The Best Thai Food....in India!

Here is another dining adventure from my last trip to India - Thai food! After a long day at the office, some colleagues and I went to The Park hotel for some Thai food at Lotus. The Park is a 5-star hotel located in downtown Chennai with three restaurants and two night clubs. The hotel is built on land previously occupied by the Gemini Film Studios, one of the first studios in Chennai that sparked the film industry in Tamil Nadu.

Anyway, the food at Lotus was outstanding. We had a few appetizers, of which the most noteworthy was the shrimp spring rolls pictures below. It was a whole shrimp wrapped inside of a spring roll wrapper with some green onions and cabbage. Five different sauces accompanied the plate of spring rolls and can be seen presented on my plate below with one spring roll. Each sauce was a perfect accompaniment for the sweet and savory, crispy shrimp spring roll.


For my main course, I decided to try the chicken pad thai. In my opinion a Thai restaurant is only as good as it's Tom Yum Soup and it's Pad Thai. This Pad Thai at Lotus was excellent! The rice noodles were cooked perfectly, the chicken was tender, and the spicy seasonings left me feeling very satisfied with my choice. We actually ate at Lotus the night before as well, and I had the green curry which was also excellent.


Finally, a note about the service at Lotus and in India in general. At each of the fine restaurants we ate at, both this recent trip in March and my trip last September, the service is generally good. It was often hard to find a waiter when we needed a drink, however when our food is brought to the table, the server will plate the food as seen in the picture below. When returning to the table to check on us, if he sees any empty plates, he will serve up some more from the dishes. This level of service is appreciated to a certain extent, but the service was not perfect.

On a side note, my colleague Nick, being served in the photo, made a snarky comment about me taking pictures of the food. I justified my picture taking by mentioning my blog, and blurred out his face in the picture to protect him from the abuse he would otherwise certainly receive from fellow bloggers for his ignorance.

And remember when your traveling, whether for business or pleasure, follow your nose...and your stomach. Be adventurous in life and at the dinner table.

Author's note: I'm raising money for the The Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to support my recent ride in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge bike ride. Will you make a donation to support the advancement of cancer research and administration of life-saving cancer treatments?