Welcomcafe Marina

as befitting an ITC - the food was excellent. The service was impeccable and I quite liked the place as well. The spread is wide, and befitting its location in Chennai, the sambhar and chutneys were superb. My go to items are yougurts, donuts and croissants - the cheese croissants were lovely and the donut was yum... overall excellent food and service. Mention to Natasha for coming for feedback.

Visited this place 4 years ago for a birthday celeb. The buffet is to die for. Their continental spread is scrumptious. Authentic flavors and definitely worth every penny !

Besides the very elaborate Sunday brunch WelcomCafe has these days, presently they are hosting the Labbay'k food festival. This is the first time I'm hearing of the word Labbay'k and it seems they are the Persian Muslims who settled centuries ago into many parts of Tamilnadu! So although it sounds Persian, the flavors and dishes you'll taste in this fest are inspired by the South with some delicious touches of Persian modifications. This visit was on an invite for bloggers.

So we visited the hotel during dinner time to try out the dishes from this menu. The Chef explained some of the aspects of the fest and recommended the Machikacha Aamti Salna which is a unique fish gravy.

So this spread includes a salad section, a dessert section, paani puri counter,usual Buffet setup with main course options, a roast chicke n kadai station, a pasta station and just to satisfy those indo Chinese food lovers one of those stations too. 

Classic bite-sized portions of salads like the Waldorf, fig with blue cheese, Chef's non veg salad with cherry tomato, egg and sliced meat were some. Then there was a Saffron with feta cheese one which was jelly like and interesting. Liked the pungent fig and blue cheese one too. First time trying this combination.

There was an elderly gentleman playing the guitar skillfully while singing songs impromptu for some light entertainment. He's perfect for singing a personalized birthday song or for any other occasion too. 

Main Course Buffet line-up

From the main course, the moist chicken biriyani made in the Tamil style was well-loved. Not too spicy yet fragrant made with small grained rice usually not seen in these five star buffets. 

Machikacha Aamti Salna 

This unique fish preparation had tinge of tamarind and within the gravy was cous-cous coated fish that had been fried. Looked great, tasted unique indeed. Would go with rice or even side for biriyani. 

Chinese section:

The Indo Chinese section had sliced lamb curry, noodles and more. Tasted good.

Pasta section:

The frying station was also able to prepare fresh pasta if you wished. Didn't get to try it since i was very full by then.

Brinjal Salna

There was a brinjal salna to be had along with the biriyani just as the Tamil muslims would have it.

Other curries were rajma curry, paneer curry, a vegetable kurma and more. 

Indian roast section:

This one had a lovely display of skewered, roasted chicken, kadai(quail) and eggs. Also seen here was Jhinga Tarare which is fried prawns in a thin very crisp coating. This was different and like comfort food.

Breads:

Besides the usual buns, there is also naan and other breads to be had fresh off the oven on request along with the curries above.

Desserts

Here the special item made for the Labbay'k fest was the Sooji phirni which is a delicate sooji based payasam that had soft buns on the side to dip into it and eat with. This is a muslim tradition apparently and the Chef wanted to showcase it. Very nice Payasam light n delicate. The coal smoked Ambadi (or Angoori not sure) halwa was the best of the lot and everyone loved it! It was thick, porridge like rich with ghee and nuts tasted a bit like Dum roat halwa. Then there were the usual items like Cake, ice cream and western desserts as well in the lineup.

So all-in-all a wide spread with quite a few well made dishes and dishes unique to the Persian based Tamil muslim culture that has been brought out. Those interested in trying these in a quiet classy environ can visit. Buffet is priced at 1400 AI. 

Service:

Excellent for the most part but since this was invited event this doesn't mean much but the other customers seemed to be well-taken care of. Service is good here I feel.

Disclaimer:

This is an very good buffet with a good value for money provided the hotel offers customers the same quality and lineup of food and drinks that were offered to us bloggers during this invited event.

Sunday brunch like never before with access to pool and unlimited drinks which includes BBQ and chat counters by the pool and of course the buffet. All this is priced just for 1560. A steal deal I must say.

I was here with few of my Foodie friends for an invite. We were taken to the pool side. Beautiful place it is. One would just feel like relaxing in that beautiful place . It was super fun by the pool with drinks and yummy food. We had chat counters which served pani poori , dhahi chat and the Tandoori counter which served amazing paneer and chicken dishes. Tasted super good. Loved the paneer it was super soft and perfectly marinated. And the chicken was just so amazing 😍 Tried some refreshing Mocktails as well.

After the mini pool side party we had, we were taken into the restaurant which looked so beautiful and elegant. Lovely ambience. The staffs at the restaurant were courteous and were attentive to all our needs. We had a special welcome by the musician who played beautiful music and also sang for us in the most beautiful way which made all of us feel special 😊😃

The buffet had a good spread of Indian / continental/ Asian cuisine. One had the option to choose from a wide variety of dishes. They had a separate salad counter and I loved the mango and cheese , deviled eggs looked very cute and tasted good and the mini sub with the mushroom stuffing was something i enjoyed 😃 For the main course they had lamb biriyani for the non - vegies and the jackfruit biriyani for the veggies which tasted yum. The jackfruit biriyani was something I tasted for the first time and it was yum. The Indian breads along with the curries was yum. I loved the chicken which was cooked in eathern pot was delicious. They had a wide variety of options for the vegetarians. The non - vegetarian curry spread was less compared to the vegetarian spread.

They also had live counters for grills , pasta and the appam counter. Tried the white sauce pasta which was okay. The appam was something I enjoyed. It went so well with the chicken stew.

Last but not the least the dessert spread was something I am sure all of us enjoy. Loved the hot gulab Jamuns with the choice of ice cream. They also had the croquembouche a French dessert, tasted yum 😍 It consist of choux pastry , had a lemony filling on the inside. The pastries were super good.

Overall a perfect place to hang out for weekend for any celebration with family and friends. The package is worth the cost.

Worth giving a 5-star rating just because they gave an experience more than just food on a Sunday. Yes, we went for Sunday brunch around 12.30 pm for the Brunch package and the brunch buffet included access to swimming pool (12:00 pm - 3:30 pm), unlimited drinks (both mocktail and cocktail) and unlimited food (food from various part of the world).

Over the poolside, we were served with drinks and as accompaniments, they have chaats, skewed paneer, chicken and fish. The grilled paneer tikka is exciting in taste which made me forget that we are having the main food after this so I had more than 3 skewers of Paneer. It's damn delicious, soft and tender. All the chaats with dhahi are great as well.

After relaxing on the poolside for more than an hour we went inside the cafe to enjoy our buffet. They were hosting all the customers to the core and the live guitar music being played took us to a deep relaxation mode. The ambiance gave us a royal feel with a soothing light set up.

Coming to the food part, had usual soups and they got interesting and a huge table filled with salad and some healthy snacks. Then they got a long row for the main course which had 2 tasty biriyanis, one is ghost biriyani and the other is jackfruit biryani. Both the biriyani's are great, esp the veg one. They also had good varieties of gravies in all mainstream items such as chicken gravy, mutton gravy, dal, aalo and few more veg gravies which accompanied both rice and naan.

As side dishes, they had many varieties in veg preparations which are potato, paneer, spinach and baby corn based. Seafood appetizers were also available. In Chinese, they had noodles, Paneer Manchurian, and a chicken gravy. From the live counter, they had prawns and squid.

Also, they had another live counter for south Indian dishes such as Aapam, vada and few more. Finally, they had one huge row of dessert spread which contains dessert such as sweets, cakes, ice creams and a few more from various cuisines. My all-time favorite Gulab Jamun was hot and yummy. There were many more desserts which were excellent in taste.

Overall,

Service - 5/5

Food - 5/5

Ambiance - 5/5

VFM - Costly but yet worth for the money we pay.

This is 24x7 cafe of hotel WelcomHotel Chennai. This is where the hotel serves its buffet breakfast. All day coffee, snacks and meals are served here. I found service to be little slow. Buffet breakfast is very elaborate but having limited options for other regions of India. Ambiance is good. Tried it for coffee too in the evening.

ITC Welcome Hotel, truly stands for the hospitality being one among the best.. Earthen Oven had calm atmosphere with awesome customer service.. u get to eat mostly kebabs of North Indian cuisine n their options r limited but taste and presentations r too good to resist.. Pleasant evening with loved ones , a perfect spot to choose on..

Lovely dinner. Great service

Excellent restaurant in the town.

Good Service & great Hospitality