Regency Café — Restaurant in Kerala

So after realising that there are NO proper buffet places in Thrissur.

I decided to visit the options available.

In this post, I will share my experience at the Hyatt Regency for the Dinner Buffet.

Buffets at the Hyatt are available only Friday to Sunday.

I had tried to book lunch buffet on a Saturday afternoon at around 12 PM, I was told the booking was full. That's when I visited BBQ Nation for Lunch.

However, I booked a table for 4 for next Friday 20th May Dinner beforehand.

The ambience is simple. Not sophisticated. Small place. With very ordinary seats.

The place was surprisingly full and reserving early is recommended to get a seat ( as it can accommodate limited people ..around 40 perhaps)

We thought of going ala carte, but the managers were not very keen with our choice and told us it would take 40 - 50 mins wait time, indirectly suggesting us to go with a buffet.

Also they said some of the items we would order would be served from the buffet menu itself. Lol.

So there was no choice, buffet it was.

We are talking about 5 star restaurants and fine dining. And expect top notch service. But that did not seem to be the case here. Was ordinary.

Coming to the Buffet spread itself, it was good in general terms but in Hyatt terms it was so-so.

Let me recollect the items out there in the menu.

Starters

Tandoori Chicken - good but cold. Seafood crispy fry - excellent but refilling was not happening Spicy Fish - below avg. cheesy Jalapeno - what can go wrong? It was burnt. Paneer Tikka - didn't try French Fries - okk Beef dry fry - was cold. Chicken Grill - didn't like it. Badly cooked. Smoked Fish grill - smelly. Didn't like. beef tenderloin - so so. Hummus and pita bread - yup Soups and breads - I hated the Prawn lung Fung soup.

Salads are a must, I loved the pumpkin salad and the prawn salad.

There were a variety of pickles, those are at a corner and mostly ignored. But I suggest that you try those without missing.

In beverages there was sparkling watermelon juice.

In the main course the buffet had Chicken curry Fish Curry Mutton Curry - was good. Fish Chinese gravy Noodles Chicken and veg Biriyani. - bad Kofta Dal Sabji Paneer Gravy - was good Pasta Parotta - good Kulcha Naan Lasagna kind of stuff.

Now coming to desserts. Hyatt has always had the best and largest desserts section among its competitors. And here thankfully that standard was kept, if not the numbers.

Good decent variety of quality desserts. (Check the pictures, they would speak for themselves)

And yes, there were 2 types of ice creams.

Overall if I had to summarise, It was good not bad, but you would leave with a feeling that few things could have been better, like - service, refilling, cold items, inconsistent taste.

Better care needs to be given to keep items hot. Beef was cold, I had to ask to reheat it, Tandoori was cold. The seafood chilly was always empty. Prawns salad refills were not happening. Options in bread or any live counter orders were not informed properly.

It cost us around Rs.6,700, so per person including taxes it would be Rs...

I have eaten here at least 100 times in the past 2 years with family, extended family, and friends and we are yet to have a bad experience. We have had mediocre experiences, but that's maybe less than 5% of our total visits.

We have been having both their lunch and dinner buffets right from INR 799/+ per adult all the way to INR 1,499/+ per adult, veg and non veg meals served during the week, iftar set menu, iftar buffet, themed buffets, festive buffets and almost always we have good experiences, a few times really great experiences and very rarely sub par experiences, although the service has always been excellent.

The breakfast buffet alone is worth trying and the chef puts out some really good Mysore masala dosa, even better than pure veg restaurants focused on these things.

Off the top my head I remember absolutely smashing lamb chops for Father's day (that's always a hit and miss this part of the world), Lucknowi mutton biryani another time, mutton rogan josh quite a few times amongst other dishes.

For the quality of items offered, the service provided, the ambience and customer service, price is on point.

I'd even go on to say that Regency cafe in thrissur is better than Malabar cafe in Grand Hyatt Bolgatty and Malabar Cafe in Hyatt Regency Trivandrum, although the latter 2 are much bigger with a more extensive menu and ofcourse consequently pricier.

After almost 4 years of operations the menu underwent a complete overhaul in 2023 and they sadly did remove a few of our favorites like Punjabi Murgh tikka and Mutton Rogan Josh with Murgh tikka masala and Nalli Nihari that are sadly not up to the mark.

Overall an absolutely great place for breakfast, lunch and dinner and very good ambience to take some guests or your family.

Adjacent to the restaurant, beside the front desk is Nougat (a small cafe with comfortable seating). The cafe is manned by barista Ms. Ascon from Nagaland, what lovely espressos she makes.

The coffee served here is really good and is served in different types of cup including the historic prison type cups. Espressos are priced af INR 317/- which is expensive compared to other local cafes.

The buffets are priced at about INR 750/- for breakfast , lunch only on Saturday and sundays at INR 1,650/- and dinner on Friday, Saturday and Sundays at...

I’m a fan of this place’s buffet by now. It’s the best value for money buffet in the entire state in my humble opinion. I didn’t want to leave a review and jinx it. But it’s been consistently performing.

(To be honest, Grand Hyatt buffet compensates for its lack of taste and variety with the best possible view. I’m always left feeling unconvinced and dissatisfied from the Malabar cafe.)

However, Regency café Thrissur is just good food all the way, and the ambience doesn’t let down the food much. First of all, kudos to the team for bringing so much value to the plate with layers of sophistication on even ordinary dishes. I’ve never seen so much effort put into welcome drinks at even costlier buffets. Welcome drinks are 400₹+ mock tails on its own. Salads are tasty though less in number compared to the likes of Le Meridian. Kids corner is an effort in the right direction. Pastry team needs special mention as well. I personally would like to see more options with coffee/cocoa free desserts as I’m allergic to it. Kerala dishes are not taken for granted either. Pizza (on days it’s available) is remarkably good hitting all the right spots - not too soggy, not too crispy and the right toppings with the right sauce of course. Pasta is okay but nothing mind blowing. Live desserts adds to the experience as well. Chef Kammath and team deserves much recognition. Hope that the standards will not go down in the future.

I just have one request: Pls don’t stop serving oriental dishes in buffet. People who love oriental cuisine will most definitely visit a dedicated restaurant but denying a customer of oriental dishes in a multi cuisine buffet is something only Hyatt does. Absolutely disdain considering the fact that other star hotel chains cater...