Mascarpone Cafe — Restaurant in Tamil Nadu

A WELL KEPT SECRET. 15 km South of Chennai, in Uthandi and off East Coast Road, lies a small pearl of a restaurant. Seating is in small romantic pavillions in a small garden with fresh green grass. Restaurant Mascapone is run by two brothers - the elder has studied and practised italian cuisine in some of the best, international hotels and cafes in Tamil Nadu, - the younger oversees the guest service. The menu card contains: Starters, Salads, Soups, Pasta, Burgers, Pizza, Serious main courses with beef, chicken, seafood or non-veg., and Desserts. Also a selection of Thai dishes available. As the restaurant was rather empty, just having opened after Covid lock down, we assumed tha many dishes were not available. We were wrong, and the polite waiter assured us that we could get practically any dish from the menu. I chose Bruschetta for starter, finely chopped tomato seasoned with garlic, herbs and parmesan on lovely, crisp slices of baguette. My main course was a pizza with chicken and bell pepper, modified a little after my request. The pizza was the thinnest and most delicate, I have ever had, and was a joy to eat, served smoking hot from the oven. My partner chose the sea foof lasagne, which was just the right amount of beautifully rich and well tasting sauce with calamari, shrimps and fish pieces. The service was attentive and polite, and the only minus was a few mosquitoes who wanted us for dinner. Luckily, we had brought Odomos with us. The bill, including non-alcoholic fruit drinks and bottled water, came up to approx. 1400 Rs. Which is very reasonable for a meal of this quality. It will not be the last time, we eat here...

We chose this place for a small team lunch from work seeing all the reviews on Zomato.

As soon as we reached the place and went in, we were in love with the ambience. It was very earthy and relaxing. And although it was noon, it was still breezy inside the huts.

In Veg starters, we ordered a Skewered Tofu which was tangy with a hint of sweetness and not so spicy. It was decent. Could have been a bit more spicier.

In Non veg starters, we ordered the Chicken popcorn which my colleagues had. It was fine. Not bad or too good.

For mains, we ordered a Veg Lasagne which was too tangy for my taste. Although the restaurant staff were very obliging and were ready to change and make the dish better, we didn't change it. In conclusion, it was a decent dish. Just not to my taste.

For non-veg mains, we ordered a Seafood thai flat noodles. My colleagues had non-fried seafood for the first time, so they didn't like it very much.

For desserts, we ordered a mud cake with vanilla ice cream, which was the best out of everything we had there. It made up for all the other food. We dig into the mud cake and finished it in a couple of bites.

Overall it was a decent meal with an amazing dessert. The staff were very courteous and we loved the service and...

Frankly, the place wasn’t that great (overall). The service is pathetically slow and the waiter not speaking English and being clueless about what we just said doesn’t help either. There’s a lack of waiters so you can’t even inquire about your order if you need to.

We waited 1 hour for two pathetic mocktails that weren’t even good. One starter arrived quickly and one dish took 40mins and the other 50mins (in total). Such slow service despite only less than 8 guests at the place. Every single time we told the waiter one thing, he left somewhere on a scooter and took a long time to come back???

It seems there is a lack of proper organisation and management at this place.

Which is a shame because the ambience is actually good and the area is peaceful and clean, with ample parking on the street. It’s a nice place to relax. I do wish the table and curtains were clean cause they looked dirty. It’s not that difficult to wash them…

The food was fine. Nothing to write home about. Pretty average all in all. Half the menu wasn’t available for some reason so our choices were limited.

I would not recommend visiting this place. There are definitely better...