Spectra — Restaurant in Tamil Nadu

Leela Palace is full of wonderful memories for me of evening teas with my grandfather. Before he passed away last year, we used to visit Leela atleast once a week. So, I booked the 2021 Christmas Eve buffet to celebrate my parent's wedding anniversary. Worst decision!

I had to followup 6 times over phone until someone from the hotel showed any interest in my booking.

I visited Leela Palace to pre-book and pay the 50% advance 10 days before the date, and to talk to the restaurant management about special arrangements for my Mom and Dad's wedding anniversary. I requested for a special cake booking at the pastry shop for a sugar-free cake for my diabetic parents and the chef said it could not be done. So I requested atleast a pre-booked specific table, which they had agreed verbally. My mistake for not insisting that the put the special instructions on the receipt.

We arrived on time for our booking on the special day, they found our name on their list somewhere near the top as we were one of the first groups to book and make the payment. Our party of 4 was then led to a tiny table next to the dead uncooked fish counter with just 2 chairs and no way for 4 people to sit. They expected us 4 to sit squashed together at the 2 seater table when the table I had pre-booked 10 days in advance was empty just a few feet away.

I was so embarrassed by all this especially with my parents and husband waiting for direction from me as they were suprised that these were the arrangements I had made 10 days earlier. I refused to sit down at the 2 seater and pointed at my pre-booked table and asked to be seated. I was stunned when the Leela staff member proceeded to lecture me about the "first come first serve" rule and he made it look like he was doing us a great favour by giving us the empty table that was available and that I was promised at the time of booking. I was absolutely furious with what was going on and felt humiliated in front of my family by the frivolous attitude of the Leela staff member in charge of guest relations and seating.

I didn't want to spoil the evening and we settled in, wanting to enjoy the rest of the evening. I escorted my parents around the Christmas buffet while my husband ordered drinks at the table for us. When we returned, my husband was missing. I was absolutely shocked to find that Leela staff had demanded that he go to the entrance of the restaurant to pay the remaining 50% buffet cost before we were even able to take a sip of water, let alone take a bite out of anything.

I just could not believe what was going on. I raised it as a major issue and the guest relations chap lied that everyone sitting in the restaurant has prepaid 100%. I know for a fact that he was lying through his teeth, as when we were looking for our names in the booking list print out, 80% of the tables had a comment next to it "Denied to pay advance" , while I had come 10 days ahead of the booking date and paid the 50% requested by Leela palace.

The evening just turned so sour and we were just so humiliated by the way Leela palace handled the issue.

The serving staff tried to redeem the evening for us. They really tried to be kind and helpful. We are grateful to them for trying their best to turn the terrible evening into something positive. Food was good. Hotel policy, restaurant entrance management and billing processing war genuinely disgusting. We observed through the evening that the foreign guests and non-local guests were treated with respect and even reverence, while us locals, we were treated with disdain and an unwelcoming attitude.

Just plain...

Writing this review right after the lunch that we had today in Spectra. I was quite excited because I've not had food at the Leela Chennai. I've had the breakfast spread in the Leela Mumbai , and boy, was it Good!! Had very similar expectations for the experience here but it was a huge disappointment. Read on to know more :

We must have reached around 12:20-12:30pm but were asked to wait in the lounge since the food wasn't setup completely. We asked the person if she would inform us when it would be ready, she said yes. We were walking around and it was about 15-20 mins when we decided to go and ask her if the restaurant was open. To our surprise, the others who were waiting nearby had already gone in, and this person missed informing us.

All the other reviews that talk about food being served cold - I thought that was a bit of an exaggeration, well it's quite true and we had food that was not hot!

Let me start one by one with the full list of items that we had - the mix veg soup looked good, but tasted weird. The cheese shots were decent, so was the chilli baby corn.

The hummus with Pita was good . I liked the salad counter (everything is anyway cold, right 😁) The fried/baked sabudana papad was SO good! probably the only thing I really enjoyed in the entire meal, apart from the yumm Almond Praline ice cream.

The momos were okayish, and stuck a bit on our palate. The sushi was good with the wasabi. The Hakka noodles was apparently quite good, but I didn't try it. The Himalayan healthy bowl was great, with the todu and sunflower seeds and all!

The pizza just didn't taste good. I love thin crust pizzas, and the crust of this pizza was great, but the pizza sauce just wasn't upto the mark.

Paneer nizami was average and lacked the Indian touch of spices in it. Sauteed vegetables was good, the au gratin was ok.. The lasagne was quite cold with the grated cheese having frozen on top. The Rajma was ok The desserts were very average - the walnut brownie looked good but tasted more like it was dipped in Hershey's Chocolate syrup. I had the gajar halwa with the almond praline ice cream and hence liked it. The mix berry cake was average. the chocolate mousse and mango mousse (if I'm right) were good.

Altogether very average. I walked out feeling like the spread was very very vast but the quality and taste justtt didn't do justice to the price of the buffet.

Service was average. When we asked for dessert spoons, we got 1 spoon, and it took about 5 mins to get that for us, and I had to explicitly ask for another one. We asked for a baby chair and got that quite soon though..

And the cherry on the cake? - Just as we were walking out, about to step out of Spectra, there was a staff who asked us whether we finished eating. When I said yes, she routed me to her colleague, to my right, who asked me.. You had ordered 4 juices in the lobby/lounge? You would need to pay for that. I was flummoxed. We were walking around the lounge for about 10-15 mins when the food wasn't ready and did not order anything at all during that time. How could they make this kind of a mistake and assume that we were walking out without paying for something?? They visibly counted the no. of people in our group (5) and then spoke between themselves and decided that we didn't place the order , and said sorry.

All through the entire dining experience, we felt that the entire staff was judgemental and not doing things right.

This one act just completely validated our feeling, and given a chance, I don't think we would want to dine at...

It was weekend so the place was completely booked. They said we only serve buffet. Requested them that I can eat anything. I have been to multiple country and explored the local cuisine. But my daughter and wife are very picky Plus during weekend going out is for a change and chill. But for some reason I thought of looking at other places That's when Neelima called me volunteerly and asked, would you mind sitting in Spectra amd we will serve whatever you order. I was super happy that there are people like Neelima who don't want to lose a single customer.

As promised, we were given a table viewing the beautiful broken bridge and beach. She is already giving me an exception and she is giving us the best seat.

Food to be honest we didn't know what to order and asked them to suggest. some food was customized since there was a kid, Paneer Tikka was amazing but the Chinese starter was little sweet. Probably it was our mistake that we suggested to make a chilly garlic Chinese starter less spicy. But Neelima and others Prekshta, Painuli were very helpful to remake the dish. We had to insist so much then they did not exchange. otherwise they wanted make another starter. Who does all this now a days especially when you are just 3ppl ordering ala carte. Very impressive customer service. And the smile never disappeared once from their face.

For main course ordered Kadai Paneer which comes along with roti Apart from that we ordered masala kulcha. The main course was brilliant especially seeing the sea and spending good time with family. Missed to mention another incident which was again our fault. As soon as you enter, there is a lounge area on the left and we thought Neelima said she will serve food there. The person Ajay did not know the background said we don't serve food here but we have a different menu. By the time Ajay checked and came, Neelima had already gave a table to us. Was feeling bad that I was rude with him and asked him to take back the desserts which he shared before going to speak with Neelima.

I went and apologized to Ajay immediately and asked him to add the desserts in the bill. Again he didn't show any emotions but smilingly said, customer comes first for me.

Super glad to hear from staff very similar response and they genuinely feel it and you can make the way they talk and serve food. By the way one of the largest buffet I have seen. Took 5,mins only to.check the buffet

Food 4/5 Ambience 5/5 Staff 10/5.

One of the best well mannered staff I came across Ensure Neelima Ajay and other staff recieves this feedback because...