Decided to have simple dinner along with a friend somewhere not too far away from home, and immediately I picked a place in Velachery – Appa Sutta Dosai. Remember seeing some reviews in food groups and had to append this name to my never-ending list of ‘restaurants to visit’.
This place is located in the road adjacent to The Grand Mall, on Velachery-Tambaram Main Road, just a little away from the Vijayanagar Bus Terminus. I think it is called Seetharaman Main Road. Though I pass through this main road every other day, never bothered to look at this street in particular. I was surprised to see so many new places here. There’s McD that has been for quite long, don’t remember the name of the ice cream place next to it, Appa Sutta Dosai, a Japanese restaurant Aki Bay, and Nalas Appa Kadai. Didn’t see any more places, probably there were a few more.
We noticed the serial lights hanging from a tree in front of the restaurant, a festive atmosphere indeed. As we entered, the place looked very good, a nice wall paper that gave a feeling of red bricks all over, quite comfortable coir chairs, good water glasses on the table, good AC, and overall, pretty decent ambience. The tables were a bit too close to each other, but that was manageable.
As soon as we settled down, we got a shot of a hot welcome drink. It was like sukku coffee and paanagam types and was good.
I think that’s where the good things came to an end. To give a gist of the whole review, I wasn’t very pleased with the food. I will elaborate on my experience, read on.
We ordered Kozhi Milagu Rasam, and Chindhamani Chicken – I was told the chicken dish was with green chillies, coconut, and prepared in Coimbatore style. I had some sort of an expectation in my mind. When we first got the Chindhamani Chicken, on first look, it seemed too little. It was brought in a side plate similar to what was on our table. I would have liked it a little more spicy, and the scraped coconut on top was making it even more sweeter. Personally, it was just ok for me. By the time we started to eat, realized that the quantity wasn’t enough and I also ordered Chicken Porichadhu, which was basically Boneless Chicken 65 types. Meanwhile Kozhi Milagu Rasam was served and no separate soup spoons were available. Had to use the same spoon used for starters, that was manageable, no complaints. On tasting the first spoon, it was quite strong, but very salty. Tried another spoon and it wasn’t possible to have anymore of it, had to mention this to the waiter to have it replaced, and he apologised and readily obliged. Chicken Porichadhu came next, again, too little and ONE small slice of onion. Really?!?!? My friend let me have the slice of onion 😉 he’s a nice guy! This clearly lacked salt and the punch. Ate one piece, two pieces, with onion, without onion, still did not make a positive impression. Anyway, it was chicken and I wouldn’t leave anything on the plate until it was absolutely not palatable. Finished it! Meanwhile the Kozhi Milagu Rasam made a re-entry. This time it was not as strong as before, felt diluted, and was just okayish. Too many curry leaves in it and had to keep taking it off each spoon which wasn’t very comfortable. Our impression so far was just average!
Ordered a Chicken Pizza Dosai, just out of curiosity of how a pizza would taste in a dosai base. My friend wanted a Masala dosai, but I ordered a Mysore Masala dosai just to see the little Udupi/Bengaluru/Mysore/whatever 🙂 twist to it. The Chicken Pizza dosai was quite good looks-wise, more a pizza than a dosai 🙂 and was served with Tomato sauce and not chutneys. First piece, dipped it in generous amount of what I assumed to be tomato ketchup. However, it was Hot&Sweet or the Tomato Chilly Sauce types and was quite hot. Needed some water to neutralize the heat quotient. Next mouth I was careful and tasted just the dosai. I liked the veggies, cheese and chicken in it, pretty much the toppings of a chicken pizza which can’t go wrong. Now and then while chewing, I was reminded that it was not a pizza, but a dosai, I liked this one. 🙂 Coming to my friend’s Mysore Masala dosai, the first expectation of getting a thick dosai like the ones in Bengaluru went for a toss. It was thin like the normal dosais in Chennai. It did have the red chutney smeared on the inside. It was just ok. The chutneys that were served with the dosai were decent and sambhar was okay too. It was decent, not anything extraordinary. Of all the items, Chicken Pizza Dosai was the clear winner !
When we asked for the check, at the risk of sounding repetitive, I must mention, I had two options – Either give the PIN for my debit card to the waiter or enter it myself in the cash counter. I do not understand why is it so difficult for restaurants to get the wireless card swiping machines!! It would just add a little more comfort to the diner, which I think is good.
The dinner set us back by around 700 bucks, the food wasn’t as good as their ambience and service.
Address –
137, Shop 1, Grand Arcade, Doctor Seetaram Nagar, Velachery, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600042
+91-7358389777
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