Chickpeas Mediterranean Buffet

FOOD

The food program makes the most sense when it is read as categories rather than as one long list. The first layer is the cold Mediterranean table: hummus, baba ganoush, tzatziki, tabouli, Shirazi salad, cucumber salad, cabbage salad, Russian potato salad and dolma. These are not filler before the meat. They supply acid, herbs, garlic, yogurt and tahini that keep the heavier half of the buffet from turning into a succession of brown plates.

Then come the grills and kebabs. Beef-and-lamb kafta and other ground-meat kabobs provide the most direct Persian and Middle Eastern reference point, usually alongside basmati or seasoned Mediterranean rice. Chickpeas has built much of its identity around this kind of cooking since its café years, and the restaurant’s specialized equipment — including charbroilers and an Indian tandoor — explains why the buffet has always leaned harder into grilled and roasted food than a typical steam-table spread.

The Indian side is not incidental. Tandoori chicken has been one of Chickpeas’ signature dishes since before the buffet became the restaurant’s defining format, and butter chicken and rotating vegetarian curries extend that side of the menu. Executive Chef Pawan Jalota, whose background includes Sensi at Bellagio, is the restaurant’s stated lead on the Indian dishes. That gives Chickpeas one of its most useful contrasts: smoky kebabs and tandoor cooking on one plate, creamy curry and rice on the next.

Lamb shank is the line’s most conspicuous single item. It is braised rather than grilled, substantial enough to function as a plate’s centerpiece, and currently appears to be limited to one per buffet guest. That makes it the exception that proves the larger format: Chickpeas is an unlimited buffet, but not every expensive protein is offered without a ceiling. The practical move is to treat the shank as its own course rather than burying it under everything else.

Seafood gives the buffet another direction. The restaurant’s own current buffet gallery identifies salmon and sautéed prawns, while recent coverage continues to mention shrimp among the regular draws. These keep the meal from becoming entirely meat-and-rice driven; salmon with cucumber salad and hummus is a very different plate from kafta with basmati rice or butter chicken with vegetables.

There are also dishes that reveal Chickpeas’ willingness to behave like a buffet instead of a strict regional restaurant. Beef lasagna, three-pepper stew, mixed vegetables and other rotating hot items broaden the line, while the restaurant’s Wood Stone oven supports pizza and baked items. That flexibility is part of the appeal. The buffet can be recognizably Mediterranean and Persian at its center without demanding that every tray pass a geography test.

Dessert tends to stay compact compared with the savory spread, with baklava, fruit and other rotating sweets doing most of the work. That is enough. Chickpeas is strongest when the plate keeps moving among dips, herbs, rice, charred meats, curry and something from the sea. The best use of the buffet is not to collect every item once; it is to notice how many different complementary cuisines the same line can support.