Mainland China, especially the outlet in Phoenix Market City in Chennai has been one of our favorite spots for special occasions, if I remember rite, we’ve celebrated a few birthdays here. The food and service definitely lives up to its fine dining standards. We’ve always had an enjoyable dining experience here.
Yesterday was no different, tasty food and courteous service, just that the decision of opting for the ‘Culinary Treats Menu’ for ICICI card holders wasn’t the best thing to do at that time. Absolutely no one else to blame except myself!
We just finished watching a movie at Jazz Cinemas and didn’t want an elaborate dinner. Wife and kids weren’t in a mood to travel too far, we decided to hop into Mainland China right inside the mall. We almost placed the order – dim sum, chicken starter, noodles, fried rice and a chicken dish to go with the mains, and that’s when I spotted this table top that said Rs 666 per person for an elaborate spread. Out of curiosity, wanted to check what the bill totaled up to for the dishes we ordered, and the waiter said it was around 2.5K. The next thought in my mind was why not opt for the elaborate spread when you have an ICICI card and it totals up to roughly the same amount. That decision, at 22:15 hrs was not the best thing to do I felt!
We started with Eight Treasure Chicken Soup, tasted very good. The portion was quite large, and took a while to finish. Meanwhile the starters made their way to the table. Jiang’s Chilli Chicken, Pan-Fried Asian Chilli Fish, Crackling Spinach, Veg Tempura with Salt and Pepper were served next.
Kids liked the Fish, Chicken was soft and tasty. Crackling Spinach was something very different, crispy and wonderful, I loved it. Veg tempura was perhaps just baby corn, didn’t look like it had other vegetables, tasted good though. By now, we were quite stuffed. We didn’t even ask for a second serving of any of these starters.
Politely told the waiter to make small portions of noodles and fried rice along with a chicken main course that was listed in the menu as we couldn’t eat anything more. Burnt Garlic Vegetable Fried Rice and Wok Tossed Vegetable Hakka Noodles came next, looked like regular portion sizes. Chicken in Black Pepper Sauce was the accompaniment for these two dishes. Kids hardly ate a spoon of these, I had a small serving of both these mains with the chicken. I felt chicken was okayish, not anything worth raving about. To our surprise, Burnt Garlic Fish with Seasonal Greens was also brought to the table though we said it was enough. Wife had a couple of pieces and liked it very much, but couldn’t eat anymore. We had to politely request again to stop making anything more than this as we clearly couldn’t finish it. Thankfully skipped the vegetarian mains listed in the menu.
Got a portion of the three desserts listed – Hot Chocolate Rolls, Steamed coconut dumplings and Vanilla Ice Cream. Not a big fan of sweet dumplings, but it was okay, a little chewy though. chocolate rolls were decent, the caramel sauce beneath it was super yummy. Ice cream was good.
We were the only guests at the restaurant at this time. In fact they had started to clean the place from the other side so we weren’t troubled. No complaints about that, but just didn’t feel too comfortable to have a relaxing meal knowing we were near closing time. We finished at 23:15 hrs.
There was nothing to complain about the food. I normally do not waste food. I make sure I only order what I can finish. I felt it was stupid of me to opt for this with two kids, so late in the night and struggle to complete it. Quite as expected, packing any of these wasn’t allowed, so had to leave a lot of it on the table. I genuinely felt guilty for wasting food which I normally never do!
Now thinking of it, I could have actually opted for Zomato Gold offer which would have got me one Main course free with my initial order and would have been way more satisfying than this meal. It didn’t occur to me that Zomato Gold offer was applicable here.
Paid 3K in all, including taxes and charges which roughly amounts to 750 per person. Eating from a buffet doesn’t really make you feel guilty, because you only take what you want. When big portions of dishes are brought to the table and you have to leave them after just eating a little, that does.
I’d recommend you to try this when you have ample time at your disposal and you have a good appetite, not at the very end of the day nearing closing time.
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