It has been quite a while since I blogged about eating out and it was because I was not in station and had a few busy weeks. Now that I am back in Chennai, wanted to get back to my blogging ways. This is just the first step in that direction. Hopefully, more to come !
I participated in a Facebook contest by Phoenix Market City and won a voucher of Rs 1000 🙂 I was told it was a voucher from a restaurant, but wasn’t told which one. Happy it was from Mainland China, and immediately the plan to eat out was ready 😀 Diwali shopping and a dinner at Mainland China seemed like a nice idea and as always, destination Phoenix Market City it was!
Entered the restaurant around 7:10PM, a bit early for dinner. The AC was not on as yet. It was switched on as soon as we entered. The person who waited on our table was pleasant and smiling. We were the only ones in the restaurant when we started.
Started with a couple of mocktails – Fruit Punch and Mint Storm. The former was very good, somehow the latter didn’t impress me much. I’ve had mint coolers/mocktails in a lot of places and this was clearly not in the same league. We ordered Chicken Siu Mai. This was wonderful. Before that, let me tell you something. I’ve been to Mainland China many times, both in Cenatoph Road and in Phoenix Market City, and have blogged about my earlier experiences here. In fact, it is one of my favorite places for Chinese food, a tad expensive, but still good. The waiter suggested Basil flavored veg dumpling instead of the Veg Siu Mai that we selected, and I would say it tasted okay, but the outer covering for the dumpling was too stretchy and chewy. It wouldn’t cut with a spoon, and it was sort of sticky too. Not sure if that’s how it is supposed to be, I presume not. The sauces that were served alongside these dumplings were damn tasty. I loved the mustard sauce and almost poured it over the momos. The spring onion sauce was also good. We ordered a Sweet and Spicy Chicken starter and this was also suggested by the waiter, kids loved it while I would have preferred something more hot and spicy. Since we are a bit of heavy eaters, ordered a large portion of everything. My kids loved the chicken Siu Mai and we had to order another one of it. 6 Pieces in a ‘Large’ portion and it disappeared in a jiffy. 🙂
For the main course, we wanted to try Pan-fried Chicken noodles. This was probably the first time we were having pan-fried noodles, otherwise it is mostly hakka noodles. This was good and saucy with a lot of vegetables and chicken and a distinct flavor of fried noodles, tasted very good. Egg fried rice was good, nothing worth raving about though. Ordered Chicken with wine and celery. Remember this tasted wonderful and the last time kids loved it because it wasn’t spicy at all, but today it was just okay. It wasn’t even close to being called bad, but just that the memory of this dish I had in my mind and the reality were far from matching. We were really stuffed and we skipped desserts.
The dinner set us back by 2.7K and included a service charge of 10%. Since I had the vouchers for 1K, I only had to pay the rest and that made it feel much better 😉
I would have liked a goodbye from the waiter who served us or the guys at the reservation desk at the entrance. Both of them were busy in their own world and didn’t bother to say a goodbye. Not that I was longing for it, but was a ‘basic’ expectation while leaving a place. Not a complaint, but surely that ‘small’ thing would matter if I had to decide if I should go there again.
Otherwise, overall a nice dining experience, but definitely not a ‘WOW’ experience !
No Comments