Seafood fare: A hit and miss

Feast at Sheraton Grand Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway, has begun a seafood focused dinner buffet. Located on the ground floor of the five star hotel, you are greeted with multiple islands of food as soon as you enter. The first thing you see is a display of a variety of seafood that you can grill with your choice of marination.

The islands were divided on the basis of cuisine and course; as salads and cold cuts, grills and continental food, South East Asian food, Indian food and finally one for desserts.

We started off the main course with the continental fare. The highlight of which was the lip smacking ‘Seafood Stew’. With perfectly cooked salmon and squid swimming in a lightly spiced and tangy tomato broth, it was a refreshing dish.

Just as we were finishing off our first plate of food, the ‘Grilled Fish’ arrived along with a ‘Seafood Pizza’. The flavour of the marinade hadn’t seeped into the fish, making it devoid of almost all flavour. The saving grace was the fact that the fish itself was perfectly cooked. The pizza, loaded with shrimp, squid and fish on a super cheesy base was surprisingly light.

We then moved on to the Indian selection. The ‘Mangalore Fish Curry’ was my favourite of the evening. The luscious curry, thickened with creamy coconut milk is the one dish that kept me going back for more.

Our final destination for savoury dishes was South East Asia. All of us had been eyeing the ‘Singaporean Chilli Crab’ since we walked in but an unlikely contender won over our palettes —the ‘Tom Kha Soup’. With a station dedicated to it, the soup was presented with a plethora of accompaniments that you could customise your bowl with. I added some squid, fried garlic, peanuts and spring onion to my soup. The soup itself was creamy and had a floral coconut flavour enhanced by aromatic spices.

Coming back to the crab, although delightfully cooked, it wasn’t what it claimed to be. If you’re familiar with ‘Singaporean Chilli Crab’, this dish would miss the mark. Perhaps if it wasn’t labelled as such, we might have enjoyed it more. Although desserts are what I look forward to at any meal, it wouldn’t have hurt to skip it this time. The pastries were either dry or didn’t taste of anything. If you are craving something sweet after the meal, my advice would be to stick to the ice cream.

Even though the seafood was perfectly cooked, the flavours didn’t hit the mark. The two stellar dishes in an average spread wasn’t enough to save the evening. The seafood special buffet, priced at Rs 2,000 plus taxes is available at Feast every Wednesday till the end of the year.