Mainland China is one of our favorite places to eat out, there’s no doubt about that. Already been to their restaurants in Cenatoph Road and Phoenix Market City a few times, but this visit was totally unplanned.
Against all odds, decided to check out if we would manage to get a table at Absolute Barbecues on a Sunday afternoon. We reached around 13:30 hours and the Valet parking guy immediately informed that the waiting time for the table was about an hour. With two kids, it didn’t seem like the right thing to wait that long. Still not giving up the idea of ‘Grill on Table’, headed to Barbeque Nation, T-Nagar. Same story, waiting time for the table – One hour! Damn! Left me wondering if Chennaiites’ love for barbecue and grill has always been like this or is this a recent high! Almost 14:00 hrs now and kids were feeling quite hungry. In fact, I was terribly hungry after a very early breakfast. I was in no mood to venture any further ! Just drove out and spotted Mainland China quite close by on Bazullah Road, T. Nagar. Hoping they have a weekend buffet, stepped in and sure they did! 🙂
The ambience, interiors was all nice and since we’ve been to their restaurants quite a few times, it was quite similar. We settled down and were almost ready to pounce on whatever was served. Sweet Corn Chicken soup was served first, it was good. Now the favorite part – Dimsum. Three variants Veg, Chicken and Seafood Dimsums were served. The Black sauce (not really sure what it is) was wonderful with the momos. Chicken drumsticks/lollipop was good, mixed fried vegetables, fried potatoes, everything was tasty and they were generously served again and again ! I don’t remember how many momos I ate with the black sauce 😉 Absolutely yummy !
Main course was a decent spread. In the non-veg section there were quite a few variety of meats – Lamb in Black Pepper Sauce, Fish in Sichuan Chilli Sauce, Shrimps with Chilli Garlic and Egg White, Crab Hunan Dry and some Tao’s Chicken. After an elaborate round of starters, main course was a mere formality. I ate only the chicken dish 🙂 and a very little of it, along with a spoon of Corn and Vegetable Fried Rice and Veg Hakka Noodles. I was told the Shrimps was juicy and tasty and my wife liked it. Tried very little Crispy noodles with Sweet and Sour sauce, it was tasty.
Proceeded to the desserts. It was decent, nothing worth raving about though. Two flavors of icecream, a mousse which was just average, Daarsan was very tasty – It is basically crispy fried noodles drizzled with honey and sugar, and along with the icecream, it was yummy ! There were two cakes and they were just okay. Deep fried milk was something very different. The milk inside was more like jelly and it was quite good too.
Overall, yet another satisfying lunch at Mainland China. A Non-Veg Buffet is priced at Rs 575 plus Tax, Veg Buffet is Rs 525 plus Tax and Non-Veg Buffet for a child is Rs 405 plus Tax. Overall, the lunch set us back by about 2.5K and it was absolutely worth it !
No Comments