Alright, so my brother’s in town. So it was a reason for some celebration indeed. I docked into my aunt and uncle’s house to spend the next two days in the company of a brat I hated and loved from the bottom of my heart (approach-avoidance conflict [>_<] thx to psychology found a name for this ever changing relationship).. So our Sunday was going be spent on some good eating at a place called Maya at Khader Nawaz Khan Road in Nungambakkam. The road that has about 7 eating joints is what one can call a foodie’s paradise. Nevertheless we decided to give the more established places on this street a miss and go for this relatively new Andhra Restaurant that promises much.
Located at the basement of Platinum Building, Maya offers a nice setting to come eat with family. The place has some amazing interiors, comfortable furniture and very good lighting. At least I liked it. The music, sometimes dull and instrumental and more often than not jarry with a woman screaming some telugu carnatic song that certainly didn’t aid my digestion, however didn’t soothe my ears throughout my brief stay here. When I first entered the place I was expecting a dull boring menu card, typical Andhra food (sorry but I wasn’t really keen on coming here) but I was in for a surprise. The service was good, the waiters were courteous and well mannered. The menu was quite simple. For a buffet priced at rs.599 per head, there was a lot on the menu, with offerings for both plant and animal eaters. Now to get to slicing into the positives and negatives of the food:-
Starters
Fryums
An array of podis and chutneys : paruppu podi, curry leaves powder, Gonkura Chutney Red chilly chutney, white coconut chutney
Mushroom fry
Buttermilk/musk melon juice
Paneer fry
Crab fillings
Onion wada
Chicken fry
Egg salad
Mutton meat balls
Review: that’s quite an amount to eat! Some yummy food was on the offering. Items like mushroom and the crab fillings went waste with us coz none of liked either! The muskmelon juice seemed god (judging by my aunt’s expression on gulping it down), the onion wada was a good starter, and so was the paneer fry. Now to get to the mansahari part, the chicken fry was amazing, crisp, hot and spicy it was perfect to get ur mouth to salivate. The meat balls were amazing as well, soft and just breaking down with ease once bit into. Trust me if I, despite being a mutton hater, could enjoy it then anyone can. The egg salad, well I would be a bit undecided on it. I found it good maybe coz I just love eggs irrespective of what variety they come in. But this one, made from mayo, a bit of pepper, boiled eggs, tomato and onion was not all that tasty, if one was to go by my brother. Personally we’ve tasted better eggs. The chutneys were good. But the gonkura chutney wasn’t as spicy as expected.
After such a task to go through the entire platter of starters, it was time to dig into the main course. Vegetable pulao, potato stir fry, spinach kootu, ladies finger kara kuzhambu, chicken stir fry, chicken biriyani and onion rich raita. Hmm… smy tummy is yearning for more now. To be honest, the array certainly had variety. But the chicken biriyani was disappointing. Considering Andhra cuisine I expected the biriyani to be the icing on the top but it was quite flavourless. The chicken stir fry was a bit sweet, to my disappointment. The desserts were also not quite up to scratch, sago payasam, pineapple kesari (which needs major work) and fruit salad. I expected some vanilla ice cream for the platter and didn’t think I had to order for it separately.
Well, at the end of it all, I would say Maya is a pretty good place. Go with your family, you will certainly enjoy the food . The interiors, the cutlery, the service all works in its favour. Its good variety, and manages to blend Nellore cuisine with a dash of variety from a few other cuisines. They can certainly work on the menu and definitely give a serious thought to giving some of the food served a good flavor check. So getting to the numbers
Ambience : 8/10 (music pulls it down by 2 points)
The place also has a separate place a little to the outside where people can eat in the open. Even though I didn’t get to eat there it still seemed a nice setting to eat in.
Food: 6/10
Service: 8.5/10
I enjoyed my meal at Maya.
I would give Maya a 6/10. Good but has a long way to go. J
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