COAL BARBECUE - VELACHERY

COAL BARBECUE
II floor, 17 & 18, Rajalakshmi Nagar, 7th Cross Street, 100 Feet Bypass Road,Velachery,
Phone: 044 33011572

CFG blogger meet planned and invitations circulated.. A small group landed at the new hot and happening COAL Barbecue in Velachery. If you are on the 100 ft road towards the Vijayanagar junction,  cross the BP petrol bunk, this comes on your left and you cannot miss such a bright sign

 

Ambiance: I know that a lot of time and effort that has gone into the planning of the place, the interiors and furniture. Having run a restaurant myself, understand the nitty-gritties and challenges one faces with a big setup like this. A modernized brick wall look, the seating is comfortable and you will definitely spend a lot of time enjoying it. Even the entrance/reception downstairs has been done up so nicely. Coal score a cool 8/10 points with that.

You are welcomed and seated according to the numbers present and are served an apple based fizzy drink (Green apple fizz). The service staff explains you the buffet in detail and the order of food that would come to the table. You can also keep track of things with the standee menu on your table. The coal bbq pit is placed and the skewers with veg and non-veg items are laid on them

Menu:  The boards below lists out all that is available and served to you. The prices are
Lunch: Rs. 649/- nett (Mon-Fri) Rs. 749/- (Sat-Sun)
Dinner:  Rs. 699/- nett (Mon-Fri) Rs. 799/- (Sat-Sun)
Children (4-9yrs): Rs.350/- nett all days

 

Do not miss the Honey Drop Brazilian Pineapple that comes on a huge skewer and sliced and served on your plate. This serves like medicine for digestion and is a rich source of vitamin C

Word of caution: While you are busy bonding, facebooking, enjoying food, have an eye on the bbq and not let the skewers sit on the grill for too long. The fun is to keep them turning it time-to-time to cook to perfection and not char/burn it beyond a limit. They loose their moisture, taste and will go waste.   

Tepanyaki Grill station: You are spoilt for choices in meats like duck, quail, turkey, rabbit etc. You let the chef pick the meats in small bowls and tell him what sauce to use (Lemon garlic, chilli garlic, hot n spicy, schezwan, manchurian, and butter masala). If you are confused about what goes best with what? leave it to the chef. He will hand you over tokens for the respective meats picked and starts to work his spatula and come up with a preparation which you can watch live and come to your table once done.
The only problem is there are too many bones in rabbit and duck..

 

One new addition is the bigger bbq grill that comes to your table and serves gobi manchurian. Are you wondering why??? so was I

 
Loved the size of the leg pieces that were really huge and tender. I wish this had come a little earlier.
I wasn't quite impressed with the biryani, Andhra fish curry or crab masala that I picked up from the buffet counter.









Mocktail: The watermelon based mocktail was a burst of flavors and helped ease the heaviness of all that meat and matter that went in non-stop the previous few minutes. This is not part of the buffet but needs to be bought separately

Desserts: You definitely need to make some room for desserts and somehow your mind and tummy coordinate well to provide you that:The North Indian specialties were good and the pastries, shots  and cakes were yummy.

Service: Focused service,  a service boy is allotted to a table and he takes care of the course of the buffet and items coming to your plate. The food and drinks kept coming to the table non-stop till we literally had to ask to stop. The early day teething issues would certainly be a thing of past with the constant training and team huddles everyday.

A few suggestions to the management:  Improvise on this concept that has been done and dusted. Though this is a welcome entry in Velachery, I would have personally liked a few things happen

1. Having options for people who want to eat less/limited quantity - A particular day/separate section/timing where people can eat smaller portions at a lesser price range
2. Exclusive dessert buffet in 3 ranges S, M, L - with different pricing
3. Main course buffet as a separate option as your USP is barbecue. This comes form the concern that people are too full to even venture towards that area or waste food
4. Reward for zero - less wastage. That way we could all save a lot of food going waste 

When it comes to barbecue "Coal scores a Goal" in Velachery! Wishing it all the best to get Bigger-Busier-Quintessential in Chennai