Kora Karnival, the new landmark next to the Velachery MRTS station seemed to have started operations looking at the dazzling lights and a reasonable crowd around the entrance. It was quite obvious that not all of the outlets were open. Most certainly Michaung cyclone would have had a fair share in delaying the setup of various outlets.
Pics are deliberately underexposed to get more detail.
There was sufficient car parking space, however, we were asked to pay 200 Rupees upfront, out of which Rs. 40 was towards car parking, and Rs. 160 was redeemable for food. Declined to pay that and paid only 40 Rupees, on our return. Found it quite weird that they had to have something like this, until I read an explanation somewhere on the internet, that it was to control people parking here and heading to Chennai Silks, located right next to it. 🙂 Fair enough!
As I had already mentioned, many stalls are yet to open, and the place would look a lot better when that happens. One of the first observations was that there was not one familiar name. Not sure if it was by design or the bigger names weren’t just interested.
We took a walk through the place and it was good to see they had partitioned the setup in two halves, the left side was all vegetarian outlets and right side was non-vegetarian. The space in the centre had a lot of tables, presumably common seating. There were also separate dining enclosures on either sides. There were some juice/mocktail stalls too!
Surprisingly, non-veg section had four or five similar-looking kebab places next to each other, all with an elaborate display of meats skewered and ready to grill. A couple of the outlets had Shawarma too. There was a Biryani outlet that served in an earthen pot. Noticed a Japanese outlet too.
There was also a theater, fish spa, a dog café, and kids’ play area for additional fun other than just food.
Now to what we tried. I was with a vegetarian friend, so just went with veg options.
QARNATAQ – Firstly decided to check out a dosa counter. The outlet did not have a prominent nameboard, but the menu board said ‘Qarnataq’, and had quite a few dosa varieties listed. Ordered Benne Masala Dosa! Firstly, dosa was wonderful, not a slightest complaint with the taste of dosa, aloo palya, chutneys or sambhar. Everything was wonderful, however, it was not the Bengaluru/Karnataka dosa in appearance. Sambhar was sweet though! Paid 157 bucks through GPay, not cheap, but I am not complaining as it was quite big in size, and filling too.
The counter next to it – JA-PAN CAKE had an attractive display of Red Velvet mini pancakes. Decided to check them out too. They served Waffles and mini pancakes. Chose Vanilla with Belgium Chocolate. At least that’s how it sounded. This took some time to cook, meanwhile we finished the dosa. The display looked good, and tasted even better! 9 mini pieces for 191 bucks was definitely pricey! Complaint was on the price, not the quality.
CHECHI – This outlet was serving Kerala snacks and food and seemed quite busy. they had just about four or five items on their menu board. We ordered Pazham pori, Paalada Paayasam, and Puttu Kadala Curry! Pazhampori was just made, super hot and we liked it. Paalada Paayasam was tasty too! However, Kadala Curry was salty and just above average. Puttu was soft, and Kadala Curry could have been so much better. Saying this from my own experience of making a fantastic Nadan Kadala Curry. Prices were reasonable here!
Ended with a Nungu Elaneer juice, 650ml for 140 bucks. Tasted good, nothing very special. That outlet did not have a nameboard.
Overall, the place definitely has a potential to make it big, but we will have to wait for all the outlets to open and see the place buzzing with activity before we conclude anything. It would be too premature to make a judgement right now. I would certainly visit again to make that final conclusion.
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