Pakwan Chennai — Restaurant in Zone 10 Kodambakkam

To catch up with a good friend after over a decade, this is the first place that came to my mind. It's kind of possible to miss this place as it is nestled among residences and is not on the main road but can be easily found with a navigator. Its quaint and beautiful ambience made us so comfortable that we killed almost three hours without realising it. The first to come and almost the last to leave🤪🤪 Coming to the food, we didn't go for the buffet as we thought it's a little too much for us to eat. But will definitely try some day.

We started off with a tomato Basil soup. Just mildly flavored with Basil and crispy croutons, it was perfect to sooth our taste buds and get our digestive juices kick started. One suggestion is that they could definitely add more croutons in the soup. Hardly 5-6 croutons per cup us hardly anything you know. We paired it with picanto garlic bread. It was the perfect combo, spicy due to the chilli topping and crisp but not hard to bite into. For main course we chose the stuffed cannelloni. Though it was a bit bland in the beginning it tasted great after a small sprinkle of salt and herbs and chilli flakes. It was very creamy and not in short of the stuffing too. By now we were too full to try more so ended our meal with shahi tukra. It was simply out of the world. Just one plate and we were full to the brim. The crispy fried bread slices topped with a generous layer of rabdi and chopped nuts, it was so magical, our taste buds craved for more but our poor tummies were screaming for help😄😄

Have been here so many times before but never actually got to write a review as we used to try so many items on the menu that I used to forget the names. I visited Pakwan yesterday and really had the time to feel and enjoy the food and hence my review. I would recommend this place if you wanna try pure vegetarian North Indian and global cuisine all under one roof. I'm sure meat lovers will not miss anything here. If you come here as a group you're definitely gonna enjoy it.

It's pretty pricey here but I think it's worth every penny, when you see the decor and ambience you'll not regret. Very courteous and friendly staff who would do anything to make your visit comfortable, including the guys at parking. They even oblige to click pictures if you ask them. Sweet guys. Thumbs up for your service!

Edit 1--

Tried their buffet finally but the review comes a bit late- just about a year late😁😁 it was exceptional given the number of items in the menu, we felt we couldn't do justice to the food. We couldn't take second servings of even one dish as each single serving itself we couldn't complete. We didn't wanna waste food hence stopped with little bites of everything that could fit in our poor tummies. Quite a heavy meal which we chose for dinner. Maybe we could have done some more justice had we come for lunch along with a big appetite. Well altogether it was a great food experience although the ambience has got a little less nicer than before. But be prepared to bombard your ears with the loud conversations happening around you. Everything else is great as always!...

Went for a team lunch, Really got disappointed with everything.

Ambience: Was good with a dark theme situated in a calm closed area in the1st floor with other business up and down. Good to have a dinner night or dinner setup in the morning with your loved once, if the food was good.

Service: They close the entry by 2.45-3PM, We booked for 2PM slot and it was our mistake we got delayed and reached by 2.30PM. If they can't provide service, they should have avoided us the entry. But, Hospitality : To bad, they concentrated on arranging the closed table, instead of serving the guests. They filled our plates with their dishes, without following an request. Welcome drink and soup were served in the mid of serving the appetizers. There was no gap in between the dishes, they loaded and dropped everything in our table. They didn't provide Laptowel, tissues, side plates, fork, salt and pepper.

But while reaching to the fronttable, I could see the Laptowel rose folded in a black cup. Not sure whats the problem for making a arrangements.

Food: Apart from service and ambience, this was main thing, But they really made each one of us to get disappointed. Starters: This came first a. Panner manchurian - Bit ok with the sauce. b. Green salad - Its not even a dish, but added as a dish in the menu c. Green potato - Full boiled big potatoes peeled and rolled over some green masala (Its just a boiled allo - not baby potatoes) d. Some curd chaat - Din't try(hate milk/curd)

Soup: Two choice given Man-chow soup: Loaded with that namkin and spoiled the flavour. Badam blah blah soup : MTR badam mix in hot water.

Welcome drink: Green apple soda - Bit ok compared to the food, But that too was in a sour taste with high concentrated essence.

Main course: a. Paratha and Naan - Good The bad was, we din't get matching side to eat those b. Dal Thadka - But its not a tadka, just a smashed dal c. Panner masala - Thick gravy, d. Veg kurma - Mostly filled with tomato and capsicum - Not tasty. e. Saffron rice - Only for smell, can't eat. f. In this they have added "The CURD Rice" as a main item.

Desserts: a.Halwa - Carrot halwa (no consistency in texture) b.pastry

Ice cream: Butterscotch - Don't expect toppings.

We spent ~7k for this lunch, Literally wasted.

We tried al-crate too, 1.crispy corn - okish 2.Veg momo - Don't even think of ordering this.

I'm not sure how they were rewarded as best restaurants in the city.

Suggestions: Change your menu in the buffet, replace some items with baby corn, mushroom, zucchini or just with some vegetables will also be good.

Just panner, aloo and capsicum were served in the entire menu, Really...

Visited on 15th August 2018. Please find the detailed review below.

Seating: The manager at the reception receives with so much of warmth and we were seated in a comfortable table, 7 of us

Menu : There was an A la Carte and a buffet menu(we were told it's a typical TDH menu. TDH stands for Table d' hot, meaning set menu served at the table)

Ambience: Excellent trendy decor with cozy table setting, the restaurant was just packed at 1.30pm

Items served: Assorted mocktail:Very freshing and delicious. Perfectly sweet to enjoy

Tomato shorbha: Tasty and could make out it's made from the powder and a real tomato puree

Paneer tikka: No Salt and was literally cold

Coriander baby potatoes: Never had such a delicious dish in potatoes. Worth praising it.

Cheese popper: very cold and tasteless

Main course gravies: Moderately tasty, Dal was excellent,panneer was a flop, kofta was liked by others, but found it to be sweet.

Briyani and Indian breads: They use long grain rice but not the basmathi( the long grain rice is about 65 rs and basmathi is 95 rs in the whole sale rates). It had no salt and it was served warm not hot. Indian bread platter was cold and had to struggle to tare apart

Dessert: Rabdi and Gajar ka halwa: Both were extremely good and thought of asking for a second round. But controlled the temptation. Paan I/C: Good

Service: Staff(the main guy who served us) was very friendly and smiling. But dead slow in service. Others pretend to not hearing you. Water had to be asked for multiple times. Between every dish served it took 10 minutes for them. Very poor service.

Over all: Food below avg, service needs to be improved at least to a decent degree.

My reviews are slightly on the low score side, Cas I have worked in hotels like ITC, JP Palace and in Radisson for 12 years.

My concern is that they charge as good as a 3/4 star hotels in the name of "Fine dining" restaurants. But what comes out...