Q bar :
"This place better be worth it"! were the thoughts in my head, as i steered my poor little i-10 through the evening swarm of car-bees. A friend of mine finally decided to treat us on the account of her birthday (which fell month and a half prior to the writing date). She frequents Q bar in the Hilton situated right opposite the CIPET and adjacent to the Olympia tech park in Guindy. Strategic location. Considering the number of industries situated near the said area. But as i wavered through the traffic on dirt roads with the metro construction to my right and unyielding share-autos to my left, i did wonder if the timing could not have been more wrong.
The first thing that caught my attention as i finally pulled into the building was the way the uniform of the employees. A black Nehru-like-vest and a white dhoti. I was pleasantly surprised and i beamed a extra big smile at the valet. Seriously. It is such a rare phenomenon to see our traditionals men's clothing worn out of homes and i had to mention it. After enduring a strict security check, i went in and was startled and not in a good way, as i looked at the chandelier. In a lobby of pastels why-o-why would you have a chandelier of blue and pink? It had blue cubes at the top and gradually fades into pink cubes as your eyes travels down; and you wish they would stay down. Sorry i digress but its the designer in me. Before you ask, no i am not a fashion designer. Anyway my friends got annoyed with me and pulled me up to the Q bar.
Situated on the roof, is the quintessential Q bar. My first reaction was Woah! Marine drive macha. The view from the side facing the road is very similar to marine drive in bombay. hmm. ok the bend of the road is very similar to the marine drive. Ya, thats better. The bar is located to your left as soon as you enter, or if the pool makes you feel like a mariner, to the Port side. Imagine house boats in the backwaters, albeit with more seating spaces. Each individual table resembles a pergola. It has a cloth roof balanced on 4 pillars and comfortable seating chairs. The place is designed like a inverted L. So further along the line, far away from the bar and the waiters, which irked us a lot. Anyway i will get to that. As i looked around more, i did realize that chennai skyline is not speculator enough to write about.I did think, that if the bar was situated anywhere near the beach, the view would have been breathtaking. The traffic was heavy but thankfully the noise din't carry all the way up. Thank god for small mercies. We seated ourselves at the end of the L as there were hardly any body there, apart from us. From there we could see the Hyatt on the right and the sterling towers to the left. Little bit more, and i think that was LIC. Lol.
From here on, I am going into full on criticizing mood, so beware.
I mentioned before that one of my friend was a regular, well she was all praise for the service, the food and everything else there. Picture this, we were seated for twenty odd minutes; numerous hand raises and waves later, a waiter comes in. In the entire bar, there was one person handling the crowd. ONE. He hands in the menu's. From the hype that this place generated, i was expecting a decent variety of drinks. But no. They had about 8 cocktails, 8 shooters and few assorted drinks, local and imported. Thats it. For a place providing such a pleasant ambience, one would expect exotic cocktails, Cocktails that make you blush when you order. But no. They had the standard Whiskey, Scotch, rum(all imported and local) and vodkas and corresponding martini's. 4 martini variety to be exact. Its not like i am a heavy drinker, but i do like to take my time to choose my drinks. Zara has a more exhaustive menu than Q bar. If you want to try something new and exciting, this isn't the place. The worse part. The drinks were served in Acrylic plastic tumblers. Imagine drinking wine and cognac in plastic tumbler. The alcohol reacted with the plastic and gave of a pungent odor. Disappointing to say the least. The table besides us, returned their drink twice. Thats how bad the reactions were.
The food; Well the food was good, bit spicy but decent. They have about 5 salads to choose from, A range of tapas and main course had fish, lamb, paneer tikka served with garlic naan. The desert was the best part. We ordered a chocolate mousse with Jack Daniels. I mentioned that the food was spicy rite? We asked for water and got it 15 minutes and burnt tongues later. I was at one point contemplating if i should jump into the pool just to stop my tongue from fizzling out.
On a positive side, its a nice place to sit and chat with friends. If you don't mind the inept service that is.
Night out for 3: One cognac(small), one dirty martini, one melon martini, one white wine, Moroccan salad, fish tikka, panner tikka, mushroom in garlic and chocolate desert all amounted to a sum total of 7000 rs. The place was just not worth it.My friend might disagree but, it was money ill-spent.
When we exited, the streets were still full of vehicles and I two drinks later was still empty of the buzz.
The End.
I couldn't take my camera but i found some pics on the internet. Here you go.
+
Q bar: http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/MAAHIHI-Hilton-Chennai-hotel/dining.do#3
"This place better be worth it"! were the thoughts in my head, as i steered my poor little i-10 through the evening swarm of car-bees. A friend of mine finally decided to treat us on the account of her birthday (which fell month and a half prior to the writing date). She frequents Q bar in the Hilton situated right opposite the CIPET and adjacent to the Olympia tech park in Guindy. Strategic location. Considering the number of industries situated near the said area. But as i wavered through the traffic on dirt roads with the metro construction to my right and unyielding share-autos to my left, i did wonder if the timing could not have been more wrong.
The first thing that caught my attention as i finally pulled into the building was the way the uniform of the employees. A black Nehru-like-vest and a white dhoti. I was pleasantly surprised and i beamed a extra big smile at the valet. Seriously. It is such a rare phenomenon to see our traditionals men's clothing worn out of homes and i had to mention it. After enduring a strict security check, i went in and was startled and not in a good way, as i looked at the chandelier. In a lobby of pastels why-o-why would you have a chandelier of blue and pink? It had blue cubes at the top and gradually fades into pink cubes as your eyes travels down; and you wish they would stay down. Sorry i digress but its the designer in me. Before you ask, no i am not a fashion designer. Anyway my friends got annoyed with me and pulled me up to the Q bar.
Situated on the roof, is the quintessential Q bar. My first reaction was Woah! Marine drive macha. The view from the side facing the road is very similar to marine drive in bombay. hmm. ok the bend of the road is very similar to the marine drive. Ya, thats better. The bar is located to your left as soon as you enter, or if the pool makes you feel like a mariner, to the Port side. Imagine house boats in the backwaters, albeit with more seating spaces. Each individual table resembles a pergola. It has a cloth roof balanced on 4 pillars and comfortable seating chairs. The place is designed like a inverted L. So further along the line, far away from the bar and the waiters, which irked us a lot. Anyway i will get to that. As i looked around more, i did realize that chennai skyline is not speculator enough to write about.I did think, that if the bar was situated anywhere near the beach, the view would have been breathtaking. The traffic was heavy but thankfully the noise din't carry all the way up. Thank god for small mercies. We seated ourselves at the end of the L as there were hardly any body there, apart from us. From there we could see the Hyatt on the right and the sterling towers to the left. Little bit more, and i think that was LIC. Lol.
From here on, I am going into full on criticizing mood, so beware.
I mentioned before that one of my friend was a regular, well she was all praise for the service, the food and everything else there. Picture this, we were seated for twenty odd minutes; numerous hand raises and waves later, a waiter comes in. In the entire bar, there was one person handling the crowd. ONE. He hands in the menu's. From the hype that this place generated, i was expecting a decent variety of drinks. But no. They had about 8 cocktails, 8 shooters and few assorted drinks, local and imported. Thats it. For a place providing such a pleasant ambience, one would expect exotic cocktails, Cocktails that make you blush when you order. But no. They had the standard Whiskey, Scotch, rum(all imported and local) and vodkas and corresponding martini's. 4 martini variety to be exact. Its not like i am a heavy drinker, but i do like to take my time to choose my drinks. Zara has a more exhaustive menu than Q bar. If you want to try something new and exciting, this isn't the place. The worse part. The drinks were served in Acrylic plastic tumblers. Imagine drinking wine and cognac in plastic tumbler. The alcohol reacted with the plastic and gave of a pungent odor. Disappointing to say the least. The table besides us, returned their drink twice. Thats how bad the reactions were.
The food; Well the food was good, bit spicy but decent. They have about 5 salads to choose from, A range of tapas and main course had fish, lamb, paneer tikka served with garlic naan. The desert was the best part. We ordered a chocolate mousse with Jack Daniels. I mentioned that the food was spicy rite? We asked for water and got it 15 minutes and burnt tongues later. I was at one point contemplating if i should jump into the pool just to stop my tongue from fizzling out.
On a positive side, its a nice place to sit and chat with friends. If you don't mind the inept service that is.
Night out for 3: One cognac(small), one dirty martini, one melon martini, one white wine, Moroccan salad, fish tikka, panner tikka, mushroom in garlic and chocolate desert all amounted to a sum total of 7000 rs. The place was just not worth it.My friend might disagree but, it was money ill-spent.
When we exited, the streets were still full of vehicles and I two drinks later was still empty of the buzz.
The End.
I couldn't take my camera but i found some pics on the internet. Here you go.
 |
| Pergola: Source: Popularmechanics.com |
 |
| dhoti Source: exoticindiaart.com |
 |
| Nehru Vest: Source: inmonarch.com |
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| Drooooooooool |
Address: 124/1 J.N. Salai, Ekkaduthangal, Chennai, India 600032 Tel: 91-44-222-55555 Fax: 91-44-22255700
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