Too much to choose from

WHAT AILS the modern woman? She tries to be too many things at the same time - a perfect daughter, career woman, mother, mate, housewife, daughter-in-law, all rolled into one. But so far, Barbie has managed to accomplish the feat and still remains dewy fresh. The same can be said about multi-cuisine restaurants, which are also on a Holy Grail trip - trying to be too many things at the same time.

Reviewing such restaurants is tough. How can anyone check out Chinese, North Indian, South Indian and Continental all at the same time?

Can you imagine a meal with Thanjavur yera kuzhambu, chicken steak, roomali roti and Waldorf salad?

Since I am an ordinary mortal who is painfully limited to handling one thing at a time, I decided to stick to the Continental menu at The Artz, the newly opened joint on the Kodambakkam High Road. And it was a bad decision.

For a Wednesday night, the restaurant was pretty crowded. That again set me thinking and staring at the adjacent tables. Most of the people had Indian or Chinese and may be these are good. Because, even after spending close to two hours at The Artz, the USP of the place is a mystery to me.

It must be the Kodambakkam air; the interiors look more like an over-the-top Tamil film set.

The ceiling comes straight out of a dream sequence - blue sky, orange sky, star-lit sky and what not. The paintings, in keeping with the ambience, are too overt. Originality is another casualty here.

Coming back to the food, we started off with the tried and tested baby corn and mushroom pepper salt (Rs. 85) and Lung Fung chicken soup (Rs. 50) recommended to us. The soup is a universal, mother- of-all broth. Put some corn in it, it's sweet corn chicken soup. Take the corn out, put minced vegetables and it's Lung Fung. Serve it with soy sauce and it is something else. The versatility was impressive. The starter was okay.

The Chef's salad - chicken, pineapple, and lettuce with mayonnaise - was disappointing. When you pay Rs. 110 for a salad, you expect quantity at least of vegetables. The promised lettuce was cut into such fine, thin strands that it might as well be a garnish. We were advised not to go in for the lamb chop we had ordered first as one of our main courses. The next choice, roast chicken in barbecue sauce (Rs. 175) was average, though the portion was ample.

My first choice was grilled fish (Rs. 150) with vegetables. But sadly the fish made its presence felt instantly. The first mouthful confirmed this. The sear fish developed too strong a personality for my liking. I must say that the manager was extremely understanding.

The vegetable au gratin (Rs. 80) I ordered as a substitute came free. Besides being apologetic and managing the situation adroitly, he even made good the price by throwing in free desserts.

Yet even such smooth salvaging couldn't rescue the doughy au gratin. With that I gave up and admitted defeat. It just wasn't my night.

The dessert, crunchy Italian sundae (Rs. 50) had two scoops of ice cream in different flavours - strawberry and vanilla - chocolate sauce and nougats and nuts. My choice was carrot halwa (Rs. 50), which could improve further.

All that I can say is that Continental food is not The Artz's forte. After all the misadventure I've had, it will take me some time to want to try out the place again.

MARIEN MATHEW

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