Gourmet Couch By ITC Grand Chola, Guindy, Chennai

Restaurant Name: Gourmet Couch By ITC Grand Chola, Guindy, Chennai
Phone: +914422200000
Address: ITC Grand Chola, 63, Mount Road, Guindy, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600018 India
Time: 12 Noon – 2:30 PM, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Meals for two: Rs. 2000
Cuisines: North Indian, Asian, Chinese, Italian, Desserts
Facilities: Delivery Only, 4/5 Star

Decor:

Luxury in a box is what I’d call Gourmet Couch. Let’s begin with the white-and-gold packaging, complete with sachets of sanitizer on top. Inside, every dish is neatly labelled, and has the name of the dish, date and time it was packed. Green label means vegetarian, and red, obviously, non-veg. The packaging is all eco-friendly and biodegradable. It is quite obvious that challenging times bring out the best in innovation, especially in food packaging, as home delivery is here to stay, at least for some time.

Gourmet Couch By ITC Grand Chola, Guindy, Chennai: Food

Tandoori Aloo is more than parboiled baby potatoes, dusted with tandoori masala and roasted in a tandoor. They are even, well-cooked, cylindrical potatoes, stuffed with mashed potato holding on to the intrigue of kishmish and cashew, blended together with chaat masala, green chilli and ginger.

Soft, yet crusty, large perfect chunks of Paneer Tikka sound the same as any other. But they’re different. A slash in the middle has a small amount of a filling that has among its ingredients, fresh cream (explaining paneer’s softness), yellow chilli and carom seeds. Post a stint in the tandoor, the tikkas get delicately dusted with just a hint of powdered mint and kasuri methi.

I smother my roomali in the Dal Bukhara that has been through a patience testing 24-hour cooking process. It is smooth, buttery, thick, dark and irresistible. Love the aroma it brings to the table and enjoy the blend of flakes of dal husk, garlic, tomato, red chillies, a hint of pepper, generous amounts of butter and ginger.

Delhi-style Nimona Mirchi Pulao is so different for Chennai. Made using the best basmati rice, it has fat, light-green stuffed whole green salan mirchis. I like the mashed green pea stuffing and the fact that all this pulao needs is some of the anar dana raita.

Cutting open the large, softly inviting, shiny matt-finished Gulab Jamun, I am charmed by the crushed nuts in the middle. Sweetened perfectly, it is indeed the perfect end to the meal.

Plus & Minus:

As usual, ITC thinks of everything. I like the instruction booklet that comes with every meal so you know exactly how to re-heat your food that could’ve lost temperature during its journey from their kitchens to your homes.