Choose a day of the week and pick a cuisine to go with it. That's the theme of a new buffet at the Crowne Plaza
Choose a day of the week and pick a cuisine to go with it. That's the theme of a new buffet at the Crowne Plaza
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The hotel is pulling up its socks with a new theme based menu for every day of the week, Monday through Friday. We walked on the day a Latin American buffet was being beefed up for the neighbouring IT diners.
We started off with a Zucchini and Thyme soup and a Chicken and Bean soup.
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We chose a vegetarian empanada, a puff pastry-like bread filled with veggies and quark cheese (an emmenthal-like cheese from South America).
The zucchini soup was thick, creamy and tangy with a hint of thyme and was hearty to taste but the chicken soup had a burnt bean tinge to it which wasn't very appealing.
The empanada claimed to have cheese but we had a hard time looking for it. However, it was good enough for dunking into our soup.
The buffet has a fresh salad and a nachos, tacos and salsa counter along with a live counter where quesadillas stuffed with chicken concarne and bean chilli were being cooked.
My colleague complained that the chicken quesadilla we had ordered was not as filling and cheesy as the one she had had before, even though the chef told us that it had been generously sprinkled with Tabasco sauce.
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The nachos and tacos came with a filling of chicken, peppers, cabbage and onions and were quite tangy and delicious to taste. Just a perfect add on to the Latin American fest.
For the mains, we filled our plates with Seafood Paella, a Spanish rice dish cooked with prawns and other seafood usually, a Chicken Sausage and Bell Pepper Stew, Tomato Rellenos (a Chillian dish), tomatoes stuffed with herbed rice topped with cheese and grilled, Pastel de Papas (a Chillian potato pie) or a potato and soya pie. The Chicken Sausages were cooked right and left a wonderful aftertaste.
The paella was good but it somehow missed a few sea creatures other than puny shrimps. The Potato Pie reminded us of the Shepherd's Pie except that we had to do with soy rather than lamb.
I'm sure my vegetarian friends would give a thumbs up to this one. It was however, the stuffed tomatoes that tasted excellent with the slightly crispy herbed rice stuffing and made it quite a mouthful.
Since the hotel attracts a large number of crowds from the nearby IT crowds, the buffet also offers some regular Indian fare to tone down the experimental nature of Latin American cuisine.
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Apart from Daal, Rice, Rasam, Bhindi Masala and Paneer, the Andhra Mutton served up was killer and helped spice up our paella. Indian tadka we say! The mutton was tender and had balanced flavour of spices.
The buffet wisely serves plenty of desserts but in bite sized portions. From Indian gulab jamuns to rosogollas to carrot cakes, chocolate brownies, bread apple pudding and lemon tarts, the dessert table was heavily loaded up. Our pick would be the sticky bread apple pudding with a hint of cinnamon and sprinkled with nuts.
What baffled us was as to why the hotel toned down the heat on most of the Latin American dishes that are especially known for their spicy tex mex touch.
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We Indians are not lily livered as far as heat from chilli is concerned. But if you are looking for an interesting lunch option along with the usual fare, then hop over to this weekday buffet for a quick work lunch.
At Crowne Plaza, 43 Electronics City Phase 1, Hosur Roadu00a0
Call 3985 4522
Price Rs 350 plus tax.
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