Food Exchange — Restaurant in Tamil Nadu

9 of us went to Food Exchange with pre-bought vouchers for 8, as one of us was an elderly gentleman who doesn't consume much and we planned ala-carte for him. But the elderly gentleman just picked up a plate and started taking some steamed rice, dal, curd, soup and a welcome drink. The restaurant manager who was a person wearing glasses, dark complexion, grey suit, was a very rude and mean guy. He was often seen blasting his juniors (who was wearing black suits / white shirt waiters) in front of us. After our food was over, a waiter came along and said they were instructed to charge a full buffet (₹1300) for this good old senior. I asked him to speak with his manager (Grey suit) that this senior had only small portion of Steamed rice, dal, and curd, some soup and had half welcome drink as he was suffering from Insulin (Digestive disorder), they can charge ala-carte for him. But that restaurant manager just didn't care and stuck to his decision. The waiter came back with a No decision from his boss again. I again requested, atleast can you ask your manager to charge "kids buffet price" as he had only meagre quantity. Mgr still didn't care and didn't oblige and wanted me to pay ₹1300 in full. Worst human that I have ever seen in any star restaurant ever in my life. I think they might have picked him up from some railway catering service or local street food vendor service. Pathetic human and 5 star is not a place for him to be. If a Novotel senior management gets to see this review, Please go to Novotel Chamiers road, Chennai, Food exchange on the first floor and save it from people like this guy. Rest of the staffs are terrified of him as he bosses around not just the employees but also his clients. Overall nice food but very worse...

The experience was worse at every possible level. Overpriced and a big let down in terms of options . Honestly you'd be better off if you chose a non veg meals instead of this

1. Spread or the Menu - this is the first buffet where we actually ate curd rice because there wasn't much options left. Any buffet would have atleast two or three type of meat like chicken , mutton , fish and prawn . There was only chicken and fish . They didn't have veg biriyani or anything other than chicken biriyani no prawn starters or main dish , nothing in mutton . It was even worse on the vegetarian menu The live counter had just breads, pizza and pasta.
2. Quality and Quantity- the chicken starters were overcooked or undercooked, we had to constantly remind them to refill, and no one bothered if any dish was over.

Some pictures to explain what I am trying to imply - They serve in iron vessels so the lid gets heated making it very hot , any one who cares about customer experience would have given it a thought that the customer would have to lift the hot lid...

We stayed at the Novotel Hotel for 8 days and ate in the restaurant for Breakfast and Dinner everyday.

The service was great especially from Nisarg who went out of his way everyday to make sure we had whatever we needed including with a diary allergy and to help with things for our baby.

Sumithra and Lucky Y were both exceptionally friendly and greated us everyday and made extra sure that the baby was happy and also noticed when one of us didn't come down because of an upset stomach and kept asking if we need anything else to ask and they will send up...

Lots of great options in the buffet with variety each day.

Also lot of options to request like fresh pasta, Pizza and Naan at night, or Omelet, fried eggs, pancakes, waffles, Puri, dosa and uthappam. As well as Jaythi akkas tea stall during breakfast and a fresh juice...