Once Upon A Time, Hotel Green Park

Words are cheap. You don’t take them at face value these days. Especially when the word is ‘Multi Cusine’.

The restaurant has a small entrance with a  beautifully carved ‘Once Upon A Time’ next to it. You feel a Pixar’s gonna start telling you stories once your inside. A nice feeling to start a buffet you’ve been looking forward to.  And this is where the goodness ends.

Firstly, we were seated towards the entrance from where one gets no feel of the restaurant. There was this arch blocking your view to the rest of the eatery. Your only unhindered view was of the billing counter. You feel totally disconnected from the rest of the restaurant. Damn, you could have almost dined from your verandah at home. The designers could have clearly done a better work of making all parts of the eatery feel included. Chalo, maaf kiya. Let’s hit the food.

We started with Crab soup. Sea food’s not one of my favorites. If not well made, can freak you out for a lifetime. This one was good. The flavor was crisp. Don’t recollect tasting crab in it though. Never mind. Enjoyed the croissants with it.

I was with a vegetarian friend and would have loved to taste a bit of it. The entire section was a farce. The South Indian veg spread was lesser than what a Fifty bucks Saravana Bhavan meal gets you. No kidding. Every veg fare was the most ordinary and I’m into describing them. As I said, imagine a Saravana Bhaval full meals and run it down by say 60% in terms of taste, spread and presentation. That’s what you’ll get.

The good:  Hunan Squids. They saved the day. They were crisp, a lil sweet, and could have been a little less oily. The roasted chicken in pepper sauce was very good. You could clearly feel the meat was taken off grill and then curried. The Nawabi Egg dish and Biriyani were good.

The bad: Fried chicken. They were below par. Excessively fried, salty and over all very shoddily made. Just two variety of salads.  

The ugly: The Chicken Salad and Fish Salad were over and repeated requests to fill them up were ignored. And the supervisor you made the request to promptly dissaperas ot to be seen again. Some management pedigree. These floor staff dudes swoosh the plates from your desk without asking you.

The deserts were the most ordinary. There was just 1 milk sweet variety and they had the rest of the section filled with arbit English desserts – all baked ones that taste and look the same – different kinds of soufflé. There was one payasam that was good though.

On the whole, the spread had just about 4 main course dishes that were good. A very disappointing experience with a friend who was visiting Chennai where I had to short sell the city on the food front. Priced at Rs.440  per person, it was may be worth a 100 bucks.

Service? Zilch. After a few guests left the lights were dimmed and the staff just disappeared. Have no stomach to recollect anything else. Guess they are too used to serving crowds from the adjoining movie studios (you’re free to correlate the context)

FAQ’s:

1. I’m looking for a good ‘Multi Cuisine’ eatery. Should I head here?  

If your definition of multi cuisine is 4 South Indian dishes, a few assorted North Indian, 1 Chinese, 1 Awadhi, a confused and assorted remainder of Indian dishes and some really ordinary desserts, please visit this place.

2. But I stay in Vadapalani, what are my other options? 

Take the 100 feet road and drive to ‘Radha Park Inn’. A better bet any day.

3. Ok, I don’t mind anything in the CBD. Where do I go?

At 440 bucks, ask no more questions. Head straight to the Residency. Period.

4. Good place for clients/date/evening out? 

Please don’t short sell Chennai and your self. Look up burrp! for a plethoria of good options.