Not what it used to be... Review on Angeethi, Museum Road, Bangalore

I first visited Angeethi in Nov'03 for a team lunch. I found the buffet to be quite good. It had a fair spread of vegetarian and non-veg choices, and needless to say North Indian. Since then, over the last 2 years, I must have visited Angeethi atleast 20 times. It used to be the de-facto choice because of the proximity to office, value for money and decent food. Unfortunately of late, i.e. the last 2 times I've visited, I've been dissapointed. The food doesn't seem value for money, as average bill per-head (with buffet plate, and 1 soft-drink) has gone up to ~Rs.200/-. Also the service is prompt but not as courteous as it used to be. It actually has started feeling like a ''Dhaba''. Apart from food, the other annoyance is that the waiting time has gone up considerably, and place gets very crowded.

As such, they typically (I've seen it always), have a non-veg biriyani, sometimes a fish preparation, a chicken/mutton preparation (all mughlai/north indian), some non-veg snacks, 3-4 types of salads, papard, curd-rice, and in veg they have some paneer-preparation, a mixed vegetable or single veg choice, a veg curry in cream, veg snacks, veg biriyani (very silly type -- no dry-fruits, with aloo/nutrela). For desserts they typically have an ice-creme and some other sweet. The saving grace at my last visit was the ''Gajrela'' (Gajar-ka-halwa), which was quite good (but very sweet).

We went there with a visiting foreign guest, who wanted to sample traditional Indian food, but less spicy. To our utter surprise the Angithi food which till last time was moderately spicy, turned out to be extremely spicy this time. Maybe a change of cook (but hopefully only temporary). I have moderately spicy food (as per Indian standards -- not the belly-burners), and I too had tough time with this food.

Overall I'd say that it's no longer value-for-money (as I'd preper 3-Quarter Chinese) over it, where a Buffet costs the same.

BTW, I must add that the buffet is there Monday-Friday only (like most other places). I'd visited it with my family once on a Sunday, and man, it was very expensive. A meal for four cost me close to Rs.1400/-. Not exactly what you expect in a Dhaba. The a-la-carte menu is definitely expensive. Still, it's a decent tickle once in say six months.