Aromas of China

It'd been an insanely bad week and I was really looking forward to this dinner. Sometimes, you learn the hard way, to not expect.

Located in the heart of the food junction of Chennai, Aromas Of China boasts some really cool neighbors. The usual CFG gang landed at this place and by 730 we started dinner. The menu was sent well in advance.

Well lit ambiance, white crockery and stylish cutlery are just some positive aspects of this place. The seats weren't that great, especially the sofas and some even compared it to a share auto.

I quite didn't like the jasmine flavored tea that was served.

The eight treasure soup lacked flavor. I couldn't find one treasure in the soup, leave alone 8. The soup was too corny, er, I mean, too much corn flour in the base. (Aarti - your effect is rubbing off ;-) )

The crispy chilli corn pepper was crisp. A decent starter. The vegetable konjeenaro dry was terribly dry, tasteless and crisp. If we were able to manage spoonfuls of any of the above, it was largely due to the chilli sauce. It tasted yum and we almost finished 3 - 4 cups of this sauce.

A veg momo appeared on the plate and I really don't have much to say about this.

As we waited for the main course, we almost lost patience and considered stepping off to Haagen Dazs for some desserts. The chilli butter noodles was decent on the palate while the dumplings in soya chilli sauce and mix veg sichuan chilli sauce left a lot to be desired.

Given that the meal so far was a complete let down, we were hoping the desserts would save the evening and save they did. Hot chocolate rolls, Almond flaked Darshan.. er.. darsaan (Jenny - couldn't help it :D ) and vanilla ice cream were good. The vanilla ice cream though, didn't seem to have any vanilla in it.

Unless I'd lost my olfactory senses this morning, I could neither sense any aroma nor was there any China (except of course the mandarined lanterns and the fact that they were trying to celebrate Chinese New Year of the Snake ;-) ) in this place. And surprisingly, it was full for a Thursday evening.

For the first time, I am going with a rating mechanism here

Food: 1/5
Ambiance: 3/5
Service: 2/5 (I am tempted to say 1, but there were moments when the service was okay)

* This is part of CFG Showcase. Food is subjective and your taste buds are different from mine. 

* A meal for two would cost around INR 1500+ - each dish is priced at 300 upwards

*Aromas of China is on KNK Road, opp Kryptos By Willi.