Of course, the real reason I agreed to cover Leo Fortune was
my journalistic probity – insti deserves to know what new place has set up shop
to provide those crucial alternatives to mess. And I’d gotten over to Leo’s,
having Guru and Himalaya close by. So, is Leo Fortune worth the walk?
Well, for starters it’s more of a patisserie than Gurunath
will ever be. It’s new, bright and clean, and has coffee machines. Leo Fortune
has a branch in Adyar, and it began operations in insti about two weeks back.
It’s a proper bakery, a more ‘well-lit’ version of those we frequent when home.
They have bread, cakes and pastries, puffs, pizza, tea and coffee, and other
assorted items on sale. It’s more a pastry shop than anything else, so if you
like cake, and Kickstart is too far away/not worth the money, Leo’s is the
answer to your prayer.
Over the course of three days (Yeah. It takes time. Refer
line on probity above), I tried, without great detriment to my purse too, a
variety of things at Leo’s. Caveat – I don’t have a sweet tooth, so I tend to
like the savoury things on the menu. But from what I sampled, the cakes are
light and tasty. There are both butter and cream cakes (in many flavours) – the
cream cakes are better, although they are a shade more expensive. The cream
cakes cost between Rs. 45-60 a slice, while the butter cakes and the Japanese
cake come at Rs. 20-30 apiece. The muffins are well-made, moist, and not too
sweet. And the doughnut – look, it’s just 15 bucks. So basically it’s some
bread with chocolate cream on top. Decent for the money. Don’t go expecting
Donut House. They have a nice tea cake, which is a small roll of fluffy
sponge-cake like thing, fully worth fifteen rupees. Cashew tart – Don’t. Nearly
lost two teeth trying to bite into it. And the cream-filled pastries (like buns
and rolls) have too much cream and powdered sugar, so unless you like that kind
of thing, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Leo fortune also makes full-sized cakes for birthdays, so if
you were to order a couple of hours before, the cake will be ready for
consumption. As of now, they don’t have eggless cakes or pastries.
They have nice pizzas of several kinds, and they’re inexpensive
(cost between 75-100 rupees). The list
currently includes vegetable, onion, capsicum and chicken pizza. They’re made
well, with a good amount of toppings and sauce. It tastes like a better version
of what one would come up with at home. Their puffs are brilliant- it’s only
about 7-10 rupees for one, and they beat the ones at Ramu’s anyday. Leo’s also
has a curious and entirely acceptable dish they call ‘chilli bread’- it’s a
small plate of bread toasted in chilli and onions, and tastes very good, giving
good reason to move over dry noodles!
The nicest thing about Leo Fortune is that the staff is
eager and helpful. I would give it a few months before they too acquire the
inevitable world-weariness that’s typical of every other service on the campus.
This article was written by Liza Tom and first published on
the IIT Madras student blog, The Fifth Estate