Chicken Curry OR Curry Chicken?!

[Shri]

Believe it or not, it was in HSB (Saravana Bhavan). They actually used to measure the amount of sambar and chutney given out in the "serve yourself" type restaurant they had. I had that experience in a few restaraunts, mostly all in the Mount Road corridor.

The kaiyendi bhavans (the roadside vendors with the push carts) are so much better at all this though. They give you all you want and are very polite and friendly.

Your first mistake was eating at Saravana Bhavan

Overrated food. Expensive, not that tasty and small quantities.

If you eat at apoorva sangeetha, vasantha bhavan etc, you'd get all the sambar and chutney you want

 

[Teja.]

I remember there was a Saravana Bhavan on Nungambakkam main road which had a huge veg lunch buffet for 250 rupees 9-10 years ago. It had great variety with tiffins, soup, starters, various types of rices, curries and desserts and was actually solid value for money. We used to go there every other month or so as it was my mom's favourite place.

Wonder if that buffet is still around. Probably costs twice as much with half the variety by this point.

 

[duffer]

Your first mistake was eating at Saravana Bhavan

Overrated food. Expensive, not that tasty and small quantities.

If you eat at apoorva sangeetha, vasantha bhavan etc, you'd get all the sambar and chutney you want

How would you rate A2B?

 

[Teja.]

Your first mistake was eating at Saravana Bhavan

Overrated food. Expensive, not that tasty and small quantities.

If you eat at apoorva sangeetha, vasantha bhavan etc, you'd get all the sambar and chutney you want

I remember Adyar Ananda Bhavan literally mentioned on it's menu '250 gm curry, 350 gm rice, 200 ml sambar, 50 mg halwa.' Always thought it was hilarious.

 

[Shri]

Dude, when I was new to Hyderabad and India an auto driver who smirked at my attempt at Telugu charged me 150 to get from Hyderabad Central Mall to GVK Mall which was like 2 minutes away. My colleagues pissed themselves when I told them the story laughing and said 'Welcome to India'

I have a car now but man, looking back on that experience still pisses me off

This was me I think

 

[duffer]

This was me I think

hahahahahahahahahahaha

 

[Shri]

How would you rate A2B?

7/10

I have only had chaat there tho

 

[Shri]

I remember Adyar Ananda Bhavan literally mentioned on it's menu '250 gm curry, 350 gm rice, 200 ml sambar, 50 mg halwa.' Always thought it was hilarious.

Their food isn't top quality but people eat there out of convenience sometimes.

Their main product us packed savouries I think. Regional snacks and stuff like that. Restaurants came much later. At first they only did packaged snacks amd chaat.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Teja.]

Their food isn't top quality but people eat there out of convenience sometimes.

Their main product us packed savouries I think. Regional snacks and stuff like that. Restaurants came much later. At first they only did packaged snacks amd chaat.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong.

Yeah what I thought too when I would go there but think they've expanded over the last decade.

 

[honestbharani]

Yeah both Grand Sweets and Adyar Ananda Bhavan are sweets and savories shops that became restaurants later. So did Krishna Sweets FWIW but they have not been as successful. As is Hot Chips. They all follow the HSB model. Central kitchen, uniform taste, you know what you get when you are going in. Consistent and all that jazz.


But nothing can beat the Triplicane Ratna Cafe and their Idli Sambar. Just no point in trying anything else in Chennai until you have tried that for breakfast or evening tiffin IMO, along with the famous South Indian Filter Kaapi (coffee).

 

[Teja.]

Yeah both Grand Sweets and Adyar Ananda Bhavan are sweets and savories shops that became restaurants later. So did Krishna Sweets FWIW but they have not been as successful. As is Hot Chips. They all follow the HSB model. Central kitchen, uniform taste, you know what you get when you are going in. Consistent and all that jazz.


But nothing can beat the Triplicane Ratna Cafe and their Idli Sambar. Just no point in trying anything else in Chennai until you have tried that for breakfast or evening tiffin IMO, along with the famous South Indian Filter Kaapi (coffee).

hb, do you know of 'Geetha Cafe' by any chance?

 

[honestbharani]

Dude, when I was new to Hyderabad and India an auto driver who smirked at my attempt at Telugu charged me 150 to get from Hyderabad Central Mall to GVK Mall which was like 2 minutes away. My colleagues pissed themselves when I told them the story and said 'Welcome to India'

I have a car now but man, looking back on that experience still pisses me off

edit: ****ing Uber and Olas are a godsend these days.

Its amazing, coz a lot of my Andhra friends hated Chennai mainly for the auto drivers. They said the guys in Hyderabad were much more reasonable. I found it to be pretty true usually in my anecdotal experience. They charged only 30 Rs for Namapally station to AC ghats for instance, every time I had to do that (and I was coming to Chennai every weekend by train back then). They will never even ask for more or bargain.

I always spoke Hindi to get around the fact that I was not a local and for some reason, many times in my life I have been told by many different people that I look like a "telugu" person. Do they figure out you are an out of towner even if you speak Hindi?

 

[honestbharani]

hb, do you know of 'Geetha Cafe' by any chance?

Nope.. is it in Adyar?


BTW, right now swiggy and zomato are dleivering from literally anywhere in the city. I just ordered some nice Pasta Arabiatta from the Hilton.

 

[Teja.]

No, T Nagar. My dad used to live there 15 years ago in the film nagar parts and I would often go there to visit him.

Geetha Cafe was this cafe in T nagar open from 4 am in the morning serving really good filter coffee. A memory i have is that my dad was sitting in geetha cafe when the tsunami hit and his table shook making his coffee cup fall on the floor.

I vividly remember the fake book stalls on T nagar main road. Would feel like a king getting so many expensive books for 50-100 rupees. Good times.

 

[duffer]

Its amazing, coz a lot of my Andhra friends hated Chennai mainly for the auto drivers. They said the guys in Hyderabad were much more reasonable. I found it to be pretty true usually in my anecdotal experience. They charged only 30 Rs for Namapally station to AC ghats for instance, every time I had to do that (and I was coming to Chennai every weekend by train back then). They will never even ask for more or bargain.

I always spoke Hindi to get around the fact that I was not a local and for some reason, many times in my life I have been told by many different people that I look like a "telugu" person. Do they figure out you are an out of towner even if you speak Hindi?

The accent bro. Even the Hindi here is bastardised from what friends and relatives tell me (ie it's Urdu rather than Hindi). So speaking actual Hindi is apparently a dead giveaway. I mean, I wouldn't know, my comprehension of Hindi is hilariously bad.

But yeah, I hate the auto drivers here as much as the ones in Chennai. Bengaluru and Mumbai drivers are awesome though, they use the meter 99% of the time.

 

[Daemon]

Hyderabad sounds like a great place considering it has the word bad in it’s name.

 

[Teja.]

Yeah, the Hyderabad auto drivers during my childhood were leagues cheaper than the Chennai ones because they used to run by the meter. This isn't the case anymore.

Now that they've stopped that they're basically the same except that you can still negotiate somewhat better with Hyd drivers in Hindi but in Chennai, unless you can speak tamil, you're generally **** outta luck.

 

[honestbharani]

No, T Nagar. My dad used to live there 15 years ago in the film nagar parts and I would often go there to visit him.

Geetha Cafe was this cafe in T nagar open from 4 am in the morning serving really good filter coffee. A memory i have is that my dad was sitting in geetha cafe when the tsunami hit and his table shook making his coffee cup fall on the floor.

I vividly remember the fake book stalls on T nagar main road. Would feel like a king getting so many expensive books for 50-100 rupees. Good times.

Oh. I should check it out if it is still there. My dad loves another T Nagar mainstay, India Coffee House on Usman road. They still serve you with the eversilver plates and the banana leaves and the chutneys are on the plate and not in some containers and stuff. Old timey style of chutneys too. Its still there and open btw. There are so many of these old town stuff in the central and northern part of Chennai, sometimes it feels like two different cities when you move from there to the IT hub on the southern side. But guess that is true of Bangalore and Hyderabad too.

Yeah, the Hyderabad auto drivers during my childhood were leagues cheaper than the Chennai ones because they used to run by the meter. This isn't the case anymore.

Now that they've stopped that they're basically the same except that you can still negotiate somewhat better with Hyd drivers in Hindi but in Chennai, unless you can speak tamil, you're generally **** outta luck.

Oh yeah.. I just think as a city, Mumbai leads with the kind of cons they pull on visitors and tourists etc., basically the non-native folks followed by Chennai. Cities like Hyderabad and Bangalore are comparitively more recently opened up to the rest of the country so it takes a while for those folks there to pick up. But ultimately once the city is big enough and popular enough, the conmen start their plays.

 

[honestbharani]

Hyderabad sounds like a great place considering it has the word bad in it’s name.

Daemon with the bad pun and jokes.

 

[duffer]

Charminar is our biggest tourist attraction and the entry fees are 5 rupees for locals and 100 for foreigners iirc.

The con is already on here, haha. So blatant but accepted by everyone.