We said Aloha to Hawaii in New Delhi last Sunday through a Hawaiian themed lunch at Pavilion 75, Welcomhotel, Dwarka. The menu was prepared by Chef Akshay and Ekta Kapoor, a Michelin  Mother contestant. It was a buffet format with equal balance between Indian and western dishes and ample choice for vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

The spread had salads, soups, main course dishes and desserts but we’ll come to that later. In tune with the Hawaiian theme, the dishes had liberal doses of tropical fruits such as mangoes, Dragon Fruit, Ram Butan and pineapples. We had meatballs in pineapple sauce, mango fried rice and stir fried vegetables from this section. We also had coffee infused pork ribs. The pork ribs were cooked to perfection and the sweetness from caramalised condiments blended with the coffee flavour was unique. While everything was almost perfect, we have a suggestion. The presentation of quail dish didn’t work with us. We hope the dish is garnished or plated differently.

The dishes in the Indian section were flavourful and had not been killed with overdose of spices. Among the Indian dishes, a rather unusual candidate – Pindi Chole tasted the best. It was an amazing combo with breads. It was clearly a day for the underdog! Incidentally, the pabda fish fry was a surprise. Light on oil, this was a Bengali’s delight.

We were most impressed that Chef Akshay and Michelin Mother Ekta worked on 26 kinds of desserts starting right from A to Z to surprise our sweet tooth. No wonder there was a host of items to choose from.

The Indian section had halwa, gulab jamun and barfi amongst others. The continental desserts had a variety of cakes, puddings, cheese cakes etc. The items were moist and moderate on sweetness. We give a big thumbs up to the pastry chef for presenting such amazing bakery! We had all this with fantastic cappuccino.

We plan to come back to taste a different brunch at the Welcomehotel Dwarka.