The pace at which new restaurants crop up in Chennai city is something that baffles me! Every single day there is a new place opening up in some corner of the city. If that happens to be a popular brand which is making its entry into Chennai, the excitement is all the more. A few names have been doing rounds in Chennai food circles – Amsavalli Bhavan Hotel and Chidambaram New Moorthy Cafe in Anna Nagar and K B Konar Mess in Alwarpet. Managed to tick off one of these today – Chidambaram New Moorthy Cafe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t

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A dinner with family was on the cards, and immediately zeroed in on this place. I knew it was in Anna Nagar, Google maps helped reach the place without any hassle. The place was brightly lit with prominent name boards, there’s place for just a few cars and they have a valet parking, so that’s not a problem. We walked into a quite a packed restaurant around 8 PM. Settled down and asked the waiter to suggest their signature dishes. In fact, I knew the names of a few dishes already, was just waiting to see if the waiter also recommended the same. Yes, he did! \ud83d\ude42 There are many more things to taste here, but this meal is more oriented towards Chicken, as that’s our preference.
\nKal Pepper Chicken and Sunday Chicken for starters. I liked the extra dose of pepper in Kal Pepper Chicken, but it was too spicy for the kids. It came in less than five minutes of ordering, I would have liked it a little hot, this wasn’t. In fact the tomato in it was barely warm. Probably they make it in advance knowing it is fast-moving. Sunday chicken was good, two leg pieces and I liked the masala around it.
\nOrdered the main course also together with the starters – 2 Ghee Parottas, 2 Plain Parottas, Vechu Parotta, Mutta Chatni, Kadaai Chicken, Salna Kalakki, Egg Omelette to start with. Food was served pretty quickly, I would say.
\nMutta Chatni\/Chutney was one of their specials, we liked it. Those who do not like their egg runny may not like it much. Ghee Parotta was good with a subtle flavor of ghee, normal Parottas were soft and flaky. Vechu Parotta was crispy. Their signature dish Kadaai Chicken was good with the Parottas, but somehow I did not get a feeling of eating a south-Indian gravy with Parottas. It tasted more like North-Indian gravy and the boneless chicken pieces in it were good too. In fact, the complimentary salna that they served tasted yummy with the ghee parottas. Parottas are very small, and quite reasonably priced too. We had to order more of ghee parotta and plain parotta, also ordered an Egg Kothu Parotta. Egg Kothu Parotta was minced smaller than usual, tasted good though.
\nWhile we were having our dinner, there was a steady stream of guests walking in, many waiting for their tables. The place got very crowded and a few of them were standing very close to our table, it got a bit uncomfortable with people watching our plate anxiously waiting for us to finish.
\nOrdered 2 Mini Faloodas and a Vanilla ice cream for desserts. Loved the vanilla ice cream, but Falooda was just okay, nothing worth raving about.
\nService was very courteous and friendly, though we had to wait a bit for the parottas to be served in between. Paid a little less than 1.5K, which I would think is very reasonable for what we ate.
\nOverall, a nice dinner. If you’d ask me if there was something that stood out that would want to make me go back at the next possible opportunity, I’d probably say no. If I am around that place, I’ll gladly have their parottas again.
\nAt least for me, the dishes didn’t make any significant impression like the Nattukozhi masala from Nellai Vairamaligai<\/a>,or the Pichi Potta Naattukozhi from Courtallam Border Rahmath Kadai,<\/a> the Mutta Chatni perhaps came close!<\/p>\n