Prego (The Westin Hotel, Sector 29, Gurgaon)

In a nutshell:

YUMMRAJ was awed by this splendid Sunday buffet ……….. One of the best in Delhi NCR, that has some fab veggie options in addition to a wide non veg spread.

Address & other details: Prego

Meal for 2: Rs. 4000 onwards (Rs. 2000 per person 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 everyWe & thing & 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:

As we walked into the restaurant in a Sunday afternoon, we were told that it is a ‘no a la carte’ day and we have no option but to have buffet. We r usually not buffet fans and hence got disappointed. Thank god we were hungry and hence decided not to leave the restaurant and rather decided to stay back and try the spectacular buffet. A server took us around the spread and explained the options available.

Inside the dining hall - seating and wall decorations — Inside the dining hall – seating and wall decorations

Sometimes democracy is not that enjoyable. I said make me a salad that is special to this restaurant. Answer , ‘sir what shud I add?’ We asked that being Italian restaurant, do they serve laced coffee. Guy did not know. We explained the same. The guy asked ‘what alcohol do I serve with coffee’ !!!!!! At times it feels great to go to a top end restaurant (specially on a leisure dining) and have what the chef is proud to serve. That way I think one gets the best. Else, if I have to decide, I cud have made that at home my way anyway……The guys here did not seem to understand this……… With the exception of the guy who impressed me way beyond expectation – the one and only – the Italian master chef.

Different raw items kept in teh buffet, ready to b grilled

When he asked us what we want, we said ‘ we eat everything. Pls make us whatever u make best. Whatever is authentic, the way u have it at ur home in Italy.’ And I explained him the logic mentioned in the paragraph above. He said ‘that sounds like a cool logic and he made us the two dishes that we will remember for long……….. Super enjoyed the interaction with the chef , the chat and of course the food. In addition to being an amazing culinary artist, he was also an amazing person ( my perception from the little interaction I had with him).

And how did we stumble upon the chef – OverHeard chef ask the guys to b at the counter for salad and pastas . It was constantly empty. So one occasion we were hovering around the pasta station and chef came and asked us what we wanted. We said pasta made by u in whatever way u like. He used gnocchi and maida rolls to make the pasta in front of us while explaining . We said feel free to add anything. We eat all.

We Asked for fresh juice. I was told that 5 star restaurant does not hv fresh juice. Italians do not drink fresh juice? I thought most people around the world hv it. They cud hv served that from other restaurant also . A lot later people in our next table were served juice. Then someone came up to us and finally served us fresh orange juice.

The serving staff were very nice in behaviour, had the basics of service right but were not the level that is expected out of seasoned servers at 5 star hotels. A lot more training is needed.

A view of the outside , while sitting in teh restaurant

In china, everyone has a Chinese name that is given by their parents and then they give themselves an English name when they join college. I was reminded if that when I saw all servers having Italian name written on a badge on their chest.

Each and every item on the long menu was made with a lot of attention. They were different and had something to talk about. I have had very few such good buffets.

The restaurant is located on the ground floor of the courtyard of the hotel. Ambience was casual , smart modern wooden look, display if food was very good.

Food was excellent. Great options for vegetArians. Some of the food was so good that it was ‘star agonistic’. By star agnostic I mean if lamb is the ‘star’ of the dish, the overall taste and flavor wud depend on the sauces, broth and overall taste of the dish etc rather than just on the meat pieces.

Detailed description – in case u have the time to njoy reading:

We started our 3 hour long lunch with Calamari broccoli soup. It was a simple broth, thick and excellent on its own. calamari added flavor to the soup and taste of calamari was good as well. Calamari was less chewy than most other places. Really loved this soup and rate it 4.5/5

At the buffet we started with Poached sea bass. Full sea bass fish was kept at the counter and one had to take out chunks of fish from it. The taste was not at all flat, like basa served in most places. Flavorful fish with good enjoyable flavor of fish. Mild good taste. Flaky soft fish. Rate it 4/5.

Roast Lamb leg – this was also a full leg of goat displayed on the counter. The server was helping customers to take slices off the big piece of meat.

The meat had a crispy upper layer and a soft inside, mildly fibrous inside, fat chunks in the meat were super soft. Overall the meta was flavorful and enjoyable. Subtle flavor of aromatic herbs were there in every bite. We really loved this one. Rate it 4.25/5

Sautéed green beans with garlic and cashew. Crunchy to the core, perfectly seasoned , bit burnt at the edges. This veggie disb was competing well with the non veg food. Excellent. I rate it 4.5/5 . It takes massive calibre to convert green beans to such a YUMM dish.

Mushroom salad had nice round mushrooms, very thinly sliced spring onion plant, red pepper. Excellent again. Aromatic herbs gave flavor . The spring onions sprung up the taste and flavor by miles . Rate it 4.25/5.

Sea bass salad with fennel and orange. Fried fish chunks with fennel and orange. Orange segments had mild salt added to it which went well with its intrinsic sweetness and sourness . Loved munching on the fennel.

The fish was like plain fried fish that bongs have maach bhaja. With skin. Super flavor and taste. Rate this dish 4.5/5.

Melon with Parma ham. Melon gave a good relief to the meat heavy diet. Juicy and nice melon. Parma ham was excellent. Rate it 4.5/5

Coppa with pineapple. Loved it. Rate it 4.5/5.

Chorizo full of fat and overflowing with flavours but bit the oversalted overstrung types. Loved the small crispy fries with the chorizo. Rate it 4.25/5.

pepelonata – Mixed veggies. Not at all tomatoee inspite if being densely populated with tomatoes. Most veggies were crunchy. Simple dish but very tasty. Rate it 4.25/5.

Broccoli Crunchy broccoli flavours of good cheese. Perfect seasoning. Loved it. Rate it 4.25/5

Shrimp cocktail was one of the best I have had in a while. Outstanding texture of shrimp. Soft, non chewy, bursting out with flavours. The bread crumbs were just too good and so were the tiny veggie cubes that were marinated in sauces. Rate it 4.75/5.

Red cabbage and onions bruschetta. Onion and red cabbage on a toast. Super loved it. Crunchy toast and crunchy onions and cabbages with juicy sauce at the top. Rate it 4.5/5.

Bruschetta with tomatoes. Tomatoes , herbs, onion plant and leaf on a toast. Loved this again. Rate it 4/5.

Bruschetta with egg plant – Aubergines and cheese on a toast. Superb again. Rate it 4.5/5

Beef and bell pepper salad. This one was Good but was way behind what I am going to describe next. Rate it 3.5/5

Tenderloin carpaccio – with baby tomatoes and thin sliced cheese. Excellent. Rate it 4.5/5

Grilled aubergines. Loved that. Perfect seasoning, perfect flavor. Good aubergine used. Almost no seeds. Rate it 4.25/5

Tomato mozzarella salad – poached Tomato and mozzarella cheese chunks. Soft and flavorful cheese, a bit of crushed herbs and tomatoes. Very good. Rate it 4/5.

Spinzomonio – Raw veggie strips on a dip, served in a shot glass. Chef told us he likes munching in these personally and hence he had included this in the menu. This, he said, was something commonly eaten at his place. Really nice munching on this simple yet nice dish. Rate it 4.25/5.

Calamari with potato salad was good. Mild flavours and good yo taste. Calamari was soft and as less Chewy as possible. Rate it 3.5/5

Pasta Agnolotti was made by chef as per his choice. He used gnocchi and maida to make rolls. He cut those into pieces, made pasta out of them by using a pesto made by him.

Super duper good. Way beyond words. The pasta was super soft, wildly tasty, was aromatic and was one of the best things that we experienced on our plate this month. The shrimps in the pasta were of the best evr texture – not rubbery, not chewy, retail end full flavours, soft and njoyable.

When chef came back to ask for feedback, I refused to speak. Instead I stood up and clapped – standing ovation. The shy guy in him smiled and quickly went back to kitchen….. Rate it 4.95/5.

The chef also made some ravioli for us. That was made with minced chicken. Marvellous again. Rate it 4.75/5.

After this we went for grilled meats.

Lamb was as soft as gnocchi / paneer!!! It had immense flavours and robust taste. I am salivating as I write about it again. Rate it 4.95/5

Tenderloin was soft and juicy, medium rare. Perfect texture. Super flavours. Just too good. Rate it 4.75/5.

Calamari grill was a bit brittle as expected. However it was made as good as possible. It had burnt edges and good taste. One of the best tasty calamari I have had in a while. Rate it 4.25/5.

Fish grill was very good. It was flaky, soft, juicy and charred at the ends. Fully enjoyable. Rate it 4.5/5

Chicken grill was thin strips of chicken meat. It was relatively harder than the rest of the grills but soft otherwise. It had good taste and nice flavours. Rate it 4/5.

Super loved the Prawn grill. Very soft, non chewy, non rubbery, full of flavor prawns with slightly charred ends. Rate it 4.5/5.

Desserts were very good as well. The chef said he did not make these and there was a common chef in charge for desserts across all Restaurants in the hotel.

There were a Variety of sauces with real fruit chunks in them – to b poured .

Hazelnut Oreo chocolate bar had coarsely ground Oreo atop and a rich dark chocolate base. Superb. Rate it 4.5/5

Berry and Mascarpone cake. Another very good one. I have had better mascarpone cake but this one was very good as well. Berries were enjoyable. Rate it 4/5.

Lemon tart was very good but the one a L opera is much better. Rate the one at prego 4/5

Caramelised apple and rosemary cake was really nice with strong flavours of both apple and rosemary. Rate it 4.5/5

Plum crumble cake was coarse, soft and a bit moist. There were plum chunks in it. We enjoyed this with the sauces having fruit chunks in them. Rate it 4/5.