AB's - Absolute Barbecues | Salt Lake, Kolkata — Restaurant in Bidhannagar

Visited on 21st June, to celebrate my birthday. A wishlisted place for long. Located in Omega building, very easy to find actually. We did a prior reservation at 1.30 pm and honestly they're pretty helpful at their service. Their warm welcome was everything.

We were sitted near the window and they introduced us the menu. Although we checked and planned everything before stepping in as usual but still their version was pretty good. As it was Tuesday and weekday, we were served with the complimentary mocktails.

We choose -

Virgin mojito Lime soda

You will need these to digest the Lavish starters they serve. Hence, save it for later.

Coming to the starters -

The cheesy potato mashed kebab was pretty good! From veg section they have pineapple paneer watermelon and button mushroom kebab; amongst them we loved the paneer and mushroom. From Nonveg section - The sizzling chicken leg, tandoor prawn, fish tikka these were fabulous! I found the chicken kebab a bit dry though, still it tasted good. The chicken leg was so tempting and big , that I was so full already and couldn't eat more than one 😭 maybe next time. Prawn was pretty decent and big in size.

Allover 9.5/10 for the starters!

Now coming to the exotic meat section.

We tried - Shark meat - it has a pretty strong and individual kinda taste which we loved.

Pecking duck - pretty good in taste. We tried it before although but liked it here too.

Rabbit - rabbit meat was also good.

Quail with bone - amongst all these, it was a bit bland comparing to others. Maybe because of the bones, still it was not that bad!

Mains - We try not to waste food at any cost. That's why we only focused on the polao , biryani and handi mutton. Specially I knew my capacity of having food so...

Chicken biryani - only this thing here we can call bad. I mean the rice was unnecessarily too spicy and pungent.

Basanti Polao - Highly recommended with mutton. You have to try it!

Handi mutton - that's what you call recipe! Pretty authentic in taste and not unnecessarily rich or spicy. So good with the polao!

We didn't go for the pasta pizza or Chinese section. Allover 9/10 on what else we tried from mains.

Desserts - My god what a varieties of desserts they have! From miniature jalebi to pastries they literally have everything! And of course they all are pretty good in taste ❤️ You can see the cuties on my plate 😚 The gelatin based pastry was so good as well as the normal ones. 9.5/10 for the dessert section. We don't know they serve ice cream or not but if they do , we missed it though. 😒 So full to remember that. Saving for next time.

Lastly they served us a beautiful strawberry cake for the birthday celebration . They also arrange some songs if you want but we didn't go for that. The cake tastes so amazingly good! Everything was right on point. Every server in there was so helpful. A very well behaved guy named Chandan Barik attended us the most and he was really helpful to us. He arranged everything and was pretty well mannered. We even didn't have to call them for water or for cleaning the table. They attended us right on time.

Allover , the warmth of welcome and service really impressed us. From last two years we were celebrating this day at home for lockdown issues and after a long time stepped out on my birthday. And it was really enjoyable.

Keep it up team AB's Absolute...

This buffet restaurant has potential for sure. The ambience is good and so are most of the food items. Starting with the Welcome drink I would suggest everyone to take the option of Lemon Mojito which was superbly done. Then comes the starters among which I loved the Mutton Sheeq Kebab(on request) and Fish Kebab. The Fried Corns were delicious. The Tandoori Chicken was also quite good. Personally I don't like the fruit kebabs which they serve and the Paneer Kebab was also ok. But I was disappointed with the Prawn Kebabs as they tasted bland to me. After knowing that, they re-prepared it and it tasted really good. So my point is, why don't they bring in the better version in the first place. You already have stuffed yourself with the bland ones and then again you have to taste the better ones. So that leaves little room for other items. I don't know whether that is their strategy or not. The same thing happened with Phirni(which was not sweet at all in the first place) and Chutney(which was not sour at all in the first place). The chat section had many items among which I tried only the fuchka which was ok. But the game changer was the main course. Generally Biryanis don't earn a good name with buffet restaurants but the Biryani of AB's was one of the best Biryanis that I ever had. Oh yes, and the veg soup was also very delicious. The fried rice was also well prepared and so was the Prawn Malaicurry. Now came the turn of the item which I was eagerly waiting for - Mutton Handi. Believe me, it is one of the best Muttons Handis that I have ever had. The tenderness of the mutton was so satisfying that it overtook all worries of life. Now coming to the desert section, the Angoori Gulab Jamun was very good, the Kheer was very runny and I didn't like it. The Phirni as I told in the beginning needed a change to make it a perfect one. The end cannot be more perfect with the Paan flavoured Ice-cream. It was delicious. But try not to eat anything else after having the paan ice-cream. The fruits were somewhat fresh but I gave them a suggestion to create a dedicated fruits counter where fresh fruits would be cut in front of the customer and there can be various ways of presenting fruits as well. I didn't try the unconventional meat section where they were serving the meat of rabbit, shark, emu, etc. as I was sceptical with the freshness of those items. Just to end my review with a few important points regarding the management. One word that comes to my mind is - Overcaring. Initially it was ok but later too much of asking was a bit irritating at times. I mean it takes the fun of eating. I don't know whether the employers are too strict with the employees that they get worried. I hope along with great food they would also look into the catering of the customers. As we are familiar with the saying that too much of anything is not worth it. One thing before I end; the birthday cake that is presented is of very poor quality. I mean, if there is anything that is made for a special occasion must be of top quality, though it is free, otherwise there is no need of such splashiness. Anyday Quality speaks over Quantity. Nonetheless, it was a very good experience with such good food and such humble staff around, especially Kalyan who took care...

As an HR, Booked a corporate lunch for 21 heads, on 28th April, 2022, 2pm Onwards. 18 attended the event after the corporate workshop. The booking process was smooth. Got the manager's number from FB and called and made the booking.

Ambience (9/10): Beautiful. A bit packed up seating arrangement for everyone. If you're in a group with joined tables, people sitting inside will have problems fetching main courses as they will need to move the person on the sides to get in and out. I wish there was a better solution to this.

FOOD Starters (I generally don't focus on chicken at buffet, but always go for the fish) Prawns(8.5/10) - Perfectly cooked. Flavourful and Perfectly Coated in marinade. Palatable! Fish(9.5/10) - Pure bhetki. Juicy and well cooked. The flavour on it was ASTOUNDING! Couldn't stop eating!

Main Course Biryani(8/10) - Very good. Not authenticate Kolkata Biryani, but still close to it, a bit spicy which I really loved, wish they also had the potato in it.

Fried Rice (7/10): This was pretty decent. Though it was chicken fried rice, it had very less chicken in it. Flavours were nice.

Chilli Chicken (6/10): It was not boneless, Not my preference.

Butter Chicken(8/10): It won't taste the best when served hot, but once it cools a bit the gravy becomes like a paste, and that is when it tastes the best. But, the 2nd batch refill wasn't as good. Probably due to the rush, they delivered it somehow to the counter and it wasn't upto the mark.

Salads were all good.

Exotic Meats - Rabbit was good. Emu was okay. Snapper and Shark were awesome.

Fried Calamari(7.5/10)- Pretty decent. My first order, it was thick breading and didn't taste the squid, informed them and they made it again for me, with less breading. Try not to take masala on it, it makes the food too salty.

Garlic Naan -8.5/10- Made to order, but it was very thin, like tandoori roti, if it cooled down a little it would become a papad, and would be tough to tear with hands/teeth.

Desserts 9/10: Tired almost everything. Cream cakes were good. Cheesecake was good. Fruit cakes were tok dry. Shahi Tukda was awesome. Angoori Gulab Jamun was also awesome and goes good with ice cream. Instead of Brownie with ice cream, go for Hot Gulab Jamun with ice cream (I tried this in Hyd and has been by fav ever since).

Complimentary Mocktail - Blue Lagoon, was awesome.

Overall it was an awesome experience, but finding out all the items you wanna eat is a challenge, some of us had difficulties in finding mutton until someone from the ABs team told it's at the wish grill and not at the Main Course counter with Biryani and Butter Chicken.

Service(9.5/10): We were served and assisted by Mr. Taposh. He was very responsive, helpful and took care of our hospitality.

There were several more items in the buffet menu but couldn't have everything. Just had what I generally love!

We had a corporate workshop followed by a corporate lunch. As an HR, I had taken the initiative to conduct the workshop and make the lunch arrangement at a good place. The CEO, OP head , everyone loved the food and my choice of place (they wanted BBQ Nation, but I made them choose ABs and I knew ABs is way better). Corporate Lunch done right and perfectly, thanks to ABs from Indus Net...