Hotel Palmgrove ??. as the name suggests, was initially started amidst beautiful eye-catching green long coconut trees & attractive greeny plantings. But due to the increasing population and the Great Competitors in the Hotel Industry in the Chennai Metro City, Hotel Palmgrove is now in the midst of Hotel Komala?s and Hotel Arunachala & the real greeneries have evidently vanished.
The Hotel Palmgrove was started even before I was born?? if I remember right, somewhere in between the years 1972 to 1975 and this is one of the landmarks of the Buildings situated in the most Posh Area ?Nungambakkam?, a place in the heart of the city of Chennai. Palmgrove is a pure Vegetarian Hotel and is really a beautiful place for the peace-lovers.
Earlier, people used to go to Restaurants once in a while for get-togethers alone. Then, for parties and subsequently to get rid of their monotonous lunch & dinners. These days it is an indisputable fact that, people no more go out to Restaurants just for parties, get-togethers or satisfying their appetite. People nowadays want everything in a Restaurant??? Ambience, Amicable & Cordial Maître d’hôtel, A Clean Environment, Timely Serving, Pleasantly lit & with a very amusing background music, preferably with a beautifully maintained lawn for after-dinner discussions and indeed a lot more?.!!!
Hotel Palmgrove
This Hotel falls under the 3 Star Category of Hotels approved by Government. Well, about Palmgrove, this is a hotel best suited for Business meetings, Corporate Firms, Get-together of Families, and the Tourists as well. But due to the heavy crowd, it may not be much suited for young lovers who wish to be left on their own totally isolated!!!
Ambience
The Restaurants at the Palmgrove are always beautifully decorated with pleasant lightings & an agreeable lovely music. They have a very peaceful environment thereby give us a great feeling of relaxation. Also, a very noticeable feature on the part of the decorativeness of the Hotel being, the Hotel has been bejeweled with fantastic Craft-Works, Precious Paintings / Modern Arts.
Restaurants in Hotel Palmgrove:
Hotel Palmgrove mainly has two Restaurants, viz., MENAKA and URVASHI. My first visit at Hotel Palmgrove was to the Menaka Restaurant which still remains very evergreen in my memory. I saw Doordharshan (DD) News Reader Ms. Shobana Ravi with her family there. Since there used to be very limited News Readers those days, Ms. Shobana Ravi was one of the most popular Readers. So my meeting her almost became the news of the city among my relatives and friends. So, I still remember my first visit to Hotel Palmgrove this way.
Menaka Restaurant :
This is basically a fully Air-conditioned South Indian Restaurant situated in the ground floor, featuring all Chennai as well as Andhra-based Food Items. This Restaurant could accommodate more than 100 people at a time and is beautifully decorated with delightful Paintings & Modern Arts. The Place is also brightly lit with pleasant playback music.
Some of the Best Food Items in this South-Indian Restaurant are, the Pulkas, Parathas, Naan, Veg. Fried Rice with Veg. Mixed Kuruma, Peas Pulav, Bisibela-Bath, Curd Rice with pickles. Whenever I visit the restaurant, my first order would be Sweet Corn Soup followed by any one of the above foodstuff. The Lunch Menu containing pure South-Indian Thali is simply superb with varieties of Sambar, Rasam, Vathal Kulambu, Koottu, Poriyal, Pappad, Pickles etc. along with a Starter Soup and the finale?s. This Restaurant also serves the Mumbai Thali which additionally contains a pair of Rotis and a cup of tasty Dhall.
Urvashi Restaurant :
This is mostly crowded by the Travellers and the Marwaaris. So I am sure you all would have guessed the Servings of this Restaurant by now??..Yes, this is a North Indian Air-conditioned Restaurant which could similarly accommodate more than 100 people at a time, situated in the third floor. More than the South-Indian Restaurant, I like this one better due to its delicious and mouth-watering North-Indian Specialties. In fact the Punjabi Food here is too excellent & the real Punjabi-Dhabbas at Chennai aren?t as good as the food over here.
General Opinions about the Restaurants :
Although the aforesaid two Restaurants (Menaka & Urvashi) at Hotel Palmgrove serve an over-all good food, following are some of my significant outlook about them:
?The Quality of Food at both the above restaurants have deteriorated with time & so its high time the Hotel Management looks into the complaint to avoid infamy in future. Practically, I feel that the neighbouring Hotel Komala?s is better in terms of the taste and quality of food.
?The Maître d’hôtel are really too unfriendly. Lot of new Bearers keep coming & many of them practically take too long to bring our food which is too irritating when it happens despite the indicativeness of our hurry. But the most infuriating thing is that, some of them bring the wrong items that too, very late.
?Sometimes I have noticed that when the Restaurant is heavily crowded, Room Freshners are sprayed, which directly attack the nostrils of the people seated for lunch / dinner thereby creating a sense of unpleasantness. This could very well be avoided because there is always enough time for clearing up & rearranging the Halls during breaks.
?Automatic Hand-wash could be introduced to avoid wastage of water.
Well, the above were as for the Restaurants of Hotel Palmgrove. Although the aforesaid details would complete my review ?. I wish to furnish just a few more informative points on this popular Hotel of Chennai.
Other Features of Hotel Palmgrove:
?Palmgrove has an Exclusive Permit Room ? A Bar, which could seat more than 30 people at a time, is one of the good places at the Hotel. The name of the Bar is ?RAMBHA?. I am sure this place of the Hotel does attract the Travellers more due to its excellent ambience and friendly Bearers.
?The Hotel has around 90 Rooms including Standard Rooms, Executive Deluxe Rooms, Semi-Deluxe Rooms, Exec. Suites, Cottages, etc. For the business travellers, good guidance is provided as per their requirements of ticket bookings, sight seeing guides, travel requirements etc.
?The Hotel also proudly possesses Banquet Halls namely, Indra Prastha, Indra Sabha, Vaishali and Mini Hall which hold birthday parties, official conferences, business meets, ladies club functions, seminars and the likes. The Capacity of these Banquet Halls range between 20 to 75 people.
?For large gatherings of meetings, the Hotel exclusively has a Semi Outdoor Hall which could accommodate upto 450 people. It?s purely a Non-A/C Hall. Also, important product launch functions and very big gatherings / dinner parties are conducted at the attractive Lawn which could serve the purpose for nearly 900 people. (Contd............. in Comments Section)