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Looking for an Indian Buffet in Toowoomba?

We don’t run one. Here is the honest reason why, and what we do instead when you need to feed a lot of people.

Ice n Spice does not have an Indian buffet. Everything is cooked to order. For groups who want the same thing a buffet gives you, which is a lot of variety on the table for a set amount per head, we set up a shared banquet order instead. You pick the dishes in advance, the kitchen cooks them fresh, and they come out to the middle of the table. Call 07 4659 7777 to arrange it.

Why we don't do a buffet

Not snobbery. It is a straightforward trade-off, and it is worth understanding before you choose a restaurant for your group.

A buffet has to hold food at temperature for hours. That works well for some dishes and badly for others. Dal is fine. A tandoori lamb cutlet held in a bain-marie for ninety minutes is not the same object that came out of the oven. Rice dries at the edges. Breads go leathery. Anything with a delicate finish loses it.

To make a buffet work economically, you also cook everything from a smaller number of base gravies, because eight separately built gravies for a rotating tray is not viable. That is exactly the shortcut we have spent thirteen years avoiding.

So we do not offer one. It is a real limitation and if unlimited servings for a fixed price is what you want, we are honestly not the right venue.

What we do instead: a shared banquet

Indian food was designed to be eaten this way. Dishes in the middle, rice and bread to pass around, everyone building their own plate. It gets you the variety of a buffet without the holding tray.

How it works in practice:

  1. Ring us with your numbers and a rough date. The earlier the better if it is a weekend.
  2. We work out a dish list together. Usually a mix of tandoori entrees, two or three meat curries, two vegetarian dishes, a dal, breads and rice.
  3. Tell us the dietary requirements up front. Vegans, coeliacs, anyone who cannot handle chilli. It is much easier to build this into the plan than to solve it on the night.
  4. The kitchen cooks it fresh when you sit down. Dishes come out in waves rather than all at once, which keeps the tandoor items hot when they hit the table.

How much food per person

The most common question, and most people over-order. A working guide:

  • Entrees: allow one to two pieces per person if you are also serving mains. Tandoori entrees are filling.
  • Curries: roughly three quarters of a main dish per person. Six people, four or five curries. Ten people, seven or eight.
  • Rice: one large serve for every three people, and order it separately from the curries.
  • Bread: one to one and a half breads per person. Split it across plain naan, garlic naan and roti so there is something for everyone.
  • Dal: one for the table, always. It is the dish everyone goes back to.

Add one deliberately mild dish per six people regardless of what the group says about liking heat. Butter chicken, korma or paneer butter masala. There is always someone.

What it costs, roughly

Curries and biryani run in the $22 to $27 range, breads $5 to $8.50 and rice $3 to $5. Shared across a group and ordered sensibly, that lands in similar territory to a mid-range buffet, with the difference that everything on the table was cooked when you arrived.

 

If you specifically want a buffet

Then you should go and find one, and we would rather tell you that than waste your time. Buffets suit some occasions genuinely well. Large mixed groups with young children, work functions where people arrive at different times, and anyone who wants to try eight things without committing to any of them.

What we would suggest is to ring ahead and ask two questions of any buffet venue: how often the trays are refreshed, and whether the tandoori items are cooked to order or held. The answers will tell you a lot.

Lunch, if you want variety without a group

The lunch thali is the closest thing on our menu to the buffet experience for one person. Two dishes with rice and bread on a single plate, $20 to $25, served 11:30am to 2pm. It is a fast way to try more than one thing without ordering two mains.

Have a look at the full menu, or read more about how we handle functions and group bookings.

Visit Us
Address177A–179 Margaret Street, Toowoomba City QLD 4350
Phone07 4659 7777
Emailinfo@restaurantstoowoomba.com.au
Lunch11:30am to 2pm, seven days
Dinner4:30pm to 9pm, seven days
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Common questions

No. All dishes are cooked to order. For groups we arrange a shared banquet instead, where dishes are chosen in advance and cooked fresh when you arrive.
Holding food at temperature for hours suits some dishes and ruins others, particularly anything from the tandoor. Buffets also rely on shared base gravies, and we build our gravies separately.

A shared banquet order. You choose the dishes in advance with us, they arrive in the middle of the table in waves, and everyone serves themselves.

Around three quarters of a curry per person, one large rice per three people, one to one and a half breads per person, and one dal for the table.
It lands in similar territory to a mid-range buffet when ordered sensibly. Curries and biryani are $22 to $27, breads $5 to $8.50 and rice $3 to $5.

Speak to us on 07 4659 7777. We build the dish list around your group size and dietary requirements rather than working from a fixed sheet.

Yes. The lunch thali gives you two dishes with rice and bread on one plate for $20 to $25, served 11:30am to 2pm.
The earlier the better, particularly for weekends. Ring the restaurant as soon as you have a date and a rough number.

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