I had heard about the high-altitude Pergola at Hotel Accord about 6 months earlier, so when I had to choose a restaurant to treat my wife for my anniversary the choice was very much made.
I made a booking for two a day earlier. I did not know how busy the restaurant was during weekdays but just wanted to play safe. Pergola is on the thirteenth floor of Hotel Accord. It opens out to an amazing view of the Chennai city. We were at the hotel at about 8 o clock. I think we were just the second or third guest for the evening at that time but the place soon filled up.
We got a good seat. I was hoping they would have a TV so I can follow the T20 game that was on but that was not to be and so, for 5 minutes, we were looking at Chennai and identifying places we knew. Pothys was very much there and so were the floodlights of the M.A. Chidambaram stadium at Chepauk which was wonderful. We could see the infamous Chennai Traffic on Anna Salai. I have been to the Zafraan Exotica in Hyderabad and Pergola ran Zafraan very close on ambience if not better. The service was very prompt. We were handed a drinks\appetisers menu. A Mongolian Barbeque was on but we chose not to get too adventurous. We picked an appetiser that was made of Sesame Corn and a sweetie Mary mocktail to go along with it. The appetiser took about 10 minutes to arrive which wasn’t too bad. At first, it smelled like our traditional Paruppu Vadai but the similarities ended there. The taste was very good and the sauce that went along only ameliorated the taste.
Then came the main course. The only disappointing thing was the variety of the vegetarian fare that you could have along with rice. It was limited to only 2, infact. One had mushrooms so we chose Murungai Elai Masiyal more out of force than by choice. We also ordered an Aloo Nazakat along with the naan bread. Again, the main course did not take too long. About 20 minutes waiting time roughly. We were glad we chose Murungal Elai Masiyal because it was absolutely scrumptious. It was mixed along with lentils and was the right dish to go with the rice. We were glad we took the waiter’s suggestions. We thoroughly enjoyed the sumptuous main course.
By the time we got to the desserts our expectations were running very high. If anything was a let down, it were the desserts. We opted for a Chocolate Fudge fixation but sadly the fixation was very short lived. I just wish Pergola spruces up their desserts menu. We finished our dinner at about 10. On the whole it was a memorable dining experience and I will definitely recommend Pergola. It is not too heavy on the pocket. It cost us 900/head but remember, this was a vegetarian fare without drinks. I would say it will be about 1500/head. Though, definitely not a candidate for casual dining, a dinner at Pergola is worth the time and the money for one of those special days.
