New Marriott in town!

MoMo @ Courtyard Marriott
Burrp page: No burrp page yet!!!!
Homepage: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/bomcy-courtyard-mumbai-international-airport/

Place: Chakala, Andheri (E)

Food:  - 7/10

Buffet variety:   - 7/10

Service:  - 9/10

Ambience:   - 9/10

VFM:   - 5/10

We had to celebrate my dad's birthday, so we decided to check out the new Courtyard Marriott for a few reasons:

1. It's newly opened
2. It's really close to my house
3. It's in Andheri and that helps my blog :)

Currently, only their coffee shop, MoMo is open. In about a month, an Asian cuisine restaurant will also be running. MoMo, as we found out later while talking to the Director of Food and Beverages, stands for "Modern Living, Modern Dining". It's supposed to be a Marriott brand. I'm not a big fan of that brand name though. Sounds very wannabe-ish.

Food
We tried the dinner buffet, which had great food, except for the main course which was average, if you can handle that! The salads, starters and desserts, though, made up for all that was lacking in the main course. Let me make your mouth water for a moment here.

Me, mom and dad started with ordering for a Caprioska (for mom), a Kiwi Margarita (for dad, who has probably not had a cocktail in a decade) and a Long Island Iced Tea (for me). Since the hotel is new, the staff was looking for feedback on everything, and we were more than happy to give our two hundred cents! My iced tea was perfect, dad would have preferred no sugar on the rim of the glass and mom wanted a whole lot of mint leaves in her drink (the bar manager told us the classic caprioska doesn't have any mint, but I don't believe him!)

Time for food. The salads were mindblowing. Apart from the usual tossed salad, there was amazingly fresh asparagus, a zucchini and bell pepper salad, ham and melon salad (was an interesting combination), seafood salad which had shrimp and calamari, sprouts and 3 types of lettuce. But the salad dish I enjoyed the most was a lamb and orange salad, thanks to which I now know what a great combination the two make together! Reminds me of a scene from Ratatouille...



On another counter, there were tempting cheeses, cold cuts and salmon sashimi. Yumm yummm yumm! The starters included chicken tikka, tandoori mushroom and a veg (corn and olive) and non-veg (tandoori chicken) pizza. The pizzas were exactly how I like them - crisp and extremely thin. The chicken was soft and tender and the mushrooms were roasted just the right amount in the tandoor. No complaints at all!

The main course had a whole lot of Indian and Chinese dishes. I picked some dishes that seemed new and not-so-Indian-or-Chinese. I had some steamed rice with a hint of raisins and cashews, along with a slightly Chinese-ey beef gravy in ginger spring and onion. Also tried some baked fish in zucchini with veggies sautéed in garlic butter by the side. The baked fish could have done with more flavor, but the rest of them were perfect.

There were about 15 types of desserts - all sorts of mousses, fruit soufflés, pastries, pies and some Indian gulab jamuns and some bengali sweets. I tried a chocolate brownie, topped with lightly flavored strawberry cream and again topped with small slices of strawberry. Also tried the apple pie. They were both gorgeous!

But it wasn't all great. The rotis were kept on the buffet spread which made them become hard. Some restaurants therefore prefer serving naan and rotis on your table. The papads and other similar items also lost their crispness due to this.

However, overall, it was superb!

Buffet variety
It wasn't an extravagant fare, like you see in some 5 star restaurants, but it was quite appealing.

Service
Since it's new, everyone was looking for feedback - the bar manager, the waiter, the food and beverage manager, other staff! Since we were there for dad's birthday, they even gave us cake on the house. And they insisted it would be free since this was the first birthday celebrated in their hotel (the hotel had just officially opened 4 days back, on 1st April)! Some of the staff did seem a little nervous, but I guess it was because everything was so new that some of them hadn't even received their uniforms yet and were wearing their own suits! I wish I could get a discount with my Marriott Reward points, but they said I could only use them on rooms :(

Ambience
Beautiful ambience. It's a great place to dine with family. It's got the feel of luxury, like most Marriotts do!

Value for money
Till 30th April, the buffet (lunch and dinner) costs Rs. 555 inclusive of all taxes as an introductory offer. At that price, it's a steal! Go and avail of it while it's on!

And in conclusion...
It's a boon for people who live or work at Andheri East. If you're on the way to or from the international airport, you can stop here for a quick bite. Brilliant place at a brilliant location!