What better than a non-vegetarian breakfast on a Sunday Morning ! Most of the places I know serve Idiyappam and Mutton Paya for breakfast. Since I have restrictions by choice to eating red meat, my friend suggested that I should head to Hotel Crescent in Nungambakkam for tasty Kerala Chicken dishes. In spite of hearing about this place, haven’t been there ever, so decided to tick this place off my list. I should admit that I have a liking for Kerala food, so there was no looking back.
We reached this place around 09:15ish, and it was quite busy at that time. Didn’t have to wait for a table, got seated immediately. I should say the table was a bit small and so was the sofa-seater for two. With kids, we managed to squeeze in, probably for two adults it would have been a bit difficult. Anyway, settled down and right on the top, on the wall, there was the breakfast menu. In just a couple of minutes we were ready with our order.
We ordered two Parotta Chicken Curry sets (It was a combo), One Appam Chicken Curry Set, I fell for Puttu Kadala Curry the moment I saw it, and one Chicken Tawa Fry to start with. The parottas came in about 10 minutes, and I tasted a bit of it. Hot, soft flaky parottas were good. The Chicken Curry was also good with nice flavor. I’m not a big fan of the chicken pieces in the gravy, just tasted a bit of it, it was pretty good. Puttu was a bit dry as compared to the ones I’ve had elsewhere. By far the best puttu and kadala curry I’ve had was in a houseboat cuise between Alleppey and Kumarakom and the cook in our boat made Puttu for breakfast. Straight from the Puttu Kudam to my plate, steaming hot, it was the softest puttu I ever had. That kadala Curry was a different level altogether. So by that standard, this was ordinary, but definitely not even close to being called bad. The Appam was a bit sour to my liking, and it was evident when you tasted the plain appam. With the chicken curry, it was not noticeable. The Chicken Tawa Fry came while we were having these dishes. First look, it was not very pleasing to the eye. They seem to have transferred some portion off this plate, and brought it just like that. Other than that, it was tasty. The chicken pieces as such were bland, but cooked well, and together with the masala, it tasted good.
On my friend’s recommendation, decided to try some of their snacks – Pazham Pori, Pazham Nirachadhu, Ela Ada were on the counter, ordered one of each just to taste. Probably made earlier during the day, none of it was hot/warm, in spite of that they were tasty though. Ela Ada was very yummy, reminded me of the kozhukkattai with Thengai Poornam made at home for Ganesh Chathurthi. Pazham Pori was a nendram pazham bajji 🙂 that was good too. Pazham nirachadhu was a bit too sweet, okayish.
Ordered one more Parotta and Appam and another Chicken Tawa Fry. They came quickly and this time the Chicken dish looked better 🙂 To finish off the breakfast with a dessert, we ordered one Coconut soufflé for each of us. We got four chilled bowls, and the first look the bits didn’t seem like tender coconut, and neither did it look like soufflé. All four of us started to eat at the same time 🙂 I tried to invoke all my senses to catch some coconut flavor in it, but I couldn’t. Wife commented saying this was payasam and not coconut soufflé and then the waiter showed up and apologised that we were wrongly served Ada Payasam 😀 It was tasty and we finished it by then. So asked him for just one coconut soufflé to taste. It was okayish. With Crimson Chakra’s elaneer soufflé in mind, it would be unfair to even compare it on the same scale. It was in the consistency of payasam with tender coconut bits in it, not a soufflé.
Overall, it was a pretty good breakfast, and nothing worth complaining at all. Well, service could have been better, but then the delay was more from the kitchen I think. The person who waited on our table was very polite and tried his best to be quick with the orders. Paid a little less than a Thousand bucks for the breakfast.
Overall, a wonderful start to a Sunday. I would probably look for other options if I have to opt for a non-veg breakfast again!
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