I have tried quite a few prominent restaurants in the locality where I live. I was surprised to hear from a few members in a food group that Savoury Sea Shell opened in Velachery. Though I travel on the same road at least once or twice everyday, Somehow I missed seeing the name board. In fact it was so prominent that anyone passing by would spot it. Guess few things do not happen before they are atually meant to happen! Sounds quite philosophical isn’t it ? 🙂
Wife and daughter had gone out while myself and son were waiting for them to come back. With a heavy downpour and needless to say, a long traffic jam, they were quite delayed. By the time they managed to come back, we were quite hungry and immediately decided to eat out in one of the places nearby. Choice of the restaurant is always left to me. 😉
Headed straight to Sea Shell on Velachery Main Road. Located diagonally opposite to The Grand Mall, this restaurant makes a bold statement. Prominent name boards, a busy barbeque counter with transparent glass, that anyone on the road could see, it was welcoming overall. In fact, Zaitoon which is just a few blocks away must be facing the heat as both are very similar in terms of the cuisine they serve. As we entered, the place had nice and classy interiors, a little noisy, but then, customers were like that and restaurant can’t do anything much! We were given a table immediately and we settled down. Having been to Zaitoon a few times, the menu sounded very familiar. In case you want to read about my experience at Zaitoon, here it is !
Took a quick look at the menu and ordered a Sahan Chicken Shawarma, which is basically a Chicken Shawarma in a plate. This came with a little extra chicken shawarma as compared to a Roll. Also ordered a Chicken Shawarma Roll. Asked the waiter to recommend a nice barbeque chichen, less spicy so that the kids can eat. He suggested Philipino Barbeque and we ordered a Half portion of that. Wife and kids eat seafood, so we ordered Rubian Faa which was supposed to be less spicy than the other barbeque prawn dishes. Daughter wanted French Fries and had to get her one of that. Ordered Dejaj Koji rice and since I’ve had this in Zaitoon, I knew what to expect. This was more like the pulav with a nice aroma of saffron and came with a boneless tawa-fried chicken breast. The starters came in about 10 minutes. Ordered extra Kubus and a small portion of Hummus which wasn’t necessary as all the barbeque dishes get these two as accompaniments along with Thoum, the garlic Mayo. Chicken Shawarma was very tasty, The Philipino Barbeque was the best of all dishes ! WhattaFlavor!!!! Amazing! Along with cut onions, I must have hogged at least two big pieces. I’m marking this one as one of my favorites. Wife and Kids liked the Rubian Faa and finished that. The prawns looked amazing and I was happy with a couple of clicks of these. While we were eating the starters and were not even close to finishing half of it, the Dejaj Koji rice came to the table. Had to politely send it back saying we weren’t done with the starters, and they obliged. A minor glitch which could have been avoided. When we actually asked for it, we got a nice hot portion and not the same one waiting to be served to us again! I was happy about that. Had to pack about half of it and it was promptly done.
We wanted to have some desserts and were quite full too, and thats when I spotted the Mini Falooda on the menu and ordered two for the four of us. It was good, but hardly spotted Falooda seeds and Vermicelli and it was mostly cut fruits. On the top was a lot of dry fruits and it was very tasty. Another minor glitch in service which could have been avoided. Before we could even realize, another guy filled our glasses with ‘normal’ water while we were actually drinking Bottled water. I politely pointed out that to him and was surprised to get a literally ‘I give a damn’ kinda look !!!! Had to give him a piece of my mind and the other waiter immediately apologised. I was actually more pissed off with this guy’s attitude than the actual mistake he did. Nevertheless, a very minor issue indeed and not worth remembering as compared to the tasty food they served!
The dinner set us back by about Rs 1,600 and it was absolutely worth it. Its worth mentioning that the bill did not include a service charge. The bill payment could have been handled better too, the waiter asked me the PIN and when I told him I’ll enter it myself and walked to the counter, saw that they had a wireless swiping machine. When I asked them why wouldn’t they send it to the table, the guy told me the waiter wasn’t aware. 🙂 Anyway, I think people should stop asking for PIN for debit and credit cards, doesn’t sound very rite!
Overall, a pleasant evening and a very nice dinner.
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