Le Chowk, Ahmedabad

Does Le Chowk serve multiple cuisines ? Yes!
Are they authentic? - Mostly, no!
Are they tasty? Its not bad, but its not outstanding either.

There's such a variety of food on offer that it can completely overwhelm you. We were 3 of us and did not even look at the Italian - pizza/pasta / garlic bread section, because just tasting everything else, quite filled us up.

 

Their ad's outside are quite eye-catching.

Designed pretty much like the other restaurants from this chain - Rudey's, Forest Cafe etc, the decor is quite overwhelming, but that is just to prepare you for the onslaught of food that follows.

The seating is a hodge-podge of various styles and colours.

There is a separate display station for every kind of food that they serve, so there is a mocktail counter, a desserts counter, Mexican counter, Hot Dog stand, Lebanese Counter, Chinese Cart, Italian section with ovens for pizzas and a pasta counter, a large circular Mongolian grill and this is on one half of the restaurant. The other side has the chaat section, a tawa fry and tandoori section, Biryanis followed by Indian / Peshawari main courses.

Some of the food like the shawarma and dips (hummus, babaghannoush & labneh) and the khao suey were quite close to the original and tasty. The poutine was nowhere close to the original, neither was the Mongolian grill.

The Mongolian Grill was more like the roadside Chinese thelawala / laariwaala with an assortment of sabjis (chicken sausage and fish balls for non-veg) that was tossed together on the Grill with some generic sauce and either rice or flat noodles. The rice was better than the noodles. Avoid the fish, it tastes great on its own, but doesn't go as well with the noodles / rice.

The mocktails were mostly a range of syrups that was mixed with soda and served. The keri and the mango were good.

 

The quesadillas were quite good, but what they served as enchiladas was again a quesadilla. The nachos weren't properly fried, so they were slightly raw and not too good, but the salsa and cheese dip were quite good.

The hot dog was a simple bun with sausage, tomato sauce and mustard, nothing fancy, but their chicken sausage is really good and this shone in whichever dishes that they used them in.

There were supposed to be a variety of salads on offer, but there was no one at this counter and once we tried everything that was available, we had no place for salads. They did have a vegetarian sushi though that wasn't bad.

There was a mobile fondue table (like the channajorwala) with brocolli, baby corn, bread, mushrooms and other veggies to be dipped into cheese. The cheese was just amul cheese, but it wasn't bad. The veggies I mentioned, were the best of the lot.

The poutine was a couple of French fries with barbecue sauce, cheese sauce and green peas. Tasty but not authentic.

From the Chinese counter, mum loved the Manchow soup. Husband loved the veg momos and I loved the khowsuey. They serve soup on the table, but I would recommend that you go upto the counter and choose your own toppings, because they have the whole array.

Kebabs are made fresh for each round, the chicken and fish kebabs were good, but the sheekh were on the drier and harder side. Loved the liver tawa fry, but the kheema tawa fry was average. The veg tawa fry options were really good, especially the bhindi and the whole baby baingans and definitely take the curry that comes on the side of the tawa fry

The chicken biryani was really good, but we were too full to eat anything more than a taste. The curries were average. They also prepare fresh rotis to order.

Loved the idea of the baby kulhad brownies, they have a cold stone concept for ice cream, but since the mixers were tutti frutti, peanuts and chocolate chip, I wasn't very excited to try it out. There's a chocolate fountain too that kids will love.

There was a guy walking around with a tray making fresh "Thai Paan" - betel leaves stuffed with savoury stuff - chillies, garlic, onions, peanuts etc - Its quite interesting and worth a try.

The food is all freshly prepared and except for the sheekh kebabs and the chaat which were below average, there was nothing that tasted bad. Given that there were over 40 items on the menu, that is saying a lot.

 

Its great fun to go as a group, then you can taste more stuff. This place is a great hit with local who love the variety, the song and dance (yes, the wait staff, danced to a "Brazilian" number too) and the price. 550/- per person.

The range is huge, but with our current focus on portion control and only overeating calories that are truly worth it, it will be some time before we return here.

The staff is really sweet and helpful and keep clearing the table and bringing whatever you request. Its a great family outing.

Rating : 3 / 5