Restaurant Review Project 17- Coco’s

I came back to Bahrain on the 12th of May and there was something so reassuring about being back to the familiar setting. I was all the more excited about taking it from where I had left off. My Restaurant Review Project seemed like a scrapped project when I went back to India, amidst all the crisis.

As I stood against the backdrop of the Financial Harbour in Manama city and the setting sun, my heart experience mixed emotions. Life seemed to limping back to normalcy but the sight of tanks /APCs undid the small confidence. Below is the picture of Financial Harbour in Manama.

Soon plans were made and we found ourselves ( my hubby and my friend, Namit) at ZoE in block 338. I always wanted to check out Zoe before but never got around doing it. A quick survey of the menu and it was unexciting like a mall without sale signs. We still ordered for some drinks but the wine was too meh! I was hopelessly disappointed with the whole set up. The seats weren’t comfortable and the food unappealing. We were forced to search for something else in the same block where the food didn’t seem so stodgy. After a little flurrying around we landed at COCOs. So a review that was going to be about ZOE is now about Coco’s.

Coco’s is in block 338 and is a clear case of a beautiful vintage Villa being turned into a restaurant that even had garden seating for customers. It was tad too humid and warm to sit outside but the indoors were packed. The statement fountain intrigued me and found myself looking at it every now and then.

We were given the impression that a wine list would be given to us but after a few minutes of waiting it was made clear that no alcohol was sold at Cocos. Having made to sit outside and with no wine to chill, it wasn’t the best start. Meanwhile the menu cards arrived and the list seemed pretty exhaustive.

The brunch and breakfast list seemed very interesting. A huge selection of eggs and I am sure, you’d find the the one’s the way you like them on the list. It was a mix of all kinds of cuisine. It had Italian, some middle eastern, some french and Asian dishes thrown it. But what struck me was the prices and I found it pretty affordable. At 3 or 4 BD per dish( average), this place can make for a regular haunt, I decided.
But I was made to bite my tongue sooner than I would have liked.

I had ordered Grilled Hammour with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies, all covered in tomato sauce. It arrived piping hot and was a decent fare. The hammour was well done and mashed potatoes were their buttery best. I was happy with my dish until the point I actually got bored of eating it. All the buttered mash potatoes and the grilled to perfection Hammour seemed bland and boring after some time. Wonder why!

Amit, ordered some grilled chicken sandwich (a safe choice) with some refreshing watermelon juice. He felt that the chicken was too tough to chew on and extremely dry. It was a four part sandwich and he couldn’t get past two.

Namit had ordered Penne Ariabiata which seemed appetising from afar that I almost wished I had ordered it instead of my unexciting hammour. But soon similar complaints of a bland fare were exchanged from his end too.

So all in all, Coco’s did not manage to impress us lot. Considering the brimming crowd we felt like pariahs and the only ones who thought it wasn’t really that great.
It cost us 10 BD which was the only thumbs up in the whole deal and we made a hasty retreat.
So Coco’s has been SLICED and wasn’t the best place to start with!!

The rating goes like this:
Food- 2.5/5
Service 3/5
Ambience 3/5
Overall 3/5

I still have hope for Cocos and might dare visit them again for brunch or breakfast. Don’t know whether I would have company though:-)

Restaurant Review Project 12- Thailand & A Poll

Yay!

I am half way already into my 24  restaurants for Restaurant Review Project.

And Phew!

A whole lot of food consumed, savoured, talked  and written about on my blog. I remember every one of the trysts very distinctively. It may not be the food alone. The company of friends and family was what made it all so beautiful and memorable. Thank you , Amit, Namit and lovely daughter Mimi. There have been days, when none of us were really in the mood to eat out, yet they accompanied me because they knew this was important to me. *wipes a tear rolling down*

Now for the review:

It had been a while that we hadn’t visited any South East Asian restaurant. Thai food was one of my favourites but this was before I tried Japanese. I was enchanted. But for old times sake and to revive some lovely memories of having visited Thailand for our honeymoon, we decided to sample some Thai food at “Thailand”  at block 338, Adliya.

Same night, there was a market place being set up too. A market place selling, store-bought items at even higher a price. Well there we some boutique patissiere selling stunning macaroons and some lovely photographs. If I had a home of my own here, I would have most definitely bought one.

So Thailand – the restaurant, has an impressive exterior.

When we stepped in, we were greeted by a life-size wooden statue of a Thai lady and I almost exclaimed ” Hi there!”. Inside the whole placed was completely bamboo-ed and gave the feel of being rustic. The chairs and tables were all cane and not really comfortable. They had separate seating area for non-smokers. I like that. The initial impression was that of a lazy, relaxed place which might serve good food. There was a lavish bar right in front of us and a glass case full of artefacts from Thailand and a full length ( breadthwise) frame of all the possible Monarchs in the world sitting in single row. That photo made quite an impression on my mind. A few steps away from the entrance they had a small fountain with a few beautiful but scared fish. Too many things in a small place but t ‘was nice as it gave me the feeling of being inside one of the restaurants in Goa.

Sweet looking waitress quickly gave us the food and beverage menu. At the first glance, it seemed pretty balanced. A whole section dedicated to vegetarian food and the selection looked pretty good.
Amit ordered his beer and the rest of us settled for the humble still water. Food was quickly ordered - starter & main course.

Starters came in first – Som Tam ( Papaya salad) and fries ( Customary. For my daughter)

Som Tam

Meanwhile we got around entertaining my daughter who was getting increasingly restless. That’s when we started looking at our watch every now and then. The relaxed dinner was soon turning into when-will-they-bring-the-d**n-thing-so-that-we-can-stuff-and-go. Finally after waiting for good 30 minutes or more, food did arrive and it looked good.

I had ordered some stir fried chicken in basil and chilli while Amit had a stir fried chicken in Cashew with steamed rice.

Stir fry chicken with basil and chilli

Stir fry chicken with chashew

Both of these were good, the chicken was tender and full of flavour but they had upped the heat a few notches than what we would have liked. Amit was in a miserable state after a few spoonfuls. But I enjoyed the fiery plate and helped myself from Amit’s as well. It had been days, that I have had the opportunity to really test my taste buds to this extent. But that apart, I felt, for others’ sake, they could have done with a little less chilly. Amit’s was supposed to be sweet and savory since it called for cashew to flavour the gravy. But it wasn’t so, for that alone, I felt, maybe they didn’t get it right, inspite of the time they took to serve us.

Namit had ordered Thai Fat Noodles with lots of sprouts and vegetables. He seemed to enjoy it as he finished off the whole thing.

Thai Fat Noodles

After we finished our grub, I felt a strong craving to have something sweet. So we perused through the menu for something delectable, delicious and sinful. None of these adjectives were done justice by the very dowdy looking desserts in the menu. So we took off after paying the bill. A meal for 3 + fries for my baby + 1 beer came to about 11 BD.

When I headed out, I found a stall (at the marketplace) selling macaroons, just wrapping up for the day. I rushed to them with the request of a single macaroon and the kind lady at the stall obliged by giving me one ( rose flavoured & yum) free of cost. Who says there are no free meals?? I just had my very first macaroon ever, free and it was wonderful. Free meals taste better, anyday.

So now for the verdict:
It was a forgettable meal except my tongue was still tingling with the raw taste of chilli. I enjoyed it till the moment I was having it. It did not stay and while I am penning this down, I had to try hard to recapture what I felt when we sat there at Thailand.
Definitely, did not bring back the lovely honeymoon memories from Thailand and I am sure, my husband would agree too.

Food – 3/5
Ambience – 3/5
Service 2.5/5
Overall 3/5

Now for the news! While we were waiting for our food to be served, my husband & my friend Namit came up with this idea, that I should start branding my visits to these places. I was perplexed as to what they were talking about. How can I brand my visit? Does it mean I have to print my visiting cards saying ” Anita Menon- Blogger+ Restaurant Reviewer who doesn’t eat anything apart from chicken and fish? Apparently that is not what they had in mind. They wanted me to just refer to it in my blog. Example : “Thailand has been SLICED” – Meaning – We have visited Thailand and the review has been done. That sort of thing sounded fun. But I need other opinions about whether I should go about remarking “So-and-so restaurant has been SLICED!!!”. It wouldn’t mean a thing to anybody, but for fun sake should I go ahead or would it look too ‘wannabe’.

Thanks a lot for participating!!!

 

Restaurant Review Project 8- Casa Mexicana

I think my Restaurant Reviews are jinxed. Last week I was supposed to do “Monsoon” – South East Asian Cuisine (Bahrain) and imagine,  I did not get a reservation there! This was despite the fact that I had called in early for reservations. Well, I understand it’s the hot spot in town and on a Friday night I should have known better. Alas! they were all booked and all they could offer us was some seat at their sushi bar. Naah! I am not going to take that.

On the spot, we chucked Monsoon and drove ourselves to Casa Mexicana. You have little expectations when you change plans like that, at the spur of the moment. You kind of go along with the flow and that flow is immediately disrupted when you realize you have forgotten the camera at home. Duhhhh.

Which self-respecting restaurant reviewer would do that? Well, I did and had to manage with mobile phone photography.

Namit: Thank you very much for saving my day.

So now that we were up and about at Casa Mexican,