Last week, I came to know that Hotel Ginger has started a Buffet table for lunch on an experimental basis… As mentioned previously, the team running the restaurant is a new one and this is the first time they are doing a buffet spread ever since they took over here at Ginger…
First impression is that its simple ie, just enough variety to satisfy your palette… I normally don’t like large buffet spreads as it is my experience so far that when it comes to buffet, pretty much all restaurants show a decline in quality in the food they serve when compared to their Ala’ carte menu… However, when the spread is quite small like this one, you don’t see much decrease in quality to no decrease at all… Its the old, “Jack of all vs Master of few or one” concept in action… So, it is because of this reason, that I decided to try this one… Plus, in restaurants where they do buffet, its really not a good idea to order ala carte(unless you are in 5 star places) and also, the manager there was practically begging me to try 😉
And try I did 🙂 Whats missing in the pics is a pot of Veg Clear Soup they had, which I skipped… I tried a little bit of the American Salad, Honey Chilly Potato, Chilly Gobi, Egg Bhurji and the Travancore Chicken Curry along with the fried rice… The salad turned out to be a Hawaiian salad having vegetables with the sweet pineapple and mayo… Honey Chilly Potato as the name suggests is both sweet and sour with a bit of tanginess… What I found a bit funny was that it looks like they made it using french fries and it was crispy as well… Egg Bhurji was just like any other Egg Bhurji… Nothing special there… Same was the case with Chilly Gobi… I mean, I have had their chilly chicken before from as Ala Carte, but the gobi version didn’t taste as good as the chicken version and I am talking about the flavours and not about chicken vs cauliflower…
I didn’t go for the Chettinad curry because as it would be too spicy for me the name suggests… However, the Travancore Chicken curry as they call it was excellent… Mildly spiced coconut milk based curry with flavours of ginger, pepper and green chillies hitting your tastebuds along with Chicken thats perfectly cooked (a rare phenomenon in buffet tables)… Mixing this with a bit of that salad and the honey chilly potato with the rice gives an awesome fusion of flavours that I can’t find words to express right now… Do try if you see these together…
Safe to say, I didn’t go for seconds as I found myself almost full after that and headed for dessert and tried a little bit of both options… The coconut soufflé was incredibly refreshing to say the least… Rich flavours of tender coconut infused into a creamy soufflé… The Pineapple payasam was new to me as I have never had it before… Seems to be the same recipe as the Parippu Payasam but using pineapple instead… Pineapple seems to have been grounded into a pulp and added to it… It also has a good fragrance of ghee in it… Only problem to me was that it was too sweet for my taste… The soufflé however was perfect…
Overall, my favourite ones from what I had are the American Salad, Honey Chilly Potato and the Travancore Chicken Curry, all three I consider to be awesome and among the desserts, of-course the Coconut Soufflé… Altogether a fine, simple and elegant buffet spread for the price… To give a reference, I would equate the overall quality and taste of the food to that of the famous 5 star Hotel in Trivandrum called Mascot… Anyways, do check it out… 🙂
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