A Supremely Delicious Breakfast Buffet at Tamra, Shangri-La's Eros Hotel

Shangri-la after its revamp almost three years ago has created quite a name for itself in the food and nightlife space. The hotel houses several restaurants, and each is doing brilliantly well. They arguably have the best restaurants in Delhi for Indian, buffet and Chinese for me, while the other ones are bloody good too. The food is par excellence here, and the hotel keeps doing promotions and food festivals at their restaurants all round the year. Now imagine coming to a hotel for promotions so often and when you get a chance to go out at leisure with friends and spend your own money, you still choose the same hotel. That is where all their efforts and marketing, all their promotions and great food and service, comes into effect for a customer.
It was my best friend’s birthday a couple of weeks back and when she said she wanted to go for a buffet breakfast, Tamra it was! The breakfast spread at Tamra is one of the widest spreads in Delhi NCR, with multiple live counters and a plethora of cuisines. The buffet has one section devoted to cereals, milk, shakes, fresh fruits, fresh juices and the likes. Another one has salads, vegetables, dressings, condiments, different kinds of cheese, flavoured yoghurt, nuts and dry fruits, etc. Had my fair share of nibbling on cheese in my plate while taking a tour of the buffet and deciding what to take first.

There’s one section for Chinese with soups and broths, noodles, meals in a bowl with veggies and proteins to choose from. This one is to cater to the guests from other countries staying in the hotel. Because we Indians, owing to our obsession with oily and heavy breakfasts, will hardly ever choose a healthy broth over poori aloo. Their Indian spread has pakode, kachori, sevaiyan, daliya khichdi, poha, dhokla, khandvi, poori bhaji and chhole amongst other things. There were 3-4 kinds of pakode on that particular day- a Baingan Bhaaja, Aloo Pakode, Mix Palak Pakode, and I tried all. Beautiful way to start your day! :D Tried the Tomato Sevaiyan and Carrot Poha they had. Quite different and so good in taste. There’s a section for South Indian with live counters for dosa and uttapam, idli and vada, another live counter for stuffed paranthas. Got myself a masala dosa and a Gobhi Parantha and I was in love with both. A nice crisp dosa with masala inside it, delicious sambhar and equally good chutneys. The parantha, thick with stuffing inside it not excessive dough, like I have experienced it in 80% of the breakfast buffets. Such a pleasant surprise this was for me. The stuffing was really good in taste, not at all bland.

The buffet has a section for Continental with sausages, bacon, grilled chicken, quiche, baked beans, hash brown, grilled tomatoes, etc. Eggs are on order and come to the table. Had Eggs Benedict which were really good, the hash brown very crisp and not oily, just how you want them to be, and crisp bacon on the side. There’s no better breakfast in the world than this for me. The quiche was a soft little petite snack that I gobbled down within no time. Sausages and baked beans too making way into my stomach, making me extremely happy with what I was eating.

There’s a huge section for desserts with dry cakes, muffins, croissants, 10-12 kinds of icecreams, a live counter for waffles and pancakes, chocolate cakes, donuts, Danish pastries, etc. The best part about this dessert section is the presence of several healthy options. You can get fat-free waffles and pancakes here, served with honey and fresh fruits, dates, dry fruits and the likes, and no artificial sweeteners or cream to give you excessive calories. You also have options for multigrain muffins and dry cakes. They have low fat ice creams, sugarfree icecreams and gelato too for the health conscious people or ones suffering from diabetes. I tried both the healthy and the chocolate waffles. The first ones I tried around 9 30-10am, and the second one when the buffet was closing, and I could see a stark difference between the two. The first batch was crispier and cooked properly, the second one was soft and lacked any craze of a waffle in it. And this was because the chef at the waffle counter was single-handedly managing all the waffle and pancake orders, looking after re-stocking the muffins and donuts, catering to people asking for icecream, and had nobody to help him. And this at a time when the buffet was closing so everyone was rushing to the buffet counters. There should be more staff to assist here. The moment I sat down for breakfast I ordered for a Cold Coffee, and I can confidently say this is the best cold coffee I’ve had in Delhi till date. Truly terrific! Only milk, no icecream, less sugar, strong. Brilliant coffee! Ended my meal with a cappuccino and that too was beautiful.

Loved the buffet spread every bit and I think the price completely justifies the spread and quality. They’ve become the best place for breakfast buffet for me in Delhi!

Price for the buffet: Rs.1470Timings: 7AM-11AMAddress: Shangri-la's Eros Hotel, Ashoka Road, New DelhiConnect with me on:Twitter: @sahibagursahane

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