One of my friends from school had come down from Trichy along with his little son and was put up in Park Hyatt in Velachery. After exploring different options of where we could go for an outing with family, we ended up with a plan to catch up for dinner.
Myself and another friend reached Park Hyatt around 07:30PM and our friend was there at the lobby, waiting for us. I’ve been to The Flying Elephant a couple of times earlier, so we decided to stick to that place. Soon we had the table set and were seated one level above.
Needless to say about the place and ambience, it is one of the very nice places in Chennai and very ‘happening’ during the weekends.
We started with soup for the kids, beer and a glass of wine for us, and some starters. There were five kids in all and were having a gala time. A couple of them had the Veg broth with seasonal veggies and flat noodles. It was interesting to see the veggies and contents were first placed in a bowl and the broth was poured later 🙂 A couple of them had Cauliflower cream soup. I thought the veg broth was a tad salty, but manageable. The beer and wine was served. We ordered Falaffel, as my wife wanted vegetarian, chicken kofta, and chicken tikka. Chicken Kofta was nicely presented, colorful, and tasty too. It looked like minced meat held together around a skewer and grilled, typically like a kebab. So minus the skewers, it looked like a long hollow pipe. It was well-done and tasty. Falaffel was served with a dip and it was good. Chicken Tikka came with the bone, but amazingly soft, succulent and tasty. You could eat the entire chicken with a knife and fork effortlessly and just leave behind a small bone, it was that soft. As the kids relished the chicken dishes, we repeated the Chicken Kofta and Chicken Tikka. We asked for Boneless Chicken Tikka this time. All this time, we were served bread topped with butter and salt. It was amazingly soft and fresh. We were served this at least thrice and we finished it all three times 😉 While the beers were going on in parallel, we had a lovely time catching up with stories from the recently concluded reunion of our batch at school. Kids were almost stuffed by then, and we decided to take it easy after about 3-4 bottles each. btw they serve the 375ml bottle and not the normal one, just saying 😉
Wanted to keep the main course light. Just a couple of items and we decided to share it amongst ourselves. We ordered a Tavuk Sis – char-grilled Chicken Skewers, a Chicken Biryani, and a Veg Nasi Goreng. The Chicken came without the skewers though, but looked good. I was told it tasted good too, but I did not have it. Chicken Biryani was typically like a North-Indian Biryani. I could relate it to the Awadhi Biryani and the chicken pieces were boneless, soft, and had a nice flavor. I have already mentioned in my reviews earlier that I am not a lover of chicken in the Biryani, but North-Indian Biryani is an exception, I loved the chicken in it. Nasi Goreng was wonderful, served with garlic rice crackers instead of prawn crackers. I had a bit of that too and it tasted awesome. Too full by this time, we decided to skip the desserts. It was a relaxed dinner and easily took about three hours. By the time we were done, it was almost 11:00PM.
After 11:00PM, The Flying Elephant functions as a Pub with all the Bouncers in place, with Entry rules, and so on. It would have been a little polite and pleasant if the guys manning the pub entry did not question me twice when I had to take the kids to the restroom, while my family and friends were seated in the lounge. Anyway, I don’t remember anything like this when I have been there after 12:00AM, at least a couple of times. Probably it was some special event yesterday and they were doubly cautious, whatever.
The place, needless to say, is expensive. Being a Luxury 5 Star hotel, it is supposed to be so ! The Food bill came to about 8.5K and the Drinks bill was around 6K. My friend had already asked it to be put on his room, and did not give us a slightest chance to pay. So it turned out to be my friend’s treat. We’re still unsuccessfully trying to convince him to go Dutch on the bill, Lets see. It was nice to catch up with family, and the kids got to know each other well and had a really nice time.
Overall, it was a very pleasant evening that will stay in my memory for quite sometime !
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