Colony at Raintree Hotel

If you are entering Raintree Hotel at St Mary Road in Chennai,  you simply can’t miss this restaurant, bar and coffee place by the name “Colony “. Not sure why it is being named as Colony but for sure it is an amalgamation of all kind of food available under one roof. And well that reminds me there is a place in this hotel on the roof top,  a terrace restaurant called Above Sea level as well.

Coming back to Colony, Beautifuly done dine in area depicting the comeplete Tamil culture on a wall in small circular cases mounted on the wall. loads of South Indian cutlery in display in metal, the world famous lungi pattern creating the backdrop for one of the displays.

For a north Indian like me,  I know I am in south when I see Mr. Rajnikant,  and Yaaa this wall had him too with his gun, match box, and loads of other miniature stuff like cow,  traditional face mask, filter coffee maker , filter coffee serving cup, glass milk bottle,  Chennai yellow black auto scooter, Bindi,  sindoor,  spade etc.
Every table had this Home grown natural greens ,replacing the flower bases and I saw this as a very good example of not wasting flowers while adding positive energy by placing the wheatgrass in small and bigger containers. And trust me it added a cool,  fresh green element to each table in a neat metal base.

Moving to food, though I was entitled to a buffet for dinner still I preferred to order Ala carte as I was going to have the lunch buffet anyways here. So asked for recommendations from the restaurant team and they recommended Gimmikand Kababs and Mylapore times from the local cuisine with a warning that its sufficient food for two. But still, I got carried away with a Greek salad with health on my mind.

Greek Salad

A combination of salad leaves in fried pita bread,  cheese,  cucumber and olives this was a great way to start my dinner. Completely refreshing dish.

Mylapore times

This was apparently one dish that covers most of it not all south Indian delicacies and is a value for money pick from the menu, priced at Rs. 625/- that’s what a normal main course dish will cost you at this place. This is a complete meal. If you want you can request for a Bowl of sambhar to make it more wholesome. so what all it has? well, it has got Podi Dosa cigars – Dosa rolled in form of a cigar and cut into pieces, migalai bhaji, manga panizahram, Karuvepalai mini idlis, kodai migalai medu vada all this served with coconut chutney. Simply awesome. Just loved the dosa cigars and idlis just the right kind of spices for my palate.

Gimmikand Kababs

Made from gimmikand, this was good on taste just like any other Kababs,  but the chutney was yummy.

Dessert – Gulab jamun
I have a principle if you don’t want to experiment then go by your basics and the basics in desserts for me is a gulab jamun. A warm gulab jamun sheldom goes wrong. They served a portion and a portion had 3 pieces and since I hardly had an appetite for so much, had no choice but to waste one of them.

Overall a great dine in experience the staff was courteous enough not to bother us while we had an extended dinner till 12 while they have wrapped everything without asking us to move out as we were talking and having food. Throughout the attendants kept asking if we were liking the food or not,  more so because I was from a different part of the country.