Now the Fat Spoon has eaten at a gargantuan number of restaurants in Newcastle, across the country and even the world to some extent, without ever experiencing a good Indian buffet restaurant. Flavours is no exception to this. If uninspiring and greasy curries, with meat that's probably barely safe for animal consumption in an faceless venue is what you're after, then Flavours is spot on. Indian cuisine is all about intense variety in colour, flavour and texture; so you would expect curry to lend itself to the buffet format. But it tends to be the more dishevelled and sloppy restaurants that take on the challenge and of course they inevitably fail. The food at Flavours is beyond generic and generally a travesty. Even drunk tramps might question dining there. What dubious meat you may come across in the curries are likely to be drowning in an ocean of oil and seriously lacking in integrity. Buffet restaurants are never going to be renowned for their high level of table service and again Flavours follows the trend. Flaccid in character and quite lazy. Even if you want a cheap and dirty fill, a donner kebab from Munchies has more gourmet class. The take home message.....avoid Flavours. 19%
Although Al Basha is quite highly rated by some, the Fat Spoon was not impressed. The décor is about as classy as a pint of Lambrini and looks more dated than your Grandma's curtains. Although the food was indeed authentic Lebanese cuisine, prepared to a decent standard and quite tasty; finding part of the chef in the chicken shawarma was far from ideal. A thick black hair protruding from your meal is usually enough to put off the majority of restaurant goers, but failing to offer a refund as a result seals the deal. Unacceptable. Further to this, the table service was sluggish and careless, enough to send the Fat Spoon into a state of unforgiving rage. Perhaps on a different occasion Al Basha might have lived up to it's expectations, but evidently consistency isn't their strong point. Rating....very poor. 22%
