Buffeted By The Buffet
Written: Nov 14 '08 (Updated Dec 30 '08)
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Pros: Portions. Flavor. Not Too spicy. Price. Atmosphere.
Cons: If you offer me the buffet one more time, I'm killing a cow.
The Bottom Line: Yum.
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| SLOW's Full Review: Mela Indian Bar & Grill |
Mela is very proud of their buffet.
Very proud.
And, really, it looks as if there's a lot to be proud of; from what I could see, it looks to be a very nice buffet. Really.
I'm just rarely a buffet kind of guy. There's a certain time and place for buffets: it's called brunch. Other than that, I like to order off a menu, like a grown-up.
Definitely, when I'm going for Indian food, I don't want the buffet. I want the chicken korma. Call me a fuddy-duddy, call me boring-- what I usually get, what we usually get, as a couple, is an order of chicken korma, and we split it. And we get a bunch of sides. That's what we like, and that's what we get.
Our server tried to explain to us, many times, that we'd be better off going to the buffet. Did they have chicken korma on the buffet? Well, no, he admitted-- but they had chicken malaberiamighakfhkld. Which was, y'know, just as good.
I didn't even ask him what that was. I ordered chicken korma. Three times. The third time, he gave up, and took our order to the chef. Who was probably just as urinated that he had to make something in addition to the wonderful buffet fare.
It was probably our fault: we were there at two in the afternoon, on an average weekday. The Mela peeps probably didn't want to work too hard, or crank through any ingredients that weren't going to be made into mass quantities of entrees. And that's cool-- I get it.
But I still wanted some chicken korma.
Sitting and waiting wasn't that much of a problem; the decor is very nice, a trendy, modern style, with woods and pastels. The seats are comfy, and we were right at a window (granted, looking over the parking lot-- but there's not much scenery in San Antonio, anyway). The drive in had been a bit tricky, as the center is at the Evers Road exit of 410, which is going through an ugly bastard of construction at the moment....but that's not too big a deal.
First came my papadum. She doesn't like it, so I got to eat most of it myself. Crisp, tangy, without being too heavy on the spice. Nice. The chutneys accompanying were excellent, and we had some rather bigass, heavy plates for such a little appetizer.
Then, the main event: a horse trough full of chicken korma. Sure it took a while ("You didn't order off the buffet, yayhole"), but...wow. A light yellow sauce drowning huge chunks of tender chicken. Zounds.
The dish was not too spicy, which is a constant danger with Indian food. The sauce was not quite as thick as I'd have liked, but it was rich and tasty. There could have been more cashews (I like cashews), but it was damned good with the number it contained.
The basmati rice set it off nicely, and the raita yogurt sauce she craves was sweet and abundant. The real prize was the poori...Indian food boasts a variety of breads as side orders, and poori is our favorite...probably because it's so devastatingly decadent. It's a light wheat bread deep-fried in some wonderful fashion-- and Mela does is better than anybody I've found (and I've looked on three continents thus far, of the five I've traveled). Mela's poori is light and totally round-- I mean ROUND, like a softball. Delicate, thin, crispy...it disintegrates as you tear it apart, and dissolves on your tongue. Great with the korma sauce or the raita or the chutneys or on its own....just great, really.
The entire meal, with the entree, two sides, and drinks for us both, came in under $25. That's good, wherever you are. I went a little over twenty-five with tip...and I was a little stingy there. Probably because I don't like being told to get the buffet when I don't want the buffet.
But the guy was decent, despite that-- I had sweet tea, and she had unsweetened, and he kept the filled and correct the whole meal. So there.
Oh, and some Epinionators hate on the links in reviews, but they can bite me: here's the link to Mela's very charming website -- http://melagrill.com/.
If you dug this review, you might like my books, which you can find on Amazon, by typing "Ben Malisow" into the search bar. Enjoy!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Romantic Evening
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Epinions.com ID:
SLOW
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Member: Ben Malisow
Location: Vegas
Reviews written: 119
Trusted by: 124 members
About Me:
You wish you were me.
Now buy my books.
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