In a nutshell:

Great ambience , good service, average to bad buffet that totally derailed my mood & made me think ‘WTF’!!!!.

Address & other details: Indian Grill Room

Meal for 2: Rs. 1300 buffet.

Cuisine type : Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for : 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:

Indian Grill Room was a shock to me – How can everything in a buffet be consistently average/bad? It clearly shows that someone has invested a lot in the place & that shows in the awesome décor. Someone has invested in a lot of good guys to serve food. Did anyone pay as much attention to the food itself as well? The answer seems to be NO. The focus is solely on the price tag of Rs. 700 all inclusive buffet & not on what is in the buffet.

In case the answer is ‘utne paise me utna hi hota hai’, I have a big problem. Firstly, as we walked in, we were only given the buffet menu. No one even mentioned a la carte. It was only after getting back from here that a friend told me that they have good a la carte!!!! Let people who r ok to pay get good food rather than force them to eat average stuff at low prices!!!!!!

Some People pay more for getting good food. Others are OK with average as long as the price is low. It seems this restaurant is targeted at the latter.

As mentioned above, the interiors are beautifully done. The waiting area has nice framed pictures & plush sofas. Once inside the Dining hall, the look & feel is excellent as well. In fact it is as good as a restaurant in any good 5 star Hotel.

The salads, main-course & desserts are laid out in a buffet. Starter Kababs are served on the table one by one, as many as u want. The only thing that u need to do is to say whether u want vegetarian kababs or nonvegetarian. As we sat, we passed on this info to one person. After 5 minutes another one came to confirm. After another 5 minutes a 3rd guy came to confirm!!!!

Service as I mentioned, was good. The guys were quite polite & nice. The gentleman at the reception was very nice to us as well.
Food it seems is the last priority of the guys & it was a bad experience. I wud never go there again even if someone pays me to do so.

Detailed Description – In case u have the Time to NJOY reading:

We started off with Murgh Gilawat. It was soft within, had an almost crispy 1mm thick outer layer. The taste was pretty bland. Good for kids & the elderly, this Gilawat lacked the basic flavors of masala that any good gilawat should have. There was too much of binding material in the kabab & that I guess led to an otherwise bland meat turn even blander. I wud give this a 2.5/5. This was served with a tiny ulte tawa ka paratha.

Next kabab was Jhinga hara masala. This had much better spicing & it was appropriately charred at the ends. Taste was in the right direction but the texture went for a toss as it was totally rubbery – as if I was having a chewing gum in my mouth!!!!! I give this a 2/5.

Third came Murgh Nawabi Tikka. I am confident that if the khansama wud have served the nawab this tikka, he wud have been slaughtered on the spot. The chicken piece was hard, not juicy, mildly spiced, mildly charred, flat taste & just consistently average. I give this a 2/5.

Then came Karuveppilai meen. This was relatively better than the previous ones. The spicing was toned down than the original South Indian version & so was the degree of hotness. The fish used was a flat tasteless one , I guess basa, which is surely not the fish used for the original preparation. The fish was soft but not juicy. I give this a 3/5.

The last kabab that hit us was Kadak seekh. This was an attempt to newness that got quite screwed up as the basic thing was not right – the meat. The meat mince did not have much fat & hence became dry & hard.

The cheese filling inside was soft & good & the cheese layer on the outer side was crispy. It tasted like those cheap refrigerated kababs that r available at supermarkets – heat & eat. I give this a 1.5/5.

At this point the guy came to ask for repeats. I was so shocked at what just happened, that I thought I shud give another chance b4 coming to a conclusion. So I asked for the gilawat & the fish. Same as before, consistently average.

For all the Lucknowi items, Kitchen of Awadh/ Al Kakori Al Kausher / Tunday / Kainoosh does a great job & u can compare with Amravathi / Swagath for the South Indian variety & they surely do a much better job.

We were also offered a drink & we chose Chaanch. I have drank several kinds of chaanch in my life but never had a tasteless water like liquid that is just white in color, disguised as chaanch. Infact the glass was smelling of fresh lime & it was then that we realized that fresh lime juice was served in this glass to the previous guest & was not washed properly. I give this 1/5.

In the main course we had Murgh Zafrini. It was a normal chicken curry with no hint of Zaffran. It did not taste bad, neither did it taste good. It was ok = fair & hence gets a 2/5.

We tried aloo chokha. It was not bad but surely not upto the mark. Check out aloo chokha at Potbelly & u know what is the standard that I am talking about. I give this a 2.5/5

The next item we had was fish chettinad. It was made with boneless fish!!!!! Result – the fish pieces disappeared into gravy & u cud not even find an 1 inch chunk. The flavors & taste were in the right direction but surely ‘not there’. Again, an average tasting curry where u have to fish for fish. The punch that is associated with Chettinadu food was totally missing. I give this a 1/5.

Gosht Dum Biryani – I do not need to say anything. Look at the rice in the picture & u know the answer. Non aromatic not long grains of rice that r not necessarily suited for biryani. I asked which Biryani is this & the answer was Hyderabadi OMG!!!! Will someone please visit Biryani Blues Gurgaon & taste what is Hyderabadi Biryani or go to Shadab in Hyderabad? If I eat the Indian Grill biryani without a reference point, I guess it is not bad. I give this a 2.5/5.

We also tasted methi chaman. I did not know what was the intent but what ended up on the plate was a methi flavored creamy curry that did not have a punch but was almost good to taste. I give this a 2.75/5.

For desserts we were offered ‘chhena pais’. What was served was something like rasmalai in which the rasgullas were tiny marble sized. The gravy was a bit over sweet. The tiny rasgullas were dry & brittle. I wud give this a 2/5.

The only item that I can term good in the whole buffet was Gulkand ki Kheer. It was reduced milk with gulkand – the thing that is used in paan. This was pretty good & I loved both the taste & the flavors. I give this a 4/5.

Paan ice cream was too strong to taste & I am not sure too many people will like it. It had real paan masala in it. Try paan ice cream at Naturals Mumbai & u know the difference. I however liked it & wud give it a 3.5/5.

Overall the rating of Food at Indian Grill room adds up to 2.4/5. As mentioned above, I wud never go there to spend my hard earned money. What has been ur experience?