Cool breeze and a Fantastic Ambiance greets you as soon as you walk out of the elevator! A smart guy greeted us and showed our table, right at the edge of the terrace. The atmosphere is indeed superb. As I wait for the rest of my friends to arrive, I ordered a non alcoholic margarita, my choices were lemon and strawberry, and I chose strawberry. It wasnt great, but was not bad either and was a good time pass while I waited for my friends to arrive! When they finally did, we ordered 3 different drinks, all non alcoholic, from the limited mocktail menu. All 4 (including my margarita) tasted similar and that left us wondering if they have just one drink with different names and glass sizes!
For starters we ordered one portion of Minced Chicken Keive which was the waiters suggesstion and one portion of 'South Indian' Fish Fingers. THe keive was exactly the same 'chicken balls' that you get in the ground floor shop at Chennai City Centre for Rs 50. The taste, the size, the spice were all the same, but you get 10 pieces, the set back Rs 175, but ya, it was tasty, so you dont feel the pinch, especially if you are sitting 164 feet above sea level! The fish fingers were different from the usual stuff, more like the dragon chicken taste and tasted good too!
Now comes the best part of our meal, the main course. Being four of us, we decided to go with two orders from the Lava Grill and two from the Indian. Our choice was Chicken breast with the marinade being Arslan sauce and King Prawns marinated with Herbed Spices. The chicken breast was priced at Rs 475 for two decent pieces and the Prawns at Rs 690 for 4 pieces. The grills are served on a penne base with mashed potatoes and a portion of boiled vegetables. Each of them can be a meal by themselves and quite filling at that. The prawns were especially great! The two Indian dishes were Lamb Madras and Chettiar Chicken, both of which was fantastic and close to authentic chettiar stuff, certified by one of the girls, a true Chettiar herself, the food being like the one in Chettiar weddings. The gravys are served with one piece of appam/2 pieces of paratha/2 pieces of idiyappam or 1 portion of rice, so you invariably have to order more of these. The appams were superb and so were the parathas, but we did not try the others!
Next comes the worst part, the desserts. We ordered a creme brulee, lemon sponge cake, chocolate fantasy and fruit platter. Only the fruit platter was good, because apart from cutting the fruits they had nothing to do with it. The sponge cake was probably old and was hard, the chocolate fantasy which is some form of chocolate cake was bad except for the vanilla ice cream and the creme brulee.....the lesser said, the better. Any one who has had creme brulee anywhere else, do not even attempt at ordering this, those who have not, well, this is not creme brulee, so forget it! All the three had the smell of egg, similar to the smell we get when we bake cake at home, suggesting an amateur cook's work! The desserts spoilt what was otherwise a fantastic meal! They were courteous enough not to charge the lemon cake and the creme brulee because not more than one spoon was consumed.
Service was alright, was good before you place the orders, but had to wave a million times to get their attention to refill our glasses with water. Food was served pretty fast, about 15 mins after placing our order, which is decent by any standards .
I would not mind going there again for the grills and the main course and if someone else pays the bill! The meal for 4 without the two desserts and no alcohol cost us Rs 4350. However a restaurant specialising in South Indian and Continental was kind of unique to me, to see Lava Grills and Indian Specialities, without any other offerings. Unique indeed!
Ambiance 8/10
Food 7/10, Desserts 2/10
Service 5/10
For starters we ordered one portion of Minced Chicken Keive which was the waiters suggesstion and one portion of 'South Indian' Fish Fingers. THe keive was exactly the same 'chicken balls' that you get in the ground floor shop at Chennai City Centre for Rs 50. The taste, the size, the spice were all the same, but you get 10 pieces, the set back Rs 175, but ya, it was tasty, so you dont feel the pinch, especially if you are sitting 164 feet above sea level! The fish fingers were different from the usual stuff, more like the dragon chicken taste and tasted good too!
Now comes the best part of our meal, the main course. Being four of us, we decided to go with two orders from the Lava Grill and two from the Indian. Our choice was Chicken breast with the marinade being Arslan sauce and King Prawns marinated with Herbed Spices. The chicken breast was priced at Rs 475 for two decent pieces and the Prawns at Rs 690 for 4 pieces. The grills are served on a penne base with mashed potatoes and a portion of boiled vegetables. Each of them can be a meal by themselves and quite filling at that. The prawns were especially great! The two Indian dishes were Lamb Madras and Chettiar Chicken, both of which was fantastic and close to authentic chettiar stuff, certified by one of the girls, a true Chettiar herself, the food being like the one in Chettiar weddings. The gravys are served with one piece of appam/2 pieces of paratha/2 pieces of idiyappam or 1 portion of rice, so you invariably have to order more of these. The appams were superb and so were the parathas, but we did not try the others!
Next comes the worst part, the desserts. We ordered a creme brulee, lemon sponge cake, chocolate fantasy and fruit platter. Only the fruit platter was good, because apart from cutting the fruits they had nothing to do with it. The sponge cake was probably old and was hard, the chocolate fantasy which is some form of chocolate cake was bad except for the vanilla ice cream and the creme brulee.....the lesser said, the better. Any one who has had creme brulee anywhere else, do not even attempt at ordering this, those who have not, well, this is not creme brulee, so forget it! All the three had the smell of egg, similar to the smell we get when we bake cake at home, suggesting an amateur cook's work! The desserts spoilt what was otherwise a fantastic meal! They were courteous enough not to charge the lemon cake and the creme brulee because not more than one spoon was consumed.
Service was alright, was good before you place the orders, but had to wave a million times to get their attention to refill our glasses with water. Food was served pretty fast, about 15 mins after placing our order, which is decent by any standards .
I would not mind going there again for the grills and the main course and if someone else pays the bill! The meal for 4 without the two desserts and no alcohol cost us Rs 4350. However a restaurant specialising in South Indian and Continental was kind of unique to me, to see Lava Grills and Indian Specialities, without any other offerings. Unique indeed!
Ambiance 8/10
Food 7/10, Desserts 2/10
Service 5/10
Pergola is located at 164 feet above sea level, on the roof top of the Accord Metropolian Hotel on GN Chetty Road, opposite the Apollo Cliniq, about 1 Km from the Anna Flyover!
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