Kudos to Rain Forest

Rain Forest is a restaurant in Adyar that has been open for about two years now. I met two friends there for lunch today.
The first thing noticable is the theme that they have adopted,discernible from the name. The opening was designed like a cave,you enter through a door that has been resembles a few rocks and walk down five steps which seem carved out of stone.
To the left is a small waterfall and the foliage is green though plastic. I can understand the logic behind leaving out the real greenery as there is no sunlight here. The waiters sport shirts that have leopard spots and seem to be from the north-eastern part of India, who look better suited to be natives of said rain forests. The walls have been adorned with wood that resembles bamboo shoots. And the food is pretty decent too. The only thing that marred the entire effect was when they had to settle to provide Xerox copies of the menu since they seemed to have too few of them to give around.
The ratings for Rain Forest, Adyar are:

Decor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Service: ♥♥♥
Food: ♥♥♥♥
Ambience: ♥♥♥♥♥
Price: ♥♥♥♥♥

Overall rating: ♥♥♥♥

However, it is advised that only small groups (four to five members) go here since loud volumes definitely would clash with the ambience that they strive to achieve here. A rain forest is where you prefer to listen to nature around you, not loud laughter and words. The place is open from 12 to 3 for lunch and 7 to 11 for dinner. They are pretty strict about timings here, and discourage patrons from entering after closing times, unlike other Indian restaurants that continue to allow entry upto atleast an hour after closing time.

City of Joy - First Impressions

I actually made it to the 5:00 AM flight, thankfully I had obtained the boarding pass the previous day and so had ample time to stroll in and board the flight without any hassle.
We reached Calcutta at around 7:15 AM and I waited at the airport for my colleague flying in from Mumbai. He finally made it at around 9:00.
Since our first meeting was at 11:30, we decided to stop for a coffee, the elixir of life for some of us who are not too used to seeing daylight before 7:00.
The surprising thing about Calcutta is that everyone seems to be abed even at 10:00 in the morning. I have been informed that reporting for work before 11:00 AM for Bengalis is a rarity!
We were dropped at a quaint coffee-shop called Flury's at Park Street by our driver who, wonder of wonders, spoke both Hindi and English!
Ratings for Flury's are as follows:
Decor: ♥♥♥
Service : ♥♥♥♥
Food: ♥♥♥
Music/Ambience : ♥♥
Price : ♥♥♥♥♥
Overall rating of Flury's : ♥♥♥
The Cafe Mocha that they serve is pretty good, but my colleague refused to follow my advice and ordered for their Viennese coffee. His facial expressions were worth the early morning flight, his contortions definitely made my day!!
We finished with the first meeting and decided to break for lunch.
Lunch was at Sourav's, which I believe is a place that belongs to Saurav Ganguly, the ex-captain of the Indian cricket team (and who is back on the team for the current South- Africa Series). The food was great as also the decor.
Ratings for Sourav's are as follows:
Decor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Service : ♥♥♥♥
Food: ♥♥♥♥
Music/Ambience : ♥♥♥
Price : ♥♥♥
Overall rating for Sourav's : ♥♥♥♥
After a wonderful lunch, we needed to go in for two meetings and needless to say, I drooped most of the time.
My return flight to Chennai was at 6:10 PM and since it was Indian Airlines, we were pretty cool thinking that it would be delayed.
My colleague had got the news that his return flight to Chennai was delayed by 1 and a half hours. Unfortunately the meeting went on till 5:15 PM and by the time I called the Indian Airlines number, I was informed that my flight was on time and our driver took sadistic pleasure in telling us that the airport was an hour's drive from there.
I did a tele-check in and we reached the airport at around 6:00 PM.
I rushed to the Indian Airlines terminal and was told that we would be boarding so just about managed to get through security check on time and surprise, surprise ...after the boarding announcement, they did not bother to open the gates till 6:30 PM and the flight finally took off at around 7:15 PM. Thank You Indian Airlines for your consistent delays!!
Finally landed at Chennai around 9:15 PM and reached home at 10:00.

Death by Chocolate - a disappointment

I am a chocolate addict, any shape or form of chocolate, I will gorge myself on thst.
Ever since shifting to Chennai, I had heard a lot about a dessert called "Death by chocolate" available at Tangerine, a restaurant in the Alwarpet area of Chennai.
Having got raving reviews of this, I decided to bully a fren of mine into taking me to Tangerine for lunch.
I ordered the vegetable lasagne while he ordered the paneer tikka sizzler.
Both of them were way below par and after getting through a quarter of my lasagne, I decided to instead go in for the dessert which had led me to the place.
When it came, all I could do was to stare at it in disappointment.
All that I saw was some custard immersed in chocolate sauce....needless to say, it was a waste of time and effort going there.
We usually rate a restaurant based on decor, service, food, music/ambience and price
We rated Tangerine as follows:
Decor : ♥♥
Service: ♥♥
Food : ♥
Music/Ambience: ♥
Price : ♥
Overall rating: ♥
I returned to my office, picked up my stuff and tickets since I am travelling to Calcutta tomorrow and returned home quite disappointed...and I need to catch the 5 AM flight tomorrow