B-Town have been in full swing for a few weeks now. I already gave their main dinner menu the thumbs up, but they invited me back to try their Sunday buffet.
Photographing curry dishes (and saucy dishes in general) is such a challenge! I did my best when plating up not to let my hunger get the better of me and place things attractively on my plate. How did I do?! It’s nice to see since my last visit that B-Town have switched to thicker poppadoms, these were much better and the perfect vessel for the wide selection of sauces and chutneys. In particular I liked the simple yoghurt, not something you always get at an Indian but lovely with the other spices on my plate and good with the fresh salads.
Here’s a confession which might get a few gasps: I’m not overly fond of onion bhajis. Why? Because usually they’re those massive balls with a vaguely crispy outside but filled with horrible greasy onions and minimal taste. B-Town offer what I can only assume is how an onion bhaji should be: smaller, more delicate and in the absence of grease, a fantastic flavour. These little bhajis are the best I’ve tasted.
Main courses are a mix of curries, rice, dal, channa and bite size street food items like piri piri chicken wings, fish cakes and savoury pastries. The curries were lovely, the lamb jalfrezi in particular needs a mention because the meat was gorgeous, you practically just had to show it the fork and it was falling apart!
Fish cakes had a love-it-or-hate-it strong flavour. I was the former; they had a calamari-like texture with a firm bite, a nice contrast to other elements of the buffet.
I liked these little patties, not only because they looked adorable but were filled with aromatic beef. Yum!
Bucket o’ naan. Spectacular. Thin, warm, soft, but lots of cirspy knarly bits as well. Lovely smoky flavour from the oven as well.
Dessert is where it gets less authentic although there’s a good selection of well portioned sweets to pick from, at this point you’re likely to be at bursting point anyway! It’s tempting to go for familiar cheesecakes and trifles, but please do give the Indian rice pudding a go, it’s so tasty! I did chuckle at the toppings of cola bottles and wine gums, which admittedly made the last course of the meal something fun.
Probably my only criticism is that I would have liked to have seen even more nibbly street food bits, being a street food restaurant after all! But really, when your only comment is that you wanted more, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The food was hot and very tasty. All meats were fantastically cooked and a there’s a nice mix of lighter and more comforting options. Mr YDS and I both agreed this kind of buffet would go down particularly well with those looking for the ultimate lazy Sunday, or recovering after a not so lazy Saturday night!