Grillin’ and Chillin’: The Big Barbeque’s big menu

CHENNAI: The Big Barbeque at the Checkers Hotel, Saidapet is a multi-cuisine barbeque restaurant serving a variety of over 150 dishes.

The restaurant has 12 live counters, a vast salad and dessert station, and a special kids’ corner serving French fries, potato wedges and smileys. The interior is a blend of eclectic and contemporary design.

Some of the live counters are- South Indian tiffin, Delhi chat, pasta, pizza, Mongolian grill, cold stone ice cream, jalebi and rabdi among others.

For starters, we tried their Cajun spice potato. The bite-sized potato cutlet was coated in a generous amount of Cajun sauce and was flavourful with the right amount of spice. This dish is pretty good. The crispy corn had everything but the right masalas. The dish lacked the zest of lemon, chilli powder, and chat masala. It fell flat and didn’t do much for the palate.

Their methi mutton seekh does not look much but is definitely warming to the heart. This yummy seekh is gentle in terms of seasoning and leans more towards giving out a garlicky flavour. The texture was slightly chalky, but it made up for its taste. The Punjabi tangdi chicken has a fiery punch of piquancy and wins the limelight. This dish may slightly be overwhelming for people not used to spices.

In their grills, we tried their Asian paneer. This dish passes the test because of its unique taste. Pro-tip, squeeze a few drops of lemon on the paneer and have it along with the grilled capsicum and green chutney. The chilli garlic prawn is a dish sautéed in butter, garlic and herbs. This dish is light in flavour and is pretty good. You definitely won’t stop with one.

For the main course, we tried their Punjabi paneer grill tikka masala, mutton rogan josh, and Chettinad chicken curry with butter naan. The paneer tikka masala was decent with the authentic touch of North Indian flavours. The mutton rogan josh is the star of the menu and is phenomenal. This versatile curry will go really well with a nice, crispy dosa and butter naan.

In rice, we tried their chicken dum biryani and seeraga samba special mutton biryani. The biryani replicates the flavours of Triplicane in every sense and is definitely a must-try. Their vegetable soft noodles were a no-go. The soggy, bland noodles lacked basic flavours.

The restaurant’s range of desserts really sets it apart from all the other grill and barbeque places in Chennai. Their must-try is gulab jamun with vanilla ice cream and moong dal halwa.

On the whole, the place is decent and can be explored for its variety of live stations, desserts and seafood range. It’s also affordable and there is value for money for the quantity.