Where:I have been to Ruchi ( http://www.dine.to/ruchi )twice in the last 6 months and just wanted to complete a review. They are at 650 Yonge Street, near University ( next to Brassrail :) for those more educated people out there) .We (me and a desi friend of mine ) went there on a Friday evening at about 9 PM - they were almost getting ready to leave - Not sure if that is a good sign when they want to close down the place by 10 PM on Friday night. To be fair it had just snowed (Yea I am at least 4 months late on this review:) ) -so business was slow.
Food: We started off by ordering some appetizers ( Pakora plate) along with the standard Indian beer ( they have the appropriate license to serve beer - whatever that means in Canada). Pakoras tasted fairly stale ( probably in the freezer for a LONG time before it made its way out). We went ahead and ordered Baingan Bartha and Okra along with a few Nans. The food showed up pretty quickly ( well we were pretty much holding them up from closing :) ). The food was nice - but tasted very south Indian. My friend started conversing - and we realized the folks running Ruchi were actually from South India. I have no issues with South Indian chefs cooking North Indian food and vice-versa. However, I firmly believe that a south indian chef can't do the BEST Khadai of Baingan Bartha ( just like a North Indian chef can NEVER make the BEST Pongal).
No real qualms about the food at all here. The entree was hot, spicy enough and good ( not GREAT but good). It just tasted like I am eating in an Andhra restaurant that was all.
Service: Service was fine - since there were only 2 other customers other than us.
Rating: My desism rating for Ruchi is a 6.5 out of 10. I think they can definitely improve in the appetizer department for sure as well as trying to make the food more North Indian.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Restaurant Review - Saravana Bhavan - Missisauga, ON
Where: Saravana Bhavan(http://www.saravanaabhavan.ca/), one of the real Saravana Bhavan's chain that has been around quite a while across the border in Hurantorio St., Missisuaga (near Toronto). We were there on a Sunday afternoon - about 11:45 AM. This was my second visit there. Turns out that they have started running some early lunch buffet program ( which is very unlike Saravana). In talking to the owner, he said that they were trying to shut down Udupi bhavan ( I think that is what he said) which was offering buffets by doing this pre-lunch breakfast buffet. The buffet runs until 12:00 and then they shift over to the regular menu driven fare.
Food: We opted for the buffet as we didnt want to wait during the transition time. Turns out that it was NOT a SMART choice to do the buffet. Saravana quality is definitely missing in the buffet. Sambhar was the only one that was upto PAR. While the buffet itself had quite a bit of variety ( Pongal, Vada, idly, some sweet halwa etc) - the fact that we were at the tail end of this buffet event meant that the food was sitting there for quite a while and there was definitely not going to be any replenishments. Interestingly enough - even with sub-par food (again compared to Saravana's regular menu) - I think Saravana still beats a lot of restaurants hands down.
Service: I thought the service was decent -given the fact that this is a buffet service.
Overall Rating: A random desi rating of 6.5 out of a possible 10. I will review this Saravana again with regular menu to see if the rating will improve
Food: We opted for the buffet as we didnt want to wait during the transition time. Turns out that it was NOT a SMART choice to do the buffet. Saravana quality is definitely missing in the buffet. Sambhar was the only one that was upto PAR. While the buffet itself had quite a bit of variety ( Pongal, Vada, idly, some sweet halwa etc) - the fact that we were at the tail end of this buffet event meant that the food was sitting there for quite a while and there was definitely not going to be any replenishments. Interestingly enough - even with sub-par food (again compared to Saravana's regular menu) - I think Saravana still beats a lot of restaurants hands down.
Service: I thought the service was decent -given the fact that this is a buffet service.
Overall Rating: A random desi rating of 6.5 out of a possible 10. I will review this Saravana again with regular menu to see if the rating will improve
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Restaurant Review - Saravana Bhavan in Edsion NJ
Where: Saravana Bhavan(http://www.saravanabhavan.com/), one of the real Saravana Bhavan's chain that recently opened its doors in Edison, New Jersey. We were there on a Sunday afternoon - about 12:30 PM ( We went with a bunch of kids and hence following the golden rule that earlier with kids to any place is safer and better). Restaurant was just starting to get busy at that time. Saravana has specials that they start making available from 1 PM and that time seems to be the beginning of some serious amount of crowd in the restaurant.
Food: Well this is a saravana bhavan and hence you can definitely expect the Saravana standard that you are used to in Chennai and various other Saravana locations. The food was great ( obviously by US Standards - in India Saravana is just a middle income chain - nothing more to it). Amongst ourselves, we ordered a few sada dosas, mini tiffin and a south indian lunch. The food got served up very promptly (All Saravana restaurants all across US and India are known for their efficiency in getting food to the table and this was no different) and the overall service was good. Since it was almost becoming like a Zoo it was getting little bit difficult to get the waiter's attention. So when we needed a few spoons - we just walked to the area where spoons were and picked it up. Overall the food was what i expected from a saravana bhavan.
Ambience: Since this Saravana is the newest in US - they have done an awesome job of setting up an "OPEN KITCHEN". This works really well when you are with kids -as kids can go and watch what is going on in the kitchen. This is really a very kewl thing and I think this definitely differentiates them from other restaurants easily as well as even within other Saravana bhavans here in North America.
Price: I feel this is abour right for the fare they provide.
Service: I thought the service was ok - given the headcount that these guys were handling.
Overall Rating: A random desi rating of 8.5 out of a possible 10. As long as they maintain the saravana quality they should be in good shape.
Food: Well this is a saravana bhavan and hence you can definitely expect the Saravana standard that you are used to in Chennai and various other Saravana locations. The food was great ( obviously by US Standards - in India Saravana is just a middle income chain - nothing more to it). Amongst ourselves, we ordered a few sada dosas, mini tiffin and a south indian lunch. The food got served up very promptly (All Saravana restaurants all across US and India are known for their efficiency in getting food to the table and this was no different) and the overall service was good. Since it was almost becoming like a Zoo it was getting little bit difficult to get the waiter's attention. So when we needed a few spoons - we just walked to the area where spoons were and picked it up. Overall the food was what i expected from a saravana bhavan.
Ambience: Since this Saravana is the newest in US - they have done an awesome job of setting up an "OPEN KITCHEN". This works really well when you are with kids -as kids can go and watch what is going on in the kitchen. This is really a very kewl thing and I think this definitely differentiates them from other restaurants easily as well as even within other Saravana bhavans here in North America.
Price: I feel this is abour right for the fare they provide.
Service: I thought the service was ok - given the headcount that these guys were handling.
Overall Rating: A random desi rating of 8.5 out of a possible 10. As long as they maintain the saravana quality they should be in good shape.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Restaurant Review - Saravana Palace (Vegetarian) -Fairfax
Where: Went to saravana palace (http://www.saravanapalaceva.com/) - a relatively new restaurant in the ever increasing count of Indian restaurants here in the Northern Virginia area. We were there on a Saturday evening - about 7:30 PM and the restaurant was not very busy at that time. However, by the time we were leaving the place got real busy and there were folks waiting to get in. It definitely has become a popular indian restaurant and for all the right reasons.
Food: We ordered appetizers -Spring Rolls and Chinese Hakka Noodles - turnaround time was pretty quick on both - Spring rolls seemed to have either come out of a box or from some deep frozen section -but was very kid friendly. Chinese Hakka Noodles was very well made - I am sure if you asked they would spice it up some more.
Tomato soup arrived on time and was reasonably decent - there was a clear rasam taste to it indicating that they at least tried to use some south indian flavor for the soup.
Our entrees came in reasonably good time as well - we had ordered Dosas (Sada dosa and the Rava masala dosa) along with a Malabar Parotta. Rava masala was pretty good and the sambar and the ginger/tomato chutney that accompanied it was pretty well made. In general the sides that came (various chutneys) were pretty good.
The Malabar parotta itself was decent - the avial needed some help though and was pretty bland. The mango lassi was standard Indian restaurant fare, but the salt lassi was more like "Buttermilk - South Indian style" - Reminded me of "Tower - Indian restaruant in Raleigh North Carolina - which I think is by far the BEST South Indian restaurant in the entire North American continent - a new review for Tower will follow later.
Overall the food was pretty good.
Ambience: Standard Indian look and feel with Green sofas/booths and chairs in the middle. I dont understand why any darn indian restaurant would use tables that keep dancing from one side to another - even if you touch them. No special theme was visible. It looked exactly like going to Woodlands (which is literally 1/2 mile away from these guys).
Price: Extermely reasonable prices. I didnt see any entries other than Thaali that went over 10 dollars.
Service: These guys need to really improve on their service. They are alright -but given the fact that Woodlands is NOT a whole lot different in fare than what these guys offer - they need to definitely provide service that is better. Their table management needs serious improvement (they should play Diner Dash Online game at yahoo to get their table management skills right!) and they could do a little bit of checking with the customer to see if they are doing alright and such. Small niceties go a long way and for some reason most of the Indian restaurants DONT get it (starting to change though)
Overall Rating: A random desi rating of 7 out of a possible 10. Their price/food quality is the key driver for this rating. If one of the two falls they are on deep trouble.
Food: We ordered appetizers -Spring Rolls and Chinese Hakka Noodles - turnaround time was pretty quick on both - Spring rolls seemed to have either come out of a box or from some deep frozen section -but was very kid friendly. Chinese Hakka Noodles was very well made - I am sure if you asked they would spice it up some more.
Tomato soup arrived on time and was reasonably decent - there was a clear rasam taste to it indicating that they at least tried to use some south indian flavor for the soup.
Our entrees came in reasonably good time as well - we had ordered Dosas (Sada dosa and the Rava masala dosa) along with a Malabar Parotta. Rava masala was pretty good and the sambar and the ginger/tomato chutney that accompanied it was pretty well made. In general the sides that came (various chutneys) were pretty good.
The Malabar parotta itself was decent - the avial needed some help though and was pretty bland. The mango lassi was standard Indian restaurant fare, but the salt lassi was more like "Buttermilk - South Indian style" - Reminded me of "Tower - Indian restaruant in Raleigh North Carolina - which I think is by far the BEST South Indian restaurant in the entire North American continent - a new review for Tower will follow later.
Overall the food was pretty good.
Ambience: Standard Indian look and feel with Green sofas/booths and chairs in the middle. I dont understand why any darn indian restaurant would use tables that keep dancing from one side to another - even if you touch them. No special theme was visible. It looked exactly like going to Woodlands (which is literally 1/2 mile away from these guys).
Price: Extermely reasonable prices. I didnt see any entries other than Thaali that went over 10 dollars.
Service: These guys need to really improve on their service. They are alright -but given the fact that Woodlands is NOT a whole lot different in fare than what these guys offer - they need to definitely provide service that is better. Their table management needs serious improvement (they should play Diner Dash Online game at yahoo to get their table management skills right!) and they could do a little bit of checking with the customer to see if they are doing alright and such. Small niceties go a long way and for some reason most of the Indian restaurants DONT get it (starting to change though)
Overall Rating: A random desi rating of 7 out of a possible 10. Their price/food quality is the key driver for this rating. If one of the two falls they are on deep trouble.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Restaurant Review - Mayuri - Herndon/Reston Virginia
Here is a review of Mayur restaurant out in the Herndon/Reston area in Northern Virginia. This is a vegetarian friendly review - so for those that eat meat your experience/mileage may vary.
Location: Mayur is located at the South Lakes Mall complex off Reston Parkway. Ambience is slightly above average.
Went there on a Friday night - the place was about 3/4 th busy. Ordered the cut Mirchi and Paneer Pakora for appetizers along with some drinks. The owner himself comes and takes orders - so you can pretty much tell him what the level of spice needs to be. All the appetizers turned to be above average - both in terms of size and portions. For the main course we had ordered a variety of items - a thali with Bindi Masala, an Uttappam, a plain dosa, a rava masala dosa and a Veg Biryani. The turnaround time was slightly longer (may be because they were slightly busy) - however the service was excellent. I have definitely started seeing the trend of Desi restaurant owners starting to treat desi clientile more decently whereever I go in North America. I guess it probably has to do more with the economics- Desis have no issues spending for food or for kids- and I think business owners are beginning to take notice of that. The food at Mayur was really enjoyable (barring the Biryani - which was really less than the average) with oil levels not that bad.
Overall I give Mayur a Desism rating of 7 out of a possible 10.
Location: Mayur is located at the South Lakes Mall complex off Reston Parkway. Ambience is slightly above average.
Went there on a Friday night - the place was about 3/4 th busy. Ordered the cut Mirchi and Paneer Pakora for appetizers along with some drinks. The owner himself comes and takes orders - so you can pretty much tell him what the level of spice needs to be. All the appetizers turned to be above average - both in terms of size and portions. For the main course we had ordered a variety of items - a thali with Bindi Masala, an Uttappam, a plain dosa, a rava masala dosa and a Veg Biryani. The turnaround time was slightly longer (may be because they were slightly busy) - however the service was excellent. I have definitely started seeing the trend of Desi restaurant owners starting to treat desi clientile more decently whereever I go in North America. I guess it probably has to do more with the economics- Desis have no issues spending for food or for kids- and I think business owners are beginning to take notice of that. The food at Mayur was really enjoyable (barring the Biryani - which was really less than the average) with oil levels not that bad.
Overall I give Mayur a Desism rating of 7 out of a possible 10.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Restaurant Review - Andhra Bhima's at Milpitas, CA
I recently had an oppurtunity to visit Andhra Bhima's for the first time when I was in Bay area. Me and couple of my friends went there after a movie at IMC6 (Review of tamil movie "Sillandhru Oru Kodhal" will be posted real soon ). The good news about Bhima's is there is a LOT of space inside. The bad news is parking - not necessarily because that Bhima's is doing great business - but it is surrounded by some vietnamese "hudda" and hence the crowd. Anyways, I ordered the Andhra Spicy Thali - the food arrived fairly quickly. Those were the only good things about Bhima's. Food was pretty pedestrian - my friends ordered something else and that turned out pretty much ordinary. If you are looking to spend your money on decent South Indian vegetarian food in Bay area - then Saravana Bhavan near Mary's and Homstead is the best place to be. Nothing beats it.
I am giving Bhima's a Desism Rating of 5 on 1 to 10 scale.
I am giving Bhima's a Desism Rating of 5 on 1 to 10 scale.
What is Indian or Bharatiya culture??
Let us see if I can touch a nerve or two here. I am sitting here early AM in front of my muted TV (Sun TV) . There is a program that is going on "Thirai Masala" and it has been really funny to watch this program. In the 3 songs that has gone by ever since I started kinda "watching" - following has happened
- the heroine has been lifted by the hero 7 times
- the heroine's upper garment has been dislodged 5 times
- heroine meaniglessly running around holding her clothes 4 times
-hero and heroine bending together forwards or backwards - 7 times.
- Hero walking as if he is going to "conquer" something - 4 times
I am pretty sure that the stats would be similar for any Indian language (not just Tamil).
What is wrong with us people?? Seriously, I just dont get it. More importantly is this culture.
The culture talk reminds me of another interesting incident that happened last week that got me thinking as well. As some of you may know - the currently popular tamil actor Surya married tamil actress Jothika last week ( Sep 10th I think). My sister insisted that I take a look at the photos. There were 2 photos that I initially laughed at.
The first one was "Kalaingar Karunanidhi" the current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu blessing the "Thaali (mangalsutra)" for the couple - This is the guy that has 3 wives. So I wondered out loud that if this guy blesses the couple then Surya should have a jolly good time!. The second photo was "Amma" Jayalalitha - coming and blessing the couple. Hmm- let me see - a person with pretty dubious distinction and sexual preference blessing a couple.
While I ROFLed on this - I realized that bharata janam (be it tamil or any other) have pretty weird standards. While they can publicly accept the fact that Karunanidhi has 3 wives or conviniently ignore the fact that Jayalalitha could be a lesbian (there I said it - I was trying to make this blog - family friendly - who the F*** cares any more) - they care and protest a lot more for matters like a "Kushboo's interview about chastity in TN" ( http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/25296.html)
Is this the great Indian culture? or Bharata Culture? For tamils that read this blog - I ask this question - is this "Tamizhar panpaadu"? How can a culture be so insensitive to flagrant violations of the few? Is this because we are "Cultureless"?
More on this soon.
- the heroine has been lifted by the hero 7 times
- the heroine's upper garment has been dislodged 5 times
- heroine meaniglessly running around holding her clothes 4 times
-hero and heroine bending together forwards or backwards - 7 times.
- Hero walking as if he is going to "conquer" something - 4 times
I am pretty sure that the stats would be similar for any Indian language (not just Tamil).
What is wrong with us people?? Seriously, I just dont get it. More importantly is this culture.
The culture talk reminds me of another interesting incident that happened last week that got me thinking as well. As some of you may know - the currently popular tamil actor Surya married tamil actress Jothika last week ( Sep 10th I think). My sister insisted that I take a look at the photos. There were 2 photos that I initially laughed at.
The first one was "Kalaingar Karunanidhi" the current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu blessing the "Thaali (mangalsutra)" for the couple - This is the guy that has 3 wives. So I wondered out loud that if this guy blesses the couple then Surya should have a jolly good time!. The second photo was "Amma" Jayalalitha - coming and blessing the couple. Hmm- let me see - a person with pretty dubious distinction and sexual preference blessing a couple.
While I ROFLed on this - I realized that bharata janam (be it tamil or any other) have pretty weird standards. While they can publicly accept the fact that Karunanidhi has 3 wives or conviniently ignore the fact that Jayalalitha could be a lesbian (there I said it - I was trying to make this blog - family friendly - who the F*** cares any more) - they care and protest a lot more for matters like a "Kushboo's interview about chastity in TN" ( http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/25296.html)
Is this the great Indian culture? or Bharata Culture? For tamils that read this blog - I ask this question - is this "Tamizhar panpaadu"? How can a culture be so insensitive to flagrant violations of the few? Is this because we are "Cultureless"?
A MP3 player for runners and joggers that works with Yahoo Music Unlimited!
I am on this quest to buy a decent and not too expensive mp3 player that will work with Yahoo's music unlimited service. I have an older version of Apple ipod music that pretty much stops everytime when I cross the 5 mph speed limit (Can't blame the ipod as the product is a hard drive based on). Also, it is unfortunate that ipod shuffle doesnt work with Yahoo Music at all - otherwise that will be my first and only choice.
Based on my research these are the things that I believe one should look for in deciding on a MP3 player
- Make sure that MP3 player is flash drive based player (no moving parts). This would automatically restrict the size of your song collection to less than 2 GB - but being a player with no moving parts you should get more reliable performance.
- As far as possible try to buy a device that Yahoo kinda recommends or someone mentioned in their website that it works.
- Understand the lingo. Almost most of the devices that are there in the market say they support "Play for Sure" technology. All this means is that they support mp3 files that have been bought in stores like Yahoo, Rhapsody, Napster etc. It DOES NOT mean that they work with a subscription service like Yahoo Unlimited.
- Read the CNET reviews and the user reviews. CNET reviews are probably more reliable than anything else out there
My buying experience
09/17/06 - I went and bought a Sansa C140 yesterday (as it was selling for cheap in Costco). Big mistake - this is a piece of junk - clumsy, operations are fairly non-intuitive, proprietary USB cable etc. Going to walk this back to the store.
10/12/06 - After returning the Sansa C140 (that was a while ago) - I went and bought Zen Nano plus 1 GB mp3 player. I bought this one for 2 reasons
a) On Sale at circuit city for 44 bucks.
b) Creative website mentioned that this device supports Yahoo Unlimited ( Talk about truth in advertising - more that on just a minute)
After bringing it home and updating with its latest firmware, I tried to configure it so that Yahoo music would pick it up. No luck. In reading through Creative and other blogs - I realized that this sucker was incompatible with Yahoo Music Unlimited as well. When Creative says that this device is compatible with Yahoo Unlimited - all it means is that whatever songs you BUY (as in in BUY) is movable to the player - but NOT the songs that you have selected and paying Money for the ON THE GO functionality of Yahoo. It seems that the best list to follow is the very SMALL list that Yahoo provides ( it is on their site for compatible devices). My next stop is to go buy a Zen V as I dont want any external hard drive -much prefer flash drive). Will keep this blog updated.
Based on my research these are the things that I believe one should look for in deciding on a MP3 player
- Make sure that MP3 player is flash drive based player (no moving parts). This would automatically restrict the size of your song collection to less than 2 GB - but being a player with no moving parts you should get more reliable performance.
- As far as possible try to buy a device that Yahoo kinda recommends or someone mentioned in their website that it works.
- Understand the lingo. Almost most of the devices that are there in the market say they support "Play for Sure" technology. All this means is that they support mp3 files that have been bought in stores like Yahoo, Rhapsody, Napster etc. It DOES NOT mean that they work with a subscription service like Yahoo Unlimited.
- Read the CNET reviews and the user reviews. CNET reviews are probably more reliable than anything else out there
My buying experience
09/17/06 - I went and bought a Sansa C140 yesterday (as it was selling for cheap in Costco). Big mistake - this is a piece of junk - clumsy, operations are fairly non-intuitive, proprietary USB cable etc. Going to walk this back to the store.
10/12/06 - After returning the Sansa C140 (that was a while ago) - I went and bought Zen Nano plus 1 GB mp3 player. I bought this one for 2 reasons
a) On Sale at circuit city for 44 bucks.
b) Creative website mentioned that this device supports Yahoo Unlimited ( Talk about truth in advertising - more that on just a minute)
After bringing it home and updating with its latest firmware, I tried to configure it so that Yahoo music would pick it up. No luck. In reading through Creative and other blogs - I realized that this sucker was incompatible with Yahoo Music Unlimited as well. When Creative says that this device is compatible with Yahoo Unlimited - all it means is that whatever songs you BUY (as in in BUY) is movable to the player - but NOT the songs that you have selected and paying Money for the ON THE GO functionality of Yahoo. It seems that the best list to follow is the very SMALL list that Yahoo provides ( it is on their site for compatible devices). My next stop is to go buy a Zen V as I dont want any external hard drive -much prefer flash drive). Will keep this blog updated.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
