Visited Teynampet branch for the first time yesterday... After multiple reviews about service, I was little worried. Even at the last moment I thought of entering Samco which opened their new branch recently. But courageously I gone upstairs. The store Manager said they have to check about the discount coupon issued by CFG we said OK. He took the order without worrying about payment. First shock. Then the food was amazing, HP3 combo and Great Indian Maha Thali. Wonderful Gulab Jamun\'s. I really dont know why this place was rated less. After that, he accepted the Gift Voucher. Possibly visit soon...

CFG Showcase - Mast Kalandar, Velachery, Chennai Mast Kalandar is a North Indian Vegetarian restaurant, with neat clean interior; nothing fancy but quite inviting and bright. Their menu had 3 options for comfort food platter with phulkas and dhal as the main platter and then rice, salad and raitha on the side. The options were to add extra vegetarian curries. They also had 5 different Thali options each targeting a different place in India. Paratha Waali Galli, Rajasthani Thali, Gaon Ki thali, Punjabi Thali and Marwari thali. My personal favorite was the Gaon Ki Thali, which had stuffed karela gravy. The karela had a really good stuffing and did not taste bitter and was delicious. Read More at.... http://spicy-curry.blogspot.in/p/mast-kalandar.html

With a very low set expectation but very high appetite after seeing the promo pics for the navarathri thali we stepped in to mast kalandar and I shud say it exceeded my expectations. The food was actually good and had good variety. The vrat thali was not available though. The utsav thali had sweets and side dishes (channa which i felt was too tangy and a very good mutter paneer). Loved the peas poori concept although it wasnt as fluffy as advertised. Now i ordered some naan and mutter paneer to go since i really got blown away by the one in the thali but the one that came in the take away was not great, It has rubbery paneer and a frozen and microwaved tasting gravy. Anyway, the thali was not allowed to be taken away so we had to do with this.

Duma Dam Mast Kalandar Ali Da Pehla Number Dama Dam Mast Kalandar Sakhi Shabaaz Kalandar Is the song that comes to my mind every time I hear the name Mast Kalandar... The Mast Kalandar am referring to here is the restaurant. Keeping in sync with the times, they have now launched a Festive menu.. I have eaten a couple of times in their outlets in Bangalore, but this was my 1st time in their Chennai outlet.. read more on http://aromasofkitchens.blogspot.in/2013/10/mast-kalandar.html

Mast Kalander is Ashok nagar has a very nice decor and lotsa play area for the kids. But somehow I dont like their chaats, some people do. Its too spicy and / or strong for my liking. Must try their huge thalis once, but I am not motivated to cos we once ordered for a group of 10 at home and they delivered, pulao, roti, gulab jamun and gravy. By far the worst pulao I have tasted in any restaurant in Chennai I think. The other stuff were okay, nothing to write home about. They have introduced a lot of new dishes for the festive season, I cant wait to try them out. looks very enticing and of course, it is always a delight to dine in this place with your kids.

The place looked deserted at 8 in the evening and the order, pay and go to your table felt like a punishment when going for a leisure dinner with your family. I guess the place is only worth visiting for a quick lunch during office hours or so. More of a fast food joint though the service isnt really fast. In fact the waiters lacked energy and looked drained bored and irritated to serve. Everything had to be asked for..including plates, spoons and water. and the sad look on their faces made the entire experience very depressing, do we need to pay them to smile? Coming to the food,, the chaat - dahi papdi was awesome. period. There ended the pleasure, everything else that came in after this tasted either bland or sour or bitter. The combos sounded cool and filling, we ordered the parantha combo with methi-corn-paneer parantha and mooli parantha, i cudnt take more than a bite of any of it. Maybe its not for me! So i decided to taste the rajma chawal, which was my favourite dish when i was in delhi. Unfortunately the rajma gravy was bitter too!! So was the paneer gravy that came with the Hulka Phulka combo. So i dont need to mention how jawar roti and palak wud ve been :) One more thing i loved about the place other than the chaat is the chaas.. came in huge steel tumblers jus like they serve in delhi and it was chilled and thirst quenching too! The lassi or the lemonade all were average. Comin to the desserts, the gulab jamun that came with the combo was yummy! but the malpua with rabdi we ordered was nothing close to authentic! twas almost the same jamun with soem basandi on top... But i should agree, the place did make me feel nostalgic .. to get bak to delhi and have some actual authentic stuff!!!!

Went to Mast Kalandar,Ashok Nagar today for lunch with 3 of my colleagues. Ofcourse i'm frequenting this place quite often.alone. Today Colleagues too joined. We ordered for 4 MK Maha Thali. Maha Thali has reduced & has become just Thali. Reduction in terms of 1. Price :) :) from Rs.250 to Rs.200/- 2. Qty. Its no more unlimited fare as it use to be. But a limited meal with generous portion of everything. No re-filling. But I got a second serving of Butter Milk & Couple of Phulkas :P It makes sense,b'coz this qty itself is huge & ppl may not go for a second serving. :) :) 3. No Compromise on Qlty.! :) :) :) Every item in the thali tasted good! My pick was Dahi Papdi Chaat & Sweet Curd(Mishti Doi???) Downfall of this thali - Too many gravies! Daal,Paneer,Rajma,Kadi...It totals to 7 - 8.but, just 1 dry item - Okra Fry. I would suggest them,replace one of the gravy with a dry item. That can really make a difference to this Thali!

Prathap Gandhi - Full Biryani Combo at Mast Kalandar, Ashok Nagar http://onefoodie.blogspot.in/2012/12/full-biriyani-combo-mast-kalandarashok.html