Escaaaaape… and wait, there’s more


What is Vivek’s favourite theatre? Escape! (considering that he made the expression popular :-P)

Ok, since I started this post with a PJ, I presume it can only get better (since PJs put some others in a bad mood but me in a good mood). 

I recently watched No One Killed Jessica at Escape – my first visit. The theatre’s name was “Weave”. Small place, but fun – a reason why I liked it better than the super crowded Satyam screens. I think there are about 7 other theatres at Escape – each centered on a theme, with names like Kites, Blush, Streak, etc.

I think the ad agency got totally carried away with this naming-shaming (that was intended) routine, because the loo was called “Flush” (excuse me!!). “Flush” it proudly announced in big fat letters, where everyone could see, near the loo corridor. At least they could’ve called it “London” with an underground style signboard – that would’ve been stylish, but sadly, not in keeping with the theme.

The loos were spacious, but had low-ceilings – kind of lending a village pannaiyar veedu loo feel. To top it off, part of the interiors were muddy brown. Ok, I guess that’s too much feedback.

A primary difference between Satyam and Escape was that samosas are 65 bucks (yes, didn’t you hear about how expensive those fattening things can get?) and the caramel popcorn 85 bucks (a whole
20 bucks more than that at Satyam). Coming to the décor – it looks good, but the place is too small to awe me.

Now, a word about No One Killed Jessica – the movie was really good. Vidya Balan, especially was fantastic in a character rarely portrayed in Hindi movies. NOKJ was also mercifully short, so that we had some time to roam around vettily.

After the movie, we headed to Pizza Hut at the food court. Now I really have to crib a little ‘coz it is pathetic when they give my pasta in a plastic container with an aluminium foil lid – I am not at all happy with that when I pay 150 bucks for my pasta!

Then we checked out a few shops that had sales – Vero Moda, Marks and Spencer & other such places, but thankfully, we bought nothing.

We decided to end the evening by visiting Gloria Jean’s coffee (I’d read a glowing review in Metro Plus). The place always used to be crowded. But we were in for a terrible experience. This place is more expensive than most other coffee shops around, but the coffee my friend ordered was horrid – I don’t know how she managed to drink it. My Iced White Chocolate drink wasn’t great either – to make that worse, it came generously topped with crushed ice that stayed there like a big blob till the last sip.

Lessons learnt at the end of the day – Bad ones: blowing money on food is sometimes only marginally better than spending it on clothes you won’t wear and AVOID Gloria Jean’s Coffee. Good ones: Caramel popcorn is still yummy and you don’t mind the price as much as you do for GJ coffee, watch Saat Khoon Maaf and Dil to Bachcha Hai Ji (after watching the trailers  :-) ).

4 comments:

Raj said...

Movie is the only doable thing in Express Avenue these days, even if it means hustling through the crowd during weekends. I loved EA in the opening week, but my views have mellowed down since then.

The shopping particularly does not come cheap and the prices of products seems to have been adjusted to reflect the rental value. No wonder, there are more people in food joints & walkways than inside shops

I have been to Streak twice and my only regret were non-reclinable seats. The movie experience is definitely commendable even though it did not live up to the theme hype during the promos.

Reg. food prices - Lot of it is due to govt control on ticket prices. If the prices were allowed to match demand (higher prices during Friday evenings/New releases etc), the food prices won't be this expensive. But with inflation every where, I'm not too sure if we have seen the end of this.

Been following your blog for a while and decided to de-lurk

Niranjani Ravi said...

Hi.. hey thanks for visiting and posting this comment.

Yeah, sometimes EA gets boring cos it almost seems as if there are only high-end boutiques and outlets.
(btw have u been to the Tantra
t-shirt outlet in the basement? It's got v funky stuff. And I think it's the only standalone Tantra outlet in Chennai.

Abt Escape - I gotta check out the other theatres thr :)


Food prices. yeah ,we can only expect them to go up, lol. But food at least keeps us happy. So I guess I won't crib about money spent on food much, unless the food is bad.

Raj said...

Yeah, Saw the outlet during the last visit. I do like their labels & tags in t-shirts :)

I'm fine with the boutiques and outlets. But a higher price for a similar product (that you can get a lower price in a exclusive showroom outside EA) seems unjust.

Niranjani Ravi said...

yeah.. it is. Not the luxury places - because I figure some have their outlets only here - they tend to have them only in such malls na. But the food - expensive. And the pasta - I had some fabulous penne at Pasta Bar Veneto today - with the same pricing as the Pizza Hut pasta, it was way superior.