Maplai

Okay, a business lunch I couldn’t avoid. 😉
Since we had to meet a few people in Nungambakkam, decided to try Maplai. I’ve been here before and it wasn’t a wow experience then, so wanted to try after about 5 months.

We were three of us, entered at 01:35PM, we were informed that minimum waiting time was 30 minutes. Normally would head elsewhere, but was too hot outside, so decided to wait. Around 2:00PM, we managed to get a table. We had to wait for about 5-10 minutes to get the attention of the waiter to take the order.
Asked for Chicken Biryani Meals and we were informed it was not available. So we ordered 1 Muttai Biryani Meals, 1 Mutton Biryani Meals, and 1 Maplai Meen Meals. To start with everything was okay, my only complaint was that Egg Biryani was a bit too oily to my liking and in fact  I could feel it in my hands and the veg version of their signature item Kayir Katti Kola was not available. There were 2 eggs on the top, the biryani was made of seeragasamba rice and it tasted good. My friend started off with Mutton Biryani and didn’t find many pieces in it, except one egg on the top. He was surprised that the Mutton pieces were too little. The Fish meals was good and another friend was happy with his meal.
Now the chaos started 😉
From the description, what I understood was first serving is with pieces and thereafter repeat is only Kuska, fair enough, it says partially unlimited. We asked him to get more Egg Biryani and Mutton Biryani, and I got a bowl of Biryani with 2 more eggs. I already had 2!! So I asked him to remove it as I did not want to waste, and he came back with the Biryani bowl with no eggs, but a huge piece of meat in it, which looked like Mutton. He said it was Egg Biryani! :O Another waiter had to come, apologise and take it back. Then got another bowl of biryani, and I started to eat. I immediately bit into pieces which definitely was Mutton. More pieces started to come my way. 🙁 My friend got a bowl of Biryani, this time fully loaded with Mutton pieces, and not kuska as what was mentioned. Somehow confused, all of us finished. I reluctantly ate the Biryani, while occasionally biting into Mutton pieces which I normally don’t do.  Chicken gravy was the saviour, it tasted good and helped overpower any flavor from the Mutton Biryani.
Asked our waiter what exactly was the Kuska that they served, was it rice from Chicken Biryani or Mutton Biryani. He had no clue, probably he was a new guy. He brought someone who clearly explained – Chicken Biryani is made with Basmati Rice, Mutton Biryani is made with Seeragasamba Rice. Normally Kuska is served from Chicken Biryani. If it is not available, then they serve Kuska from Mutton Biryani! This made complete sense now. So that’s why Chicken Biryani Meals was not available, so in fact the first serving of Egg Biryani I ate was also Kuska from Mutton Biryani, sans pieces.
I’m not sure if normally there are many people with such weird limitations to eating meat, but I would have liked to be informed in advance that the Kuska was going to be from Mutton Biryani. Of course, I ate it, but was too concerned about any pieces that I might encounter and kept fishing for mutton all throughout the meal. My friend enjoyed his second serving of Mutton Biryani which had succulent pieces of meat.
The Paruppu Paayasam for the dessert was very good, and next to it, there was something like kaara kozhambu with a piece of mango I think, not sure why it came along with the Parotta and Biryani.
Overall, it was not a bad experience, but was confusing in more ways than one !