Relishing Thai salads, continental dishes and Chinese appetisers at a place we have always known for dal makhani and butter chicken is a delightful experience, says DIVYA KAUSHIK who visited Grills and Platters by Pind Balluchi
It was past eight in the night, a week day, and we didn’t expect many people on tables around at the newly-opened Grills and Platters by Pind Balluchi. The joint is a part of Te Hotel at Pamposh Enclave, near GK I and the difference between other franchise of the restaurant and this one is that while others are known for serving a la carte, this one has a buffet. And the other difference is that the place won’t just serve you dal makhani and kadhai chicken, you can relish a Continental and Chinese fare as well, served as a part of the buffet. The place was well crowded, considering that it was a week day and it seemed like the concept has already got popular among the people.
“When we started, most of the guests who walked in the restaurant thought it’s like another franchise of Pind Balluchi where they can order from a la carte. It took us some time to make them understand that under the same brand name we are introducing a new concept that keeps in mind that when a family walks in, all the members might not like to have only Indian food,” informed the executive chef Manoj Rai, who was briefed to craft a menu that has over 70 per cent Indian and rest from European, Continental or Chinese.
“So in this 30 per cent we have included the most demanded dishes from different cuisines. There’s a menu for different days of the week. You will find Thai salads, kind of noodles, vegetable curries and pastas. Similarly in the dessert section we have cakes, jellies and mousse, as we understand that most of the Indian desserts are too heavy, and we can’t keep only Indian dessert in a buffet format. So we keep experimenting with different cakes and other sugar free desserts,” added the chef.
It was interesting to note that the attendants at the restaurants will hand you over a tablet, if you want to take a look at the menu. You will be asked if you would like to have a vegetarian or non-vegetarian starters.
We tried honey chilli lotus stems, it was cooked in the same manner as is honey chilli potato but was more on a sweeter side with an extra spoon of honey. Next was stir-fry crispy vegetables, cooked to perfection. The Indian starters on the list was paneer tikka. We were told that they have as much as 12 starters, vegetarian and non-vegetarian included.
“We also serve zafarani paneer tikka, smoked watermelon with feta, rajmah ki galouti, balsamic flavoured vegetable skewer, dragon rolls, tandoori chooza, Kashmiri kebab and olive meat balls,” the chef told us and added that every day there is one non-veg and one vegetarian soup, but he has kept a good number of salads on the list “as guests like to have more from the salad bar. It is difficult to keep a variety if you restrict yourself to Indian cuisine, but with buffet format, we enjoy the advantage to include many salads here.”
If you have been an ardent lover of Pind Balluchi’s dal and chicken, then don’t worry, the chef has taken note that the Indian dishes are prepared just as you have always liked them. And from our personal experience we can tell you that Indian is still the best part of the buffet.
The tangy red sauce pasta that we had was rather too oily and so were the noodles. But the biryani, vegetables and chicken are the best that you can find in Delhi. “Keeping in mind that Indian is our speciality we have to pay extra attention to that. And while preparing dishes from other cuisines we have to Indianise them to suit the palate of the guests we are catering to,” the chef pointed out.
Desserts will give you options like apple cinnamon tarts, blueberry mousse, chenna payesh, lemongrass soufflé, raspberry charlotte cream and tiramisu. Indian sweet lovers can conclude their meals with gulab jamuns, rasgullas and rasmalais.