19/1, Horton Place, Colombo 7
Closed right now
A non-vegetarian South Indian Chettinad restaurant on Horton Place.
Ponnusamy is a bit of a puzzle ambiance-wise. It is located in Horton Place, and looks imposing and upmarket on the outside, but things function largely along the lines of your average saivar kade inside. Customers with Marxist leanings will rejoice at the subtle, subversive performance art at play here.
The service was one of our biggest question marks, so we'll start here. Many of the waiters seemed clueless about the food on the menu, and struggled to make recommendations. I wouldn't exactly blame them for this since said menu consisted of 194 items, all placed in very complicated categories, with some of the items apparently repeating themselves under different names in different sections.
Ordering here is sure to give you a boost of dopamine because it is likely the most complicated task you will accomplish for the day. Needless to say, our orders were mixed up on at least two occasions. The hygene wasn't exceptional either, evidenced by the splotches of someone else's meals on our table mats.
The cutlery looks like it's made of porcelain and glass, but after you discover you can lift it with a finger, you realize it is deceptively solid looking plastic instead. More class-subverting performance art?
Is nothing special. At all. The place is a warren of drab white rooms filled with boring, practical tables and chairs. People come in, get served, eat and leave. The ambience doesn't encourage you to hang around and enjoy the space, which is strange because they seem to largely cater to families.
Here's where Ponnusamy delivered more than it failed. The food was largely good, and a small proportion of it was even fantastic. Some of it was hit and miss. The prices are quite reasonable for the portions and quality.
The Mutton Dosai was a clear hit. At Rs. 395 it comes with a quantity of soft, peppered, beautifully flavored mutton that is a neat surprise. The Chicken Tikka Masala (Rs. 625) and Channa Masala (Rs. 400) were both very good, and were made of different spice bases (some restaurants actually get lazy and use the same base, defeating the purpose of ordering different masala items) and complemented each other really well. The spices were nicely balanced and didn’t overpower the texture and flavor of the food.
The Parata (Rs 125) (not pictured - it disappeared too fast) was a highlight, I have never had a parata this soft and fluffy I kid you not.
The Garlic Naan (Rs. 200) (pictured above with the masala) was pretty average, not bad by any means, but you expect it to be nice and crispy, instead it ends up being a little hard and crusty.
The Gobi 65 (Rs.450), our starter, was a little overfried, and the outer layer gave off a slightly bitter aftertaste.
We'll put them both in the same category because they both completely failed to deliver. The Mango Lassi (Rs.250) (pictured above for its false-flag glass glass) tasted artificial.
And the fruit salad (Rs 250) (one of the only things available) looked like the kitchen staff hadn't even bothered with it. The fruits were badly chopped and no lime or other seasoning was added. And someone please tell me what brand of vanilla ice-cream they used so I can avoid accidentally buying it.
Largely shrug inducing on an overall basis, but the food mostly delivers, and the prices aren't bad. So if you're in to this style of cuisine, given the choices Colombo offers, put a visit.
Address
Directions
A little road right opposite the Lakshman Kadiragama Institute.
Contacts
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Ratings Breakdown
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1/5
This review is based multiple visits. This is franchise (or broken up franchise) of a Chennai based chain of restaurants. Sadly it nowhere close to taste, quality and service of any of the same chain’s other restaurants in many countries. Customers’ frustration levels can go up due to a multitude of reasons, some of which are: no one will come to take your order until you beg them to, they might ask you to wait saying the restaurant service hasn’t started, then the wait for the food after ordering. Wait!!! It’s not over yet! Wait till you hear next two reasons! No one will ask if you need anything more after your initial orders, and no one will give you a bill unless you really go behind one of the staff and beg him to give you the bill so you can pay and leave this pathologically customer unfriendly place.
And it doesn’t come cheap. But then how many other restaurants are there cleaner or close to clean as this one? Definitely sooo much room for improvement in customer service. The management doesn’t need to hire a consultant for this. They should simply start working on the basics right first.
Huge disappointment.
1/5
Very disappointed today. My first two visits were quite gud. So decided to take family there. First the waiting time was too long but understandable with d crowd present. Then a tangled hair in the chicken 65. When pointed out the waiter was shocked n took d dish away n came back to tell no more chicken 65 available n would we like to order somethin else for tht or a refund. No apology yet n i went for d refund. Then my wife who is a vegi lover orderer alloo gobi masala but what they serves was just gobi masala. When inquired waiter insisted we ordered gobi masala only. I requested to talk to d person who took d order but never showed up. We finished d meal unhappy n paid for it (chicken 65 not included). I wanted to speak to manager but d cashier lady said she can help since d manager was out. When i explained to her what happened, not much response n no apology at all… very disappointed… this mit as well be my last visit to this place.
We went to PS out of a strong family rec and we may have avoided it had we seen this review. Again this is catering to a specific target market and they seem to frequent it inspite of all the drawbacks cited here.
We opted for vadas to start and were quite impressed with those - maybe the sugar. The naans were good however the curries except mutton were a let down and LOADED with SUGAR!
Please ask them NO SUGAR!
Service was slow and food came in inconsistent batches, one dish came after we were all done eating - desserts arrived with completely melted ice cream. People need to turn these away to teach these places how to serve properly instead of feeling sorry for waitstaff and overpaying for badfood.
All in all don't expect anything much from this place if you go, its what I would expect from a place like this (glam saivaar) and given the target market that made sense - do try the mutton if you can.
1/5
karthikraju
This review is based multiple visits. This is franchise (or broken up franchise) of a Chennai based chain of restaurants. Sadly it nowhere close to taste, quality and service of any of the same chain’s other restaurants in many countries. Customers’ frustration levels can go up due to a multitude of reasons, some of which are: no one will come to take your order until you beg them to, they might ask you to wait saying the restaurant service hasn’t started, then the wait for the food after ordering. Wait!!! It’s not over yet! Wait till you hear next two reasons! No one will ask if you need anything more after your initial orders, and no one will give you a bill unless you really go behind one of the staff and beg him to give you the bill so you can pay and leave this pathologically customer unfriendly place.
And it doesn’t come cheap. But then how many other restaurants are there cleaner or close to clean as this one? Definitely sooo much room for improvement in customer service. The management doesn’t need to hire a consultant for this. They should simply start working on the basics right first.
Huge disappointment.
1/5
DineshPathiraja
Very disappointed today. My first two visits were quite gud. So decided to take family there. First the waiting time was too long but understandable with d crowd present. Then a tangled hair in the chicken 65. When pointed out the waiter was shocked n took d dish away n came back to tell no more chicken 65 available n would we like to order somethin else for tht or a refund. No apology yet n i went for d refund. Then my wife who is a vegi lover orderer alloo gobi masala but what they serves was just gobi masala. When inquired waiter insisted we ordered gobi masala only. I requested to talk to d person who took d order but never showed up. We finished d meal unhappy n paid for it (chicken 65 not included). I wanted to speak to manager but d cashier lady said she can help since d manager was out. When i explained to her what happened, not much response n no apology at all… very disappointed… this mit as well be my last visit to this place.
1/5
Janarth
Having tasted the Indian version this place does not stand up to its reputation utter waste of money and time…lemon grass is still my favourite place in palewatte.their prices are OK but not the standards I expected from them.