Masaledaar Firangi Tadka recently opened their outlet in Velachery. I remember hearing about their Nungambakkam branch in food circles, and was quite glad when they opened in Velachery. I was waiting for an opportunity to visit and today a friend and I made up a quick plan to eat lunch here.
The place is on the Taramani Road, not very far from the Vijayanagar busstand. Since it is quite close to where I live, we managed to reach in about 10 minutes. There is place to park three or four cars, and we were lucky to get a spot. The road is a very busy one, so you may end up struggling to park if there isn’t a place here. They didn’t have valet parking.
The interiors were nice, bright and welcoming! The initial first impression was good and we couldn’t wait to taste their food. Checked with them if they have a Thali and they did! An elaborate thali priced at 199 bucks and an Executive Thali at 99 bucks! Sounded too good to be true, a Thali at 99 bucks with the items mentioned was a steal! Ordered one each of both the thalis so we could sample both.
Meanwhile ordered a Spring Onion & Herb soup to be served one by two. The soup tasted good, but I definitely would have liked it without the herbs. It was a bit too dominating to my palate.
The Thalis came next. The elaborate Thali came with 2 gravies – Paneer, and Aloo Mutter, Dal, Raita, salad, Gulab Jamun, Veg Pulao, Roti and Naan. It also had a sabudana papad. The smaller Thali had Jeera Rice instead of Veg Pulao, didn’t have the Gulab Jamun and Salad, and had 2 rotis instead of a naan and roti. That’s it, and it left me wondering, a difference of hundred rupees for this?
When we started to eat, from the first two mouthfuls it was hard to differentiate between the two gravies. Both had a very similar tomato puree-based gravy, Paneer was a shade better between the two. When we tried to find aloo in the Aloo Mutter, surprisingly I didn’t find even one. Same with my friend too! We called the waiter and inquired why Aloo Mutter didn’t have potato in it. He took a spoon and dipped it right into the gravy on my friend’s plate to look for it :O Quite shocked at this, we asked him to get us Aloo Mutter with Aloo, which he obliged. Dal was good, Raita was decent. Veg Pulao was just yellow-colored rice sans any flavor, below average. Jeera Rice was much better when compared to the Veg Pulao. Roti and Naan were decent, we had to manage with the strikingly similar gravies. After the Aloo Mutter came with Aloo, it felt better. Gulab Jamun was good. Salad was okay! Friend finished with a Chaach, that was served in a goli soda bottle.
There was nothing that was wow in the whole lunch that would make me go back to this place again. Service needs a step-up badly. In an almost empty place, it took a lot of effort to get the waiter come to our table. Training on general ettiquette will do a world of good.
We paid 530 bucks in all for a slightly above average experience.
Without a doubt, the Executive Thali for 99 bucks is a steal for what they serve, but at the same time, I would rather pay more and eat tastier food than pay less and settle for average stuff!
Pind, also a Punjabi vegetarian restaurant in the same locality, is way better when it comes to taste and I’ll recommend that any day over this place.
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