oh yes, 'grand' it was, with uniformed people all around, welcoming, escorting and serving the guests. the ambience was majestic, and 'cholas' were depicted in a wonderful piece of art.
the spread in madras pavilion was a huge one, that began with chunks of cheese to other cooked delicacies. the starters included chicken reshmi kebab, chicken shahi kebab, fish fillet tikka, prawn kebab, meat ball, paneer tikka, mixed vegetable cutlet. these were fairly good, and we stuffed generously. the drinks began arriving, and soon our table had long island iced tea (it's a 5-in-1 drink), red and white wine, and all sorts of mocktails, later followed by scotch.
the main course was a lavish affair, starting off with breads and buns with hot cream of chicken and cream of tomato soup and then ranging from fried rice, biriyani, naan, kulcha, 4 preps of chicken, 2 of mutton, 2 of fish, 1 each of pork, beef, squid, paneer, mushroom and another vegan item, to even curd rice and rasam.
the desserts too had variety of offerings. green apples, 6 types of cake slices, along with gulab jamun, malpua, bread n butter pudding, pancakes, and some other sweets along with two flavours of ice cream.
the food was topnotch, though a few of the dishes might taste different from the traditional way of cooking, as they put equal emphasis on hygiene as much to taste. this is not a place where we can afford to hangout often, but it is worth a one-time visit for sure.