Brunch at Colony, Rain Tree

There is only one thing better than brunch on a Sunday. Sleeping in. But at times, there is pressure from the family to step out on Sunday and so, gladly, there is something that is nice in the form of brunch. While brunches in the city were getting passé, thankfully, some are working on reinventing the brunches. There are places which pass of lunches as brunches and such, but slowly, I believe, some restaurants are getting creative and really working on that brunch. 

Colony, the newly revamped coffee shop at Rain Tree, St. Mary's road has started off a nice note. With a new chef at the helm and the manager from Marriott (for me, the Marriott brunches of 2010/11, till date were the best. Even they are not able recreate what Chef Girish had at the time), the brunch has a focus, not on quantity but on quality. 

The restaurant has a nice look and feel to it. With a casual sit out space which could be ideal for the brunch, I like the starters on the table concept. Really, the entire brunch should be served on the table like Pan Asian does, but this is a start. OK, back to the ambiance. If you go, make sure you don't miss the part of the brunch that is in the sit out, because if you are inside, you might completely miss out the waffles and french toasts and the breakfast part of the brunch. 

A nice spread of starters are served on the table and the best of the lot was the chef special prawns. Wrapped in banana leaf and bordering on the polichadhu flavours, this was bang on. The tikkis, the veg galouti and the chicken were very similar to what we get in most places, so nothing special there. The egg florentine was super nice. The salmon was smoked to perfection that day and we simply loved it. 

Off the buffet, the roasted lamb with potatoes was our dish of the day. Besides that, the beetroot mashed potato was awesome, especially since I don't remember having such a dish before. The beetroot as just there and did not overpower the potatoes. The Indian selection was rather small and the paneer was the only thing we liked. 

Surprisingly the desserts, which looked liked the usual buffet desserts had a few very nice dishes in them. The mango soufflé was fabulous while the kiwi cooler was awesome. We completely missed the waffles and french toast counters as we were sitting inside, so I can't comment on those. I also heard that these guys have a fabulous Filter Coffee Panacotta which wasn't on the menu that day, so we missed it, but I have been hearing such raving reviews of it, that I feel like going and ordering a-la-carte. We were stuffed after the brunch and the only reason why I didn't have it the other day. 

Colony is the newly revamped and opened Coffee Shop at Raintree, St. Mary's road and the brunch is priced at Rs. 1850 for the non alcoholic, while the alcohol is priced at Rs. 500 or so more.