dakshin - crowne plaza chennai adyar park

tried booking a table via a call to dakshin for a special occasion . the person on the other end was extremely rude . since my mother has a maida allergy i wanted to ask them if could give an alternative to a cake for her anniversary . the person on the phone straight up refused and said we can't arrange an alternative despite me offering to even pay for it. i immediately cancelled the reservation and went elsewhere where i'm welcome.

i was staying at crowne plaza and happened to dine here for lunch and was so completely satisfied with the meal, it is unbelievable.

the restaurant looks like an old world fine dining space and service is impeccable.

i had vegetarian items from chef prakash heirloom recipes menu.

we had the mushrooms curry which was outstanding.
also tried the jackfruit curry which was pretty good.

had malabar paratha and the appam to mop it up. appams were really tasty and good texture.

the price point was also pretty good considering the restaurant is in a 5 star.

excellent food from dakshin as usual

this is a good restaurant for south indian food. the staff is very helpful and nice. it is a one the restaurant if you want to explore authentic south indian food.

so dakshin has been a very old restaurant and it seems they've just completed 30 years! they have been part of chennai's five star scene all these years offering authentic southern food. unfortunately, i had never visited this place all these years. we were invited to try out the thali that dakshin is famous for. 

since the restaurant was fully booked that night, we bloggers didnt get to be seated in dakshin but we got to check out the place and click pictures. we were seated at cappuccino their 24 hour cafe where they served us the thali. it looks very cozy with an ambiance that reminds me of temple interiors. there's a huge ganesha at the entrance, the doorway built like that of a temple. then the lamps, decor and colour scheme along with the music stage at the restaurant's centre with a flautist playing is sure to enhance the experience considerably.

so dakshin is known for its comprehensive thali and that's what we were served. there are some standout dishes that i will mention about here. all the dishes were south indian in origin and the thali has about 30 items including starters, gravies, breads and desserts. 

to start off, we were served an item that was well recommended by the staff. it was the banana dosa which is a sweet soft dosa fried in ghee that was quite yummy. wasn't overly sweet and it can be had anytime during the meal. 

then we were served 5 or 6 variants of chutneys by a traditionally dressed host. and this was very good because of its freshness. they served us kuzhi paniyarams (fried rice balls) with these chutneys. very nice. then we were served the non-veg starters like dakshin yera (fried prawn), guntur chicken and kozhi ammi masala. loved the fried prawn because of the tenderness of the meat. spices in all dishes were quite toned down to suit the international tastebuds. 

podi idly and dal/paruppu vadai came next, freshly fried. 

we were then brought the complete thali in a heavy metal plate with a circular banana leaf within. it had a mutton gravy, chicken gravy and various vegetarian curries which were to be had with idiappams, parottas and appams. also there was white rice. again the curries were spiced just right but maybe a bit mild for native tastebuds. on the other hand its very easy on the stomach.

there was also biriyani, andhra kodi biriyani a extremely mild yet tasty variant from the interior. the chef said this particular recipe goes easy on the spices on purpose. i liked it quite a bit. 

finally the desserts arrived which were jackfruit-banana-mango in-house ice cream that was excellent. no one ingredient overpowered and it definitely satisfied me. then there was also elaneer payasam which was good too.

lastly there was the filter coffee or chai which you can opt for served in a rustic dhabara.

i visit chennai every now and then and this trip was to meet my friend’s son! so while we were deciding through options, we chose dakshin because a) my friend and i were a regular here 5 years ago b) wanted to have authentic southie meals. so yeah, we booked through zomato assuming it would be a busy saturday afternoon. surprisingly it was almost vacant. the ambience of this restaurant is still well done and maintained even though the hotel looks rundown and needs some work. we chose the set menu and it was all sorts of amazing. the banana appam/dosa was the first item we had and i had not eaten anything like that. this was followed by a full meals including idiyappam, korma, parota, puliyogare, dhal, rasam, sambhar and what not! even though the quantities weren’t huge, it was a lot to finish for one person. (unless someone has a really huge appetite!!) this amazing lunch was followed by jackfruit banana icecream and payasam. i generally can’t deal with both jackfruit and banana and this was quite yummy. the curd rice (not in pics) was brilliant too!
i must also mention these guys were extremely hospitable and even brought over a cute wooden cradle for my friends son so she could put him to sleep and eat peacefully. overall, very friendly service, nice ambience, great food but a bit over priced as there is nothing 5starry about this crowne plaza anymore. will i come back again? of course!!

wow.....great taste of south india . i love it  

it was a great experience for my family. we spend very good time, the music was amazing the food is very good. we tried non- veg taali the quality is very good.

wanted to have authebtic coastal food.. so landed up at dakshin for dinner... lucky to get a table without a reservation. the food is really good and the staff is really very helpful and warm. we ordered the non veg and veg thali... which had a lot of items... infact so much stuff.. its hard to finish it... our server mr.suresh really looked after us.. and specially got non spicy stuff for our 4 yr old son...
it was a really enjoyable and satisfying experience...

remember kushbu in singaravelan movie kissing the hand of a flute player? this is the place.. i don't normally give 5 rating but this place deserves it.

food - blindly go for the thali and let each item just take u to a different place. authentic south indian food at it's best guys. variety is good.

service - amazing because they accommodate any additional requests and do not charge for small kids.

ambience - just the right amount of lighting and space needed. the musicians play nice illayaraja tunes which makes you nostalgic.

make sure you go with a good appetite and order seconds only for those items that you truly love. u will find it difficult to finish the entire meal otherwise.

dakshin in crowne plaza is known for their ambience and their traditional food.

yes, this restaurant is 30 years old and the same authentic food is served even now. so recently they celebrated their 30years anniversary and they had 30 dishes in their thali, and everything was exceptionally great. the thali was 2200+ per head.

the ambience, very traditional, vibrant colors and silver plates are used. they have live performance of carnatic music throughout the week. the place is filled with tanjore paintings and the green color wall makes the ambience very cozy and gives the perfect traditional look to the restaurant. the ambience simply amazes.

coming to food, so the thali was separated into starters, mains, and desserts. we were served all the dishes hot and fresh. kuzhi paniyaram, fried prawns, guntur chicken, podi idly and paruppu vadai. they served with 5 variant chutneys which was served along with the paniyaram. the podi idly was phenomenal and kuzhi paniyaram and prawns was expectational.

for the mains we had a huge plate with mutton gravy, chicken gravy, idiyappams, parottas, veg gravies and the andhra kozhi briyani. to the fact the briyani wasn’t spicy at all, and it was very different in taste to the usual briyani comparisons. and then curd rice with vadumanga pickle, omg the pickle’s influence to the curd rice’s taste.

for the desserts, we had in house made ice cream, which was great, jackfruit-banana-mango ice cream. the elaneer payasam was good too.

finally, how can we end a south indian meal without filter coffee? yes, we had filter coffee too which was served in dabara set.

that sums up the experience of the 30th year anniversary menu for the dakshin restaurant.

one of my favorites place when it comes to authentic south indian food. i have good news for you guys
@crowneplazachn is celebrating its 30th anniversary for dakshin, in behalf of celebration they have introduced a new menu which include 30 ingredients in one of their food item which is presented in the thalli, thalli is been price around 2500 /, with 35+ luscious item which is been served 😍😍 which can easily make you food high 😍😍. i have given the 30 ingredients below check it out, do swipe right to see the whole thalli items 😍😍
.
1. coriander seeds
2. jeera
3. red chilli
4. carom seeds
5. star anise
6. cardamom (green)
7. cinnamon
8. cloves
9. fennel seeds
10. poppy seeds
11. mace
12. coconut
13. kalpasi
14. marathi moggu
15. bay leaf
16. garlic
17. ginger
18. tamarind
19. salt
20. curry leaves
21. pepper corn
22. onion
23. tomato
24. oil
25. black cardamom
26. turmeric powder
27. chicken
28. fenugreek
29. coriander leaves
30. white till
.

whole menu gave me a bliss feel and had a mouth watering experience 😍😍

what a totally lovely #southindian #restaurant. and when i say south indian, i mean there's barely annnny "north-originated" dish on the menu, whereby we were quite gobsmacked with the choice that there was (and no, it wasn't limited to just #chettinad or #keralite...heck, our brothers from our #andhra mothers were all in there too...#slurp! 😃🤤😃) and wow, such fine #service too. 👌🏻 and beautiful minimalistic #oldtamilmusic by a #threepiece #instrumental #band.
highly recommended for #specialoccasions 🌟

#finedining #indiancuisine #southindianfood #shotononeplus5 #crowneplaza #celebration #dinner #dinneranddrinks #vino #whitewine #blackandwhite #chennai #chennaieats #chennaidiaries

ps- i'm kinda glad i'm not (yet) one of those #instaphotographers who shoots each and every item on the table before digging in, cuz i'm almost always already stuffing my face at #maincourse time 😆

great ambience. the food was also very tasty. the place was empty when we went there. so i can't really talk about the speed of the service, but the staff was courteous and polite. all in all a very good massage of the taste buds after regular everyday fare

a must visit place for me whenever i fly to madras and it has never disappointed, be it the ambiance which is top class,the food variety or great taste! a big thumbs up to the itc park sheraton team on their excellence!