Sherman's Food Adventures: Yellow Chilli

Yellow Chilli

Way back when, we'd often visit Bombay Palki for their lunch buffet out on 128th at 72nd. Of course, a buffet is never the optimal way to experience good food; but this one wasn't bad. Furthermore, many of the curries were practically the same as the one off the menu. Well, I suppose the one off the menu would be served hotter and wouldn't be sitting around. But you get the idea. Then, all of a sudden, the buffet was removed from the menu. Furthermore, suspicious "reviews" showed up on Urbanspoon extolling the virtues of the restaurant by first time users. Then the restaurant changed their name to Sohi's Incredible Indian Cuisine. That didn't last long and now we have the Yellow Chilli. Nikita had already tried the new buffet they had there and suggested that I give it a try.

Walking into the place, it sure didn't seem like anything had changed other than the name. But to be honest, they really didn't need any renovations, the place was pretty clean and inviting anyways. The one good thing about a buffet is that you can start to eat immediately and so we did. In addition to green salad, raita and a few desserts, there was rice, Papadum, Saag Paneer, Aloo Mattar, Dahl Makhani, Goat Rogan Josh, Mango Chicken, Butter Chicken and Tandoori Chicken. For my first dish, I gave a few items a try starting with the Butter Chicken. Although a bit lukewarm, it was not bad. It was pretty creamy with only a touch of tomato. The white meat was tender and not overcooked. I give them kudos for including Tandoori Chicken; however, it was a tad dry. On the positive side, the chicken was marinaded evenly and it did taste good. What I really liked was the Goat Rogan Josh. There was a complex mix of spices with cloves and ginger standing out. The goat was tender and had the desired gelatinous texture to it. It went well with the freshly-made Naan. It was nicely blistered and a good combination of chewy and soft.

I went up for another plate to try some of their other items despite being quite full already. Starting from the top left clockwise, we have the Mango Chicken, Aloo Mattar, Saag Paneer and Dhal Makhani. Surprisingly, the Mango Chicken tasted like... mangoes! It was slightly on the sweeter side, but the creaminess of the sauce went well with the nann. While not trying to sound boring, the other 3 items were pretty much standard, not being offensive or particularly memorable. It probably has something to do with the fact they are meatless... LOL... Whatever the case, this has been one of the better Indian buffets I've had in the last little while. There is no comparison between this one and Urban Masala down the street. The buffet at Yellow Chilli exhibits much better execution. My only wish would be more customers since the food gets kinda cold otherwise.

The Good:
- Everything in the buffet looks and tastes like it should be
- Reasonably-priced
- Comfortable dining space

The Bad:
- Lack of customers for the buffet, food gets cold

Yellow Chilli Restaurant & Bar on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Sherman,

The food looks great. Just wondering how much this buffet is. I couldn't find the information on the website either.

Thanks, Sandra

Sherman Chan said...

Sandra, I believe it was $10.95. Cheers!

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