It will be illogical to expect Crimson Chakra to be empty on a Saturday evening. However, we decided to walk into this pretty little restaurant which has been there on Adyar for almost a decade. Our goal? Try out everything on their new Continental Menu.
Nikhil Moturi, who owns the place was more than excited to talk about the eight new items that they were ready to serve. Why wouldn’t he be? They’re serving pizzas for the very first time! “Our crowd is mostly families. So naturally, we have a lot of children coming here and they love pizzas,” he says. Now, wait for the best part. Nikhil has also developed his own apparatus to slow cook beef. “We marinate the meat overnight and then slow cook it for almost six hours,” he says.
Cut to the cheese
If there’s one thing that unites most of the items on the menu, it is cheese. The first thing on our plate was a Tuscany grilled vegetable salad. Don’t frown, this isn’t your boring green bowl. Instead, this is a vibrant mix of vegetables — lettuce, beetroot and carrot marinated overnight. Too boring? Wait for it. It also has orange carpels and zest and some toast. Topped with an olive oil dressing and of course, cheese, one could binge on it, guilt-free.
The salad was followed by Picante Arancini Balls, Baked Chicken tarts and a Margherita pizza. Then came the Pasta Formaggio, which was spaghetti generously coated with four types of cheese. It was ‘grate’!
Rib-tickling
It would be a sin to not say anything about the slow-baked smoked ribs. If you’re someone who thoroughly enjoyed relishing those juicy ribs at Applebee’s and are looking for an alternative in Chennai, maybe you should give this a try. It is a part of their pop-up menu and you get to order this in advance.
It was served with a fruit reduction sauce and a side of mashed potatoes. It was almost a battle to cut through the meat, but there was no bloodshed — this dish was medium-rare. The meat was juicy and soft and went perfectly well with the sauce, which was the right amount of tangy and sweet. What more to say? It was a meal well-done.
Meal for two INR 700 onwards.