On a lazy Sunday morning if you are looking for a place perfect for your laid-back Sunday brunch then look no further, provided you are in a mood to delve deep into the culinary paradise of oriental cuisine! Let me re-introduce Pan Asian at ITC Sonar (Kolkata) to you, they stole my heart recently with their blissful Sunday brunch that is overloaded with a plethora of Sushis, salads, teppanyaki, peking duck, amazing mains, desserts and much more! And yes, they also have many vegetarian options in this menu which will definitely impress you.
So, a couple of Sundays back I was there at Pan Asian (ITC Sonar) on a gloomy Sunday afternoon with my foodie friends and bloggers, and we were celebrating food and life in the socially accepted name of ‘Bijoya Meet’. Actually after Durga Puja every year, I visit quite a number of eateries in a short span of 10-15 days with different groups of my friends for an adda session over lip-smacking food and some good tea maybe, and I call all these gatherings ‘Bijoya meets’ to justify the intake of more ‘bahar ka khana’ after those anyway gastronomically abused Durga Puja days! You see, I am pretty discourteous to my digestive system!! 🙂
Anyway, coming back to the Sunday brunch at ITC Sonar, we were all looking forward to create some wonderful memories over some delectable food at one of the finest dining destinations in town, of course over some good conversation. When you are inside ITC Sonar, surely you will fill the grandiose touch in every element around you and that surely adds loads of oomph to the Pan Asian restaurant as well which is present at the Ground floor of this property.
We were taken to our reserved table and we took our seats, everything visible seemed to be so perfect! Seats were comfortable though the solid wooden chairs were pretty heavy for this poor soul! And yes, the temperature was perfect. Just loved the remarkable architecture with high ceiling, lovely urbane ambiance with an exquisite view outside and the live music already made my Sunday sorted even before tasting the food! Not to forget, we were surrounded by nice and warm attendants who were keeping an eye on every need of all the guests.
We were then guided to the buffet section where we felt spoilt for choices. One emblematic 5-star buffet spread that will initially leave you lost! There were a couple of varieties of soups which were perfect for a soothing start to the meal. The brunch also includes hot pots, Peking duck, yakitori, a couple of varieties of noodles, a couple of varieties of rice, curries, and more, loads of starters such as dim sums, sushi, satay, salads, and much more. And yes, if you opt for a premium spirits package they give you unlimited alcohol which would include vodka, beer, sparkling wine, and more.
So after I overcame my initial amazement and finished an initial round of glancing through the offerings, I decided to kick off the meal with some Sushis! The Sunday brunch here at Pan Asian includes dishes from Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian cuisines. I didn’t try all the vegetarian variants of the Sushis; still my plate was filled with at least 6-7 variants of lovely looking Sushis which tasted so soothing and absolutely brilliant! Maybe these were one of the best Sushis I have had here in Kolkata. This extensive Sushi section is definitely one of the highlights of this brunch, something that you surely shouldn’t miss.
Moving on to the Teppanyaki counter, I requested for some prawn and chicken satays which were of course prepared in front of me and oh boy, they looked so simple but tasted absolutely amazing and so flavorful! And yes, not to forget the DIY salad counter where I asked for Thai Seafood salad called Yam Talay, and it was one of the simplest yet tastiest salads I have had till date with a dash of spice and tang. It was packed with squids, prawns, cherry tomatoes and tossed with herbs and kaffir lime. There were loads of other salads and starters, like the Chicken Teriyaki Salad which was the Japanese grilled chicken salad, then there was Thai Fish Salad and more; but I decided to move ahead to the visually most attractive part of this buffet – it was the section with the Peking ducks.
I am not sure about vegetarians but for a carnivore like me, this was a delightful sight, the sliced pieces of the roasted duck were sitting aside with some finely sliced and cucumbers and a lip-smacking dip that gives this otherwise comforting roasted duck meat a gush of flavors.
After this, I decided to have those delicious looking dim sums and siu mais, which I have been planning to savor for a long time now! I took few pieces of both these juicy and generously filled chicken dumplings and went on to finish them off in a jiffy. It’s a heaven for momo lovers, since you can actually have as many as you like!! This very idea of an unlimited supply of momos excites me a lot; I guess it’s exhilarating for any momo-lover! 🙂 These days, I can’t do justice to a lavish buffet; maybe it’s the age that’s getting better of my appetite! So by now, I was almost full but still, I went on to taste something from the mains.
So, in the mains I really liked the Hakka style noodle that’s tad Indianized, the Thai green curry with steamed rice and the vegetarian fried rice which was again damn aromatic, subtle yet flavorful. By now I was filled to the brim, so I straightaway moved on to the dessert counter which was again demanding almost an empty stomach, if not an extra one!! They looked gorgeous and so appetizing!
But I could try only a few, I had the Baked Cheese Cake, Chocolate Hazelnut Tea Cake, Banana Caramel Cake, a couple of scoops of chocolate ice cream, and some assorted fresh fruits! All these were so amazing and were good enough to make my Sunday a super satisfying one!
Though this was a buffet meal, still the service was spot on, warm and optimally friendly! Surely try out this buffet for the plethora of Sushis, teppanyaki, dumplings, Peking duck, salads and the desserts; this will definitely make you a happy soul on a Sunday afternoon! The buffet is priced at INR 2600 plus tax per person and the timings are 12:30 pm to 02:30 pm IST. I personally felt this brunch had a ‘highly consistent spread’, please do let me know how you liked this brunch in the comments section below and please share this article with your friends if you liked reading it.
Cheers!
P.S. This was an awesome brunch with my Kolkata Food Fanatics (KFF) family, and it was our Bijoya Meet 2018!
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