Planet Yumm, India's first International Food Mall, is the most exciting experience in family restauranting in Chennai today. On first entering Planet Yumm, the visitor is struck by the gleam and flash of metal and granite and back-lit billboards. The 6000-square foot ground floor is awash in unabashedly bright primary colours, from the walls to the plastic chairs and tables. The colour seems to have overflowed from the exuberantly bright Children's Play Area on the mezzanine, one of the focal points of the mall, containing, as it does, a Ball Pool, Raintree and above the restaurant itself, India's first Soft Play installation. On three sides of the long, wide dining area are seven food kitchens; Hot Breads, Wang's Chinese Kitchen, Cafe Spice, Gayatri Sweets, Sangeetha, Domino's Pizza and Milky Way Ice Creams; every one of them a popular and trusted name in retail kitchening. Diners select food at any of the kitchen counters, pay for it and carry it back to their tables. 

The well dressed - in crisp white shirts and black bow ties! - staff members clear away used plates and cups and keep every inch of the mall sparkling clean. This awareness of painstaking cleanliness is enhanced by the unrestricted view of the entire mall from any part of it, even to the glass-walled kitchens. And there is music in the air; foot-tapping and peppy. It would be impossible to spend half an hour here and not feel uplifted and rejuvenated by all the positive elements at work on the senses. One has only to look at the faces of the other diners to see expressions of happiness and wonder, and see them grow increasingly animated as their inhibitions melt away in the ambience.

South Indians love their traditional family restaurants; Taj in Hyderabad, Kamath in Bangalore and Saravana's in Chennai. The food mall combines the simple, welcoming homeliness of these establishments with a very desirable sophistication and appearance of upward mobility. The paradox is only apparent, though, for the feelings that this combination engenders - in the experience of this diner - are of familiarity, comfort and well-being. And there is far more to come from Planet Yumm. "We plan to have supper theatre, probably on Wednesday and Thursday nights," says Shamim Reza, General Manager. "Also, midnight buffets, for which we will provide a dance floor, and drive-through service, so that customers can drive up, park their cars and have their food served to them on specially-designed trays - at any time of the day or night."

Planet Yumm is at Sonex Towers, 2054, 'I' Block, and 2nd Avenue, 12th Main Road, Anna Nagar (West), Chennai - 600 040. Phone: 6215692. It is open from 11 am till 11 pm on all days, and from 9 am till 11 pm on Sunday.

Arun Masilamoni

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