Clove Indian Cuisine & Bar

FOOD

Clove’s buffet is a changing cross-section of its North Indian kitchen rather than a fixed checklist. The line rotates, but its structure stays recognizable: basmati rice, fresh naan, vegetarian dishes, meat curries, tandoor cooking, cooling accompaniments and a small sweet finish. That makes the buffet easy to approach in stages. Build one plate around vegetables and paneer, another around chicken, and leave room for goat curry when it joins the lineup.

Start with the things that make every other dish easier to read. Basmati rice gives the gravies a clean, fragrant base, while garlic naan brings the charred, chewy pull of bread from the clay oven. Raita – seasoned yogurt served cool – is more than a side cup; it softens chile heat and gives a rich plate somewhere to reset. Chutneys can push in the opposite direction with sweetness, herbs or acidity.

The vegetarian side is where an Indian buffet can become much more than meat with rice, and saag paneer is one of Clove’s useful anchors. The dish combines spinach with soft cubes of Indian cheese in a creamy, gently spiced sauce. It has enough body to carry a plate on its own, especially with naan, and it creates a different texture from the tomato-based curries elsewhere on the line. The larger kitchen also works broadly with lentils, chickpeas, paneer and vegetables, giving the rotating buffet plenty of room to change without losing its identity.

Chicken offers the clearest contrast between sauce and tandoor. Chicken tikka masala takes pieces of cooked chicken and folds them into a creamy, spiced tomato sauce. Butter chicken moves in a similarly rich direction, softer and more buttery, while tandoori chicken removes the gravy entirely and lets the marinade, smoke and char do the work. When several of these appear together, taking smaller portions first makes the differences much easier to appreciate.

Goat curry brings a deeper, slower-cooked character. Goat has more structure and a more pronounced flavor than chicken, so it benefits from the long cooking that turns the meat tender and lets the sauce absorb into every bite. It is exactly the kind of dish an all-you-can-eat lunch encourages people to try: take a modest spoonful, see how it works with rice or naan, and return if it is more compelling than expected.

The remaining pieces are there to keep the meal from becoming a succession of heavy gravies. Salad, yogurt, chutneys and any fried or roasted starters in the day’s rotation add crunch, coolness, acidity or smoke. A plate of saag paneer, tandoori chicken and rice feels very different after a spoonful of raita or a sharp chutney, and the buffet format makes those small adjustments easy to test from one trip to the next.

Dessert is the final, smaller stop rather than a second buffet unto itself. Clove’s broader dessert vocabulary includes syrup-soaked gulab jamun, milk-based rasmalai, carrot halwa, rice pudding and kulfi, while the lunch selection can rotate. The best way through the buffet is therefore progressive rather than exhaustive: one plate to map the line, one plate built around the dishes that stood out, and enough warm naan left to make the last spoonful of curry worth chasing.