Dewberry's - Restaurant Review

I have been hearing fabulous things of the hotspot Dewberry's for a while so when the opportunity presented itself last week, a group of us blogger friends headed out for dinner on a friday night. The resto-café has a mileu that will give many resto-cafés in town a run for their money. Another plus is the awesome location. Located off the busy RK Salai, but nestled in an alcove of its own, they have outdoor seating arrangements as well. (This can be taken advantage of during the cool breezy days).The pleasant ambiance lends a good feel to an otherwise simple restaurant setting.

We started off with a round of refreshments, with the highlight being the Chilli Twist. It is an interesting take on the classic lemon cooler by adding a dash of green chili and served in a margarita glass with a salted rim. The Love in a Berry is a fusion of berry flavors tinted fuchsia pink. The other drinks doing the rounds were the Strawberry Melon Rush which is a strawberry and water melon blended shake (i found the watermelon overpowering the strawberry, but refreshing nevertheless) and the True Blue which is a tad synthetic flavored blueberry smoothie.

Moving on to the appetizers, a word of caution: I'm off poultry and animal meat for the moment but the menu presented lots of options. We handed ourselves over to the affable host and one of the owners of Dewberry's, Kavitha and she handled our orders.

For appetizers, we tried the famed Caramel Fruity which is a fruity take on the bruschetta, Chippy fungi - a mushroom dish and Prawn Gamberoni.

The Caramel Fruity is a savory-meets-sweet dish served with dips. I like the concept but was not a fan of the bread. The prawn gamebroni was hands down the best dish of the day for me. It is the stuff legends are made of: juicy, succulent and perfectly flavored. Chicken tortellini was an option for the non vegetarians.

This whet our appetite for more and we moved quickly into round two, the main course. The magic mushroom pasta was light and creamy. I tried the Paneer Brazilia Sizzler and found it passable.

The Chicken Espagnole Sizzler and the Minced Chicken Bolognaise were bought in to many Ooohs and Aahs. The Dewberry's hyped signature dish called the Fruitlette was bought out and it was a kaleidoscope for the eyes. An assorted fruit platter, it also has quesadilla filled with vegetables & paneer, which was again a fusion of flavors, if a tad bit confused. The presentation looked a bit off as well. The Grilled Fish fillet came as a finishing touch: grilled Vietnamese basa served with a side of rice, fries and veggies.

We were stuffed but still wanted to try dessert and we opted for a few dishes. What we didnt know was that we would have to wait for quite a bit before getting the food. The Simple Simean is a banana filled fruitlette again, which translates to copious amounts of fruits thrown in but with crêpes, bananas, nutella and cream. The dish lacked in presentation again but it may please the fruit maniac. We also tried the Simply Chocolate which is Dewberry's take on a glass of melted chocolate with crushed biscuits thrown in. One of us ordered the Original Sin which is a platter of pancakes stacked with apples and raisins, and topped with a spoonful of nutella. I did'nt try it but I believe the pancakes were too thick and it had a strong underlying cardamom flavor. They also have a dessert called Fried Chocolate which tasted like Five star Candy dipped in batter and deep fried and served with a dollop of ice cream. The last dish for the day, the Strawberry Glory was shortcake served with cream and topped with strawberries and again, served with a dollop of ice cream.

Perhaps the establishment is trying to toe the line when they are trying out fusion cuisine and the conventional options but it does not always pay off here. The flavor combinations may look unusual but some of them are definitely interesting. I appreciate that they are trying out different things and understand that arriving at a menu is an ever evolving process.That said, what has to be remembered is that this is a resto-café that serves an excellent ambiance for a casual meal.

Dewberry's is located on Rajasekaran Street, off RK Salai in Mylapore. They are open from 12 pm to 11 pm. 

Ambiance: 8/10
Taste: 5/10
Portions: 7.5/10

Price: 7/10

P.S: One of the thoughts i brought back from my experience at Dewberry's was the Luciano Pavarotti quote in the menu book: "One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it we are doing and devote our attention to eating". The late Mr. Pavarotti and i share similar opinions! :)