Pizza By The Bay – Buffet lunch

Posted on March 19, 2015 by reenamansukhani Standard Reply

I’ve always loved having a soup, salad and sandwich meal. I’ve also always loved the PBTB (Pizza by the Bay) food. However, with so many new restaurants opening up, I hadn’t been to PBTB for a buffet for many years. Finally when there recently with family.

The restaurant has been recently re-decorated. Its done-up very tastefully. They now have tall glass windows that look out towards the sea. We managed to get a round table near the windows. Its was a wonderful meal – food, ambiance and the company. We spent a leisure almost 2 hours over the buffet. Of course, as usual, after an absolutely satiating meal, went home and slept.

The buffet is a soup, salads, sandwiches and desserts menu. There is a veg and non-vegetarian soup, served on the table with a basket of soft breads and crunchy sticks. The vegetarian minestrone soup as well as chicken soup were amazing.

The salads spread was outstanding. They had almost over 20 vegetarian salads, of which about 5-6 of them were without onion and garlic. For the non-vegetarians too, there were no less than 10 salads – I’m sure of it. All the salads were well flavoured and one could easily go for seconds. However, since the salads are so many and I wanted to try all, or as many as I could, I really couldn’t go back for seconds (I yet had to have the sandwiches and desserts)! The only drawback that I found in the salads was that though they were all well flavoured, there just one or two salads that were not dry-ish (like a mayo based salad). However, its easily forgotten when the spread is so good.

veg salad spread

veg salad spread pic

more veg salads

non veg salad spread

non veg salad spread pic

There are about 10 listed sandwiches. We ordered the chili cheese, Mediterranean and beef sandwiches between 5 of us. The chili cheese sandwich was the best, the other two coming a close second.

chili cheese toast

Mediterranean sandwich

Beef sandwich

Finally the desserts. Very good, especially when we came to know they were eggless! Most of the desserts were great, just a couple of them were not very good.

dessert counter

mousse and strawberry n chocolate pastry

Wow. What a meal. At Rs. 800 all inclusive, we were very very happy.Oh. I almost forgot. One of us took the Rs. 1400 buffet which includes the Four Seasons wine – red or white, unlimited. We took red. I strongly recommend this Rs. 1400 buffet as the wine pairs very well the complete buffet menu. This buffet is a must experience.

Tamarind, Fariyas

Posted on October 28, 2014 by reenamansukhani Standard Reply

Tamarind

I’ve always wanted to go to Fariyas for a meal. Somehow, over time, it never materialized, till recently. Went for dinner – opted for the buffet. Surprise was, that there is live music. Simple, soft and nice.

Started with the soup. It was served on the table. Good Jade Garden soup. This was accompanied by a good basket of assorted fresh n soft breads.

Jade Garden Vegetable Soup with bread basket

After the soup, got myself a plate of salad.

Wow! Yum…If this is the kind of food they serve here, I feel bad; I haven’t visited this place earlier. The salads are amazing. All of them have a distinctively different flavour and seem absolutely fresh.

The beetroot salad was just fantastic – though beetroot, it did not have its stark flavouring. The carrot salad was exciting on the palate. So was the cucumber one. The pasta salad too was great, but it was strongly spiced with garlic.

Salad bar

Next, was the main course. Again, here the spread was amazing, beef, fish, and chicken for the meat lovers.

non veg dishes

another non veg counter

Though we were 5 persons at the table, everyone was vegetarian due to religious reasons. In vegetarian, the Basil tossed potatoes were fantastic.

food counter

The pasta Americana looked very appetising and I took a big bite – Aaaa….What’s this? Cloves??? 2 pieces of cloves in one bite? And it’s not that they were coarsely powered – they were whole. It a serving of say about 5 bites, I found almost 7 cloves and 2 whole peppercorns! What’s happening? See my plate.

my plate

The Chinese was like a regular fare – cannot really go very wrong with Hakka noodles and veg stir fry.

veg Chinese counter

The other main course vegetarian dishes were very average. Actually below average as each of them was heavily spiced with garlic. I like my food well spiced but garlic to be at a minimum. Here, it was the other way round. The main course was thus an absolute downer.

However, I knew from the looks of them, the desserts would be a redeeming factor.

dessert counter

Oh. What a let-down! These looks could really con anyone. From the complete spread only the Gulab Jamuns, Pineapple Panacotta and Orange Mousse were decent.

litchi tart

Orange mousse

Pineapple Panna Cotta

Priced for Rs. 940 (including taxes) for a dinner buffet, I do not recommend this place, atleast for a vegetarian.

Creamy Potato & Pasta salad

Posted on October 17, 2013 by reenamansukhani Standard Reply

potato n pasta salad

I love making this salad as my hubby relishes it. Its easy to make, versatile (use whatever ingredients you have at the moment at home), mix, refrigerate and eat when you want.

The original recipe is one I picked over the years from the net. However, I fine-tuned it to my taste. The above pic has potato, green peas, egg, carrots and macaroni tossed in creamy dressing. One can delete or add any element.

Request for recipe

Ellipsis…

Posted on September 27, 2013 by reenamansukhani Standard Reply

… the 3 dots at the end of Ellipsis means that there is always more from Ellipsis…

…..ummmm

…….not happening – at all.

Went to Ellipsis for dinner last night, with hubby. Again courtesy Restaurant Week. Its a restaurant I’ve been wanting to visit. I’m glad that I went and I’m over it. I always wanted my blog to have good things to say about food, but Ellipsis really really let me down – Big Time. Due to some religious reasons, we ordered only a vegetarian fare.

While we waited for our first course – the salad, we were each presented with a small plate with 1 cheesy fried dumpling – it was nice. The meal started off well. They then offered us a bread basket with flavoured butter, honey miso and smoked pepper dips – the dips were really good but the bread was chewy.

Single piece starter

Bread basket

Both these were complimentary while were waited for the salad.

The salad arrived – looked fantastic. It was a spinach salad with spinach, arugula, caramelized and roasted nuts and goat cheese, It was great. So goooood. I thought to myself – great place to have come. But then, the salad was the highlight of my meal.

Spinach salad

This was followed by the Second course – the appetizers – we had to choose one each. I chose the aubergine starter – (eggplant, chilies, soy and crispy rice). Hubby selected The Tofu bowl (garlic, sesame and fall vegetables). We exchanged the plates.

My feedback – NO to the aubergine starter. The Tofu bowl was really good.

Hubby’s feedback – The Tofu bowl was decent. Reminded him of Chinese-styled cooking. Found the aubergine starter better.

Aubergine starter

Tofu bowl

Main course was Fettuccine – house-made pasta, grilled veggies tossed in marinara. Our verdict – decent but too much of marinara which gave a very tomato-y taste to the dish.

Fettuccini

Finally we were ready to order the desserts. We were really hoping the desserts would uplift our mood. How our moods crashed – shattered!

We ordered – Panna cotta (coconut, lemongrass, kaffir lime) and a creme brulee (nutella, white chocolate). My hubby had a bite of each and asked me to finish them off – if I wanted. Panna cotta was really bad. For the creme brulee, if I would have been offered a ramekin of pure Nutella, I would have felt happier.

Panna cotta

Creme brulee

… FULL STOP. THE END.

Stir Fry Salad

Posted on August 21, 2013 by reenamansukhani Standard Reply

bowl of stir fry salad

I love this salad!

So does anyone I have served it to, as well as all those who have taken the recipe from me. Its become everyone’s favourite salad. If my hubby relishes this, then – TRUST ME – all will. My hubby is not one for veggies or / then hence salads, especially if it has no mayonnaise. It takes just about a few minutes to slice all the veggies and another few minutes to cook them. Serve immediately and enjoy the flavour.

Its a Tarla Dalal recipe. So, thank you Tarla Dalal for this. Love it every time I eat it.

See the following pic. Its so easy to make and because of the various veggies, its a riot of colours. No presentation required as its vibrant and colourful by itself.

riot of colours

The beauty of this recipe is that most of the ingredients are invariably at home. The fun is that every time you can add or delete any ingredient and you still get a mouthful of flavour.

Last night I added shredded ham.

with shredded ham

Request for recipe

reenamansukhani

All Things Nice

Tag Archives: Salad