Elegance and good food, minus the pinch. Review on Desmond's, Lavelle Road, Bangalore

Desmonds on Lavelle Road, Bangalore is just beside the Mandovi Motors workshop/showroom (Maruti dealers). I had seen the Rs.99/- buffet board hanging for quite a few days, but at first found it to be a bit too cheezy. Finally I got to visit it with few visitors from France (low spice tolerance), and given that Angeethi had switched to a high-spice band, a friend suggested that we should give Desmonds a try. It turned out to be a fairly pleasant experience. Infact I was a little apprehensive at taking the visiting guest to a place that seemed ''cheap'' (more from cost point of view). The interiors are done quite well. You have teak lined tables, and plush (italian leather feeling) sofas. There are frosted glass separators for two rows of tables. The place itself is fairly small, i.e. it can accomodate about 50 people max. at a time. The owner (probably an Anglo Indian, with Caucasian looks, in his 50s) is himself there at the door to receive the guests (quite a pleasant thing). The waiters are fairly well dressed and quite courteous. The real surprise is the ''buffet''. Must admit that I was quite hungry while entering the place, and was curiously looking around to spot the buffet-bar, but found none. Then my friend reminded me that this place is actually an ''all-you-can-eat'' place, where food is served at the table (so no buffet bar). This turned out to be quite good. (Frankly, standing in a queue of 50 odd people for a refill is so sick). The waiter asks for the number of vegetarian and non-veg platters, and brings in the food accordingly. Naan is served fresh and hot from the oven, and the rice is good too. The only part which people may cringe about is the menu. There are no starters, (if you want you can order them a-la-carte). Non-veg platter consists of a single non-veg dish (in our case it was Chicken-butter-masala). Since I am vegetarian (by choice), I stuck to the daal (excellent), raita (quite good), shahi panner (decent), alloo-capsicum (decent) and salads. The dessert is vanilla ice-creme served in a silver goblet. Presentation is okay, and so is ambience. The best part of the experience was being served at the table, and refills done promptly on order. Some non-veg eating guests were not too happy about only-1 non-veg dish. Can't comment. I came out over-eaten (feeling tad sleepy) and satisfied. :)