Today’s lunch was a buffet at IndiJoe. We have been fans of Indijoe’s ever since Suresh introduced us to the fondue there a couple of years ago. We found ourselves outside IndiJoe at lunchtime and spying the buffet, went for it.

The food at IndiJoe has always been pretty good. Today’s lunch was a lesson in how a restaurant’s buffet food does not always stand up to the standard of its a la carte offerings. The buffet was adequate, though a bit on the leaner side for vegetarians. But the menu was rather unimaginative, and the food itself merely passable – not what we have come to expect from IndiJoe.

The live omelette counter was the highlight of the lunch, with the chocolate pudding coming in a close second. Beyond these two, everything else was rather disappointing. The biriyani could have been more moist and tender and less bony, the tandoori chicken kebab was too bland and not tender enough, the liver was overdone – the litany of woes continues.

Add to this, the restaurant was really crowded – the lunch buffet seems to be really popular with families – and the buffet was set in a very cramped manner. So every time I had to serve myself I had to jostle and was jostled from all around. Kids running round did not really help matters.

All said and done, we did manage to have a leisurely lunch, and the buffet at Rs. 333 nett is about as low as you can expect to pay for a meal at IndiJoe. The lunch buffet during weekdays may be priced lower but I’m not sure.