The Grand Wok – Banjara Hills

The Grand Wok Bistro
Location: Alcazar Plaza, Opp. City Center, Rd #1, Banjara Hills
Serves: Chinese Cuisine
Specialties: 3 kinds of buffets
Recommended: Crispy fried veg
Tariff: Lunch Buffet for INR 225 + taxes

The Grand Wok is yet another from the recently-sprung crop of restaurants/lounges/bistros/whatever that cater to the upmarket and so-called-chic clientele who’re looking for something different (meaning anything apart from a Biryani!). It offers Chinese and Thai cuisine and to suit all wallets, it has three different kinds of buffet lunches – priced at INR 149, 225 & 299 + taxes for lunch & INR 299 to 375 + taxes for dinner.

Our team of 20 odd people made a beeline for it one busy weekday and the initial warm feeling of a new place, nice ambience and kindly service was quickly replaced by one of surprise when we came to know that it was not a spread-at-a-table kind of buffet. Instead, there was a prefixed menu and items which would be served at our table! Now the concept of a buffet stems from the fact that one gets to choose what he or she likes and in what quantity, most often from a wide array of choices available. But here there were hardly any choices!

The 225 buffet consists of choice of veg or non-veg soup, 2 veg starters, 2 non-veg starters, veg fried rice, veg noodles, 1 veg gravy dish, 1 non-veg gravy dish and dessert. Pretty meagre, considering we get to see an array of 15-25 dishes in a standard 200+ buffet. The inclination towards the prefix menu & served-at-table comes from their belief that unlike a spread-out buffet, here your food is made-to-order, thereby eliminating the chance of the food getting cold just lying out there or losing its taste due to the constant camphor-heating. Quite a good idea, I first thought.

The menu that day consisted of veg hot n’ sour soup & chicken sweet corn soup, both delicious and piping hot. Veg starters included crispy fried vegetables – which was very delicious, and veg. manchurian – which was kinda soft and soggy. For the non-vegetarians there was chicken schezwan and chicken lollies or drumsticks. They were bland and not all too well-done. Its good that these were unlimited because what followed was a disappointment. The fried rice was sticky, with small rice and plain bland. Ditto the noodles! Without the accompanying gravies, they were tasteless. The veg in Cantonese sauce was alright, with mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, spinach all fresh. Chicken balls in schezwan sauce was good, with the right blend of flavours. Dessert was fried daarsan with choice of ice cream.

For someone with a voracious appetite (as me & most of my friends are), this is somewhat less. And we look stupid if we ask for another round of starters once the main course has arrived! But given it is reasonably priced and that it was for lunch, which is not quite the heaviest meal of the day for me, especially on a weekday, it was alright.

The ambience of the restaurant was good and the staff were courteous. But there was an inordinate delay between courses. I like to sip my soup while munching on starters but they insisted on finishing off the soup, clearing the bowls and then bringing on the starters! Again, the main course arrived a good 5 minutes after the starter-plates were cleared off. Ditto the dessert. I know it is tough to handle a motley crowd of 20 people, especially if the restaurant is partly full and I’m inclined to give’m the benefit of the doubt but there’s definitely room for improvement.

I’ll probably pay it another visit, maybe at dinnertime to check out the other dishes that they have and get to like it better but till then, I’ll begrudgingly recommend it.

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