Nellore Niravana

Be sure to wear black or red when you walk down into the latest basement restaurant that has been created by Sandesh Reddy, or Sandy as he is popularly known, on Khader Nawaz Khan Road.
Take note of the framed portraits of different kinds of chillies, that line the walls along the staircase. And be sure to take two packets of tissues along. As everyone will tell you the test of great Andhra food is that you start crying half way through, as the Andhra Bedega chillies begin to do their stuff.
He’s called it Maya.The tagline promises “unravelling the mystique of Nellore cuisine” and when you are met with a hep hostess, clad in black and shown to your black-clothed table, with shiny black serviettes folded into waves, with plenty of seating options and an open kitchen scene at the back, you don’t know whether this is a tribute to Hell’s Kitchen, Andhra style.
Or part of Sandy’s mission to provoke and tempt one’s taste buds with serious intent.
The service is so good, the waiters are so kind, it’s all they can do to stop themselves from wiping your nose as you weep with joy. As you wait for your order (there are chef’s tasting trays for those who want to try their range) they bring you a tray of podis and chutneys with tiny pessaratu and banana dosais. There are tiny porcelain cylinders of pure ghee to mix into your dhal podi, your choice of curry leaf, chilli, gonghura, ginger and peanut chutneys, which are sensational. It would be quite enough to have these with a butter milk dosai as we did, or mix them with white rice that is on offer.
We went the whole hog and tried their round mince meat balls, served with fried onions and fried curry leaves, their hot and sour fish curry with mango slices — that was when the tears started to roll down — and then waited for the piece de resistance, a mutton biryani. If you are planning to have just one item, try the mutton, or chicken biryani. Not only does it come blanketed with slices of omelette that have been filled with mince, but the biryani itself is light and fragrant with its secret ingredient.
As those who live in parts of Andhra will tell you, they have created what they call ‘horlicks biryani’ . Sandy who has added chocolate to just about every dish at his earlier restaurants, obviously believes that malted drinks are the secret of great taste. The waiters bring you stainless steel salvers with warm water in glass pitchers in the old Nawabi style to allow you to wash your fingers before you can try the apple-flavoured sorbet.
“It’s to cleanse your mouth!” explains the waiter. Sorbets are obviously the new designer food statement. We skip the halwa of the day, which is made of bottlegourd and try the coconut payasam instead. It’s more of a coconut-flavoured icecream doused in coconut milk and there are chocolate desserts with berries, for those who want to try them.
MAYA
Platinum Building. New No 32 Khader Nawaz Khan Road, Nungambakkam. Chennai- 600006. Tel: 42137774 Open from: 12.00-3 .00 pm and 7.00-11 .00 pm Alcohol not served; credit cards accepted Meal for two: Rs 1,600
RATING:
Food: 4
Service: 5
Décor : 4
(5) Excellent (4) Very good (3) Good (2) Average (1) Poor