Slice of nostalgia

All-time classic
Chennai has just way too many restaurants that large families fancy, but what Vrindavan at New Woodlands attracts are tradition-loving mothers, fathers and grandparents. These are the ones that like their thalis big, discern good paneer when they see it and enjoy their kulfis with just the right consistency of fruit.

And no fancy takes on the Dal Makhni please. So, even as you get your classics pristine, Vrindavan-established in 2002-goes a step further and expands its clientele to include kids and NRIs - who're seen thronging the restaurant especially during the December Music and Dance Season - with a whole slew of Continental and Chinese dishes.

Though it's ambitious to expect these to be at par with what's served up at the city's new specialty bistros, dishes such as Spaghetti Neapolitan, Farm Medley Shashliks and Nachos Spicy Corn Cheese are definitely worth your money.

Of course, there's no reiterating enough on how wonderfully assorted and delicious their Indian lunches are; a sumptuous selection of vegetables, rice, rotis and dessert that constitute the south Indian, North Indian and Maharaja thalis. The last one is certainly an experience for your especially hungry days.

On a-la-carte, do try their creamy palak paneer, Tandoori platter, onion uthappam and vegetable sheek kebab. Vrindavan-as the name reflects is themed on lord Krishna's famed abode and spectacularly furnished with life-size paintings of the blue god that add colour, life and a very unique aesthetic.

MUST-TRY Maharaja Thali, Paneer Tikka Masala, Bisibellebath
MEAL FOR TWO Rs. 400 AT New Woodlands, 72-75,
RK Salai, Mylapore TEL 2811 3111

True-blue Thai
The TTK Road in Alwarpet has over the years revealed itself as a prime belt for new restaurateurs looking to serve exotic cuisines and modern-day fusion in attractive, neon-studded eateries.

But 12 years ago, when the city folk craved for a bowl full of Tom Yam Phak or fragrant yellow curry outside of a five-star hotel, they undisputedly headed to Benjarong - hospitality giant Mahadevan's Thai offering and also one of his best.

Tucked away across the road, with little ornate wooden doors guarded by two men who initially come across a tad too imposing for a family restaurant that doesn't serve alcohol, it's only until they break into warm smiles and polite 'hi's' that you know this place has more surprises for you.

Benjarong's interiors are warmly lit and open out into doorways that each lead you to a dining area - much like a home. Food here is tailor-made for the health conscious and abundant with fresh herbs and negligible oil. But then it's also ridiculously tasty.

A traditional Thai meal is cooked with an equal mix of meat and vegetables. Its signature appetiser, the GaiHorBaitaey is piece of art on a plate, with succulent morsels of chicken delicately marinated, wrapped in pandanus leaves and deep fried. Its vegetarian counterpart, TohuHorBaitaey (marinated bean curd wrapped in pandanus leaves and deep-fried), does equal
justice with this fantastic variant. The sea food menu here pretty much sums up a true Thai dining spirit of food caught fresh.

MUST-TRY KaengKeowWahn (Thai Green curry with vegetables and pea aubergines), PlaKapongNungManow (Steamed Red Snapper fish with lemon coriander sauce on a bed of lemongrass - charged by weight)
MEAL FOR TWO Rs 1,500. AT 46, TTK Road, Alwarpet. TEL 2432 2640

Reboot recipes
Apart of the Isha Foundation's commercial initiatives to support its charitable educational programmes, Mahamudra's central food concept is an extension of the organisation's holistic development philosophy. So, it was started as an enterprise to rediscover healthy meal alternatives of rural India that fully utilised indigenous and organic food grains to create wholesome meals.

This makes Mahamudra perhaps one of the few exceptional restaurants that can tastefully introduce you to the losing recipes from erstwhile kitchens of south India, such as Kambu Kanji-a nutritious porridge made from the pearl millet.

But even though these dishes- which the Mahamudra's R&D head MeenaThenappan says their head Jaggi Vasudev has carefully hand-picked to educate us city folks on what we've been missing - are their USP, Mahamudra also gives us a whole range of food to satiate our taste buds; in dishes such as Humpty Dumpty-mini idlis topped with cheese, vegetables and grilled, crispy spring rolls and Tre Strati Sandwich, with cottage cheese, spinach, creamy cucumber and carrots served in three layers.

The restaurant by itself is all-out experiential, with soft yellow lights hanging from the ceiling that blend in with the diffused sunlight flooding in through glass windows and lush greenery that surrounds the premises. MUST-TRY Dosa Ballapur, Akki Roti, wild rice kheer (made of a rice variety that was once exclusive to the royalty) MEAL FOR TWO Rs 750 AT Old No. 50, New No. 117, Luz Church Road, Mylapore
TEL 4353 5555

Connoisseur's choice
Almost two generations of the city's rich and tasteful have unanimously savoured the way Dakshin has fashioned south Indian cuisine and served it epicurean.

The famed restaurant at Sheraton Park Hotel and Towers turned 26 this April, and yet there's no way you can claim to have discovered everything about it. It's not a bet we're throwing open, but a certain ensured novelty that Chef Praveen Anand lends to Dakshin that makes his staff ceaselessly rave about him and the food speak for itself.

A delicacy almost every guest of Dakshin drools at mere mentioning is the banana dosai - a dish whose mystery is safely shrouded as a welcome snack and not an a-la-carte item that you could order on a whim and get saturated by. The melt-in-the-mouth pancake prepared with three varieties of bananas and dollops of warm ghee, is as nostalgic and signature to Dakshin as its flowery wooden Ganesha who guards the door.

Chef Anand's ability to familiarise his guests with the back story behind every dish he's endearingly created, makes it all the more memorable for diners. The Vazhai Shunti - spiced golden dumplings of raw banana - for instance, comes from the kitchens of a certain Maratha community in Tanjore, the third generation of which apparently speaks remarkable Marathi, despite having lived its whole life in the Tamil state.

If you like the idea of such trivia behind classic dishes, open the menu to 'Sarvottamam' that has precisely that, and ask for Pookosu Melagu Peratti-florets of cauliflower tempered with mustard and tossed with freshly crushed pepper corns and Meen Moilee-fish slices in coconut extract, flavoured with ginger, garlic.

End the meal with ElaneerPayasam - tender coconut kernels in cardamom flavoured milk. MUST TRY Battani Masala, Kal Year Melagu Peratti MEAL FOR Two Rs 1,700 AT No 132, TTK Road, Austin Nagar, Alwarpet TEL 2499 4101

The fiery far-east
Thirty years ago, J Govindaraj could sell a soup for Rs 8 and count on his fi ngers the number of cars that whizzed past Nungambakkam High Road. Among those many fi rsts in Madras was he too, the unlikely Tambrahm boy who with his cousin passionately shared their cherished chilli beef and chicken soup recipes in what was one of the city's earliest Chinese restaurants.

They implausibly titled it Rangis - abridged from their family name, Rangsamy. Govindaraj set up Rangis after a stint with the celebrated Taj Mansingh in Delhi in the early 1980's and years of devouring noodles that migrant Chinese families added to the culinary fabric of Delhi and Calcutta. Even today, some of the sauces at Rangis' are sourced from whatever of that Indo-Chinese food vein is left running in the third generation restaurateurs of these Kolkata-based Chinese families. "A lot of our infl uence comes from the Sichuan Chinese cuisine," says Govindaraj.

Though the city today has since had more Chinese joints than can be counted, what you can blindly head to Rangis for is fl avourful Indo-Chinese comfort food, served up best in its far eastern style prawns, sliced Peking style pork, braised mushroom with greens, crackling hakka noodles and over 25 varieties of rice bowls. MUST TRY Rangis' Vegetables, Cantonese beef vegetable, Fish in black pepper sauce
MEAL FOR TWO Rs 500
AT 142, Uttamar Gandhi Salai, Nungambakkam High Road
TEL 65192344

The restaurant was one of the first to serve Indo-Chinese fare and is still one of the best in Chennai. This was our monthly eating out joint as a family. It's very nostalgic; the food's the same, the staff's the same.