Phoenix Market City (Phoenix mall) is a happening place in Chennai not only as a shopping destination but also as the location for trying out different cuisines. Currently Phoenix mall is hosting a new one of a kind experience with Culinary Quest, a Festival with specific menu and host of discounts/offers for its customers from leading restaurants such as Nandos, Rajdhani, Punjab Grill, Jonah’s Bistro, ID, Noodle King and Spaghetti Kitchen. The festival is on till Dec 4^th.  We along with popular food bloggers from Chennai had the opportunity to check out the vegetarian options (Many non-vegetarian dishes too but we cover only vegetarian food in our blog). Get the offers booklet for the festival carrying the respective discounts with 2 complimentary parking passes. Now to our experience on the food at the participating outlets, we tasted out the vegetarian dishes at the first five restaurants – Nandos, Rajdhani, Punjab Grill, Jonah’s Bistro, and ID.

Nandos known for their yummy finger licking food and awesome sauces have introduced vegetarian burgers.

Their menu for the festival carries two vegetarian options – Cataplana Algarve and Paneer & mushroom wrap meal served with a designer drink. We also have the usual Nandos menu and we tried out the vegetarian starters – Hummus with peri-peri drizzle sauce mildly spiced filled in a tiny bottle, pita bread, red pepper dip and spicy mixed olives. Hummus with peri-peri drizzle was yummy and absolutely a knockout in taste. A must Try for everyone who likes hummus.

Paneer & mushroom wrap meal, a quick eat is served in a portion fit enough as a meal for one probably the reason why it is called a meal.

We have six options in the designer drink section and Citra topped the chart.

The next on the tasting session was Rajdhani, the Khandani vegetarian thali restaurant. We have a rotating menu and for the ones familiar with Rajdhani, we need not elaborate on the list of items served on the plate.  This festival has 15% discount on all days except Tuesday. On Tuesdays, the thali is available for Rs.250 all inclusive. We had the usual thali with unusual items that included beetroot poori, lohar and lasun chutney (Kitchdi topped with spicy garlic powder), Ragdi pattice, Jalebi with Rabdi, Dal Baati Churma and the list goes on. A place to go for a wholesome Rajasthani food at pocket friendly price – number of items and quality of food justifies it.

Punjabi Grill is the place to go for North Indian food with a unique signature.  The menu for the festival is extensive and has starters lined up.  We had Paneer Tikka anardana, Beetroot ki tikki (stuffed with mango chutney) and Tandoori Subzi salad.  Our highlight was the Beetroot ki tikki – the chef has woven magic with beetroot – a crispy outer with a soft core of beetroot so well combined with mango chutney is a BIG HIT. A must Try for food lovers.

In the main course we have kadhai Asparagus, Dal Hariyali and Lachcha Palak Paneer.  Asparagus is one vegetable we have hardly seen in the restaurant scene. It was an amazing gastronomic experience with Nan and Kadhai Asparagus – the asparagus was tender perfectly cooked and spinach dal.

The beverage we had looked like lassi but turned out to be a coconut syrup based drink with pineapple juice, vanilla icecream and grenadine syrup. Refreshing different, this is also a Must try!

Jonah’s Bistro is also part of the festival and has an impressive list of Japanese dishes curated for the festival. It includes Maki (Sushi), soups, main course and accompaniments. We tried out the smoked chili rice with creamy tomato and vegetables and it was a stunner. We just could not say a No having splurged to our stomach fill with our experience in former restaurants.

Finally, to ID, the pure vegetarian south Indian restaurant serving authentic traditional food to its customers. A place to go for a lovely cup of filter coffee, that is how we began our food tasting here.  We had vada and crispy dosa with assorted chutneys and their signature sambar.  Classy as usual, we tried out the assorted desserts that included kasi halwa, sakkarai Pongal, semiya payasam and rava kesari.  Sweet Pongal is a must have and Kasi Halwa made of white pumpkin was creamy and extremely addictive. ID has a Rs.99 package for this festival which is a must try.

Do visit Phoenix Mall during this #CulinaryQuest to make the best of their special menu and offers/discounts.