Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Wanna Zyng?

Zyng Asian Grill at Chennai Citi Center is quite a revolution to restaurants in Chennai. They have a mongolian-bbq-style counter where you basically pick your sauces, veggies and spices and they cook it for you at the counter.

Studying in Ann Arbor, BD's Mongolian Barbecue a favorite restaurant. I absolutely loved creating my own lunch/dinner. I've looked for a similar kind of place all over the US - and though there are several along the same lines, they dont come close to the quality of the original in Ann Arbor.

Zyng doesn't come close either but I still feel we need to send up a cheer for Chennai. Atleast they are trying. The one dish that stands out in the menu is the cold sesame peanut noodles. Its delicious. The rest of the stuff is pretty average and I have a vague feeling that the same sauce is used for several dishes. They nice part is anything on the menu can be made vegetarian and all the sauces, broths etc are 100% vegetarian.

I had the Asian Market Veggie Bowl with Shanghai Noodles. Both weren't what I expected and didn't hold my attention for long. The potstickers are tough and the Mu-Shu lettuce wraps are alright - though I am highly suspicious of the origins and cleanliness of the lettuce. The sauce was not really mu-shu and the vegetables weren't even cut in the mu-shu style.

Overall, a little disappointing. But I'm gonna hope that they get better with time. I'd go back for the cold noodles though!