What more can you innovate at On The Rocks? Its been five years that the restaurant is going strong, with them putting on a chef hat on you, giving you a rock heated to 400 degrees and making you cook on the table. Conceptually, practically, gastronomically OTR has been brilliant. But when there is news that they are doing something new, it is intriguing. What else can you do? Can you put salt on the rock? Can you put pepper on the rock? Actually, they put a pot on the rock.
But much before that, the bread that is served to all tables was excellent. So, its a nice soft round cut bread inside a pan, with a nice chutney on the side, but with a cut garlic roasted and dipped in oil which can be squeezed on the bun. We loved it. We loved it so much that we ended up asking for two helpings of the bread. Actually you don't have to ask, if the bread is over, the will replace it till the starters and the main courses come. Then we got an appetiser, chicken, the name that I forgot which was excellent too. In fact everything that day was excellent, so I'll just describe them and not comment! The chicken was like a mini sausage with fried garlic and greens. And then a fabulous prawn. The prawns were on top of some mini noodles and together were a nice combo for the tongue.
And then the main course. Normally, we'd go for the the package here. It comes with a soup, main course and ice cream, but this time, it was all a la carte! The hot pot is like a melange of flavours of whatever you want. You get all the meats you want. You can keep adding more meat for an extra price. We had all three, chicken, mutton and prawns. There are noodles, garlic, lotus stem and some fancy stuff and you can keep putting whatever you want, how much ever you want into the pot and let the pot cook on the rock. Unless you want fried fingers, don't dare touch the rock!!!! So, you can't blame the chef for the taste. You decide how much you want of all, but the chef goes around every table assisting in flavours. You can keep checking the soup. So, this is like a fancy ramen or bibimbap!!!
Like everything else desserts were awesome too. Triple chocolate which had white chocolate mouse, chocolate crust and melted chocolate on top, but I love the creme brûlée here. Normally, they will flame it with alcohol, but this time we took it without the flame. One of the best creme brûlée in Chennai and probably the only one that has the perfect crust on top.
A set meal will cost from about Rs. 1500 per person, which has the soup, main course on the rock and ice cream, but cost can go up if you choose pricy fancy cuts of meat. A-la-carte will cost about Rs. 4000 for two without drinks. Its amazing they have a lounge down for chatting out and then you can go up for dinner. And because its a lounge, you can sit there forever. Whenever we go we end up sitting there for at least 3 hours!!! Relaxing.
On The Rocks, is the fantastic lounge at Crowne Plaza Chennai Adyar Park, which was previously called Park Sheraton.
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