Spice Haat @ Hyatt Regency - Buffet igniting the Blues!

I recall coming here quite regularly back in the day to enjoy their sumptuously large buffet. To be frank nothing much has changed and even now they conjure up a remarkable spread.

I was here for an official get together and they provide a great deal of food and drinks at a fairly reasonable clip. The interesting bit is that the drinks provided are unlimited.

There isn't much to complain about the food. In the starter section, the panneer is to drool and the cheese nuggets is a good add on. They also have a live chaat and pasta counter to customise and serve as per your requirement.

The main course is lavish and well spread out. There is enough and more for both the vegetarians and non vegetarians. The gravies taste really good and go wonderfully well with the Indian bread. There are options of rice and noodles as well.

The dessert section is again packed to the rafters. Various pastries and cakes of all sizes and shapes adorn proceedings and if you're a sweet lover you'll just look forward to polishing up what they have in store.

The service was friendly and the requirements are met as required. Spice Haat is a great option for a get together lunch or dinner and there are very little chances that it won't meet your expectations as most of the bases are well covered.

Quattro - A melange of Mexican and an interim of Italian

'Quattro' was impressive in parts. They are one of the forerunner restaurants when it comes to whipping up a fest of a gastronomic food adventure mainly utilizing Italian and Mexican cuisine.

We were here on a hot weekend afternoon to look forward to a slurp feast of the best that Italian and Mexican can offer. We started our journey with a Jalapeno Queso. We asked for a small portion and it contained 3 batter fried balls submerged with cheese and spread with a Jalapeno cloud. It was cheesy and smacked flavour fully on to the taste buds. Next up was a crack at the Quesadillas. Went for a Chipotle cottage cheese filling with Mexican beans and a slice of sour cream and Mexican rice for company. This one was well stuffed and punchy with the hard hitting taste.

For main course we tried the Primavera pizza. This frankly was quite a disappointment and seemed more like a run off the mill stuff. It was just that the stuffing were well covered but did expect a more sumptuous offering. However things evened out with the spectacular Mexican cottage cheese sizzler. This one was a belted being heavily loaded with veggies and chunks of cottage cheese cubes with mashed potato and a molten dripping layer of cheese sauce to boot. It was indeed a relishing and wholesome dish.

On the dessert side we polished off a chocolate Saturn and hot chocolate soup. This had all the ammunition to win you over with effervescent essence of chocolate bowling you over. The touch up of orange, mango and jelly enhanced it further.

All in all it was a decent experience. The presentation was lovely and we also had our servings in quick time. One grouse however is on the quantity. Except the sizzler all the other items felt too minimal on serving. You do expect a little more portion and it was a tad disappointing to see such granular portions. Rate wise they are on the higher side.

Quattro on the whole can be termed as an exclusive fine dining restaurant and one of the real better one's when it comes to food experience.

Desi Di - Sounding the Dinchak!

Taking Desi Di at face value, it will surely pique your interest. The place comes with the caption 'Dhinchak' which roughly translates to attitude and that is quite clearly seen in their interiors which has a sparkle about it. It embosses and makes use of multitudes of colour giving itself a quirky and bohemian feel. It captures desiness in full vigour and it's the kitschy set up that brightens up the atmosphere and gives it a zany outlook. The seating arrangement is pretty large and converged into different enclosures and you see each of them portraying the shiz through its wall paintings, miniatures, antiques, colour co ordinations etc.

Talking about the food, it goes in tune with the name of the place and is all desi. They have deliberately avoided South Indian cuisine but brought forth a lot of different items from canteen style to road side to hardcore Punjabi flavour and much more. A lot of innovations also came to the forefront with regard to taste and presentation. One more thing is that they have tweaked some of the items mildly in order for it to suit the palette of the localites.

We started our foray with a few drinks and chai. The lemon barley shikanji was more of a refreshing tonic to beat the heat. The Punjabi Lassi with nuts was pretty frothy and flavourful. The kala khatta soda was a lovely iced drink. The red hibiscus ice tea which was presented in a large beaker looked very appealing but somehow I didn't find it to be too distinctive on taste to any other usual fruit infused tea.

There was a section in the menu titled "All Day Menu" comprising of snacks and starters. The paneer bhurji papad waa very nice with smudged pieces of cottage cheese gregariously spread across the roundish oval along with sprucing of masala and inter laden in the center with a delectable pumpkin dip. The samosas were served in a canteen style box with 2 kinds of chutneys and a bunch of chilli's. These contained the usual potato masala but the texture of it was very good. The Arbi Pakoda was super crispy and slathered with the rightful dosage of spices making it a great snacker. The vada bao was quite lovely with the aloo loaded vada made Bombay style dunked in steamed bao buns. This one defined the Dhinchak as it was made in true Bambayya style with generous garnishing of podi mixture in addition to gentle spraying of chutneys and to infuse the spice quotient lengthy pieces of green chilli's were provided as accompaniment. The sambar kichdi was another one dish which was absolutely yummy and this one was great eating with the crispy papads. The Pav Bhaji fondue however was quite a disappointment. It was the usual pav buns torn as pieces and kept like bread sticks to eat dipped with the bhaji. The masala lacked a bit of creaminess and surely could have been better.

In the main course part, we had a Gujarati special item called Panki. We tried the palak corn version and this was basically a stuffing inside a green leaf that needed to be scraped and eaten. Quite a different experience trying this one. We also got naan with Malai Kofta which was done with the right ammunition and went very well with the Indian bread. The best of the lot was the Paneer Kurchan which was an aromatic panneer gravy cooked with much love and going really well with Naan. It was also served interestingly in a cooker and the flavour was very vehement.

The desserts were a complete win. The Pudina chai brulee was toothsome and really rich in taste with a subtle hint of pudina flavour in a cream brulee base. The gulab jamun cheesecake was a conglomeration well done with the mellow effect of the cake and the juicy taste of the jamuns being simply melt in the mouth. And we rounded the proceedings in superlative style through the Gajar Ka Halwa samosa with candy floss. This was totally bindaas with the samosas containing a sweetened pasty essence and coming along with a bowl of Malai floating with nuts and a fruit infused cotton candy floss. The whole dessert was a sinister creation and a wonderful workout for the sweet craving aficionado.

The rates seem fairly reasonable for the quantity and quality of stuff served. The service was quick witted. It was a pleasure conversing with the host who had complete knowledge of the items in the menu and about the specialities of each dish. Parking is of least concern as it's located in a club with abundant space being available. The place radiates with a kaleidoscope of colours and showcases dhinchak (attitude) in resolute fashion. This is a nice little place to visit especially with large groups and spend some good noteworthy time by soaking in the colour co ordinated ambiance and eat sumptuous food to your hearts content.