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Stylish makeover

The change doesn't stop with the look. It's reflected in the menu too at Mint and C Cubed, the two new restaurants in the former Chit Chat premises

DOUBLE WHAMMY Mint's interiors

Grab some sloppy Joe off the street. Give him a funky haircut, and spike his locks with colour and gel. Teach him how to move like Ricky Martin, and talk like Casanova. Throw out his fat pants and bounce him to the gym, where three trainers poke and prod him into developing a six-pack, and walk like a panther. Get a smooth stylist to talk him into skinny designer jeans and man bags. And before you know it, he's somebody else, and enjoying it thoroughly.

Everybody loves a good makeover. And everybody loves success stories, especially when the average Joe suddenly becomes James Bond.

And that's just one of the reasons why you're going to enjoy the all-new Mint.

Formerly known as Chit Chat, this Teynampet restaurant used to groggily peer out a grungy building and featured a rather confused menu, including everything from idlis to tandoori naans. Started in 1980, it began as an ice cream parlour and went on to become a multi-cuisine vegetarian restaurant. However, two renovations and more than 25 years later, the owner's daughter Nivedita Jegadeesh decided it was time to reinvent it.

So the old Chit Chat was obliterated, and the space was used to create two fresh restaurants: Mint, a fine dining outlet, and C Cubed, a café.

A sample of the menu at C Cubed

But their strongest point is not the fact that they have funky new coats of paint. In fact, while Mint is pretty, draped in shades of restful green, C Cubed, bursting with purple, is rather loud. Nivedita's smartest move was roping in Chef Fabian.

Because no matter how young and trendy a restaurant is, it requires experience in the kitchen. And he's a goldmine in that respect. He's put in about eight years at the Patio, the deliciously snooty fine dining restaurant at Taj Coromandel; worked at Taj Fisherman's Cove and even done a stint at AIWO.

Which means the service is stylish. And the kitchen is being organised to ensure standardisation in quality, the lack of which is what usually kills most funky new restaurants. But most important, the food is uniformly good. I was thrilled with my smoothie, a generously luscious glass of apple and carrot. (A lot of restaurants make hideous vegetable juices.)

The Chef sent us the Mint Special next: a generous piece of tender chicken stuffed with khoya cooked in cream and showered with bright chillies and coriander. It was followed by a pot of long grained rice scattered generously with golden cubes of paneer. He also served up an unusual naan, slathered generously with a hot and sweet mix of tomatoes and onions laced with honey, along with plump vegetable koftas lolling in an exceedingly rich gravy made of cashew nuts and poppy seeds.

Although dessert was unusual — a warm apple crumble with a twist: still crunchy apple cubes scattered with caramelised sugar — most of the food here is pretty standard. So don't expect kitchen acrobatics or Patio-style innovation. They are clearly not looking at a niche market. The golden rule seems to be to pick universal favourites — pulaos, tikkas, kebabs — and serve them up well.

By the way, Mint stays open till 12.30 a.m. and C Cubed, which serves everything from quintessential English sandwiches to baguettes and burgers, is open till 1.30 a.m. The restaurants are at 532, Anna Salai, Teynampet, ph: 24349880.

SHONALI MUTHALALY

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