When I first heard about the crown, some nine years back, my uncle took my family for a dinner. The setting was great, the outdoor deck was unbelievable, but the food was bad and we completely forgot about it. When we were invited by Residency towers to check out Crown, I only then remembered the restaurant and was curious to see what had changed.
So six of us from Chennai food guide landed there to see what was the fuss was all about and we learnt that they have two menus, one for those sitting "under the dome", which was the inside part of the restaurant, and one for those sitting on the deck, which is the rather beautiful area to be sitting in. The new under the dome menu is a fixed three course meal, unlimited portions and rather reasonably priced. As we were settling down, we could not help but notice the rather ordinary cutlery, especially for a place positioning it as a fine dining restaurant. I certainly expected better plates to match the rather pompous palace like setting. The chef joined us and gave us some insight into this new concept of unlimited food over three courses.
The first course came with chicken, galouti kebab and a fish. The minute the galouti kebab went into my mouth, it disappeared into no where. Suddenly the cutlery, the fact that we were sitting inside and not on the deck and just about everything disappeared from my head. It was NIRVANA. Finally I don't have to drive all the way to Great kebab factory to get galouti kebab. It came on top of an equally heavenly bread, I think it was a naan of some sort, but I was in no mood to find out the ingredients. The fish was rather nice and the chicken was pretty good too, but the galouti, OH MY GOD. Needless to say some of us had extra helpings and we could have cared less about the main course that was yet to come.
The Naans were brilliant. They were soft, slightly puffy and extremely tasty. The chicken gravy was very very nice and the mutton roganjosh which the chef apparently makes without tomatoes, was rather interesting. For me the best gravy was the Dhal Makhni, yes, I know it is a vegetarian dish and I am quite a big fan of well done dhal makhni and the chef said that it was cooked over slow heat for more than 24 hours and it showed. I didn't like paneer gravy, but normally you would be tasting only one gravy. The biriyani was quite ordinary and I wouldn't bother mentioning it.
I enjoyed the chocolate cake that was served. It was something between a cake and mousse and I really liked it, some of my friends did not. Priced at 789 for non veg of unlimited kebabs and Naans and gravy of choice, this is a killer. Of course this price is only for the under the dome area and if you are in the deck, it is priced more.
Food 8.5/10
Ambiance 6/10
Price 8/10
The crown is the roof top restaurant at the Residency Towers, T. Nagar.
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