Savouring in the Flavors
FIRST IMPRESSION
Even though it is part of a hotel (Platinum Grand), let this not influence you in any way. The restaurant runs by its own identity. As soon as I walked in, red immediately seemed very ubiquitous. From lanterns to napkins, Flavors has made a lot of use of red. It is quite a popular colour in Chinese culture, making dominant appearances in various festivals like the Chinese New Year.
It's not a fine-dining restaurant, and neither is it completely casual: just a perfect blend of the two to make your visit a sophisticated and also a very relaxed one. They mainly serve delicacies from three Chinese provinces: Hunan, Cantonese and Sichuan.
The menu is rather elaborate, and as I flipped through its pages, it became clear why: it is visually very rich, so that you can see the delicacies and get an understanding of it when you are ordering.
WHAT I ORDERED
I started off with jam beef - sweet and spicy cold cuts that is a fantastic appetiser to the meal. Next came 'fried shrimp with shredded potato' - brown balls of shredded potatoes with shrimp inside, and two delicious sauces on the side. Prawn is something you should definitely try from the menu. 'Bi feng tang fried prawn', to illustrate, is a hot and spicy, dry, delicacy that features prawn amidst a mixture of tiny crumbs of deep-fried carrots, garlic and dried chilli.
If you are in for hot and spicy, then their 'boiled beef in chilli sauce' could be your favourite. The gravy dish is really mouth-watering to look at, with an abundance of red chillies in the serving. And it delivers what it promises: a superb beef curry that is extremely spicy.
The restaurant has indeed gone great lengths to ensure that the food they serve are indeed authentic Chinese. Great lengths, literally speaking, as they boast three Chinese chefs who now run the kitchen; and the fact that prior to its inception, when the restaurant was busy figuring things out, it hired consultants from China to ensure that it can deliver the true experience.
Flavors, true to its name, will not fail to bring you a wide plethora of tastes that will entertain your different taste buds - owing to the fact that it has foods of three different Chinese provinces. You may try their ' baked salty chicken', which is a savoury with a refreshing 'herb-like' aroma and taste. For rice, I tried 'pineapple fried rice with prawn', which is an item also found, in some shape or form, in many Thai places too. The dish is served with a half-cut pineapple with rice 'overflowing' out of it. The refreshing raisins, crunchy cashew nuts and fruity pineapple make up for the flavours of the rice.
And last but not the least, the restaurant offers some fruit-based desserts and a small selection of drinks that include juices, mocktails, teas, etc.
VALUE FOR MONEY
As said before, even though it is an eatery in a hotel, pricing is not high as some people may presume it to be. To give you an idea so that you can make your own judgement about prices, jam beef is priced at Tk500. The pineapple rice costs Tk580 and the spicy beef curry comes with a price tag of Tk700. Servings are 1:2; almost all individual items are within Tk1000.
Essential info
Address: House # 52 (Platinum Grand hotel), Road # 11, Banani. Contact number: 9870913. Facebook page: www.facebook.com/flavorschinese. Business hours: 12pm-11pm.
By M H Haider
Photo courtesy: Flavors
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