Barbeque Nation, Chennai.

Barbeque Nation: No 1 Hanumantha Road, Off Norh Usman Road, T Nagar, Chennai – 17.

Phone: 42694481/82

Cost Per Head: 450 (drinks extra)

Food: 7/10

Ambiance: 7.5/10

Service: 6/10

Chennai is the latest city to have a branch of Barbeque Nation open up. With this, Chennai has been introduced to the concept of table side grill. We had reservations for 8:30, and since yesterday was the first day of launch, reservations were by invitation only. This also meant that the food and drinks were on the house.

We were greeted by the very friendly and well dressed staff, and taken to our table. The drinks menu arrived immediately and in a few minutes we placed our order. The bar offers a few cocktails, margaritas as well as beer and hard liquor. I asked for whiskey on the rocks, and the others had some cocktails. The drinks took forever to arrive, and we had to remind the waiter more than once. The guy who got my drink, used his fingers to grab ice and put them into my glass. In the meantime, someone had places the hot grill, with hot coal, right in the middle of our table. Before long, the skewers started arriving.

The vegetarian skewers included aloo achari, peanut seekh kebab, thai grill vegetables, paneer kalimirchi tikka and caramalised onions and mushrooms. The non vegetaria skewers for the day consisted of tundee ke kebab, murgh angara kebab, chicken sishtawook, labanese chilly fish and dhaniya prawn.

The thai grill vegetables were not up to the mark. It looked like a sad half hearted mix of veggies, stuck on the skewer because they had no where else to go. The Paneer was a little soggy and at times it felt as if it would fall off the skewers. Thankfully the only place it fell into was our plates. The aloo achari was the best of the lot and it was vanishing quickly from the grill. It did not matter, because the moment we finished it, another skewer was placed on our grill. Did I also mention that each table also has its own share of rosemary, oriental and lemon dressing, and a brush, with which we could keep our veggies andmeat moist and seasoned?

On the meat section, the thai fish was my favorite. Though I felt that it could have had a little more marination to take the blandness away, I still enjoyed it. The shrimp was real tasty, though it looked like the marination might not have been a good idea. The other items were equally impressive and most of us were left wondering which one might have been our top pick. These are just the starters and they are unlimited. One can spend the whole night munching on just the starters. The restaurant I visited in Bangalore had a small flag on the table. As long as the flag was up, the skewers would keep coming. Lowering the flag was a sign that we were done with the appetizers. This may be introduced in Chennai pretty soon. 

After a few rounds of drinks and endless skewers of meat and veggies, we did not have enough space for the buffet, but since were there, we had to give it a shot. The line up seemed impressive. It consisted of cream of pumpkin soup, hot and sour chicken soup, grilled fish with lemon butter sauce, crab in soya chilly sauce, mutton dum biryani, kadai murgh, shikari gohst, pasta in baslico sauce, vegetables in blackbean sauce, rogani paneer, meethi aloo, vegetable handi, and veg biryani. The taste was just ok and certainly not the best I have eaten. The highlight from the buffet was the grilled fish in lemon butter sauce and the crab in soya chilly sauce.

The server also made sure that our table had its share of garlic bread, butter and plain naan, butter and plain roti and a few other breads. We obviously skipped the soup as we did not have space to spare for it. The salad bar was also impressive. It had a lot of varities and my top picks were the tuna salad and the chicken salad, which had really generous portions of tuna and chicken.

No matter how much we eat, there is always place for dessert. Fresh fruit souffle, black forest cake, brownies, rum balls, ice cream and fresh fruits, made up the dessert bar. The souffle and black forest cake were the better of the lot. the rum balls and brownies could be improved.

Overall, it is a good experience and a new concept. The service of drinks could be made a little faster and the quality of the buffet could be improved slightly. Make sure you eat a lot of the appetizers and I would say that it would be worth it even if you only eat the appetizers.