Alwarpet isn’t really known to be a haven for meat lovers, and Samco has been so far flying the flag for carnivores in this area. While hi5-yoyo-dudeofthemonthguys will find more quirky places that serve meat in the area, a la L’amandlier, the family audience finds comfort in Samco. But, not for long. They’ve got another establishment in Masala Pattinam, gunning for their crown, and being a stone’s throw away from Samco, people might start giving this a shot. And they should.
I earlier came to this place a while back, when it was some other establishment named tree House. Had a good meal back then, so the omens were so far favoring the restaurant and I walked in hoping for a good experience. We were warmly greeted by the manager of the establishment, and had seated down for the meet. We requested the chef to provide us with his signature dishes for us to sample, and then came this moochu thenara thenara amount of food. :P
We started with a round of mocktails. A friend recommended their chocolate liquor shake, and since this is the only time I might have a dish named liquor, I took her word on it. It was absolutely intense. Mixture of chocolate and nuts and what not. I remember having my last sip of the drink, and baaam. Elaichi. O***. Me and my luck. I wish they’d increase the quantity of the drink though, it’s a little less for the price. The drink is still worth it though, just pray you don’t get an Elaichi. Every other mocktail was lemon soda with coloring, or coca cola. One of the mocktails had apple slices and it gave it a nice flavor. Most of the mocktails had a long green chilly soaked into it. It left this residual heat in your throat as the drink went down. Different experience!
The food arrived and it kept coming and coming. Soups served were the Chicken rasam and the cauliflower rasam. Chicken rasam was lovely, refreshing, set the whole meal up nicely. Then arrived their starters. A huge seer fish, fish tikka, a turmeric based chicken tikka, mutton cutlets, veg cutlets, some vadas, and a paneer tikka. Fish tikka. Dish of the day. Fish so fresh, I didn’t have to chew it, it just melted in my mouth. Tasted amazing. I felt their seer fish was a bit undercooked, as the masala was a bit raw in a few places. Tasted good though. Chicken tikka was great, and the meat very moist and tender. Paneer tikka was good, soft paneer with a good marinade. Really got the vegetarians going. Mutton cutlet was a misnomer, as 3 of us were constantly checking with each other “Macha, unakku mutton vandicha?” “macha you got some?” Eventually we all did, but the amount we got didn’t justify the word mutton in the dish.
Main course was up next, with a plethora of gravies with nice super flaky parottas. We had a fish curry, chicken chettinad, chicken Patiala and a veg kolhapuri gravy. The chicken Patiala, looked like butter chicken, tasted like butter chicken, but wasn’t butter chicken. Purinjidho? Enakkum purila da. It had an omelette inside, which was stuffed with some green chicken gravy. They were again pretty stingy with the quantity of the chicken inside, which was disappointing. The gravy tasted great though, and it helped me get through the dish in spite of not finding any chicken in it. Their veg kolhapuri was out of this world. Seriously, amazing dish. Spicy, flavorful, I mean it’s a simple vegetable based gravy but ohmygod, for a second I pushed all meat aside and demolished that gravy. Marana mass ya. Recommend everyone to try that gravy.
For dessert, we were too full so we decided to sample 2 dishes, the gulab jamun and the red rice payasm. Gulab jamuns were good, though I wish they’d soak them in the syrup a bit more before serving as the jamuns I had, were dry on top and moist on the bottom. Their payasm, is very nice, with just a hint of sweetness through it. Seemed like a very healthy dish. If dessert = diabetes to you, then you wouldn’t like it, as it isn’t even as sweet as vanilla ice cream. Acquired taste I presume.
The place is good ya. They have even applied for a liquor license and would probably grab the market by the gonads if they get it, as my friends are all for beer&biryani, like most people. They’d just eat it up. For now, it’s a real nice place to take your family to have some good food. With that single stretch of CP Ramaswamy road having new food joints opening up left, right and centre, Masala Pattinam has worked hard to carve a niche for themselves. Let’s give them credit for it, cause truly, they deserve it.
Cheers. : )
P.S.
1. Big thanks to the management of Masala Pattinam for having us over for a superb meal!
2. Shout out to my brother Miss Cupcake who brought us here, but couldn’t make it herself! Thala illamal vaal madhiri aaidichu. :D
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KeerthiVasan KV (Mr.FoOdiee), Rajiv Shankar Mr. Fudgy Jayasuriyan Alagarsamy Piggysash
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