Mexican Food Festival @ Aloft - Cessna Business Park

Bangalore has been an epicenter of the South for several global cuisines and tje city's Mexican food could be ranked among the best in the country (or at least in South India). While there are several standalone restaurants that have been doing a great job in bringing these cuisines to our city, the five star hotels have followed a different strategy and have religiously hosted food festivals to offer these global delicacies to us.

I was invited with a few fellow food bloggers for a preview of the Mexican food festival at Aloft - Cessna Business Park. The festival is on till April 22, 2016.

Pricing 
The promotional menu is priced at INR. 1099 and each add on cocktail could be bought at INR.199 (both of these priced are excluding taxes).

Drinks 

They offer five margarita flavours (Cinnamon, Watermelon, Hazelnut, Tamarind, Cucumber and Pineapple) along with the buffet for this food festival. With tequila being the base liquor - these cocktails are perfect summer coolers if you are looking to beat the recent heat wave in the city.

Food
Highlighting the key dishes from the menu:

1. Nachos with dips - While we love our nachos with regular salsa or Guacamole, one gets to try a few more adaptations and variants of these dips with their nachos here. They offer the following five dips for nachos:
- Pica De Gallo
- Guacamole 
- Mango Salsa
- Salsa Roja
- Gemada Salsa

2. Tacos - With fresh and crunchy taco shells, the chicken tacos was filled with tender and succulent chicken chunks, black beans and veggies. They also offer a vegetarian substitute for the non meat eaters

3. Quesadilla -Again chicken and vegetarion options; the chicken quesadilla was outstanding and is probably among the better quesadillas I have had.

4. Ceviche de camaron - I would have refused to eat raw prawns if not for the description given by the chef. In this dish, prawns marinated in lime for over 16 hours is served with corn, sliced tomatoes, olives and jalapenos. This salad styled offering was a perfect melody of flavours and had a great balance to it.

5. Ensalada Espinaca Y Aguacate
A fresh salad with fresh and green spinach, mangoes, avocado, radish and cilantro-olive oil dressing.

6. Chicken Mole - Chicken breast topped with chocolate sauce
It was my second attempt at mole and I found it more compatible to my taste preference this time around. Unless you have already tried mole's before - it is a dish you might struggle to appreciate.

 

Desserts 
They had two mexican desserts:
1.Tres leches - this was decent, but I must concede that I have had better.
2. Flavoured churros with mango and chocolate dips - found this to be a little off; probably the better churro experiences I have had at other places is the reason.

While the promo menu has enough items to meet your hunger needs, you could also try items from the regular buffet spread if you are dining as a part of this offer.

B Cafe - Shangri La, Bangalore (4/5)

Was invited to shangri la try out the 'mighty lunch' and was really looking forward to it considering the hype the hotel's been generating since its launch. 

Ambience (4/5)

Mighty was the chosen prefix and the grandeur of the hotel and the restaurant set just the right theme for the meal. The restaurant has a well laid out buffet setup and a wide seating area. 

The restaurant has a capacity to accommodate a few hundreds - which seems fair considering the hotel's room capacity and B Cafe being the hotel's coffee shop and breakfast destination.

The seating is comfortable and there is nothing one could complain about their ambience. 

Service (4.5/5)

Their fully energised service team does a great job in ensuring top notch hospitality. Encompassing efficiency of table service, timely clearance of cutlery and crockery, explanation and knowledge of dishes and the promptness of dish delivery at live counters - they had it all going for them. 

The power packed flash mob by the staff was the highlight and brought in fresh life to those who had the pleasure of witnessing and being part of it. 

Pricing (3.5/5)

On a standalone note one might feel they are over priced. But having experienced the 'mighty lunch' and its lavishness - I would have to mention that this is the cost one needs to spend for enjoying a lovely meal with a special one. 

Go there early and stay till then end, have a paced-out meal and that would be the best way to enjoy your experience here. 

Food (3.5/5)

With a wide range of cuisines on offer they have a lavish spread. Some of the cuisines I saw/tried were : North Indian, Arabian, Japanese, Parsi, Pan Asian (Including Thai, Malaysian, etc). 

While there were a few dishes that failed to live up, the ones that were good set the benchmark. The cocktails (especially whiskey sour) was quite good and the huge spread of desserts and home made ice creams is not to miss. Their baklava and arabian desserts needs a special mention as it was easily among the best I have had till date. 

On a summary note, reserve this experience for a special occasion and it is unlikely you would get disappointed.

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