A biriyani buffet? But that can't be, you wonder. For, how can you have that wide a choice under this category? Wrong. That's exactly what's going on at the Spice Route Restaurant, in Oberon Mall.
And you have a dozen varieties. Very tempting and absolutely confusing for a die-hard non vegetarian. For the vegetarian too, it can be quite daunting, choosing what he/she wants from the five varieties spread out.
Once you get into the restaurant, don't expect to find boring lines of fancy vessels filled with yellow, white and multi-hued food. No, instead, steaming hot chicken and fish sit in wholesome whole form, waiting for you to pick them. The rice is also of different varieties, is kept separately.
“The chicken is roasted full, in the oven, so is the fish”, says executive chef Sreekandan. And a mutton leg, fully roasted, waits for the soft meat to be shared by the diners. When you want to eat chicken biriyani, or fish biriyani, the fish or chicken piece is carved out, a la Arabic style. But the beef is not kept whole, fear not! For Chef Sreekandan has been in West Asia for more than two decades and he comes to India off and on.
Look around and you are spoilt for choice: There is the Peshawar mutton biriyani, obviously the king in the dining room. It is not spicy. The saffron flavour beckons and reflects Pakistani style preferences.
On the other hand, the Hyderabadi biriyani is spicy and the Travancore spicy fish biriyani has its votaries also. Malabar egg biriyani has whole eggs and dum beef biriyani has a totally different flavour from the Pakistani keema one. The Andhra prawns biriyani has a lot of dum in it, because it is representative of the Andhra palate.
The vegetarians can opt for any of these: Kashmiri vegetable biriyani, with lots of dry fruits and nuts, Nawabi biriyani, kappa biriyani, paneer tikka one which is quite spicy and last but not the least idiyappam biriyani, completely veg! “The rice used is different for different biriyanis. In Malabar, it is small and in the southern parts, they like it long. In other parts of India also the type of rice differs from one kind of biriyani to the other. We have used the original type of rice for biriyanis in each kind of cuisine,” says Chef Sreekandan.
The salads and raitas also taste different from what one is accustomed to here. For this wide choice, the buffet charges are Rs. 425 per head. It's on for lunch and dinner, from 12-3.30pm and from 7-10.30 pm.
