Bottomless Pit #3 : Asia Alive - Double Tree by Hilton

So, we woke up this beautiful Saturday morning - the skies were grey, there were sparks of lightning and bursts of thunder. All I could think of after last nights Mojito's was a 'Heart Attack' meal - greasy, meaty comfort food.

We quickly checked our favourite All in All restaurant/hotel directory - Zomato, for options in and around our neighbourhood. Closest option, and one that had some great reviews was Double Tree's breakfast buffet.

It was 10:00 AM by the time we got our act together, Alex made a quick call to the restaurant 'Asia Alive' and found out the buffet ended at 10:30 AM. We knew 10 minutes would not be enough to do justice to a Buffet so we requested a time extension. Why 10 minutes you must be wondering, when 10 to 10:30 is clearly 30 minutes? Well, 15 minutes for the lady to get dolled up and 5 minutes driving time.

The reception informed us they would make a special request and arrange a confirmatory call back in five minutes. Alex just about hung up and started his song of 'Baby Get Ready! We have 5 Minutes to leave!' and his phone rang. It was Double Tree calling to inform us that they would extend the buffet till 11:00 - 11:30 for our benefit. A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

We got ready and just when we stepped out there was a downpour - but well nothing was going to stop us now! We ploughed through the water logged roads on our mission to Hog!

We reached Double Tree - Customer Satisfaction Overload. The person in-charge, who made the call to Alex was at our table eagerly waiting to greet us and give us a tour around the food islands, where lay a large spread of utterly delicious goodies. His service was commendable as he showed us around the various LIVE counters and simultaneously took our orders - this was quite surprising for a buffet, considering buffets are normally self service.

Then began the food orgy - We started off with Omelettes stuffed with gooey cheese , mushroom and bacon with potato wedges and grilled seasoned tomato on the side.

Next up : Cold cuts - Smoked salmon, Pork Salami and Ham served with olives doused in vinegar and some interesting sauces. We also tried out various cheeses - Brie and Emmental and Cheddar. I figured I'm not too much of a cheese connoisseur :)

By now, I started to feel a little full so I decided to space out the meal. The theory worked because as I sipped my piping hot cup of cappuccino, my tummy started making space for more. We decided to stroll around the diner and see what other options we had and that's when we decided we're not leaving without trying everything - our meal had just begun.

We had a vegetable bake - done to perfection still retaining some of the crispiness of the vegetables, lamb patty - succulent and rich in flavours of herbs and then placed our orders at my all time favourite counter - pancakes and waffles! I knew this was going to be a herculean task but I was determined to finish my mission.

Last but not the least, Alex piled up his plate with all the goodies from the pastry section - Donuts, Muffin, Eclairs and Croissants.

By now we felt like two stuffed turkeys - we'd make some nice fat birds for Easter! We were informed close to 11:30 that the counters were closing and food was to be cleared away. We were so done with the food bit but we sat around catching up on the week's happenings. Such a lovely start to our weekend - Good Food and Great Company!

We left the Hilton and set out for a lovely long drive on the highway, our tummies nice and satiated, rumbling amiably along.

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Bottomless Pit #2 : Coriander Leaf

The word of the day is 'MUGHLAI'. Today's cravings were all about meat in Indian spices. We set our GPS on to the much recommended 'Coriander Leaf' and as Alex drove, I scanned through the menu online. I couldn't help but read out the one-line descriptions of each dish and we both were in near drool situations! Rich, Spicy and Ravishing Red pictures of the food was only adding to the rumbles in our tummies. By the time we got to our destination, we knew what we were going to eat.

Considering it was Saturday Noon, we were quite surprised to the find only one other table with guests. This got us a little nervous about our choice but we still took our seats thinking - why not give it a shot!

We were seated right next to the window with a view of a fountain pool. Joining us for company were a couple of pigeons and storks who were busy quenching their thirst while we watched. The tiles of the pool were broken and there was shallow dirty water which gave us an immediate impression of poor maintenance for a Vipul Enterprise. We've been to a couple of other restaurants owned by the same group 56 Italia and Jing and both were beautiful at night with the dim lighting and water floating down glass walls - although after seeing Coriander Leaf during the day, I have my doubts about the general maintenance around these properties.

The interior decor was minimal - yet classy, staff was dressed to impress and very courteous. We were welcomed with some refreshing cold towels and a chilled glass of  'Aam Panna' (a raw mango drink). For a hot summer day with temperatures anywhere between 40 and 45 degrees Celsius, this was all we needed to start our meal. They also served us a basket of 'Papad' , a thin, crisp, disc shaped snack accompanied with pickled onions and Coriander - Mint chutney (paste).  As planned, regardless of how hungry we were, we refrained from eating too much of the snacks as we were eagerly awaiting the main course. But from what we tasted, each of the items including the drink were very well prepared and savoured by us.

The main course we ordered included the following

Murg Amber Biryani : Long grain rice cooked with succulent pieces of chicken flavoured with exotic spices and saffron

Nihari : Shanks of baby lamb infused with an exclusive mix of herbs and spices, which is originally a breakfast item and a specialty in Pakistan

Brain Curry : Mouth watering delicacy of lamb brain simmered in milk and tempered with light spices, garnished with juliennes of tomato and capsicum

*The descriptions are as given in the menu

Service was quick and the food came in piping hot. Alex and I, by now ravenous, got down to business. We started off with the Brain Curry accompanied with Rumali Roti - the Brain curry was melt in mouth and the flavours from spices were out of this world. After getting thoroughly satiated by the brain curry, we moved on.

Nihari which was recommended by the waiter, was quite disappointing  The mutton pieces were literally drowned in oil/ghee which made the dish extremely heavy. Also, we had a little surprise addition in the dish 'A strand of Hair'!! This pretty much killed our apetite. Even though we have stomach's of steel, we do get cranky about these small things when we are paying top dollar for the meal.

We did complain to the staff regarding this and promptly our dish was replaced. They also made it a point to re-heat the Biryani and bring the two in together. This time 'all was good'. The Biryani was aromatic and had a plethora of very different flavours. The meats - Chicken & Mutton were tender and succulent. By the end of the meal - half aborted (rest packed), we were like stuffed chickens!

All in all we quite enjoyed the lunch and the 'left overs' dinner that followed.

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Bottomless Pit #1 : Dimsum Fest

So, here I am again 3 years hence...and what's changed

• I found a soulmate - my hubby 'Alex Mathew' and long story short 'Love Overfloweth' !
• I've begun my journey across the world...starting small but definitely made a one international trip per year oath
• Eating food from all walks of life...restros, fine dining and 'Dhaba's' (shacks) as we call it here in India

To sum it up, the biggest change is 'I'll never walk alone' because I have a full time life partner / partner in crime and we take each step of our lives hand in hand.

So, our endeavour till 'Travel 2013' is to visit different eat-outs and share our overall experience in blog form so many many years hence, we have a reference point to our 'Been There Done That List'.

Starting Off with 15th June 2013...So how it all began was, as usual without a plan :)

We walked across the 1 Kilometre Ambience Mall in Gurgaon looking for the best dining options. And as we walked by, we kept saying 'Been There - Not Again'. Today, we were definitely on a mission to 'Try Something New'. So, after completely scanning the entire mall, we landed up in the one place yet to be explored which was 'Dimsum Bro's'.

As the name suggests, this was a Dimsum Paradise! 

Service - As we entered, we were escorted by a lady to our table. On the short walk to the table, she promptly raised her hands in a 'warning' sign every time there was a step up or down. Very Impressive ! We were then seated though the table was very low - Sitting bent over trying to eat our food is definitely not something we enjoy and not something I'd want to pay top dollar for. So, like bratty customers, we asked for a change in seating to one of the two seaters with NORMAL tables.

Menu - This was the most exciting yet stressful part. Options were galore and it was getting very difficult to choose. We decided to 'shout out' for recommendations from the steward but honestly didn't get too much help there. So finally, we decided on the following:

• Laksa Crab Steamed Dumpling
• Pork Sui Mai
• Aromatic Peking Duck
• Prawn in XO Sauce

There was something strange we experienced during our 'ordering' spree. The stewardess, who took our order, gave us an option to have a 2 Dimsum Basket , normally minimum is 4 Dimsum Basket UNLESS you are ordering main course as well. When we ordered the Dimsum's and said we needed time to decide on our main course, she really seemed pushy thinking we might 'run off' with just an order of 2 Dimsum Basket. This could have definitely been avoided, because come on, no one likes to order under pressure.

Food - The food was undoubtedly AWESOME. 

To start with the Laksa Crab was super succulent and had a beautiful flavour from the seas! The presentation was really nice too, the Dimsums had cute lil eyes - orange dots that looked at us and said 'eat me' :)

Pork Sui Mai, had a green coloured dough which again was very interesting. Pork was juicy and excellent. 

Peking Duck - Roasted strips of glazed meat seasoned to perfection. This is a weakness for Alex, since its all he ate even when we visited China Town and the endless street food joints in Singapore. The comparison, definitely could be made between the authentic roasted duck although only to a certain extent. But, for the general standards we've seen around here, it was pretty good. 

Prawn , my weakness always and forever was really good too. There was a burst of spice, tang and sweetness in my palette. The flavours reminded me of those in 'Singapore Chilly Crab' - both the plates in Dimsum Bro's and Singapore China Town were licked clean to the last morsel. Even though, I really enjoyed the Prawn I had to exchange the side dish 'Sticky Rice' with regular steamed rice as 'Sticky Rice' was nothing but OVERCOOKED Basmati - Terrible! The steward was courteous enough to exchange the dish though I was witness to the chaos in the kitchen that followed since it was an open kitchen - This should probably be an area to work on because 'Hello' we can see your veins popping!

Overall, one thing we in our chilled out weekend attire noticed was a LOT of importance in Gurgaon Dimsum Bros is given to them Hoity-Toity decked up customers. A piece of advice to the Hospitality Company in charge, for a place like Gurgaon where villagers are loaded because of the abundance of land being sold to corporates, PLEASE DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY IT'S COVER!

This, summarises our experience in Dimsum Bros. The food undoubtedly was great and we will be going back for more Dimsums soon enough, but service is a grey area that should be given prime importance in this sector.

Signing off with '我爱点心' - I Love Dim Sum

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