I know, I know, here I am posting about food again. But I think this will probably be the last time (for this trip at least). When I was here in 2009 the Taj Residency in Trivandrum (now renamed to the
Vivanta by Taj) was offering a fabulous buffet at half price for ladies. And lo and behold it was still on now almost two years later. I went a couple of weeks ago and not only was the food fantastic but the people watching was fascinating.
The buffet is served in the
Fifth Element restaurant which is a 90-seater and is open 24 hours a day. It does buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as a la carte. I am not sure if the other mealtimes are at half price for ladies but lunch definitely is - the bill was 368 Rs (or about $9 Canadian) and well worth every cent. My fellow diners on the day I visited (half price offer is only Mon-Fri) included an older couple from Bangalore who were being fawned over by the restaurant staff (I have no idea who they were - perhaps someone very important in business or politics although I doubt the latter), a few tables of extended families ranging from tiny tots to sneaker and track-suit wearing grandfathers, a table of about 20 professional types (IT conference-goers perhaps) and several strapping young men in coveralls who were from the Indian Air Force.
The meal began with a delicious chicken, coriander and lemon soup served with a basket of assorted breads - a couple of golf-ball sized rolls, a long narrow slice of yummy white bread and a tasty bite-sized, deep-fried UBO (unidentified bread object). Note the bottle of wine with the outrageous price tag on its neck - 3500 Rs is almost $80 Canadian. Certainly not a price most of us would think of spending on a bottle of wine I think.
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| Soup, bread basket and very expensive bottle of wine |
At this meal I ate hardly any of the mains but instead concentrated on the salads and the desserts. The Spanish potato salad, made with new potatoes (or maybe just small, regular potatoes) and lots of grilled onions was fab as was the carrots cantonese (or something like that) which was carrots cut in to matchsticks and dressed with an Asian-tasting mixture of sesame oil, soy, vinegar and chilis. I also enjoyed the green mango salad with noodles (very tangy and 'puckerish') and the broccoli, tomato and cheese salad (though I admit that I had a couple of helpings of the latter so that I could pick out pieces of cheese and eat it with the bread).
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| Didn't try any of these salads which either contained meat or fish as I recall |
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| From left to right - Spanish potato salad, carrots cantonese, green mango salad, raw veggies (including red and yellow bell peppers) and broccoli, cheese and tomato salad |
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| channa dal masala (spicy chickpeas) and palak paneer |
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| chicken with onion and vegetable stew |
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| fish curry and lamb curry |
The mains I did have were adequate but, in my opinion not fantastic. The real gem of the meal was the desserts. The galub jamuns were some of the best I've ever had - tender, sweet without being cloying, ambrosial - mmmm. The brownies were good but the chocolate gateau - which unfortunately disappeared at lightning speed once somebody plucked up the courage to make that initial cut into it - was superb. The peach mousse was also very good, the baked yogurt was creamy and sinful and the strawberry panacotta was rich and satisfying.
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| from left - in silver tureen are gulab jamun, then creme caramel, Indian sweets, brownies, peach apricot mousse |
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| from left - the still uncut chocolate gateau, strawberry jelly, baked yogurt, panacotta, some cake (which I didn't try - chocolate quotient not present), and on the far right is a chocolate fountain |
The only disappointment in the whole meal for me was the coffee that I was served at its conclusion. But, if you are familiar with the West Coast of Canada you know that we take our coffee very seriously indeed and - again just my opinion - we tend to like it much stronger than most people can tolerate and are very discerning (also known as snobby :-) ) regarding its quality. A British friend told me she had a very good cup of coffee at
Caramel (the in-lobby cafe that has awesome looking pastries and gelato - the cafe manager told me the Taj imported a machine from Italy to manufacture gelato - $4 Canadian for two scoops) but as the price for coffee was almost half as much as lunch I didn't see the sense.
I may treat myself again for international women's day but perhaps the special 50% deal will no longer be in effect.
