Gaylord India Restaurant - Brunch Buffet

Per the last post, we did end up eating at Gaylord's brunch buffet today. Since they won't tell you online what it cost, I will: $19.95.

This is not a bad price when you consider the following: convenient casino location (Rio), attractive surroundings, pleasant service, soft drinks and/or champagne, four kinds of chutney, and the food is actually spicy.

We ate here for the "notch" of it, plus its dinner menu is a little too swank for our budget, so this was our chance to finally visit.

We arrived a little past noon (lunch starts at 11:30), and - although the restaurant appeared to be absolutely vacant - we had to wait for several minutes before the host appeared; then we had to several more while he checked to see if there was room.

"Is this a joke?" we wondered.

Soon enough we were cheerfully led to the back, to a small room that overlooks the Rio's winter-dead pool. (Throughout the meal I watched a life preserver float laps past our view.) After some confusion about where to sit (he told us to sit in the normal dining area, but when we tried to, another person asked if we wouldn't rather sit in the brunch area - well, DUH), we were settled at one of the eight tables.

The chafing dishes were covered and kept warm by cans of Sterno. I can see the appeal, but maneuvering the lids (which wanted to roll all the way back, just asking for a sleeve/lentil incident) was sometimes tricky. However, Gaylord hasn't always had a buffet, so I suppose they have to work with the architecture they have.

With us in place, only one table remained empty. The patrons were a mix of East and West and Doofus. Seriously, we had two people next to us who may as well have been reading from cue cards, they were so "on." Maybe it was a first date and I should be more charitable, I don't know. The guy was unkempt in the fashionable way, and his dining companion was pretty in the unremarkable way. He kept asking her something about Paris Hilton - in his extra-on voice that seemed to be meant for the whole room - but she kept replying, "BFFs don't tell."

(Is that a catchphrase from that reality show about being best friends with Paris? Or did were we sitting next to actual celebritrash?)

Otherwise, though, it was a pleasant, intimate room with lots of light.

Our plates were pretty similar. Here is Mike's:

And here is mine:

Our options on this day were:

• naan (4/5 - would be 5/5 if garlic was available)
• pakora (4/5 - would be 5/5 if a little crunchier on the outside)
• rice+peas (too ordinary to be rated)
• tadka saag (as if I ate spinach!)
• navratan korma (3/5 - said it had cheese, but I didn't taste any, and there were just too many vegetables - corn, green beans, lima beans, cauliflower, etc. - to be anything but a mess of stew)
• karahi chicken (Mike says 3/5, and not something he wanted a "heap" of - too overwhelming for buffet, perhaps)
• chicken tikki masala (Mike says 4/5, but chopped into odd, angular portions for Western appeal, perhaps)
• Tandoori chicken (no one had)
• raita (4/5)
• fruit (watermelon, and... I forget)
• and that rice pudding-y thing for dessert (I learned from the sign that it's actually made with vermicelli?)

Here is the far side of the room, with the raita, salad, fruit, and dessert:

The first part of our meal was marred by not getting refills on our water or the soft drink Mike requested. Mike finally got up to ask and after that the service was fine. However, since the food at Gaylord is spicier than the average Indian buffet (going by my limited experience of Las Vegas and Orange County), it really made things a bit tense as I rationed out my water and couldn't really enjoy the food.

I like things a bit spicy, and sometimes even enormously spicy (I am the person whose salsa verde can blister tongues and paint alike), but I felt like - even with the beverage problem solved - Gaylord is too heavyhanded with its spices, creating a muddled taste that translates only to "hot," not "aromatic, layered, delicious."

"This is going to be an interesting review," Mike said, as we neared the end of the meal.

If by "interesting" he means "difficult to gauge the experience," he's right. I'd happily eat at Gaylord again... if I happened to be at the Rio and didn't feel like driving a short couple of turns to Tamba on the Strip. And, if it was on someone else's dime. $19.95 is an extravagance for what they offer, both in quantity and quality.

I suggest ditching the champagne (which you have to ask for - it's not in sight) and perhaps the free soda, and almost-halving the bill. Clearly, no one is beating a path to the door. (Once those six tables of early diners emptied, the place stayed vacant for the rest of our meal. No one came in after we arrived.) And why should they?

Still, Gaylord is probably the third best Indian dining experience I have had in Las Vegas. My current rankings are as follows:

• Tamba - absolutely perfect (although they need to bring back the pappadums)
• Gandhi - run-down location but great food (but perhaps soon to become a very, very, very trendy Indian bistro? The video does not do justice to the billboards that have sprung up around the east side. Oh noes.)
• Gaylord - gets third place for location and solid selection, but still overpriced
• Bollywood Grill - decent food, fun interior, "meh" for selection, but time may make it a standout place, and I love that it's on the west side - could be tied for third place
• Sai India - decent food, shabby interior, scary strip mall, very cheap
• Samosa Factory - terrific korma, but we almost could've eaten dinner at Gaylord for the price, and the pakora were just terrible - like McNuggets
• India Palace - another place to not visit at night, but the inside is nice and the service is good - I can't remember the food or selection
• India Oven - walked in, saw a very small selection of non-vegetarian items like "goat curry," walked out - tied for last place with...
• ...Mantra Masala - oh, how we want to love MM! It's right around the corner! Alas, their short-lived buffet was so small and depressing (and relied too much on okra) that we put our plates down and apologetically left. It would be nice to go for dinner sometime - they certainly put out a lot of "50% off second entree" coupons - but for the price we may as well wait until we can have Indian buffet.

I think that just leaves Shalimar to try. They're in our Entertainment book, so keep those fingers crossed in a Bharatanatya-like pose of hopefulness.