I am presently staying in Delhi and my parents came to visit me recently. I have always been excited about live on-the-table grill as I have never had a chance to have one at an authentic restaurant before. We booked a table in Barbeque Nation at DLF Saket via their mobile app. We reached the Barbeque Nation at 19:00 hours where we were welcomed and escorted towards our reserved table.

The restaurant on first glance looks pretty inviting. They have a nice typical ambiance and a decently sized inside seating area. Once we got a place to sit in the restaurant, the entire experience transformed into a magical one! The moment the table attendant Sanjeev approached our table, we found us in food heaven. He explained that it’s a fixed price restaurant and we could eat as many barbecued starters as we like followed by a self-service buffet for the main course and desserts.

It was a hot evening, so we had a bottle of beer before dinner began. Each table has a pit at the center of the table where a small scale barbeque grill with fresh ashes of coal are set. The barbeque sticks are put over these mini grills.

We gorged upon the succulent, juicy, tender pieces of perfectly cooked Chicken, or immaculately moist Fish, or deliciously spiced Prawns, or the melt-in-the-mouth Mutton Sheekh Kebabs. The list continues in the veg section as well — Potatoes, Corns, Mushrooms, Paneer (Cottage-Cheese) and Pineapple.

And what’s more! We got to season them, and finish their grilling by ourself! The grills placed at each table give guests a first-hand experience of grilling their items on the barbecue. The waiters almost force feed you – Sir, have this, Sir, have that… The service is quick and hence the waiting period is almost nil.

In the meanwhile, the manager of the restaurant called on us and asked about the food, and our experience. Once we’re done with stuffing ourself with the “unlimited” starters, we realised there’s a buffet spread! The aroma dragged us to the food. An extremely well-spread buffet awaited us in one part of the restaurant. It consisted of everything — right from a bowl of soup, to curries of all kinds of meat and veggies, a biryani, salads of various kinds, etc. Their dessert spread was awesome as well. Cheesecakes, Brownies, Mousses, Ice Creams and Indian Desserts like Phirni, Gulab Jamuns, Halwa, etc made us want to stuff ourself even more!

Barbeque Nation has a tradition of ‘celebrating’ the birthdays, anniversaries of its patrons. There were a couple of birthday party groups seated in the restaurant. A bevy of staff clapped, chanted and sang to wish the birthday person of the group.

As we were enjoying the sweet dishes, Chef Vikas came to us and enquired about the food. He then invited us to the kitchen to see how they operate from receiving the orders, cooking the food and delivery to the table. He guided us through their kitchen. He showed us that they have separate grills, tandoors for veg and nin-veg items. In between we also had a feel of barbecuing the grills, It was a nice experience. I noted that we were privileged to have a round of kitchen as they weren’t inviting other guests for a trip to their kitchen. It was so nice of Chef Vikas.

As a part of the buffet, Barbeque Nation has included the Indian desserts ‘Kulfi’ under the name of “Kulfi Nation” in the restaurant. We finished our dinner with Kulfi, falooda with rabri. Ummm… it’s really breathtaking!