The OMR is one of the “happening” places in Chennai. Apart from being hustley and bustley during the weekdays, courtesy, the numerous organisations that have set their centres here, in those giant glass buildings, this place is equally vibrant even in the weekends.
I must confess that I haven’t really been out in this area during the weekends before. I made an exception to that trend and shunned my famed laziness to get to what is called the OMR Food Street.
Located at a prime place, opposite to the CEEBROS Boulevard (people who have had some experience of searching for accomodation in the OMR would definitely know this place 😛 ), this is literally a small “sandhu”. It is lined with small shops that sell food ranging from coffee and soda to Mexican and Burmese.
I stepped in, donning that not-so-famous foodie hat and took a quick look around to see what can be made of the evening.
My first stop was “TASTE”.
This place is located right next to the Wraps shop and the menu board is lined up with varieties of Paniyarams. Carrot, cheese, Egg, paneer, mushroom etc are the variants with which the Paniyarams are served. I ordered a Cheese paniyaram, all excited about what I would be getting in a plate. Equipped with quite vivid imagination, I went to heaven and back, thinking of the cheesy paniyarams when I was served with what looked like normal paniyarams sprinkled with a miserly quantity of grated cheese. That is innovation, right? The paniyarams tasted fine and so were the chutneys.
Strutting like Dora in Exploration mode, I set my eyes onto the next stop, Bits & Bytes. I scan the menu and settle for a veg roll, which was sizzling hot and served with Ketchup. The best thing about the veg roll was that it was moderately spicy and very,ummm, well cooked. Among a couple of places I have tasted veg roll, this place would be the best. I enjoyed as my taste buds thanked me for not harassing it with the usual masala overdose.
I climbed up the stairs to taste the Organic Sirudhaaniyam Village food and ended up in 200BC!
That is the name of the outlet and they specialise in using Sirudhaaniyams like millet, raagi, red rice etc in making conventional food items like pesarattu, dosas, sweet pongal etc. After bites of Thinai Sweet pongal ordered by Sindhu and Thinai Adai and aviyal from Goku , we gorged on the Ragi onion dosa from my plate. All of these were excellent and light on the tummy.
It was by then that Katie Ma’am brought some Sarbat from Zuki & Co. Yummy and pleasant, I rushed to get some for myself and quench my thirst.
My last stop was the Oasis, which turned out to be my Discovery of the Day!
Cute lil shop near the MilkyWay outlet, it was colorful and even yummy to look at. We ordered a Fruit salad with Ice cream, a jeera lime and a sweet lassi.
If you are the type who would love something to read while gorging on desserts, then this is the place. They have good stuff on their menu card that gives nice history of Chennai’s landmarks. The place is pocket friendly and is quite spacious too.
In a nutshell, OMR Food street is heaven for people who wish to have variety at a single place. You are spoilt for choices and are saved from shelling out a bomb on weekend food.
Do check their website out and also make time to visit in person, I am sure it will turn out to be a memorable foodie evening.
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