Lunch Therapy at Salt Co 531

Friyay it is and while we rejoice about the weekend and wanna forget the weekdays.

But somewhere back of our minds, we have the weekday blues. Here's something which can be planned for the coming week and kill the Blues.

How do you make the working days interesting. One thing is to have a good lunch. To make it even better, there's Lunch Therapy.

What's that? you ask. Well, it is a very interesting and useful offer by Salt Co- 531, Radisson Blu GRT at GST Road.

It's like, you walk in for a lunch and walk out with an awesome oilless quick spa therapy, sumptuous yummy and healthy lunch. There is no additional charge for the spa at all. It is better to pre book for the service. You can even choose whether you want the express oilless spa therapy before the meal or after, It is recommended to go for it before and then enjoy the Himalayan Salt based cuisine at Salt.

I was invited to experience the The Lunch Therapy and here's my view on it...

RESTAURANT: Salt Co 531

LOCATION: Radisson Blu, GST Road, Chennai

OCCASION: Lunch Therapy

PRICE: 1399/- (The regular price for a weekday lunch buffet)

DATES: It's on now for sure... bag it before the offer ends.

LUNCH/ DINNER: Only weekday lunch

MENU: Only Buffet

Their Spa service is already a well recognised one - the Bodhi Spa. Even after several planning, we hardly schedule a spa session in our busy routines, running around, working on various screens, talking on phone or doing our own business. This Therapy takes care of atleast a bit, giving relaxation and you go back to work rejuvenated.

The ambiance of the Bodhi Spa is so srene that you already start feeling replaxed. Water, flowers, peace, noiseless atmophere, with the Buddha meditating under the grand Banyan tree on the wall... what more do you need. The lights and music add to the relaxation.

When I went there, they knew it was for the therapy, it was already booked and they had huge number of bookings for the day.

What we get is a oilless, cream less, head and shoulder massage, that is quick and yet feels that This is what was needed for the day.

Very polite service and trained staff.

Out I come relaxed and ready to hog on the special lunch for the day. There is the beautiful Buffet with the use of Himalayan salt. Now, why Himalayan salt is a story and even Google God provides a hell lot of information on how healthy and beneficial it is to use it.

The weather was beautiful, with drizzles and light rains in between and the poolside was heavenly. But it is better to be seated in the beautiful interiors, where you can view the weather easily through one side of the seatings.

Buffet was huge.

Here's what I had :

BEVERAGE:

Banana Mango Cooler: It is banana crush with mango juice and chocolate cream. Nice, Not too heavy, but not too light. Tastewise was good.

Mocktail is not part of the menu, it has to be ordered separately from the beverages menu.

The buffet had iced tea, juice and masala buttermilk.

SOUP:

Chicken Tomato & Egg Drop Soup: Love the mug serveware. The soup was as yumm as the name excited me. Correct consistency and great on taste.

This was the non veg option of soup from the Buffet menu.

APPETISERS:

The buffet has a wide spread of starters, precisely four veg and four non veg options, and the varieties were really good from grilled to fried stuff in both variants.

Chef wanted us to try some starters from the A La Carte menu.

SALAD:

The first dish served to us, is their signature Watermelon and Feta On A Chilled Salt Brick. Super simple dish but amazing. Really cool water melon squares topped with fresh cold feta cheese served over the Pink Himalayan Salt Brick is too good to resist. A rejuvenating salad indeed.

APPETISERS:

The first appetiser that arrived got us intrigued.

It was some lovely Teriyaki Edamame Beans. It was served in a cute stainless steel little bucket kinda dish and there was an empty bowl with it. Just pick one soyabean, which looks delicious with the slight teriyaki sauce all over it, one end is open, hold the other end, have the beans and keep the shell in the empty bowl. Oh God, I could have this all day, especially in the awesome rainy weather. It felt something similar to to a snack we make at home, but this one killed it. So good. So simple but tastes heavenly.

Then came the Live Counter to the table. Yes. there's some theatre and why not!

The molecular gastronomy sessions here is the first I had experienced in Chennai, an year ago. That time, it was dhokla. They keep changing the the stuff to keep it interesting.

This time it is liquid nitrogen chaat / panipuri. OMG. Supercold pani puri, it hit my senses completely.

Then smoking popcorns, where the flavoured chilli cheese popcorns are thrown in liquid nitrogen for a few seconds and then served. Have it and enjoy a healthy smoke. Yup, It's own other arm, J hind too serves that and VB signature too.

I have had at all the places and I loved this too.

Instead of going full blown on appetisers, the chef serve us individual tiny platters of four starters, a mix from buffet and A La Carte.

It had podi idly of two types, red and greed. I am not a fan of podi =, those who are would love this as there's generous portion of podi on the mini idlis.

Tofu tikka quesadilla: Yumm, didn't feel like tofu at all.

Texas buffalo wings: This was good, though I enjoy the spicier version more.

Seekh Kebab: Soft and nice.

MAINCOURSE:

The maincourse was huge. I tried the non veg mostly, Gosht Dum Biryani. Murg Kariyali Kheema Masala, Mutton Coconut fry in Indian. There was also Fish Thod Man Goong and Prawns Pastilla. Some yum Kal dosa with chutneys and sambhars were served to go with the Mutton. Veg options were three times more in number, Navratna Pulao Bhune Tamater Makkai Ka Bhartha, Badami Benarasi Kofta, Lasooni Palak Khumb, Karthika Kara Kuzhambu and Palkatti Pattani Thokku in the Indian section. The Continental , Italian and Thai sections too had an array of dishes.

If there, don't forget to try stuff from the salad and chaat counters.

DESSERTS:

Desserts again were limited but nice options. I liked the Gulab Jamun Cheese cake, Chocolate mud pie, mango fruit crumble and coconut barfi. There were a lot more interesting sweets like pineapple ghewar and angoori rabdi.

SERVICE:

Since it is buffet, you don't require much of service. But there are ample people around and the Chefs themselves keep checking with every diner and make sure things are in place. Executive Chef Abhiram Gona and Chef Palvinder Singh ensure the food is healthy, yummy and to the diner's delight. While F & B Manager Makendra Kumar, who is with GRT group since more than a decade is hands on with his job.

Sasikumar U, Sr GM shared that for them anybody who walks in or who every books should get the best of experience and they are always up for feedback. The team keeps brainstorming to offer interesting offers and useful stuff.

PRICE: For information, it is already mentioned above. Not applicable for my visit there as I was invited.