New York Tavern
"New York Tavern", buffet Indian cuisine restaurant started making right noise recently among my foodie friends but the place always evoked curiosity because of the name but the food that was served. Meaning to go to this place, timing wasn't right. The place with a perfect location in hot and happening IT Hub Madhapur , all they had to do was get the food and service right.
So on invite from Management for reviewing their lunch buffet along with fellow foodie friends, I could see why it was named "New York Tavern" with ambience show-casing New York city's winter feel - bluish feel everywhere. On brief introduction and interaction with Owner Mr. Sudhakar, we came to know his love for the US City for over 20 years of being there. Being in USA for 7 years, I know how much people love this city for its independence, complex lanes but yet you feel lost with your loneliness and gives you wings of freedom. His memories induced him to give the naming and also the decor. The huge downtown New York city landscape wallpaper in the PDR room impressed me and the most favorite piece was the high standing Statue of Liberty which also acts as their prime WOW factor for selfie spot and I could see why as literally every group was clicking pics with it and it's almost the USP for the diner. The bar setup with its own space for dishing drinks also was a good design. With their Manager Mr. Shrikanth in-charge of taking care of our group , I would say right away the experience was totally satisfactory mainly the mocktails stole the show.
Note: This review experience is based on Management Invite and was on the house & review shared is honest and unbiased in the interest of fellow readers and foodies.
After seated in separate PDR room, we started with their mocktails which I have heard is their WOW Factor and after relishing few debut drinks, I knew why.Their Bar-master Mr. Dharmendar single-handedly dished array of mocktails throughout our lunch session where except very few, I loved them the most. The guy knows the balance - flavor and also how to make it visually appealing. Since most of us were drinks lovers, we had to expect quality in them and yes he delivered for most part of it. Top picks were Cucumber Mojito, Angel Kiss , Berry Blast, Pink Lady . These drinks looked visually WOW and also flavor wise almost got perfect score. The ginger Spice Mojito was something I haven't seen in many of the places and though on the spicier side, was refreshing and something new. Spice lovers, do try them and you will love it. Few drinks like Mango Cooler and other mojitos could improve on the sweet levels and the refreshing feel on first sip. But overall Dharmendar mighty impressed with his bar skills and definitely its a game-changer for this place.
Following the veg starters we were served another set of non-veg starters including Mustard Fish, Chicken Roast and Murgh Tikka Angara. Mustard Fish was aptly fried , not to over coated with batter and crisply served which made it to be the pick among non-veg starters for me - MUST TRY. Chicken Roast is a perfect deep fried chicken chunks but not too dry which will go absolutely divine with cocktails or liquors. Murgh Tikka Angara is your typical chicken tikka but this was o the spicier end that one bit made me sweat a bit more than usual as it also had heavy dose of fried big red chillies. If they could have played the spice levels a bit down , I could have relished this much more than I did. As a special gesture, we also were served Margarita Pizza which served its purpose. Thin crust and apt amount of veggies and cheese made it a good dish to move on from starters to main course. Overall the starters delivered for the pricing they are in as part of their buffet very much.
We started with an array of veg and non-veg starters on table with few dishes from their Ala-Carte menu as it was a review session. Cheese Calls with look and the yummy cheesy wonders stole the show right away. Who wouldn't like cheese. This dish was repeated many-a-times and it was that good - MUST TRY . Butter Garlic Paneer Tikka which looked so different stole the show again. The burnt garlic generously tossed over the lightly darkish charred paneer chunks with some lettuce in between was very unique in taste. Thought had a burnt taste from the garlic shavings , the unique flavor did the magic - MUST TRY.
American Cheese Potato which was nothing but thinly sliced potato shavings fried almost crispy and generously drizzled with American cheese looked clumsy but yeah taste was yummiful. We did multiple servings of his as well as seasoning was also near perfect. Crispy Baby corn was the finale in veg starters and also fared OK but nothing WOW about it.
With starters stuffing us like any other traditional buffet experience, the curries did provide the attraction as there were wide varieties and definitely on tasting them they didnt disappoint. Mainly the non-veg curries including Laal Maas (Mutton Gravy), Nellore Cheppalu Pulusu (Nellore Fish Gravy), Malai Prawns Curry, and chicken Chettinad in the order of my likings. Mainly Cheppalu pulusu was so refreshing and the over dose of tamarind did pretty good to keep its authentic flavors. Laal Maas also went well with the three varieties of naans served - Buttern Naan, Garlic Naan & Kulchas. Other than these there were also Chicken Dum biryani, Mutton Kheema biryani, Veg biryani and also Chinese variants but I hardly had any space to try them as I was completely filled up to my rim. But friends with wme who tasted them said it fared good for a buffet if not WOW.
Now if you are a pure foodie soul like me, you will always have space for sweetness in the form of desserts and of course they had some standard dishes in the buffet which had Double Ka Meetha, Fruit Custard , Pineapple Jelabi and Gulab Jamun.
Double Ka Meetha fared above average neither was too sweet nor too soggy but it aint your authentic thick consistency version you would have fallen in love in Old City but nevertheless worth the try. Fruit Custard though had the right flavors and generous amount of fruits, but was too watery that I had to drink it. I get it that its in a buffet and people normally hunt over desserts but making it too liquidy didn't appeal to me. You either serve it right or not. Pineapple Jelabi which they said is their signature dessert was a bit confusing, jelabi didn't look like one it looked like umm-ali when you had the crunch given by fried pineapple but nevertheless was a good sweetish dessert but jelabi sounds misleading :) Gulab Jamun were tiny and delicious and aptly sweetened though others felt it was too sweetish, but then I can gulp them of any variant :) Overall for a buffet I can see it going well with the general foodie crowds I saw then.
Service & Hospitality:
Operations Manager Mr. Srikanth and lovely steward Chandan Bhai along with the bar magician Dharmendar gave us a more than normal dining experience and as it was tasting session, nothing much went down south and overall we were taken care promptly and totally satisfying. All I would say is they can smile a bit more but I know the pressure when the place is fully crowded but then that could make a huge difference in your service quotient.
Verdict:
New York Tavern is not a unique place going by the name where you get lost into New York the city but then priced at 399 + taxes , their buffet is clearly a winner with most of the dishes across the array delivering and yet there is huge variety to choose from. The mocktails being more than WOW and also a nice locality where you serve Consistency, crowd is assured and even though it was a Tuesday, the place 100% filled in tells the story for you. IF you are in this area for looking for a group event at your offices, do plan it out here and you wont be disappointed.
Note: This review experience is based on Management Invite and was on the house & review shared is honest and unbiased in the interest of fellow readers and foodies.