London Eating: Sunday lunch buffet at Malabar, Notting Hill

February 2019

It’s like that really silly question you get asked at a job interview: ‘why do you want this job?’

Malabar is an Indian restaurant located in a residential street in Notting Hill. We went for a Sunday lunch buffet, £14 p.p. I heard that this place is very popular and booking is recommended during weekend, but there were only around 10 people (including us) at that afternoon’s lunch buffet. I guess the place gets busy over dinner time.

We arrived promptly at 1pm (their lunch hour is 1-3pm), and got stuck in straightaway.

The selection of the food was rather small: chicken tikka, chicken curry, vegetable curry, dal, salad, a few condiments plus rice and poppadoms.

The vegetable curry was mainly potatoes and chickpeas, but the gravy had the right amount of heat and nice layers of spices. The dal gave the milder contrast to the curry with subtle and intricate flavour layerings. The salad was fresh, the chutneys were possibly amongst the best I’ve had.

C said that the chickens were cooked well in both dishes, but as a buffet menu, having only one choice of protein was quite uninspiring.

I thought everything was delicious and noticed the chef’s skill and the quality of ingredients particularly in the sauce. At the same time, I could also see and taste that they were holding back; possibly a few less ingredients being used compared to their a la carte dishes. On top of that, a cheeky 12.5% service charge was added to our bill – for a buffet! We politely declined, but I guess many people won’t challenge it and the restaurant sort of expect people to just quietly pay that 12.5%+. The waiter was polite and friendly, but did he do anything more than taking our plates away at the end of our meal? No.

The food at Malabar’s buffet lunch was undoubtedly good, but the restaurant’s intention to make profit was a bit too visible for my liking. It’s like that really silly question you get asked at a job interview: ‘why do you want this job?’ The real answer is always: ‘err, because I need… money?’ but nobody wants to hear that.

Once again, the food was good. I had 2 and a half helpings of the same things and did not get bored. Malabar’s buffet might be small in selection, but for a similar price, I would much rather have it than a huge selection of ‘just okay’ food.

Malabar, Notting Hill (lunch buffet)

Food: *4/5

Service: 3/5

Value: **4/5

Would I visit again?: 3/5

*/** – both 3 from C who thought the selection was not satisfying for a meat/fish eater