A paradise for vegetarians

Located on the ground floor of Wellington Estate, Egmore, Curries ‘N’ Chutneys would hardly be on anyone’s radar with its sober appearance. But a look inside opens a world of North Indian dishes that go on endlessly in the menu. From poori bhaji to paneer pakoda, from veg seekh kabab to shahi paneer, from 22 varieties of paranthas to five different phulkas, from marwaari thali to South Indian thali, Curries ‘N’ Chutneys has every types of vegetarian dishes under its roof. For those looking for spicy snacks, a stall in the restaurant offers 15 varieties of chaats. That’s quite a stomach full. The restaurant, started two years ago by chartered accountants, Gorav Gupta and M Bhopalan, is a unit of Samsara Home Foods Private Limited, which offers catering service of 4,500 meals per day to various corporates in Chennai. “We have this centralised kitchen in Guindy, which meets the daily supply of meals to the corporate and our restaurant,” says Gorav. With the history in place, I planned to have a dig into the items on offer. But I struggled to select a parantha from the 22 varieties such as methi parantha, gajar parantha and mushroom parantha available in the menu. “Sir, aap paneer parantha khahiye. Yeh hamara favourite dish hain (Sir, please try paneer parantha. It’s the favourite dish in our restaurant),” says manager D Muralidharan, who speaks chaste Hindi, thanks to the all North Indian staff he’s managing for two years.I also asked Murali, as he is better known, to help me with any side dish from the 30 varieties such as dal dokhi and aloo mutter available in the menu. He asked me to try veg kofta. As a rule, I finished off each morsel of the food on offer, with the bill coming out to be Rs 115 — paneer parantha Rs 35 and veg kofta Rs 80. The parantha and veg kofta were hot and spicy, true to the North Indian style, which I was accustomed to for a major part of my life. But it was the marwaari thaali that caught my attention. Costing Rs 55, the thaali had 10-12 small bowls, each filled with one item or the other, besides a layer of phulkas kept in the middle. “Thaali is more in demand during lunch time, as working professionals want a quick meal and get back to work,” says Murali. “But in the evening, we get the student crowd for chaats from the nearby Ethiraj College, and the family and hostel gathering for veg dishes for dinner,” he adds. There are also a few varieties of soup and juices available. Curries ‘N’ Chutneys is located at Wellington Estate, Shop No G11, Commander In Chief Road, Egmore. For details, call 42145795.