Recent addition to the Velachery Food Scene is Courtallam Border Parotta, which replaced Mast Kalandar on the 100 Feet Bypass Road. I have been seeing this new banner for the last week or ten days, and came to know from friends in Food Groups that it actually opened ! Staying just two blocks away, I had to try. I’ll keep the original vs fake discussions out of this review as I do not have any verified information on this.
Being a solo diner, its not easy to write a review because it would be unfair to rate a place just based on their two dishes, however, I’ll just keep this as a reference and will certainly visit again for a more elaborate dining. This was only to get the initial feelers of the place.
I was there for lunch and it was burning hot outside and the AC inside was welcoming. The ambience was nice with cane furniture all over and dim lights. The place overall was not very brightly lit, but the tables were. So no complaints with the lighting. On closer look, the flooring was done with asphalt/bitumen. This was probably to create a feeling of highway and then I noticed the signboard to Tenkasi and Sengottai, similar to the ones on NH roads. This was quite different and good. The place was visibly clean and welcoming.
The menu was attractive, but immediately spotted that the place was more than just border parotta. It was actually a multi-cuisine restaurant serving North-Indian, Chinese cuisines in addition to the ‘border’ specialities. I decided to stick on to their specialities.
First, I wanted to check their parotta. Took a quick look at the menu and ordered 2 pieces of Parotta only to be told that I had to order the gravy separately. I was surprised that Salna was not served with the parotta. I did not want to waste the gravy as I wasn’t sure if I could finish it all by myself, so ordered a Chicken Veechu Parotta after I confirmed with them that it would be served with gravies. Madurai Muttai Poriyal was catchy on the menu, ordered one of it. Food was served in about 10 minutes and it was perfectly fine. Muttai Poriyal was good, and quantity was decent for the price tag. Generous amounts of green chillies, it was tasty. Chicken veechu parotta came next, cut into four pieces. The gravies came in two cute buckets, both were chicken gravies, one was normal and other was pepper chicken gravy. Clicked a few pics of everything and started to eat. The first mouth – the gravy tasted sweet !! That was a surprise! Pepper chicken was plain sweet in taste. Tried the other gravy, it was barely different, not-so-sweet though. It was definitely not what I was expecting. I wanted to relish the chicken veechu parotta with spicy chicken gravy and it turned out to be otherwise. Managed with the chillies from the muttai poriyal. Chicken veechu parotta was quite good. The chicken pieces were either minced too well, or they were too few, couln’t get to taste chicken well-enough in it. Asked for one piece of Parotta, since I already had the gravy on the table. Just wanted to check how the parotta was. It was just the size of the palm and taste-wise, did not disappoint. Again had to manage with the sweet gravy.
By this time, there was a power cut and ACs stopped functioning. I was sweating profusely and just wanted to leave after the meal. Checked with them if I could get a chilled juice and they did not have the freezer working perhaps, they didn’t have ice it seems. So had to leave it there. These are probably few things that will settle down.
Asked for the bill and it was 270 bucks incl. taxes, 160 for the parotta, 70 for Muttai Poriyal and 20 for extra parotta. Personally for me, not serving Salna with parotta is a big disappointment. The gravies that were served were sweet and definitely not to my liking. While I was seated, someone in the next table were ordering Veg Kurma, Cheese Omelette and so on. So not all of them come to relish the border specialities, for them it could be a decent place. I would personally rate the place in G N Chetty road far superior in terms of authentic ‘border’ specialities, but since this is a multi-cuisine restaurant, the customers have a choice of having other cuisines too.
No Comments