Little Italy - A sumptuous Fest!

I can't hold back my excitement when it comes to Italian food and the buffet offering on weekdays by Little Italy was an offer too hard to resist. It's always quite a high to see your tongue getting squishy with exotic delicacies and what better way than a cheese friendly affair from the land of Italiana to make your mouth melt with happiness. So here was I on a working day taking a day off from work to soak in a lavish fair put across by Little Italy in the form of a buffet for 500 bucks net. (Inclusive of all taxes).

                                                 
The outlet is located in a small by-lane in Besant Nagar and is the road you need to take in where you see the Wordsworth bookstore right at the center tip point. It is in a residential locality and parking really shouldn't be much of a hassle. It is a restaurant converted from an olden day house which seems to be nicely done up. The ambiance inside is pleasant and neat and polarized into different enclaves which gives it quite a private feel. There is nothing over the top by any stretch and they've ensured to keep it plain and simple which works well here. You would also hear music playing at the background which is unobtrusive and doesn't hamper the proceedings in any way.

They have the buffet concept on each of the weekdays and a larger brunch spread on Sunday apart from the everyday Ala-Carte. Listed below is a brief take on the items served as part of the weekday buffet.

• Drinks:They served 2 kind of welcome drinks viz the Blue Curacao and a Watermelon based one. The former was a really lovely refreshing drink. Apt for the heat and a a great tonic to set the tone. It had a punch to it and the fact that it was unlimited made me use it as an ersatz to the usual water. I also got to taste a small glass of Watermelon juice which was the run off the mill expected stuff.

• Soup:There were 2 soups as part of the spread - Minestrone and Brocolli. I decided to go in for the Zupa de Brocolli. It was a pretty light soup and you could see the presence of thinly chopped pieces of brocolli floating along the brownish soupy water. It was decent but I felt it lacked the creaminess and ended up a bit too plain for the liking.

• Salad:I'm not much of a salad person but whatever was delivered kind of changed my perception to salad eating. It works on the ad-lib style where you need to choose your veggies of which I chose the most essential ones and then all the mixing and matching is done to produce the end product. It was dressed beautifully with the add-on of a mustard mayonnaise and the tinge of creaminess layered across gave it just the rightful feel to enjoy a great salad eating experience.
  
                    
  
• Starters:There were plenty on this front. You had a few items to pick from the table such as Caprese - a piece of cheese inset on a slice of tomato, plain garlic bread, a fondue kind of dish to eat along with bread and also Pita bread with Hummus. But what really enticed the taste buds were the ones which were brought directly to the table. The Cheese garlic bread was noteworthy with a dollop of cheese over the bread which was very soft with the inherent flavoring of garlic. I thoroughly enjoyed the garlic bread and even jocularly put a bit of the curried red chilli flakes sauce which also went very well. Then there was a portion of Fried Onion Rings which were deep fried and having the apt amount of crispiness and the added bonus of cheese at the side edges made it quite a feast. And then I cannot but shower encomiums on another show stealer - the quintessential Nachos with cheese sauce. It was quite a largesse with yellowish cheese sprayed across copiously and with a little smattering of the salsa dip, it was indeed quite a mouth watering delight.
  
                      
  
• Main Course: Here you need to choose from a set menu and I went for Pasta - A white sauce mushroom based one and a Pesto Pizza. The Pasta was immaculate and certainly one of the best I've eaten. It had the right dose of cream with a bevy of mushrooms, asparagus and an essence of garlic flavor and requisite flakes and seasoning. It just seemed so perfect that I didn't want to modify it by any means by adding anything extra. The Pesto pizza had a pungent taste of pesto and garlic covered up with oodles of cheese and a capsule of potato to boot. Might not be the best tongue twister but you will surely like it if you could handle the heaviness of the flavoring.
  
               
  
• Desserts: They had a variety of cheesecakes in the form of Strawberry, Mango and Black currant and the ratings go along the order of listing. The strawberry one especially was exceptional whereas the black currant felt a little bland. Also got a shot of a Panacota which was remarkable and to complete the duties ended up with a scoop of chocolate and butterscotch ice-cream with walnuts and nuts magnanimously mizzled in.
               

Overall it was quite a sumptuous fest and a really satisfactory meal. The food talked the talk and the signals from virtually every angle gave the thumbs up. The service was decent with the staff wearing a smile and adhering to requests but however it felt a little longer than expected for some items to arrive on the table. Nothing really to crib about though and can just be classified as a minor blip. It was certainly a delightful experience and the good news is that they have a host of other stuff on the anvil and I wouldn't mind paying a repeat visit to savor more of their offerings and also to have a shot at the extravagant Sunday Brunch.

The Italian human race is supposed to be bestowed with extremely good looks. I can't comment on that front but can certainly vouch for Italian food being not only alluring to look at but also possessing all the relevant features for it to taste jaw dropping and with 'Fashion' being at the fore front in Italy, it's a given to see Fashion and Food going hand in hand having quite a tete-a-tete :).