Midlis - Royapettah, Chennai

The humble idly is iconic in South India and loved all over India, yet it's interesting that there have not been many variations in its fundamental form and few experiments have been made to alter it  tastewise. Until now that is. I had been seeing posts of Midlis on Facebook and was waiting for a good time to try it. Midlis is a creation of Chef Nishant Vijaykumar whose brownies (Brownie Heaven) are popular in the city.

So what's different about these "Midlies?" Well, they have been stuffed with bits of tasty meat and then steamed. The vegetarians have good options too. The accompanying curries and chutneys are a tad unique too. Got a message from the chef that Midlis is having a 50 % off sale for a day. So I decided to go for a non veg box which had four different idlies stuffings:

Chilli chicken
BBQ chicken
Chicken ghee roast
Chicken sukka idli

For the veggies the Veg box contains:

Paneer butter masala
Medu vadai
Gobi Manchurian
Smoked bell pepper
The vegetarian side is a tasty white pumpkin chutney among others I've heard.


The accompanying gravy that came with the non veg box was Chicken Salna. So I went that evening to pick up the package from Brownie Heaven in Royapettah. Paid 55 bucks only since the actual price was 110 and this was a 50 percent off. Came back home quickly to try it out.

First off, the packaging is excellent. There was nice branding and labelling and clear instructions on the shelf life which is claimed to be 48 hours. Instructions before eating were to reheat after sprinkling some water. So did that and heated the salna too which came in two small half filled microwaveable dabbas. The kind one gets raitha for biriyani in other joints.

After a sprinkle of water and microwaving for 15 seconds.

                                                                                                 Good amount of chicken bits stuffed.

The salna on tasting was very good, had a home made feel to it spicy and the tiny boneless chicken bits added a professional touch to the same. The idlies themselves I tasted without salna to get the real flavor and I liked the chicken sukka idli the best since the flavor was easily discernible. One issue I had with the bbq and ghee roast idli was that the flavor was too mild. Idli taste was dominant. But with the salna it went well. Although the BBQ and chilli chicken taste was too mild for the salna again. There was decent amount of chicken stuffing in the idli as you can see in the pics. Pricing of 110 rupees is a bit high since the four idlies won't fill you up by any means. But for 55 rupees it was great value. Will try the veg variety next time since I've heard the accompanying chutneys are quite tasty. 

Coal Barbeques, Velachery - CFG Showcase

It had been a while since I visited a BBQ restaurant so I was eager to check out Coal Barbeques for an on-the-house showcase of their numerous dishes that's part of their buffet dinner on a Saturday night. Started early expecting the Velachery roads to be clogged and luckily arrived earlier than expected. So while I was waiting for the others clicked a few pics of the outside. The restaurant can be found easily owing to the bright signage that announces itself next to the dull Van Heusen sign. The actual restaurant is located on the floors above Van Heusen showroom however the entrance and lobby is on the side. A single lift connects the lobby to the restaurant. Once the next blogger, Dr. Madhusudhanan arrived, we decided to make way to the
restaurant and wait for the others comfortably upstairs.

Since it was only around 7 pm by then, the place was just warming up and there were no guests yet. My first impression of the place was that they have managed to replicate the "BBQ look" perfectly. I mean it has the same feel as Absolute Bbq or BBQ nation with the low but comfortable seating, similar dark chef's uniforms and with a teppanyaki grill that churned out meat noodle combos of all kinds, so it was hard to overlook the similarities. However the brick facade on the walls and the colorful bottles placed on every table changed the look of the place and made it look even more cozy and unique. There was even a large ornamental carved wooden doorway near the line of buffet dishes. All in all quite an interesting interior to explore. As the weekend crowds began to filter in, the place had the familiar bustling atmosphere we are used to in the BBQ joints everywhere. Anyway let's explore the food this place has to offer.

Once the rest of the guys arrived, the owner of the place came to our table and explained a bit about the concepts of teppanyaki grill and requested us to give us any feedback we might have about anything at all. He was an experienced hotelier who had also run another eatery a while back which was supposed to be quite good. So, it was good to see him interacting freely and asking for feedback.

We were first served with a green apple fizz drink that arrived in a cute bottle like the rose milk bottles that are sold in small shops here.

Once we were refreshed with the drink, a little grilling station was placed in the table as is customary and dishes started coming in. I am going to mention the dishes that impressed me so you can try them too when you visit this place. Of course a meal with all perfect dishes is extremely rare so whenever we felt there was any improvements that could be made to a dish like make some changes to the taste/or how it is served we frankly explained it and the owner Mr. Mohammed was very eager to listen and assured us that they are striving to improve every aspect of the BBQ experience in the outlet and will incorporate our feedback immediately.

Dishes:
Starters

We were first served a few veggie BBQ items that I too had to taste as I was quite hungry then. I tried the well known options like Crispy corn which was good, Chilli cheese potatoes which was oozing with cheesiness and sliced onions on top of the potatoes make the whole thing quite crunchy. The honey drop Brazilian pineapple was thankfully done perfectly and made everyone happy. People were requesting multiple slices of the cinnamon spiced and grilled pineapple. The grilled pineapple also alternates very well with the other grilled non veg items if  you want to add a hint of adventure to your bite! 

In the non veg starters section, the Chili Garlic prawns were standout and tasted very fresh. And fresh seafood is just many levels above in taste as we know. It was spiced and cooked to the correct level. The Angara fish was fresh too but the spice marinade left more to be desired. The carribean chicken arrived quite late to our table and hence could not sample it. However it looked absolutely delicious and juicy and I'm sure it tasted as good too.

The other starters I liked were the Dahi kebab which was quite tender and yummy and the Dilwali Tikki (both of these were however served for this showcase event only and may not be available when you dine in.)

Teppanyaki Grill Station

I was confused about the word Teppanyaki before so I assumed there was some Japanese fare too in the mix. However, it was the wish grill concept that AB uses to good effect that was done here too. There is a long list of rare-to-find meats that you can try combined with various toppings and sauces as per your liking. You just need to choose the combinations and the chef gives you a token that you hold until the dish reaches your table. You can also stand close by and trouble the chef to do the dish exactly how you want it. We had a mix of meats all of which were well made. We were confused on which was which meat unfortunately since we aren't used to knowing them by taste. However, I felt the meats I tasted had a distinct and tasty note to it quite different from chicken or red meats. So do try them. However there was also plenty of bones in them which we gave feedback about.

By now the place was absolutely busy and it was full of life with lots of people coming to eat heartily during the weekend. We realized that a grill concept although old for Chennai now is still alive and loved. And the location of Coal Bbq is especially enticing given how close it is to Phoenix mall. I'm sure that played a role too in giving such a new place huge crowds. Coping with the crowds and delivering great service will be a challenge for any restaurant much more so for a BBQ place where a waiter makes tens of visits a session.

Main course:

Since I always skip the main course in these BBQ places (since the starters are more than enough!) it was about to be the same here. But decided I would at least taste the biriyani and a non veg curry somehow. The Rara Gosht was good while the Awadhi Murgh biriyani was decent but wasn't very warm so could not taste it properly. This feedback was also passed on.

Desserts 

Coal BBQ has the same setup for their dessert section. There's a tall shelf full of small cakes and other desserts like mango shots (which was pretty good), chocolate truffle pastry (good) and gajar ka Halwa which was kept in a temperature controlled dish. This goes excellently with the ice cream. The stand out dessert item for me was the warm jalebis which was just as good as any you would find in a good sweet shop. The jamuns were good encased in warm syrup. Of course ice cream afficianados have the cold stone ice cream which is a wish grill kind of setup for ice cream. I was totally full by now so skipped any more desserts!

All in all a very filling meal and for the price of 649/749 (weekday/weekend lunch) all included and 699/799 (weekday/weekend dinner) it is a very good price for the variety on offer. Also, the location makes it very convenient to pop in anytime.