Very recently happened to see a post on social media about a restaurant called Madurai Junction, couldn’t wait to try! A friend and I had some work in Thiruvanmiyur and immediately decided to check this place out for lunch.
The restaurant is located right next to Hot Chips, bang on ECR, in Neelangarai. They have a designated car parking in the next compound, but no valet. Would have been better with a valet parking. The restaurant is located on the first floor and we walked into an almost empty restaurant except for a couple of tables which were occupied. While we were dining, there were a few more guests who came in. The ambience is mixed, on one side, it is very nicely done up with a traditional feel, and on the other side, its just totally different. Feels like two different places.
After a quick look at the menu, decided to order. Quite a few items on the menu like Mutton Bone Roast, Mutton Liver and Paaya were not available which left my friend quite disappointed. We settled for what was available and ordered 1 Mutton Biryani, 1 Egg Biryani (Kuska from the Mutton Biryani plus 1 Egg), 1 Chicken Liver, 1 Chicken Sukka to start with. We were told Biryani was made of Seeragasamba rice and we were okay with that. Seeing the price for biryani as 100 rupees, I was quite confused as to how can it be so cheap. Only when it was served, I realized that the quantity was way too little, in a small Dhonnai. I felt even two of these would be less than ‘one portion’ of biryani served in restaurants in Chennai.
The biryani tasted good, a little spicy, but tasty! My friend liked Mutton Biryani and the meat in it. They served four different gravies and I tried the chicken gravy. It was okay, a bit too runny to eat with the Biryani. My friend tried Mutton gravy and Crab gravy. Again, looks-wise mutton gravy was runny, but crab gravy seemed okay. After tasting a bit, my friend wasn’t very impressed. Chicken Sukka had a nice flavor, a punch from pepper and curry leaves with onions, however the chicken pieces were not the most comfortable to eat. Chicken pieces were with bone, and not the ones that one would be able to eat easily. It was a struggle to eat the chicken, free of bones; every mouthful had at least one. Friend liked the Chicken Liver and didn’t find anything worth complaining.
Meanwhile ordered another Mutton Biryani, 1 Egg Biryani (I wanted a Kuska since I didn’t want an egg again. They agreed to give Kuska at the price of Egg Biryani, that was fine), 1 Paarai Fish Fry, and 1 Muttai Kozhi Vadiyal (Its another name for Egg Kalakki, with Chicken). Friend liked the fish fry, but he has a general preference to Tava Fried Fish as to Deep Fried ones. Egg Kalakki was good consistency-wise, but was bland as Kozhambu wasn’t added to it. The chicken in it was too little and hardly made any impression.
They had only one dessert on the menu – Elaneer Payasam which wasn’t available, so finished with a Madurai Nannari Sarbath and Panneer Soda, both of them were wonderful.
Overall, food tasted pretty good, however, portions (both mains and sides) were too little, and non-availability of many items was a dampener. Service was courteous and pleasant though. We paid a little over 1K for the meal. Next time, I’d probably try Parotta and Dosai items for dinner.
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