Food review: A Tranquil culinary retreat blending comfort food with global flavors in Chennai

CHENNAI: To offer more than just delightful delicacies, Park Hyatt decided to revamp the Dining Room. The revamped version, Park Brasserie, was recently launched to provide a tranquil dining experience, blending comfort with global culinary influences.

“We have three restaurants at the hotel and wanted each to have a distinct identity. One is known for its vibrant atmosphere, while another highlights the street food experience of Singapore. For Park Brasserie, we aimed to create a classic and calm ambience, offering comfort food from India and other countries,” says Balaji, the executive chef. The restaurant is designed around the concept of a kitchen set in a residential garden.

“Though the menu is revamped, we have also retained a few iconic dishes from our old menu like podi idli, chicken tikka and a few others. From the new menu, ramen soup and Punjabi samosa are doing well. We like to highlight the local and regional specialities,” shares the chef.

Talking about Chennai’s vibrant food scene, he says, “People have started embracing global flavours, and we are seeing many new places offering international cuisine.”

We started our meal tasting with the chicken ramen soup, which was good and appetising. The garlic bread with hummus is a must-try as the garlic flavour complemented the creaminess of the hummus. Next comes the super-soft sofiyani surti paneer tikka. The smokiness is the great highlight of the dish.

Tenderly cooked lamb in confit onions and red wine, accompanied by potato mash aced our list. The lamb is scrumptious and cooked using the slow braise cooking technique.

The kimchi fried rice had balanced flavours and was decent. The lacha paratha and chicken tikka butter masala were rich and delicious, with the dal makhani pairing well with the paratha.

However, the desserts were less impressive - the tanginess in the vanilla bean panna cotta with wild berry compote was overpowering. On the other hand, the Nutella bitter chocolate cake is perfect for those who appreciate bitter flavours and love chocolate. Overall, the dishes were tasty but the ‘wow’ factor was missing.