I’ve been an avid fan of Ponnusamy since my arrival in Madras (somehow, I’m still reluctant to call it Chennai!) during 1988. The one on Gowdiya Mutt road was the sole branch at that time and usually only catered to the local population - the floating population was yet to find out its worth. In short, it was just another of those ’military’ style hotels of Chennai - an upgraded version of ’muniyandi vilas’.
With time, the owners decided to change the hotel’s outlook, which probably was the result of humble requests from many diners who found it difficult to coerce their family into accompanying them to the place. The hotel acquired new space, made is centrally air-conditioned, included Chinese and Tandoori items in the menu (ironically, this was also served on the ’vaazhai ezhai’ - banana leaf!), opened new branches in Egmore, Vadapalani and Adyar. In short, it gave itself a new and sophisticated look and feel, was branded as a ’Chettinad’ restaurant and attracted hordes of people who loved South-Indian non-veg food.
Coming to the food part, being born and brought up in Madurai, I had the opportunity of tasting non-veg food from some of the best food joints (not big names, by the way, just normal ’parotta’ stalls and ’idli’ shops). When I was looking for an equivalent in Madras during my college days, the names of Velu and Ponnusamy were referred. Though it was nothing like the South Tamil Nadu taste, it was good anyway and was the best available in Madras at that time. 15 years later, I still eat here at times (thought not to the same frequency as earlier) and find the food quite disgusting. The quality of preparation is nothing like before and you can never tell the difference in taste between the chicken and mutton biriyani rice. The gravy is still thick, but lacks the ’punch’ it had earlier. The prices are exorbitant and are inversely proportional to the quantity of food. You will find more of ’masala’ in the side dishes (brain fry, mutton sukka, liver fry) than the actual food pieces.
Ponnusamy has no doubt still retained its good service, has gone to great length to boost its ambience - but all at the cost of the food quality. Will I ever be able to do a rewind do the late 80’s?