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A wonderful new building is what first strikes you when you enter the Taj Mount Road. Unstained glasses, a fresh feeling, new couches in a variety of shapes, an unique reception behind glass tabs are some of the things that catch your eye! Having spent the new year's eve here, these things were not new to me. But the wonderful evening that I had at the Kefe, the roof top restaurant here, was definitely on my mind. And expectations were high when I entered the coffee shop, Club House- European Cuisine with an Asian Twist!
Club house has the coffee shop feel to it, no doubt. But as we walked in and stood there, we were unattended to! Totally! I had to call one of the waiters for him to actually notice that I was looking for a table for 4. Well, I was unhappy with the table that was alloted to me, and so, requested for another table, which was promptly given. The tables were placed a little too close to each other, so privacy is a premium here, except at a few 'strategic' tables.
Once seated, we were attended to promptly and so it kind of takes away the initial unpleasantness. The menu was in stark contrast to the decor of the hotel, looks like it has been used in other hotel and transferred here on a cost cutting measure! Once you open the menu though, things fall in place.
Being a coffee shop, this place strives to serve a multitude of dishes. As much as you have the 'Continental with an Asian Twist' mindframe, there is a large Simply Chennai section that serves Idly and Dosa too!
The ladies decided to share a Lemon Rasam soup. While we laughed at them for having something like that in a 5 star coffee shop, they had the last laugh! The soup was brilliant! We two men were allowed to dip our breads in the soup, but that was about it. And the bread with the soup tasted even better! And that soup set the tone for the evening. We ordered a Clubhouse Non Veg Pizza (with instructions to exclude fish), a Wok Fried and Grilled King Prawns, a chicken quesadilla and a prawn on sticks with garlic bread. The pizza was a thin crust pizza, topped generously with vegetables, chicken, prawns and cheese and tasted excellent. A 12" pizza for about 500 bucks at a 5 star facility, makes you wonder why you even think of dominoes and pizza hut and the likes. The king prawns tasted like most continental prawn dishes, pretty decent, but nothing outstanding. But the prawns were served in typical french style presentation, but with mashed green peas, something I have never had seen or had before and I loved it. When you can mash up potatoes and refried beans, then why not the peas, I guess. The second prawn dish was a poor excuse for a prawn dish. I could only see the bread and taste some prawns, but it was not appreciated at all! To top it off, the garlic bread that should have come with the dish did not land up at our table, even after one reminder to the waiter.
Desserts were brilliant, at least the two that we had. A pineapple and coconut napolean was something I was having for the first time. Once again, typical french presentation, some fried flour dish flavored with pine apple and some coconut dish placed on top, followed by another fried stuff with another dose of the coconut, served with caramelized sugar shaped like a glass. Wonderful! The second was Elaneer Payasam (Tender Coconut Porridge) which was like the trademark Taj Payasam served at Coromandel, but served on a nicely cut tender coconut! Pretty impressive again.
Prices were 5 star, but were inclusive or all taxes and there was no service charge. Absolutely honest way to do business in my opinion. You can add up what ever you had and you have the bill! The damages were Rs 2498, much lesser than I expected.
Service was definitely a let down and considering this is a 5 star facility, it was shoddy. We had to keep calling the waiter over and over again to get our glasses filled with water, the garlic bread did not come etc. Though it was not prompt, when it did come over, it was pleasant!
A pretty nice eat out except for the rather poor service.
Food 7/10
Service 5/10
Ambiance 6/10
Price 7/10
Club House is the ground floor coffee shop at the Taj Mount Road,opp Spencers Shopping Mall on mount road.
Repeat Visit: On the next visit at 5 PM for coffee and pizza, we ordered the Thai chicken pizza and were not disappointed. A cook mix of spices, cheese and chicken, this thin crust pizza was a good pick. We washed it down with a strawberry raspberry drink that was awesome and had citrus soup with appletini sorbet for desert. The citrus soup takes some getting used to, but slowly the flavors started create ripples on our tongues. Till my next visit.........
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