Gupta's Burger! Rahul's ande! He he he. Yeah, these are real food names! Why would you see them in a fancy hotel's menu? Somethings are not easily accessible for many of us. Like one of the best buffets in town being located a long drive away on OMR. OK, there is a sizeable population on OMR, but for the folks in Chennai (yes, pun intended), buffets are defined as loads of mediocre food!

BUZZ, the all day dining at the Gateway Taj on OMR has this super star chef whose brunch I had the privilege of enjoying! Now the dinner buffet! Normally food festivals as part of the buffets have a few dishes here n there, but the sheer number of dishes from the festival is mind boggling. And add stuff like Gupta and Rahul's dishes from the streets of Delhi, you realise that these guys are serious about their food festivals too!

The drink maybe far from Delhi, but when you have that spiced Angoor Sherbet, you won't care where it came from! In my limited knowledge, I think it is from the North West frontier region, but simply doesn't matter. And the thick lassi! And then the sheekh kebab roll that was juicy. I mean, getting juicy kebabs in Chennai is like finding the blue moon, but finding juicy lamb kebabs in a roll is like finding.....well oil! While I was sure I wanted to taste lots of food and so wanted to take tiny bits from every dish, I simply couldn't resist that sheekh kebab! Simply not possible! Had two rolls!

You agree that five star versions of street foods may not match up to the originals, but sometimes they do! Samosa chat! Ha ha ha! Oh man! Super yummy! Except the flavour of the trans fat laden oil from the streets of Delhi, they brought every other flavour in to these samosas! The aloo chat! Another ha ha ha moment. One little kachori with a potato gravy! Whoa! There was a certain yumminess quotient that is rarely found in the buffets!

The parathas from the gallis of Delhi made appearance, but just one stole the show! The Amritsar Kulcha was nothing like the ones in the streets Delhi, but everything like the ones in Delhi. Contradiction, yes! But one that is very difficult to explain.

The Gupta burgers, which is like a vada pav, but in a burger bun and the Rahul's anda, which is simply a fried egg on toast were the ones that told me about the festival not trying to leave out the
non-glamourous stuff from the streets of Delhi. They've brought everything! The good and the average!

I didn't like the shorba! Yes, it wasn't up to the mark for me and possibly the only dish that was off mark completely!

There was absolutely no space left for the main courses! Borrowed some space to try the Kadi Chawal, basically a comfort rice dish that was yummy! The thing about comfort food is that it is not so comfortable for everyone! Your mom's dish maybe comfort food for you, but not me. So taking a Delhi comfort food and making it likeable to the folks of Chennai is an achievement in itself! Sorry, I don't have much to write about the other main course dishes as the rest of the organs refused to lend any more space to the stomach!

Dessert goes to the heart which had some space. No street food stuff here, just classy Rabdi Falooda with Kulfi in a tall wine glass! Flavours of Delhi alright, but fully 5 star!

While food festivals are challenging, bringing street food to the hotels is a bigger challenge that I've seen even the best of chefs fumble. There is so much that you cannot bring from street food and while you can have Mexican festivals and Royal cuisine festivals, a street food festival is a mighty challenge. Chef Meril has managed to bring a large part of it here and my respect for this chef has gone up a few notches. He has to be closer to the city, but hey IT folks on OMR! He is your's for the time being! Oh, I have to mention that his Sunday Brunch at Rs. 1350 (non alcohol) is one that I would starve the previous day for!

Dinner is priced at Rs. 1200 plus taxes that works out to about 1470 per person! 

Sometimes food is sooooooo good that you know it while looking at it. And then the rare thing happens. I eat it without photographing it! Really! Completely missed photographing the starters here! Oh so yum. And having a Mallu friend who certified the dishes really helped!

OK, so here is what is happening. Another buffet food festival, this time from Kerala and hosted at Hyatt Regency. The simplest of foods are the most difficult to make in a restaurant setting, I guess. When was the last time you felt at home in a restaurant? OK, why will you go to a restaurant to feel at home!?! Let me try again. When was the last time you felt like being in a friend's home when you visited a restaurant? Bingo!

There were two starters - a fried chicken and this awesome awesome thing called Mutton Ularthiyathu. Couldn't care less what that actually meant! It was soooooo yum. One look and though not pretty, it was love at first site. OK. At first Bite. And I don't have photographs to show it! Sorry. It was super nice, juicy, perfectly spiced and felt like eating in a friend's home. My mallu doctor friend certified the flavours, though I couldn't have cared if the flavours were Kerala or Kashmir. The fried chicken was super yummy, but didn't stand a chance near the mutton.

Main courses were simple and very home style. And there was another mutton, MUTTON KURUMILAGU something. Oh man! It was super yummy with the kerala parotta which was slightly disappointing as it wasn't as fluffy as the ones I am used to, but the gravy sort of made up for it. That with the Avial and Kerala Style Buttermilk was simply enough!!!!

Sweets with Kerala has to be some PRATHAMAN. We had one with Rice and one with Jackfruit, both ending the meal quite well!!

The festival is on till the 25th of April, 2016, so there is some time to get your hands on that mutton! 

I find it hard to believe that you can have a food festival in a buffet, but that is how it is in Chennai. And invariably all those places have average food festivals. One place that was an exception with the consistency was the Madras Pavilion at ITC Grand Chola. I've been to three food festivals, the Arcots, the Telangana and the Navaithas and loved them all. I've always wondered, 'How do these guys do it?" and when I got the invite for their Two States food festival, I was rather excited.

The drive between Mumbai and Goa is supposed to be exotic, but I've not done it. Always did it via Mangalore, so I don't know what you get on the way. Here, the drive starts with a couple of musicians belting out live Goan music! Definitely sets the tone for the evening!

The Mumbai chats were lacklustre for me. Except the Keema Pav, the rest, including the Pav Bhaji, the pani puri and the others simply didn't cut it for me. Definitely nowhere close to the real ones. Not a great start to the drive. Coming to the drive, I think that because this was set as starters and main courses, the Mumbai to Goa drive feel did not translate in the food. Maybe if this was a set menu and it took us through the drive starting with Mumbai and slowly introducing the flavours of Goa, this might have done really well, but the buffet style for what is essentially four different styles of food, I guess did not allow that. Four because Mumbai has a street food and a Maharashtrian which are completely different flavours and so does Goa with the vindaloos and the beach shack which are completely different.

I saw Khow Suey and immediately took a small helping of that, though it is far away from the two states. Loved it! The grills, Goa style were excellent. The little platter with a fried fish, the peri-peri prawns and the chicken along with the grilled prawns were the best dishes of the evening. And my excitement stopped there. Tried the main courses and personally, I felt like the plot was lost. Combining the flavours of Goa with the vindaloo and stuff with the rather new (for my palate) Maharashtrian flavours were a miss and I ended up not enjoying both. Nothing stood out and I couldn't help but compare with the previous food festivals here where there were stand out dishes!!!

Dessert was pretty good. The Mumbai Gola was there and I had the Kala Kati, and it was close to the flavours I love in Mumbai. The Bebinca was fabulous and the rice kheer from Mumbai was fantastic. Dessert and the grills definitely saved the day.

This is probably the first time I am coming out without the 300% satisfaction from a food festival in ITC Grand Chola. This food was not bad in any sense, but simply didn't live up to the super high expectation that I have from Madras Pavilion food festivals. However,  I am already looking forward to their next food festival!!! I think it is going to be a great one!!! 

There used to be a joke that was doing the rounds in food meet ups. 'I want the largest buffet with lot of non veg options with alcohol, max budget Rs. 500.' A popular stand up comedian in Chennai used this left right and centre. Food forums were flooded with these requests. In the era of the 5 star brunches priced upward of Rs. 2000 nett/, the joke may actually not work anymore. OK, not 500 bucks, but at 1300 bucks, the large Sunday Brunch at Gateway Taj is really LARGE.

It starts right at the lobby. Yep, you enter the hotel and food stares at you. Besides the large dessert section, there is a live counter doling out French Toasts and Crepes and the likes. I couldn't resist and despite recommendations from that chef to try these for dessert, I insisted on having them straight away. The cinnamon kissed French toast was fab! Unlike most places, this is a nice thick, almost French baguette that is dipped and served!! Besides the fact that few places actually serve breakfast in their brunch and serve a glorified lunch, it was nice to see breakfast stuff!!!

The problem with these large brunches is that everything tends to be okayish. You can take a couple of mouthful of everything and by the time you taste everything, you would be full! This wasn't the case here. The food was of quality and taste that is definitely better than most brunches in the city (OK, technically this is out side city, New Chennai, sort of).......

While there is no way to jot down every dish, there were some super favourites. The Broccoli Almond soup was yum. The Madurai dosa, essentially chicken/egg or both paste on the kal dosas were yum. The starters - a little cannelloni was nice. This stuffed zucchini and the grilled sweet potatoes were excellent.

Then the Indianised version of Eggs Benedict and Scottish Eggs, both with fully cooked yolks. Now that I have started enjoying the runny eggs, I thought these weren't great, but the chef said that people complained about eggs 'not being cooked properly,' so they've decided to cook them up. Can't fault that.

A smart South Indian section with rice, a yum biriyani and lots of gravies with six types of papads and four types of raithas. Really thought out well for the local population.

Disappointments? Yes. The cheese counter wasn't great. All hard cheeses and no soft cheese. The Japanese counter was extremely limited with only vegetarian sushi. Really? C'mon. But the honey glazed chicken from the Oriental kitchen (the other restaurant that is part of the Sunday brunch) was fabulous. Breads were also disappointing with not-so-great croissants and others. But with so many good things at a killer price point, one can't really complain.

Desserts are the weak links in most places and here they've made sure it doesn't happen as they have the live pancakes, crepes and toasts, so that is a safe haven. Besides, there were at least three biscuit type ones that were lovely.

You can take a dip in the pool if you want to. For free. Spa at 20% off. Considering the drive, this is like a long weekend drive up, soak up, massage up, eat up and get driven back. There is a little table for kids with an elaborate spread of finger foods, breads, mini pizzas, mini burgers for the kids.  I wasn't planning to take up the invite, but with a friend going and me not having to drive, I'm glad I went. Missed taking my swim shorts though and planning to take the family back soon.

P.S There is a live bar counter with a bar-tender who doles out cocktails and mocktails, the alcohol version is Rs. 1600 plus taxes. 

For a price point of about 650 bucks, the standards that ABs sets is unbelievable. From being the best chicken wings in my opinion to doling out fabulous starters and desserts, ABs has got it right. But when there is a festival menu doing the rounds there for which CFG organises a bloggers table, it is hard to resist. Meeting up with old blogger friends was rather fun and was enough to make the evening fun, but the dinner here was a story to unfold.

Service being the usual super friendly super efficient, they went out of the way to tell us that each dish was made just for the festival. Their usual fantastic prawns were the same, just spicier. The fish was similar, the other starters on the grill were all similar, but spicier. I was starting to wonder if the festival was just an increase in the spice levels. My favourite chicken wings was missing and I wasn't smiling. For almost 20 odd minutes, we were eating spicier version of their usually fantastic starters. Not good. They kept telling us that the marinade was different, but I didn't taste it. Except, of course, being spicier.

Then slowly, but steadily the good stuff started coming out. Their usually awesome chicken wings had taken another equally awesome avatar. Super flavour. Juicy. Yummy. Then, the featured dish, their Leg of Lamb. With a spicy, but super nice (what they call) the Carribean marinade. The lamb was cooked to perfection and we all loved it. Two more festival special dishes, a baked type of fish and cutlet together finished the line up. And then, just before we forgot that we ordered mocktails, they bring this pineapple with a straw stuck to it. While the drink was pretty good, the visual appeal made it so much better and more than made up for the lacklustre starters. And it really captured the popular image of the Carribean!!! And in true Carribean style, the waiters launched into a dance at about 8 pm much to the amusement and applause of the guests!!!

Like I usually do, most of us completely skipped the main courses and I even skipped their wish grill as I was full with the overdose of new starters and dived straight into their signature dessert, the Paan Ice Cream. Though the guy advised against it, I added sprinkles and chocolates to it and loved every bit of it. The fried watermelon was a nice try and was pretty good, but you can go to ABs, eat just the grills and dessert and you would have got more than your money's worth.

Unfortunately we went on the last day of the festival, so its gone and you won't get the lamb leg piece now, but hopefully next time, I can visit these festivals early enough to blog about it before it gets over!!! Chao! 

How do you spice up a buffet? Send your chef to a king's house, I guess!!! I've gotten to not like buffets very much and Madras Pavilion being a buffet only restaurant never caught my attention, much to the amusement of my friends who really like it. Spicing it up might be difficult and I understand that a buffet restaurant has to cater to so many people with so many different tastes, so, it is only natural to try to fit it all, even if it means that it may not be great! But, at least for the next week or so, it will be great! Why? How?

Why did this invite to a buffet interest me? It has been spiced (literally) up! So, they send their chefs to Amir Mahal, the palace that houses the Nawab of Arcot, and Arcot biriyani is quite something, indeed. Yeah, so back to the chefs. These guys spent a couple of weeks in the kitchen of the palace and learnt what and how these kings (or nawabs) eat! And they recreated it in the kitchen of Madras Pavilion. While the fabulous restaurant, Peshawri might have been a better host for this festival, for something like this, which is part of Kitchen's of India's Royal Repast, buffet is not a bad idea!! And no better place than ITC Grand Chola to host the kitchens of the Nawabs.

We started off with a stunner. It was stunner for me because normally, I would have expected only non vegetarian dishes to have been great in a Nawab's house. There were two shorbas, a lamb shorba, but the second one, the Badam Shorba with saffron was fantastic. Yes, a vegetarian dish from the Nawab's Kitchen!!!! Also, I managed to get a nice shot of the dish!!! Yay!

Next was a bunch of disappointing dishes, the starters and kebabs. There was fish, some tikki, some spinach and something else and each of them weren't good for me. Either, the Nawabs like it that way or the chefs have not recreated it properly because it was like most average kebabs.

Thankfully, I had very little starters because the main courses and desserts were excellent. What else is a main course in a Nawab's house, but biriyani!!! In this case, the Arcot Biriyani. Very few restaurants get it right and the chefs here got it, close to perfect. The aroma was fabulous, the lamb was succulent and the flavours were all there. It is almost like a tamil muslim wedding biriyani but with some saffron!!! There were three non veg gravies, a mutton, a prawn and a chicken! The lamb and prawns were both tomato based with great flavours, great meat and the prawns weren't the tiny ones but decent sized. The chicken gravy was white and again packed with flavour. My friend said that the paneer gravy that he had, wasn't great, so I'm glad I stuck to the other three gravies.

Desserts were fabulous. Everything from the double meeta to the fabulous but slightly different from the usual Badam Halwa, which here had a tinge or green and almost no yellow!
We had two helpings of dessert!!!

No extra charge for this and it is part of the buffet which I believe changes everyday!!!! 

So, how do you write about a place that has been written so many times? It has been done and dusted.  It has been praised. It has been pulled down, but consistently, the place is packed. And reservations are difficult. If I have to be different, I have to write bad things. But, nope, I am not going to try and be different. In Bangalore, I loved it. In Chennai, I was there for their pre-opening and I loved it. Went back after so long and still loved it!

The surprising thing is their consistency. Chicken wings. Now, I hate chicken wings. Hate it so much, that even in Buffalo, I had one piece of Buffalo Wings, and then had the boneless Buffalo Chicken with Celery. That's how much I don't like wings. Now, I ate three pieces of wings here! It was brilliant. I struggled to eat, but I ate. Loved it. Their starters are consistently good! The prawns were awesome, the Sheekh Kebabs were surprisingly good and their fish was super nice. Starters are just super nice! The cinnamon dabbed pineapple and the super crispy corn were a nice vegetarian complement to the non veg overdose!!!!

After 45 minutes of starters, there wasn't much space left for main course. The wish grill with shark, rabbit, quail and a bunch of other stuff is really not the difference between other table top grills and ABs. There is so much more, but yes, the wish grill does stand apart. Besides these, they had a fabulous sweet bread with minced mutton which I had two helpings of! Loved that too!

The best dish though was the dessert. While we have a few stone cold ice cream parlours, no place serves stone cold ice cream mix the way ABs does it. Their paan ice cream has to be the best stone cold ice cream in Chennai!!! Service, though, was a little better in Bangalore and something was amiss here, but the food was so good that service didn't matter. Service wasn't bad, but in Bangalore, it was outstanding.

Yes, getting a reservation is tough, but if you go early, you can squeeze into the quota for walk ins. AB's is located on GN Chetty Road, opp the Indian Oil Fuel pump. We were a bunch of 9 people and we paid Rs. 5500. While water was mentioned, iced tea wasn't mentioned and though we asked for one, we weren't charged for it. The iced tea was pretty bad, so, gladly it wasn't charged!