Annam Cafe, Design Hotel by Justa - Chettinad Festival With the King of Fruit

Not many people know that there's an entire hotel with 26 rooms and a restaurant hiding in plain sight in Phoenix Mall, Velachery. Justa Hotels' Chennai avatar is the very interesting Design Hotel. This was the second time I'd visited the hotel and like the first time, I was super impressed by the Hotel's architecture and aesthetics. The first time was during a food walk at Phoenix mall's restaurants which famous foodie Kunal Vijayakar had explored with us.


The Hotel has a separate side entrance for itself at the mall with its own elevator and baggage screening facility. If you're trying to find the entrance from inside the mall, it may prove to be a task since it's not very prominent.




The Hotel's Side Entrance

The Design

On entering the place, not unexpectedly, the design n decor is what strikes you at first, right from the hallways that lead to the guestrooms to the traditional yet modern interiors. Each hallway has a completely different theme and needs to be seen to be appreciated. The Maya hallway especially is one that's aptly named: "Maya" means illusion. I felt mildly uneasy from the effect it had. Very impressive design work! I am told even the hotel rooms along each hallway are designed thematically.

The ambiance is unique/quiet with comfortable seating (important) that includes sofas. There's a TV running silently and also an open counter bar-like setup. Once they get their bar license in some time, they should be able to serve liquor.

Chettinad Festival with the King of Fruit - Mango - The Food!

Note: The Chettinad Festival has since concluded (was from June 15-25th) so if you plan to visit now, you will find their usual menu that's found at Zomato. They have a typical Cafe menu with sandwiches but also plenty of restaurant fare like curries, parathas and a continental breakfast spread! They are expecting to receive a liquor license soon and could serve drinks so watch out for that announcement!

I was interested to see how they would use the mango in a spicy cuisine like Chettinad.


<-- Kozhi varuval with onion rings coated in a thick yoghurt

The menu seemed pretty familiar but there were surprises like the Broccoli and Cauliflower Chettinad Peratal ------->

...the Kothu Barotta and the Mango desserts. There was also a nice Ghee rice served up to pair with the Chicken and Mutton Chettinad curries.

Kozhi Varuval was also served up with menacing looking chillies but the spice level was not high. Although the spice mix was decent, the overly tart flavour of fresh tomatoes (excess tomatoes/ needed more cooking) disappointed. But it was freshly made and the onion rings that accompanied had a unique coating which had thick yoghurt blended in. Nice touch.

A refreshing mango juice was brought before the main course which had a nice sour taste of mango in it. I correctly guessed that the chef had mixed up some nice mango pickle to give it that nice spicy kick. Good one. 

The Chicken and mutton Chettinad gravies shared the same base and were tender and nice enough to eat with the barottas and ghee rice topped with well-fried onions. The mildly flavored Nadar style mutton korma was better suited to go with the ghee rice of course and went well it did.

Dat cutlery though..

The Barottas were good and served crisp. Kothu Barotta which is a favorite Southern local dish made by ripping up a barotta, adding a spicy chicken or mutton gravy and egg sometimes and going crazy mixing it all up was good too. There were good chunks of mutton in it but a local version usually has smaller bits of meat.

<--- Kothu Barotta

The dessert session was lively and Chef Suresh was hands-on, preparing the elaborate plated versions of Mango Pannacotta and Baked Yoghurt. Both of the desserts were very nice indeed with every form of mango showcased from the raw diced to the baked and pureed form. It was hard to stop eating spoon after spoon.

All in all, the menu was a compact one with some good dishes and local items mixed in too. The dessert was lovely. However, I expected lot more mango influence in the main course. So would be nice to see them developing some more interesting mango dishes next season! Drop in to Annam Cafe and explore the menu in their comfy, quiet setting right in the heart of Phoenix Mall.