I’ve seen this place a few times while driving on Cenatoph road, from the flyover, but never really had a chance to visit it until today. Actually the plan was to meet a friend and we decided to go to Madurai KB Konar Mess, in Alwarpet. Drove all the way, only to be told that they’re no longer open! Checking for a few possibilities in and around that area, we landed at Ikkakas.
The place is located just next to the Japanese restaurant Hokkaido, and the more popular Cafe Ambrosia. The road is not very broad here, thankfully there is valet parking which we took a while to notice. After an initial struggle to park, we handed over the car and proceeded to the restaurant. The restaurant is bright and welcoming! Quite a few tables were occupied when we entered. We were just two, but then, the two-seaters were too compact for comfort, we settled in one of the four-seaters.
The menu was sort of elaborate, and had almost all that you would expect in a typical Kerala Restaurant. We ordered a Kappa with Kandhari chutney, Ikkakas Chicken Fry after confirming twice with the waiter that it was boneless chicken, 1 Mutton Biryani, 2 Parottas.
We got the chukku vellam I think, it was colored and hot, but couldn’t make out anything more from it. In a few minutes, we got a plate with raw mango slices sprinkled with red chilly powder and green chilli bits.
That’s it, from then on, we waited for 25-30 minutes to be served. Quite hungry, losing patience, but still we kept cool because it was obvious that a big party of 15 or so, seated on the other side were already waiting for their order and the kitchen seemed to be struggling to dish out to them. In parallel, Swiggy delivery boys were going in and out carrying their orders. We also noticed that running orders (for those already in the middle of their meal) were also entertained. So we pretty much had no other choice than to wait!
Finally, food made its way to our table after around 25 mins. Chicken did seem different and nice, a lot of red chillies and dry coconut in it. First piece, I bit into a bone! Quite surprised, checked other pieces only to find them with bones! Had to wait to get the waiter’s attention to send it back.
Kappa with Kandhari chutney was good. Biryani was wonderful, the mutton pieces were tender and easily coming off the bone, the chammanthi and pappadom were nice to have with it, loved it! Parotta was superb, flaky, soft, hot and a typical Kerala Parotta as what I expected.
We ordered Chicken Mulaku Varattiyathu instead of Ikkakas Chicken Fry as they said that was boneless. We also ordered an egg roast, another parotta and two aappams.
Aappams were soft and tasty, Parotta was good, Chicken dish was just okay, no great flavors except the red chilly powder/paste and this also had small bones and we had to leave a few pieces. Egg Roast was a disappointment too. Typical Egg onion Fry from Deluxe or Crescent was what I had in mind. What we got was far from it. Two boiled eggs, not even cut in half, in sauteed onion and tomato. That’s all I could make out from that. It was very ordinary.
Finally decided to end with a Fulljar soda! I have been hearing about it for quite sometime now and knowing it was available here, couldn’t leave without trying. 🙂 This was basically a strong concoction of green chilli paste, ginger, beetroot, and sabja seeds in a shot glass, dropped into a bigger glass full of soda and drunk when it overflowed. Wanted to click a video, wasn’t too pleased with it, ordered one more to get a better video 😉 and this time, it was much better! Full time-pass, tasted decent.
Overall, my experience here was just okay, a few dishes were very good, and a few just about average. We paid a little more than 1.4K in all. The service could have been better, and if not for the huge group, I am sure we would have had a better experience today.
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