Gangotree- the heaven for pani puri and bhel puri

Gangotree- the heaven for pani puri and bhel puri

Chennai is famous for people who love to gorge on chat items like bhel puri and pani puri. The road side shops though known for their popularity do not give the rich taste of real chat that is available in the north. This is where Gangotree scores, it is the ideal place if you want to have authentic and mouth watering dishes like pani puri. 

Among the different branches of Gangotree I visited the newly opened in adyar which is slowly growing in popularity in the locality.

Store Location

The shop though located in the basement is placed in a very busy area in locality of Adyar. The location is very strategic as Adyar has a dearth of food joints for the people who are consciousness of the cleanliness of the place especially the upper middle class. A mention must also be made about the other branches of gangotree in Chennai particularly the one located opposite Stella maris college, the branch always full of youngsters who come with the intention of meeting some girls from the well known college.

Ambience

The ambience was pleasing with a sitting capacity for around 50 people, being a basement shop it was surprisingly pleasant smelling and there was sufficient spacing between the different tables that gave enough privacy for people in their respective tables something that is not very common in a chat shop.

The shop seemed to attract a good amount of people even on a weekday evening, the customers comprised of people with a good mix of people of all ages which came to show how popular gangotree is as a brand, there were people from college, school and families.

The features of the shop which were of interest are as follows

·         The cashier was not aware of the local language and he had a tough time communicating with many customers

·         The Pani puri eating place where people stand and gorge on pani puris was located well away from the tables which was very hygienic.

·         The items were a little expensive with all of them in the price range of 40 to 50 Rs, but the customers parituclary the ones accompanying me were not very concernced about the prices as the joint promised good food. However if you look at it from a broad perspective paying around 50 for a chat item sounded a little atrocious.

·         The shop in addition to chats also housed famous Bengali sweets and other famous items like dhoklas making sure all your needs for a good evening eat out is satisfied.

·         There cannot be anything said about the service as the shop was entirely self service based and there was no waiting for an item for a long time due to very quick preparation time of the dishes.

·         Pani puri was the USP of the shop, people enjoyed staying near the pani puri stall and eating multiple rounds of pani puri. On checking with the cashier it was mentioned that one out of every 3 bills will have a pani puri in it on any day.

Overall it was a chat shop doing good business in spite of the overpriced menu, the brand value of the shop and the strategic location has helped it in getting many customers even on a busy weekday afternoon.