Padmavathi Road, Gopalapuram, Chennai – 600086.
Phone: +91-44-24991330
Posted by Narayanan Hariharan on Apr 7, 2007 in
Miscellaneous Welcome to Hangout Digger. Here you will find out about hangouts around us. Read more here.
