Extravagant Terrific Charismatic, that's ETC for me - Restaurant Review

Outlet: Nungambakkam

Address: 7/4, Rutland Gate 5th street, Nungambakkam, Chennai - 600006.

Cuisine: North Indian, Chinese, Continental

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

It was merely the ambience for which I bookmarked the restaurant & café. As expected they wouldn’t disappoint the ambience lovers. The café setup is my personal favorite with the subtle lighting, game room and books corner. The restaurant is vast spread with indoor and outdoor; and outdoor is the place to be. The beach setup, selfie corner, shanmugam tea stall and the wall-paintings made me fall for the place instantly. Too much into the ambience and it’s time for other things.

Beach Setup - ETC

Tea Stall Setup - ETC

ETC Restaurant

Another outlet at the food destination of Chennai “Nung(y)ambakkam”; located at the Rutland Gate road. It isn’t easy to find without knowing the nook-&-corner of Nungambakkam but yeah reach out for the maps.

Their offer of come as 5 and pay for 4 - unlimited buffet, grabbed the attention of big lot of food lovers. Almost a gang of 20 plus people went to dine there for the lunch buffet. The buffet was priced Rs.666 INR per person. They had a decent buffet spread with live pasta counter. Let me come to food and what I loved:

Disclaimer: This review is only for their Restaurant during the Buffet spread & not for their café. Bear with the not-so-great (photo) clicks!

Soup

Non-veg - Hot & Sour Chicken Soup: Didn’t taste the soup but none of my friends preferred it. No good!

Veg - Palak Shorba Soup & Rosemary Carrot Soup: The latter was my favorite. Buttery deliciousness; never thought carrot soup could taste so good. The palak soup was good but I prefer the carrot over this.

Salads, Soup & Chats

Starters

Hot plates kept pouring on the table. No big complaints on any of them. But the veg starters were definitely better than non-veg.

Potato Cheese Croquette – Crispy and yum. I just needed more cheese.

Baby Corn Salt & Peppers – Loved it. Baby corns seemed to have been cooked a little over-board. But the flavors were spot-on.

Paneer Tikka – Soft and charred corners of paneer with mint sauce, irresistible & Yum.

Gobi 65 – LOVED IT. Serve cauliflower anyway I will not hate it.

Shophiya Murgh, Chicken Pepper Fry, & Country Fries Chicken – Add a bite just to know the taste. No complaints but I would have preferred them the boneless style. Shophiya Murgh would be the first pick, taste-wise. Other two were good.

Schezwan Prawn – Not a prawn fan. By default, didn’t enjoy much though the schezwan flavor was great. But people did love it.

Fish N Chips – I don’t remember seeing any fries; but the crispy fried Basa with mayo tasted great. Drool!!

Fish, Prawn & Chicken

Chat & Salad Section: They did assemble a good spread. Chat section is a bliss for chat lovers; we either could make or ask them to serve us the chats; Pani Puri, Dahi chats, Bhel chats, and more and more. I never cared about salad but yes they were there.

Main Course

Spread was worth the money but too much for the tummy.

Sabji’s - Lasuni Ki Dal, Aloo Dum Kashmiri, Bindi Masala, Panang Vegetable Curry, Mutton Lajawab, Bengali Fish Curry & Masaman Chicken Curry. Though I tasted only a few sabji’s (that too just veg), but I wasn’t a big fan of anything except for the soft roti and naan. 

Sabjis

Vegetable Moussaka – The cheesy moussaka was just deliciousness, O-YUM!

The Rice Mela: Vegetable Pulao, Schezwan Vegetable Rice, Chicken Biriyani & Curd Rice. I didn’t enjoy the pulao or schezwan rice much; the rice seemed a bit raw. Chicken Biriyani was good; loved the taste and flavor.

Chinese Vegetable Noodles – This did taste good and perfect.

Biriyani, Pulao & Rice

Noodles

Live Pasta Counter – Was a bliss to pasta lovers. Make it your style and you way with your favorite paste. Excited, and we did order our favorite ones. Only regret would be the items availability as the pasta counter ran out of few pasta types. Hope they stock more pasta types and sauces.

Desserts – A separate dessert zone; huge spread indeed – Kudos on that.

Chocolate Mousse, Black Forest Gateaux, White Forest Gateaux, Mango Gateaux, Semiya Payasam & Malai Jangiri – GOOD!

Hawaiian, Strawberry, & Mango – Didn’t like them much.

Tiramisu – Best Dessert for the day.

Strawberry Pastry & Chocolate Pastry – OK! Chocolate was better.

Gulab Jamun & Rasagulla with Ice Cream – YUMMM!

Milk Peda, Paneer Coconut Ladoo, Tegular Ladoo, Moong Dal Halwa, Bread Halwa, Thai Sticky Rice, and Banana Sweet Puff – Not so favorite ones.

Desserts

Desserts

Mousse..

Considering the spread, the buffet offer (Rs.666 INR per person) is indeed worth. But if I list out the best tasting dish then there wouldn’t be much. Starters were the best out of the whole spread. Unlimited buffet, so no worries on quantities. Service could definitely be enhanced; they seemed lost and needed series of repeats so they got the dishes. And thanks ETC for the complimentary goodies!

Breaking Down Points

Location & Parking (4/5): Positive. One of cities best fine dining food location with big parking space.

Ambience (5/5): Biggest Positive. Checkout my first paragraph! In love with the ambience <3

Food Variety (4/5): Positive. It was a massive spread with good variety.

Taste (3/5): Average, may be good. Starters, full-mark. For other courses, they were good to taste but would I go back and eat them again, not really. Hoping to see some more magic in the food!

Quality (3/5): Good. Taste-wise the quality is OK! The true taste seemed to have vaporize in the food’s richness. Presentation of the buffet was notable.

Quantity (4.5/5): Positive. The food kept pouring.

Pricing (3.5/5): Good. Apt for big groups and for the ones who want to just keep eating. Would be a total value for money if the dishes are made to taste better.

Service (3.5/5): Good. A tad slow.

With Extravagant buffet spread, Terrific food and Charismatic ambience! ETC is a place to dine at Chennai. The buffet spread is a perfect fit for food lovers with massive variety and quantity. They could for sure work on the taste. Service, a tad slow as said. Buffet doesn’t seem expensive. Anyways, don’t miss this place atleast considering the ambience!!

P.S. The review is based on my food palate & dining experience during my restaurant visit. No two person’s palate can be same.