Many of you would remember where The Manhattan Fish Market, a popular eatery for fish delicacies stood on RK Salai. The place shut shop a while ago and now in its place, we have the plush LiBarrel (very cool name, we say!), a three-storeyed resto-bar that has very different décor on its different floors.
On a quick trip through the property, steered by manager Sashi, we find that the second floor has wooden tones with mellow yellow lighting, booth-style seating and barrel-shaped tables. The first floor is more of a sports bar and we can see Man-U, Liverpool and Chennai Super Kings posters spread across walls. There is also a hockey shaped door handle and basketball hoop lighting to add to the coolness. This floor has an open kitchen, a pool table and bright lighting meant for evening out with friends. But for us, the biggest draw was the beautiful rooftop seating. It is spacious with a bar in the centre and has air-coolers to deal with the Chennai heat.
On special request, they created a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian appetiser platter for us. And we were thankful, they did because we got to taste a range of delights ranging from Masala Vegetarian Lollypop, Vegetarian Dimsums, Babycorn Fritters to Chicken Tikka in two kinds of marination, semolina crusted charred prawns, chicken wings and amazing chicken dimsums served with four kinds of dips. Each of the items was accurately presented, cooked and absolutely delicious. We downed these with a couple of cocktails from the menu. The cocktails were heady and tasted yummilicious.
The place offers Indian and Continental main course options. Since we were too stuffed to try anything much in this section, we opted for a bread basket with a couple of curries. Even in the main course section, LiBarrel scores high points for getting the perfect flavours and decent portion sizes. The place offers good seafood choices, Roasted Tenderloin, Moroccan Lamb Bake, Braised Lamb Shanks and Slow-cooked Pork Belly for meat lovers. The vegetarians have a good amount of choices in appetisers, pizzas and pasta.
For all those who can’t do without sugar in their meal, the dessert options include Choco Chip Cookie Mousse with Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Topped with White Chocolate Curls (referred rightly to as Death by Chocolate), Fried Mars Bars served with Cinnamon Ice-Cream, Gulab Jamun Brulee with caramelised pear and syrup and Coconut Souffle.
Location: LiBarrel, 195, Venkatachalam Street, Jagadambal Colony, Durgapuram, Mylapore
Timings: 11 am to 11 pm
