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Friday, September 2, 2011

Sizzling Grillz

Kobe at Chennai had me hungering for more such sizzling experiences.
I was eagerly looking forward to adding to my experience of tasting a variety of sizzlers at Hyderabad as well. This, and a plan of eating out, made me travel all the way to Sizzling Grillz at Kondapur despite the impending rain.
The usher at the entrance was quite welcoming and led me to a table right beside the door. I wasn’t too comfortable of being seated beside the door but was told that the restaurant was full. I had been to a Friday lunch and found the place filled with the IT crowd. It was like magic that the entire crowd just vanished at the stroke of 2! And because I happened to be there at 1.30, I was royally ignored as I was not a part of any huge gathering. I was starved and raring to have a go at the hot food. But what was first served at the table was the barbeque. Having driven for an hour to reach the place, I was  thirsting for water. But no, what I get served first is the barbeque. I now had to grill the half done barbeque before I could plunge into eating. The fun of eating the BBQ lies in lovingly swathing the pieces with all the accompanying sauces, grill them slowly on all sides and then serve yourself the same. All this can be done patiently when you are not hungry and not starved as I was that day. Almost at the end of my having eaten the BBQ I was served the ‘Welcome ‘drink and then the starters! I wish I could have started with the entrĂ©es first to quench my hunger pangs while my BBQ was getting grilled.
Well, after having gone through the BBQs and the starters, when I turned to the buffet table, I found hot corn soup at the start of the spread. How I wished that I was informed of the soup. I would have started my meal gradually with the soup, and while my shivering body warmed up, I could prepare my grill. After this entire 'ulta-putla' menu, I explored the other stuff. I was directed to the vegetarian section by a helpful staff there. A small consolation for the vegetarians: the veg and non-veg sections are kept at opposite sides of the array.
There were 5 curries in the vegetarian menu, one pulao, roti/naans, and the inevitable Chinese stuff. The good part of the menu was that none of it was way too oily or too spicy. After having tasted these, I turned to the desserts. Just as I was about to serve myself , I found some salads at the end of the table! Salads with desserts?! What do I do now? Of course, I had to skip the salads and carried on with the desserts which were about 5 in number…none outstanding as they were the usual Hyderabad fare (the cakes and ice cream). Amongst the desserts, the souffle was quite good though.  
Well, this restaurant is definitely a take-off on BBQ Nation. Sizzling Grillz has done justice to the barbeque part of the meal. They were tasty and you could actually see the BBQ cooking and sizzling as the sauces dripped on to the hot coals. But then, once you have been to the inimitable BBQ Nation, you know that Sizzling Grillz is not quite there.
The service could have been paid more attention. Having huge crowds during lunch is no excuse to ignore a lone diner. A quick note on what’s available or an attempt to know what the diner wants, could be helpful. A 3/5 for the food and the same for ambience. Not a very big place, though an attempt has been made to have it done tastefully.
At Rs. 401, the lunch buffet is slightly overpriced. And to add to my disappointment there are no sizzlers in Sizzling Grillz’ buffet.