Hello World !! (In beginner's Perl style)
I am now finally settled in Bangalore and am glad to be back to my writing habits.
Bangalore - a place where you can get more choices of restaurants than any other place in India. (barring Mumbai maybe !!)
Looks like I am in the right place then. :-)
Recently, I had a chance to go the 'Mainland China' restaurant on Church Street.
Its a nice 8 minutes walk from the office, skirting the Chinnaswamy stadium.
Once there and settled down comfortably, we decided to opt for the Lunch Buffet .
You get soups and starters served at your table with a 'complimentary' drink(you can choose between a soft drink or a fresh lime soda or even an iced tea) and later on, can help yourselves to the lunch and dessert spread.
To begin with, soups were served. I had the chicken hot and sour soup. It was not exactly great tasting . But not horrible either . Please note that, there is no choice. There is one veg soup and one non-veg soup.
For Starters :
Crispy fried potatoes in some soy sauce with red chillies and sesame. It was OK.Then we had some Tofu in a hot and sweet sauce .. Not bad either ..
For Non-veg starters we had something in chicken . It was good to taste but seriously indianised.
Eventually came the veg dumplings.. Wow !! They were awesome .. and with the mustard sauce they tasted heavenly.
The Main Course:
After having a couple of rounds of the above starters, we moved on to the main course.There were two broad divisions .. vegetarian and non-vegetarian !!
Being a non-vegetarian, I could potentially choose the best of both worlds ..
But being the staunch non-vegetarian, that I am, following is what I decided to have ..
Chicken Hakka noodles
Roasted Lamb Fried rice
Fish in Schezwan-Basil sauce
Prawns in White Garlic sauce and
The customized stir-fry dish ..
This last item above, was a nice unique experience ..
You choose your veggies (mushroom, broccoli, carrots, shallots etc.) at the salad bar and the chef there just stir fries it for you with your choice of sauce and spices, which is served to you hot off the Wok.
The fish in the schezwan basil sauce was my personal favorite.
For the record - On the vegetarian side, there was stuff and some more stuff !!
If you need more info, you may have to just go and find out for yourself. Sorry, if I am not of much help there.
Next DESSERTS !!!
Desserts are not something I look forward to at Chinese buffets as much as I do in an American buffet or an Indian buffet for that case.But what I like in Chinese buffet desserts are the jelly , the biscuits and the rice pudding, which sadly were all missing at this one.
But having said that below is what was on offer :
Pineapple wantons
Fresh fruits
Fruit-custard
Cakes
Choice of Ice-creams with a choice of assorted toppings and
Mousse
etc.
etc.
Someone with a right frame of mind would say,
"What the heck are you complaining about ?? Isn't the above list comprehensive enough?"
Well.. Its true .. But guess I complain a lot and expect too much from life!! ;-)
I eventually picked up a couple of things for dessert and nibbled at them, finally, before calling it a day!!
Overall, it was a nice experience, especially when someone is giving a treat.
It was Mukesh this time.
Congrats to him on his engagement and all the very best for his marriage!
At 500/- per person, its good value for money. And the best part was they charged us for 4 with the 5th being complimentary.
We did not happen to find out if it was a regular offer there or something for that day alone.
Who cares !! We got a savings of 500/- and we were happy for that ..
So, here are my ratings: (out of 5)
-----------------------------------------------------
Taste : ***
Portion size : N/A since it was an unlimited buffet
Ambiance : ****
Service : ***(1/2)
Over All Experience : ***(1/2)
