I love Indian food and I love buffets. So say “Indian buffet” (or even better, “Indian grand buffet”!) and I’m soooo there! Jac, Juji, Jay and I went to Agni Fine Cuisine in Innaloo a couple of Friday nights ago for their Grand Buffet dinner.
It had been a hectic week at work and I was exhausted. I even fell asleep in the car on the way to the restaurant. Once the car was parked, I tumbled out and walked sluggishly beside Jac towards the restaurant. But as soon as we stepped inside, the delicious warm spicy smells perked me up instantly. Evidently, curry is my coffee. If I could feast on smells alone, I would’ve been perfectly content.
The restaurant was not very busy; less than half-full. We were shown to our table and given both the a la carte and buffet menus to choose from. The a la carte menu was tempting, but we all thought the buffet would be the best value at AU$35 per person, with at least four main course dishes, several vegetable dishes, tandoori chicken, potato pakora, naan bread, sauces and chutneys and different desserts to choose from.
We quickly formed a line at the buffet and I loaded up my plate: potato pakora (thin slices of potato dipped in gram flour and fried), zeera aloo (panfried potatoes), tandoori chicken, biryani rice, dhal, goat curry, butter chicken, goan fish curry, butter naan, cucumber raita and mint chutney. The only main course curry missing from my plate was the beef vindaloo. I tend to shy away from vindaloo as it’s usually very hot, and as regular readers know, I am a spicy food wuss. I did try a little of the vindaloo from Juji’s plate – yep, it was hot!
In the photo below – my plate from a different angle, with a better view of the cucumber raita, biryani and dhal, all of which were delicious. I’ve been to buffets where the plates you are given to use are tiny so you have to keep returning to the buffet for refills, or pile the food up precariously high, mixing all the flavours. Agni’s plates were a decent size and much appreciated, though I think the large plates would make it far too easy to overestimate and overeat. These were definitely “eyes bigger than stomach” plates.
Jac and Juji each ordered a mango lassi. The drinks were very sweet and a good choice for soothing a mouth suffering beef vindaloo burn!
There were around half a dozen desserts at the buffet, including a pot of kheer and a fruit salad platter (both not pictured). There was no gulab jamun that evening, which was a pity. I love how there’s always jelly for dessert at buffets – hotels, Indian buffets, Sizzler…
I was rather disappointed with Agni’s version of creme caramel, which was too brown on top and tasted slightly bitter, as though it was a little burnt. What should’ve been a soft, smooth silky caramel was pockmarked from overcooking.
Jac was keen to try the kheer – she had really enjoyed the kheer when we had dinner at Cinnamon on the Park. But there were no bowls to eat it from – she had to ask for a bowl.
The food at Agni was delicious. I especially enjoyed the Agni goat curry, Goan fish curry and dhal. The butter chicken contained lots of chicken – I’ve eaten very tasty butter chicken dishes at Indian restaurants that consist mostly of delicious drinkable gravy but simply not enough chicken. Agni didn’t skimp on the chicken, which is great.
Unfortunately a number of disappointments took the shine off our experience at Agni:
- Some buffet items were placed in
very difficult to reachunreachable positions at the back of the buffet tables – I didn’t eat any pappadum nor fruit salad because reaching them meant being forced to stretch over other food items and probably making contact with those food items in the process of leaning over them. I’m not exaggerating! I would’ve thought restaurant staff would know better than to arrange a buffet like that. - We were baffled by the lack of bowls for the kheer. You wouldn’t eat semi-liquid or liquid foods like soup, porridge or rice pudding from a plate – I’d think the same principle would apply to kheer. The only plates supplied were like the one pictured above with my creme caramel and red jelly. When Jac asked for a bowl, she was given one from behind the bar. Surely this would’ve triggered the thought: “Oh, we forgot to put out the bowls for the kheer.” But no – no other bowls were placed at the buffet. We saw other customers looking somewhat baffled as they appeared to search for the non-existent bowls that should’ve been placed near the pot of kheer. A Google Images search for kheer shows it served in all kinds of bowls and dishes that are not plates.
- Jac noticed the broken and dusty ornaments and decorations throughout the restaurant, and the neglected dying plants out the front – a lack of attention to detail which didn’t impress.
You can get a 25% discount at Agni using your Entertainment card. When it was time to pay/present my Entertainment card I was pleasantly surprised – for those unfamiliar with the Entertainment card discounts, you can use the discount for each participating restaurant only once – when you use your discount, the staff member will scratch his or her restaurant’s assigned number off the back of the card to indicate the discount has been used. The staff member at the cash register gave us the 25% discount but handed me back my Entertainment card with a smile and said: “I won’t scratch the number off the card so you can have another 25% discount when you come back.” Presumably they do that for all customers – which is a great idea on their part.
Would we go back? Possibly, but with so many other Indian restaurants around Perth serving great food, while our experience at Agni wasn’t bad, thanks to the minor disappointments described above we don’t feel compelled to rush back. If you live close enough though, Agni takeaway might be a yummy option.
Agni Fine Cuisine
17 Wotan St
Innaloo WA 6018
Telephone: (08) 9244 2000
Open 7 days a week from 5.00 pm till late
Special grand buffet Thursday to Saturday AU$35.00 per person – see Agni grand buffet menu
25% off with Entertainment card
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
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I’m not that familiar with Indian food but I love spices, and this sounds great! They may be not so experienced with buffet catering, though, that may be the reason for the inconveniences. I only really go to buffets if the food is really really good, and honestly the good buffets change seasonally and are very experienced. Meh… the idea was good, though! Indian food + buffet = happy TFP? :)
Wei-Wei
Looks like a good buffet, too bad about the lack of bowls though. Btw ‘Agni’ is fire in Hindi. ;)
It all looked good to me. It has to be good or I just get overwhelmed with all the food. Simple fixes like bowls and watering theplants and dusting show a complacency that might start the place on a serious downward spiral.
One word.
YUM.
I was actually wondering whether you liked Indian food, since I saw your catered work lunch the other day. I’m a big Indian food fan, but I almost never eat at buffets: for one, I’m not a huge eater so it’s almost always cheaper a la carte, and also, I find that the buffet dishes tend to be less spicy to accomodate more people (and I’m a big fan of spice!).
Wow that looks amazing. I’ve always driven past that place and wondered if it was any good. Now I know!
Wei-Wei,
Hrmm, not sure we can blame the inconveniences on a lack of experience – pretty sure they’ve been doing buffet for a while. But yes, correct – usually, Indian food + buffet = happiness. :D
Mathai,
Thanks for that! I have zero knowledge of hindi! Now I know at least one word! :) Yes – apart from the negatives I described, I did like the food.
kathy,
Unfortunately lack of attention to detail is quite common in restaurants – rather than a downward spiral, it can be the status quo – which is not good at all!
Dea,
Heheh, it was!
Megan,
Oh yes, I love Indian food. I prefer the less spicy dishes though.
See some of my previous posts featuring Indian food:
Cinnamon on the Park, East Victoria Park (and thoughts about water in restaurants)
Home-cooked Indian-style dinner
Midweek dinner date at Jewel of the Park
Charlene,
Yep! :D I’d noticed the brightly lit dome of Agni many times before without knowing what the place was. And so now I know! :P
For near-total lack of exposure to Indian food I can’t comment much, except to say we’ve an authentic Indian restaurant here and I want to try it (now if I can only convince my husband…). What I see in your pics looks very intriguing indeed. ;-)
“…curry is my coffee…”
If you ever write a book, TFP, that might be considered a workable title.
I really didn’t rate this place when I ate there. Sure some of the dishes were very nice, and the vindaloo was one of the hottest I’ve eaten. But I had almost the same concerns as you.
Hard to reach dishes, lack of bowls and very unimpressive desserts, one which tasted like spray and wipe. The biggest issue I had was the price, which I felt was totally over the top for the experience I had.
Just across the road are Punjab and Anghiti who do much nicer food in my opinion. I would not eat at Agni again.
I share your same concerns about Agni’s service. I remember once I got food delivered from them and when they came, they didn’t even come to my front door, they tooted their horn from their car! No please and thank you either, all they said was “your food?”.
I didn’t say anything at the time as I was dumbstruck by how rude they were but like others I have never ordered food from them again.
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