Holy Smoke, Chennai

The smoke might be holy but the prices and food are not!! 

Well, its been sometime that I have posted anything in the blog. I am a lazy person basically. During my brief disappearance from the blogging world , I had been to some very good places in Chennai (eat-outs). I forgot to take my camera, or even if I had the camera never took pictures of anything coz I had almost given up blogging. But on Saturday I had been to Holy Smoke- A sizzler joint in Chennai. Oh! What a disappointment! I was so upset with the food there that I had this compelling urge to share it with people so that at least few of you out there are able to save some money.

Holy Smoke is located in Nungambakkam - centrally located. The car park at Ispahani Centre which houses Holy Smoke has ample space to park and its free- a total thumbs up for that.

The restaurant is quite tastefully done, decent ambiance and comfortable seating.

The service is good- the people are courteous and know what they are serving.

Now, I would begin with the negative part- the FOOD.

Well firstly, you expect them to ask you how you want your steak-which they do not. And end up serving a very over done steak. We had ordered a Beef Sorrentino which was hard and dry. The serving size of beef steak average – probably a little less for the price. This sizzler item was presented along with the usual mashed potatoes which tasted strange and some pasta which was bland but okay. The accompanying sauce wasn’t great either but the crispy bread and the eggplant bed on which the steak was served was tasty.

Next item was a Chicken Stroganoff. The chicken pieces were paltry. The veggies on them and the sauce was infested with pepper corns. I am using the word infested because there were just loads of them broken into uneven pieces- floating in the sauce and getting inside your teeth every time you bit into the veggies or the few chicken pieces that were thrown in on the sizzler. I had noted that they were going to season the dish with pepper and I personally like pepper. But, I did not expect a bed of pepper corn. And to my utter disappointment that was the only flavouring along with a mild hint of garlic. If there were any other seasoning or flavour(s) which my taste buds couldn’t detect it’s largely because there was coating of pepper corns on my tongue.

By now already around Rs.800/- had gone down the drain (well almost) but we thought maybe a good dessert could just lift the mood. And we ordered a Chocolate Fondue. I am aware of the concept of a fondue that it’s a sauce served with many other accompaniments which can be dipped in the sauce and had. Well, we didn’t expect cut fruits and wafer biscuits with chocolate sauce to be served for Rs.400/- !!!! It was just ordinary chocolate sauce. The fruits were just apple and pineapple not exotic fruits and wafer biscuits of 3 types all of which tasted same.

So a meal for two cost us 1280/- with just one dessert, no appetizer and no drinks. It is expensive by all means. And the experience (gourmet) was a far cry from average!

I have written all this in their feed back form. I hope somebody sits up and takes notice of it in Holy Smoke. I am done with Holy Smoke and am not even planning to go and check if they have improved. And oh yes the cutlery that they have is ridiculous. The stems of the knives and the forks are very fat and have a rounded mould so they just keep slipping. The cutlery is heavy and the teeth of the knife and the fork was blunt and to top it all they serve over cooked steak. So imagine the struggle you go through for eating something decently (blunt knife- hard steak), pay an indecent high price (Rs.400 for chocolate sauce and half an apple, 3 pieces of pine apple & biscuits!!) and then end up repenting at your choice of eat out.

I think a better option for sizzlers is Kobe. I guess I’ll go to Kobe one more time one of these days, take a few snaps and write a post about it.

Please leave your comment if you want to agree, disagree or if you have anything to add or ask.  :-)

Holy smoke, Ispahani centre, kebabs, kababs, eat outs chennai, holy smoke chennai, sizzlers chennai, holy smoke sizzlers,  Chicken Stroganoff, Chocolate Fondue, fondue, sizzler joint, Beef Sorrentino