Note: If you just want a very short one line review of Absolute Barbecue, Chennai, scroll right down to the end of the post.
Absolute Barbecue, Chennai - Review
(Sunday, Dinner - 19/10/2014)
I'd been seeing tons of posts full of praise about this place on the Chennai Food Guide page on facebook and was excited to see if it could stand up to the hype. After managing to get a reservation for dinner on Sunday (the place was full on Sunday afternoon, all 160 odd seats!), me and three friends headed there. We were greeted by the valet people outside and went in. The resto is housed in a big building that would have been missed if not for the celebratory lighting announcing its opening in Chennai. We were lucky to get in on the opening weekend as many people got their lunches highly discounted through a great move on AB's part through CFG. The price compared to other such BBQ places in Chennai is anyway very reasonable.
Walk to the Table
Once we got to the third floor and told them of our reservation, one of the cheerful employees in the lobby escorted us to our table, asking us if we were happy with the positioning. We wanted to be right in the thick of the action and he obliged and found us a spot deeper inside. Now, the first thing
you notice when you enter AB is the size of the place. It is huge and still has a cozy feel to it with just the right lighting and comfortable seating.
The impression we got from this place was that the layout has been well-planned with ample spacing to experiment with due to the size of the building. And as we walked it was like walking through a street full of culinary delights in some other land. On one side we could see the transparent but sealed off grilling kitchen with a huge vat for the hot coals. It gave me the feeling of a medieval kitchen while Chefs were bustling about skewering various meats.
The Wish Grill Section
Next, we passed an open section where a few more chefs were busy explaining the various items on display and taking customized orders. We knew this was the Wish grill that is AB's trademark attraction.
no need for introductions!
The next very nice and sweet sight you see will be the dessert section with a tall tower full of shelves of western sweets and a live counter right next to it serving Indian sweets hot from the kadaai! We'll get to this at the end. :)
Starting off..
Anyway, as soon as we got seated, another waiter wished us and introduced us to the unique aspects of this place, namely the live wish grill featuring many different meats. We nodded eagerly so that we could start digging into the starters! There were two bottles of spiced oils that could be sprayed onto the items being grilled. One was paprika flavored and the other was something spicier. Once the hot coals were placed onto the table, our anticipation was running high...we could see many tables filled
with busy eaters even at 7:30 Pm. ;)
The Part you actually want to read about:
In a few minutes, the non-veg starters started appearing. First up was the Chicken Teriyaki which was hot and succulent and tasted just right without being over-spiced. This was a welcome change from the usual Tandoori fare that the other BBQ joints in the city serve up and the flavours were all new. Not to mention the Chennai weather was perfect for this kind of food, all monsoony. ;) Now if only they hurried up with the bar license! :D
Starter dishes started arriving thick and fast and we were waiting for the dish that would disappoint us, but it never came! We even got curious about the vegetarian fare and asked them to serve us the Paneer Achari Tikka, a masalaish corn cob, American cheesy potato and the peri peri mushroom. Surprise, surprise, all of them impressed us as much as the non-veg items did. Now this was a first among our meat-eating group! We had multiple helpings of the tender but firm paneer and the cheesy American potato went along with it perfectly. The masala corn cob was tangy and not exactly crispy but it had a roasted taste to it full of flavour. They also had crispy corn which tasted okay. I think plain sweet corn would have been good enough, maybe differently spiced.
Other Meaty Delights..
The other non-vegetarian starters that came in batches were the Angara Tangdi, mutton Gilafi Seekh, the Chilly Garlic prawn, Cilantro fish and the Tai Pai chicken wings. The Tai Pai chicken wings was a new taste for us and was a bit saucy while the Chilly garlic prawns were generously heaped in front of us. These tasted fresh and soft like home-cooked ones. Personally, I like both a bit spicier but the accompanying sauces helped me spice it up as much as I wanted. They have a nice trio of sauces on the table. Besides these are not Indian dishes so we cannot expect too much heat. They also provided mayonnaise generously refilling it happily which cannot be said about some other restos. Maybe this is the opening weekend effect? :p Let's see. The best of the lot were the Cilantro fish which was also mildly spiced and tasted fresh. Special mention for the Gilafi seekh kebab that was tasty n more succulent and soft than similar variants I've had at other restaurants. This reminded me of some street food joints that specialize in kebabs. The fact that they have very successful chains in Hyderabad (well-known for meat dishes and eaters) and Bangalore definitely helped them to get it right. Unfortunately I couldn't get more helpings of this because we had moved on to the next course by then.
Idiyappam break
In the middle of all this, one of my friends sneaked away and brought with him a bowl of chicken Sukka and Idiappam! I was suprised but didn't waste a second digging into his bowl. The masala
tasted good and the idiyappam was just right.
Wish grill? Elmer Fudd would be very happy here ;)
Once we were almost full with the starters as we usually are in such BBQ places. ;) Who eats the main courses anyway? we took a walk to check out the concept everyone was raving about.
The wish grill. It is indeed a surprising thing to see a variety of different meats being served up in a city where finding anything other than chicken and mutton is a task.
This section looked colorful with lots of bowls that were numbered. How it worked is, you had to tell the chef your preferred combination of meat, sauces and veggies that would be cooked up in a few minutes and sent to your table. He gives one of two coupons that have the same number on both with the other attached to the bowl. You need to present your numbered coupon to your waiter who delivers it right to your table.
Other Animals:
We requested for the rabbit, Pecking Duck, Shark and one of my friends had the BBQ fish (did not know this existed) that was quite good. The shark tasted very soft and juicy while the rabbit too was pretty tender. To be honest, being the first time I was unable to distinguish the flavours of the various meats since we had made it spicy with the Spicy Jamaican Dancing sauce. This was actually the name of the sauce. :p I don't remember the other sauces names but they were less spicy ones. There were also chopped up veggies we could add. Did I mention you could sample every sauce before it gets added? Yes, we can. Like Obama says. But this place actually delivers. XD
Veggie section of the live grill section
Anyway, the wish grill was good but we need to be more experienced with other meats to be able to get it right. It's nice to get the chef's recommendation but nothing like experimenting and
getting a secret awesome dish right?! We'll surely be trying again. ;) Also, since we ordered the wish grill items together, you may mix up the items when it arrives together and eat up Emu instead of rabbit! So keep track of your bowl's number! XD
By now we were getting dangerously full, so guess what we made a genius move and decided to skip the main course. The dessert sections looked like it needed some emptying.
Main course:
// Skipped due to risk of stomach overflow
Desserts:
As mentioned, this area consists of a open refrigerator of sorts that are lined with various pastries. Next to that a live counter that served up Ghevar made in front of you as well as the
much talked about cold stone ice cream with many combinations like dry fruits, nuts and sauces to choose from. We picked up a small-sized cake pastry that I think was Black forest cake along with
a cheese cake (this was pretty good) in a bite-sized spoon! I had a good helping of gulab jamuns since they looked very good. And then I had another helping. And I'm happy to say
that the jamuns were just perfect, warm, soft and better than most sweet shops in town. Again, probably the north-indian influence coming into play here.
The good thing about the sweets is that they were all bite-sized so wastage also would be minimal. There were also a few other desserts like Phirnee and I think custard pudding (with fruit bits) along with some fruits at the bottom (which looked abandoned).
We rounded it off with a visit to the cold stone where I made the chef mash together butterscotch icecream (they also had chocolate n vanilla), oreos, nuts and one of the sauces. ;) It tasted delish! Sorry to tempt you like this fellas, but this is equally hard for me to write about without getting hungry again.
This was one bill we felt happy to pay.
Parting words:
Sorry for setting the bar too high with this place, but this place has hit all the right notes from the start. My only hope is that they somehow keep the same quality and taste as time goes which may be hard seeing other joints go down regularly. But it should at least impress you a little if not a lot with its ambience, courteous staff, reasonable pricing, great food and large variety. If you eat out regularly in Chennai and you're not a little bit impressed then maybe you should volunteer for the wish grill as one of the additional meats. :D Or tell me which place it is you like. Have a great day.
Short Review:
4.9/5 <=> Great ambience, smiling courteous staff ready to help you (with extra helpings), different flavored starters (from the usual tandoori types) that also taste excellent, probably good main course (guaranteed you won't eat much of this after hogging on the starters. We had to skip it!), sexy desserts that make you drool and the best part, the prices. Just have a visit. As of now, this place is an "absolute" must visit.
Tips:
Don't try tiping the waiter staff. It seems they don't want to be tipped! :)
Remember your wish grilled item's bowl number if you're going in a group and want to know what exact animal you're eating (choose from Emu, shark, rabbit, octopus, duck, quail..not sure if I missed any out).
Don't forget to try some veg starters as well because they taste good here. Yes, even if you're a hardcore meat-eater. :)
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