The New Woodlands hotel is a typical Madras hotel. Built in the days when space was freely available, and came without too heavy a tag, this hotel is spacious, and quiet. And like most typical madras hotels, the Woodlands has a restaurant that panders to as many tongues as it can.
To that end comes Vrindavan.
It is what Madrasis call the Multi-cuisine restaurant. Meaning, the rates are in general dearer than they are at regular restaurants. The Vrindavan serves south Indian, ‘Tandoor’, ‘Chinese’ and the usual suspects. But the food is pretty good, the prices are a little steep, but it kinda befits the place. And the ambience is, well, something different. The walls have paintings of Krishna and his buddies, all playing and making merry in the gardens of Vrindavan, the seating is a mix of chairs and couches, the lighting is pretty decent, and the service is good.
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Thanks to Chenthil and Lavanya, and to the power of collective intelligence, we now have an unofficial and nascent Chennai Food Guide, hand-built by people circulating for around two weeks. Lavanya felt that The Hindu Metroplus: Chennai Food Guide was pretty good, and Chenthil sent us all a list of 70 plus restaurants he’s tried out. Couple of more e-mails (shoo, can’t share them) and here’s what we came up with: A Restaurant database.
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Hip Asia is the oriental restaurant in Taj Connemara. The restaurant was added during the renovation of the hotel last year. The restaurant serves Thai, Vietnam, Malay and Japanese cuisine. Their website mentions attire as semi formal, thankfully they allow you in even if you don’t wear shoes.
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Chennai is getting a 7 star hotel. The unfinished 7 star hotel of Balaji group at Anna Salai, where Abbotsbury once was, is changing hands with Lalit Suri acquiring the property for Rs 390 crores.

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Benjarong is the leading Thai Restaurant in Chennai. No questions about that (as far as I am concerned :-)). The focus in Benjarong is on fine dining. So along with great food, you have soothing music, un obstrusive lighting and spacious interiors. Naturally it attracts good crowd and it is advisable to reserve your table before you go there.
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If you are craving for some good (udipi) vegetarian tiffin, then Hotel Lakshmisagar will leave you wanting for more. Infact,I would not have discovered this place had it not been for a family friend, a Udipi-ite herself, who took my family to the hotel. She knew the restuaranteurs and offered to treat my family to some mouth watering south-Indian cuisine. Typically, folks from Udipi, Karnataka run family-businesses. The hotel is located on L.B.Road, at the junction before the Adyar Telephone Exchange.

Every kind of tiffin is listed here. Different varieties of dosas like ELam dosai, Kal dosai, Paper roast, Ghee roast and other dosa varities are available. While the menu may seem typical of any south-Indian restaurant, Lakshmisagar stands-out because of its excellent presentation of the dishes, not to mention the delectable cuisine. Even to a pedestrian who is not a hard core foodie, the freshness of the dishes becomes apparent. A wonderful variety of chutneys are served with certain courses. You have the coconut chutney, which is a pure white, while the beetroot chutney is a deep pinkish-red. This is folowed by the coriander chutney which, is an olive green.The chutneys and the main course is also followed by a cup of hot sambhar.
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