Mainland China in Chennai

Situated in Sterling Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai, 'Mainland China' kind of hides behind Quality Inn. It is an upscale restaurant, surely not an affordable place to eat very often, but a perfect place for special days and celebrations. I have dined there few times in the last five years with family and friends and was never disappointed. As the name clearly suggests, they serve Chinese cuisine. The names of the dishes in the menu and the food presentation are authentic Chinese, but the food is of course Indianised Chinese which makes it more delicious. The decor and lighting are really good too - perfect for a quiet little celebration. They have weekend lunch buffet with a great variety of Veg and Non-veg dishes (including steamed dumplings - which my mom loved a lot). It used to cost around Rs. 250 per person few years ago and I'm sure it is a lot more expensive now.

Recently, I took my parents, sister and my aunt and uncle who were visiting from Singapore, there for dinner. The food was really good and the service was exceptional as usual. My uncle was really impressed with their service. I was surprised to see that the restaurant was almost full on a regular Tuesday night, that too towards the end of the month. We ordered Pepper lemon vegetable soup, Sweet corn soup, Crispy chilli corn and Crunchy spinach (was not in the menu card - suggested by our waiter) for starters. The soups tasted amazing and was not loaded with corn starch as done in most Chinese restaurants. The starters were crunchy and had unique flavour. For main course, we ate Vegetable fried rice, Crispy noodles with sweet and sour vegetable, Exotic vegetable clay pot and Pepper lamb curry. All the dishes tasted great except the lamb. My uncle and aunt felt that the lamb was imported frozen lamb and hence was tough and not as tender as Indian mutton. We ordered Date pancake with Vanilla ice cream for dessert. It took really long to get our dessert to the table and we were getting a little restless at the end. As expected, the pancake was fantastic. We paid about Rs. 2300 for six people - which is expensive yes, but truly worth it. I would rate Mainland China with 4 1/2 stars out of 5 (1/2 star less because of the lamb and long wait for the dessert).

Last week's eat out - Zeni Ethiopian restaurant

Our family eats out once every week (mostly on Saturdays) and we try to taste non-Indian cuisines often. Last Saturday we took another family with us to Zeni in San Jose for dinner. My husband and I had eaten there once before on valentine's day (2009) and really enjoyed the food. This time, the other family was keen on eating in an Indian restaurant. But, we gave them all our good reviews and took them to this Ethiopian restaurant and were not disappointed at all.

They serve food for the group on a single plate. They place a large injera (an unleavened bread made from teff flour - similar to dosa) on the plate and place the different side dishes (or should I call them main dishes??) on it. They also serve rolled up Injera separately. One needs to take a piece of injera and scoop up the side dishes and eat - like the Indian way. They do not give fork, spoon or knife unless asked for. According to Ethiopian tradition, people eating from the same plate do not betray each other. Ethiopian food is nicely spiced up, very aromatic and lentils and beans are used in many dishes, similar to Indian food.

The interior decor and lighting is elegant too and we got to sit around one of their colorful hand-made bamboo tables. We ordered sambussa for appetizer - a lentil savory puff. For the main course we had vegetarian combination plate, Shuro Wot, fouul. My husband had the Ethiopian coffee which was dark coffee with spices. I tasted it and found to be something like "Masala Coffee".

They have live Ethiopian music playing every Saturday. Now, the only downside - The girl who took our orders said that we have to order at least 3 entrees, since we were a party of 4 and did not let us taste the combo plate and decide on the 3rd entree later. This policy, I felt was a bit wierd. Other than that all was fine. Zeni is a restaurant worth checking out.
Website: http://www.zenirestaurant.com/index.html