Decent Bengali food in Chennai at
decent prices; that what “Annapurna ” is all
about! We had heard a lot about this place from the time we landed in Chennai.
Finally on a public holiday this year we went there to have a Bengali meal in
Chennai!! It is a small place, hardly accommodating about 15-16 tables in all. I found out that this is a family run business
and they have not changed much for a long time.
The place does not have a fixed
menu; day’s menu is written on a whiteboard!! It reminded me of old pice hotels
of Kolkata. The menu is pretty basic; everyday there is a fixed veg thali with
about 2-3 types of fish including prawns [You can get Hilsa if you are lucky],
1 chicken curry, 1 mutton curry and ‘Hanser dimer kasha”. You have choice of biriyani or Pulav additionally.
We ordered for basic thali which
consists of rice, dal, 1 veg sabji, shukto and something resembling mashed
potatoes. It was pretty basic and in truth not very inspiring beginning. We
ordered the “Rui macher jhal” (Fish curry), “Kosha Mangsho” (Spicy Chicken
curry) and “Chingri macher bati chachhori’ (Prawn). Among all these, the fish
was ok, not very good and the piece was very small. Prawn was very
disappointing, not tasty at all. The best one was Chicken kasha. It was really
nice and we ordered pulav to go with it. I was hungry for more and also ordered
‘hanser dim kasha’ (Spicy egg curry). This was the best part of our entire
meal. Pulav was very good and also the “hanser dim kasha” was spicy and very
tasty.
Well, there are lots of
improvement scopes but still if you are in Chennai and craving for Bengali
food, try this place. The prices are very very reasonable. The veg thali was
45/- , Chicken was around 70/- , Hanser dim kasha was 25/-. For 2 of us the
total meal including 2 veg thali, chicken curry, fish curry, prawn curry, egg
curry and 1pulav in total cost us around 300/-. We would suggest you to try the
pulav with kasha mangsho and Hanser dim kasha; you can’t go wrong with it. The
place does not have any seat booking policy, so be ready to wait standing
beside a table if you are going on weekends. Seriously be ready to wait half
hour to one hour during lunch on a Sunday, I know it from first hand experience!! Do not expect
great ambience but just go for the Bengali food.
OUR RATINGS:
Ambience: 1/5
Food: 3.5/5 [Considering it’s in
Chennai]
Service: 4/5
Price: 4.5/5
Overall: 3.5/5
OUR TAKE:
A pace to visit when feeling
homesick and craving Bengali food in Chennai. There are not many places where
you can get decent Bengali food in Chennai at this reasonable price. Also you
will meet lots of Bengalis.
