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Fresh and fun
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In a pleasant, sunny ambience, Ithaca serves up a great buffet hot off the stove
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Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.
Come and get it One of the highlights of the buffet is the salad section with the freshest of ingredients
When it comes to a buffet, the mantra of the moment is freshness. After all, no one that’s doling out a rather generous amount of money for a meal wants cold food that’s been sitting around for hours. So it is that buffets all around the
city are aiming for a just-in-time delivery system, turning out choice dishes just before they hit your plate.
Almost the first thing you notice about Chancery Pavilion’s Ithaca brunch menu, therefore, is the small pots of sprouts by the salad counter. The idea, explains, M. Sitapathi, Executive Chef, is for customers to have the freedom to make their own salads, using sprouts that are as fresh as they come.
We let the chef make our salads, asking only for as much colour as possible. And the fresh factor is noticeable, with everything having a wonderful crunch to it.
Then there are the live food stations, which range from continental to South Indian. If local flavours are your thing, appam and stew or dosa and chicken curry are the way to go. Or you could go with the shawarmas and kathi rolls at the next counter. Although the rolls do feel a bit too clinical and lack the organic charm of street food, they’re still rather worth a try. Or you could go upscale and try out the live pizzas and pastas. But it’s the live seafood counter that takes the cake for us. We go with the pomfret lightly flavoured with basil pesto and are well rewarded for our choice. The fish is only very lightly cooked, so that while the outside is crunchy and nicely spiced, the inside is delicate, juicy and untouched by the pesto.
Among the cold starters, there’s a wide range of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options. From a vegetable sushi that tries gamely to manage without meat to excellent chive crepes and asparagus salad to a spinach and goat cheese roulade, there are more than enough choices for vegetarian diners.
At the other end of the spread, the lamb roll with mint jelly is a must have. The jelly is thin enough so that it doesn’t dominate the meat, and the lamb is pleasantly spiced and cooked. Also worth a try is the smoky and subtle crabmeat with ginger and gherkins. And a half-dozen options besides.
Thoughts of a main course might not occur at the end of all this. However, if they do, vegetarians could try the vegetable tagine with cous cous, the Thai vegetable green curry, the almond crusted pommes croquettes or some home-grown sambar or vegetable stew. And non-vegetarians could try the ghosht kheema biryani, the stir-fried tenderloin with three peppers, soya and ginger or the semolina seared fish with mustard and garlic nage.
But do leave space for desert. There’s a live crepes station, besides some wonderful plated portions of Jamaican coffee chiffon pie, Irish bitter chocolate mousse, blueberry panacotta and more.
The Ithaca brunch is on Sundays between 11.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. at Chancery Pavilion on Residency Road. Contact 41414141 for details.
RAKESH MEHAR
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