Restaurant Review Project 21 – Monsoon

The clear chicken soup with vegetables

Once upon a time, there was an enthusiastic foodie and a blogger who took on the onerous task of reviewing 24 restaurants in a matter of 6 months. Well, that was 6 months ago! Restaurants were visited and revisited but the reviewing was forgotten conveniently. Also the baby that went with the pack to review restaurants grew up to be a highly active 2 and a half-year old who didn’t care about posh restaurants or their food. Slowly and steadily, restaurant visits trickled down and take outs and home delivery were preferred.  But it is time that I go through and fulfill the promise I made myself and show the world what a true foodie I am! For the uninitiated, this post shall elucidate why I took up such a bird-brained project in the first place. After my 20th review, I am really excited to write the 21st one because it is a special one. I have wanted to go to Monsoon, which is located in a stand alone compound in the Food district of Adliya,  for a long time. It has the reputation of being one of the best south-east cuisine churners in the country. They have been awarded numerous awards for culinary excellence year after year. No wonder, my curious taste buds were craving to go check the flavours that Monsoon seem to promise. But as luck would have it, whenever we tried to reserve a space it was always full. Finally after months, we did get a chance and we grabbed it with both hands.  Something just felt right about the night and I was prepared to be charmed.

But nothing prepared me for the fabulous South Eastern interiors and the haunting woodland scents from burning incense. A combination of all this threw my senses into a tizzy and meanwhile we were led to our seats by a gracious hostess dressed in a traditional Thai attire.  The eager bunch of us quickly took our seats and browsed through Monsoon’s exclusive menu. The dishes ranged from Thai, Vietnamese to Malaysian to Japanese and it made it amply difficult to pick out something from the extensive list. The jade crockery they served food in caught my eye and I admired the decor from where I was sitting. Even their washroom seemed a lot like a spa salon with floating roses and lilies and aromatic candles burning at all corners.

For starters we order the Clear and the creamy versions of the chicken soup with vegetables, chicken Satay with peanut sauce and Som Tam( the famous Thai raw Papaya salad) The soups were bursting with tangy flavours with the mild chicken playing its part to balance the taste. I took no time at all to slurp it all down before I took to the menu to order my next course. The chicken satay with peanut sauce was absolute deliciousness on sticks. Perfectly grilled and tender to eat, the chicken satay reminded me of my Honeymoon in Phuket.

Chicken satay with peanut sauce

Som Tam

Som Tam is a true flavour fiesta. It is a gorgeous medley of tangy, sweet, spicy perfectly balanced. It is a kind of starter for which you have to fight for your share because no sooner the waiter plonks the raw papaya platter on the table, it disappears.

Rice dumplings

Some of my vegetarian friends ordered some rice dumplings  which were fresh rolls with fried tofu, mixed herbs and sesame seed served with radish and carrot sauce which I wasn’t too keen on since I rather invest my calories on some good tasting meat. But they did get a big thumbs up from my vegetarian friends.

Assort of main course - Chicken and tofu in different sauces

An assortment of main course which had chicken and tofu in different sauces. These weren’t the top-notch considering how wonderful the starters were. Nevertheless, quite filling and if we hadn’t ordered the starters, we would have liked the main course a whole lot better. For the vegetarians there are plenty options in noodles in different sauces but one such noodle order seemed more like a vermicelli dessert since it was extremely sweet.  The charm seemed to fizzle out as the evening progressed when we finally ordered the dessert.

Panna Cotta with Raspberry coulis

Panna Cotta with raspberry coulis was one of the desserts that we girls picked which left much to be desired. I have not had the best of experiences whilst ordering dessert at South East Asian restaurants. 9/10 times it is a big let down and sadly, it was the case this time too.

Fried ice cream with strawberry compote

Being such a big fan of MasterChef Australia and having seen Pho ( don’t remember the season – Maybe it was 1) make fried ice cream, I wanted to try it atleast once. I expected the batter around the ice cream to be crisp and the ice cream inside the batter to be still firm but it was neither. I wasted my calories on that one, because it is a universal rule that once you order a dessert, it is your responsibility to finish it no matter what ( don’t ask me who propounded this rule. I just use it as per convenience)

All in all the sum total came to a handsome 63 Bahraini Dinar for a meal of 5 with drinks.

You can see me partially hidden towards the end. This photo is a reminder of what a wonderful time was had by us all. Food, wine and good company makes for a perfect evening. Monsoon fits the bill ( pun intended) in every possible way to meet this end. It is a place to relax, converse, nibble, inhale the fragrant aroma and be at peace. I would highly recommend Monsoon to anyone who wants to try authentic South East Asian cuisine and revel in a zen like space.

Monsoon has been Sliced!!

The verdict is :
Food – 4.5 /5
Ambiance – 4.5/5
Service – 4/5
Overall – 4.5 /5

Restaurant Review Project 18- Traders Vic’s

I have been to Trader Vic’s before and absolutely loved the place. This a Polynesian themed restaurant that promises to give you the true Hawaiian experience. At Traders Vic, which is located at Ritz Carlton, Manama, it feels you have entered a different era altogether. You will find waitresses sashaying in Suzie Wong like dresses  like  the one I have pasted below

Sizzling right?

Trader Vic’s  sports an easy , idyllic atmosphere that makes you feel comfortable at once. It gives you the 1970′s kind of a feel for some reason though everything that they offer and the music that they play keeps with today’s times.  A live band belts out jazz numbers and enthusiastic guests can shake a leg to get the mood going. There is outdoor seating that is very tempting to take but only when the weather is a tad clement. We opted to be seated indoors. Guests were streaming in on a lively friday and it was easy to be bedazzled by the blitz of decked up women and swashbuckling men. I could have spent all my time just looking at this lot, dressed in their designer best and looking like million bucks.

All of this and the beautiful decor of the place put me in a party mood.

My company for the evening were my husband and our friend Namit.

The server came over to take our order and we had a tough time choosing from the wide array of food choices. Trader Vic’s boasts of the best of the world cuisine on their menu – from the finest of caviar to the best of seafood cocktail platter. We settled for platter which offered us cheese balls, crab meat fritters, prawns cocktail and fried/seasoned chicken pieces. I fail to recall their precise names but it was wonderfully tasty.

I loved their  sea shell printed plates.

They offer a complimentary basket of breads and dips such as a mustard dip, chinese mustard dip (which is extremely tart , spicy and strange), a soy concoction and butter.

The appetisers looked so great that I felt coerced to order one more and  ordered the very delectable Calamari ( deep fried squid)

After the sumptuous appetiser treat, I was absolutely sure about skipping the main course because I had to sample some desserts. Oops!I totally forgot about the special part of the whole dinner. The DRINKS!!! Trader Vic’s specialize in shaking up some mind blowing cocktails. We ordered for a shared Rum Kegel. Though am not a habitual rum drinker neither was our friend Namit, who is a teetotaler. For once, Namit decided that he would want to give the spirit a try. The rum kegel was beautifully presented in a conch shell with 3 straws and adorning purple orchid. Sigh!

This rum concoction put us is a jaunty mood and I was quite surprised that  Namit was quite enjoying himself  after a few sips of the spirited confection.

My cohorts were up for some asian and continental cuisine so they ordered the main course.

Amit ordered for the Chicken 9 spice which looked brilliant and from all the mmmm sounds that Amit made by devouring it, meant it was really divine

Namit ordered the Udon Vegetarian noodles which were spicy and colorful.

Finally the best bit came when we ordered the dessert. … erm when I ordered the dessert.  It was the Tahitian Vanilla Creme Brulee. It looked elegant and tasted so light and fresh. The burnt caramel on the top gave a crunch to the otherwise delicate dessert.

And last but not the least, I was awfully excited about the fortune cookie that was offered along with the bill. I love the fortune cookie for the cookie bit and not for the fortune bit. Anyways, the fortune cookie predicted some kind of imminent doom in the near future. So all I did was to gobble up the cookie and toss the fortune chit away!

A meal for 3 with drinks landed us a fat check of 47 BD but worth every buck.

So Trader Vic’s has been SLICED and verdict is

Food – 4/5

Service 4/5

Ambience – 4.5/5

Overall – 4/5

You can be certain about having a great time, if you are at Trader Vic’s and I would highly recommend it, if you have  a birthday to celebrate or a promotion with a small set of friends. It is not the most ideal place for children but Mimi has already been there inspite of it and she had a good time.

I particularly liked the little knick-knack on our table. Presenting – Mr. Salt and Mr. Pepper

Restaurant Review Project 16- Memories

This one’s a special review because it was birthday celebration dinner. Our dear friend, Namit who had had his birthday on the 9th of March, asked us out for dinner on the 10th of March, at Memories. This beautiful restaurant is located at the Bahrain City Center. Original plan was to go to Memories of China but somehow it all got mixed up and we ended up at Memories where they serve all kinds of South East Asian Cuisine.

The situation in Bahrain is still extremely tensed and you can feel the stress in the air. The restaurant was uncharacteristically desolate with just a few families dining at disparate corners. When you see such a sight, it makes you queasy. Heart is tormented by guilt and brazenness – half and half. Guilt because, we are having a good time while things aren’t their best in the city and brazenness because we chose to come out  when majority people chose to stay indoors. Shaking that feeling off, we took our places at this stylish restaurant. No sooner, we picked the menu card, did we realize our mix up. This wasn’t the intended restaurant but we decided to order anyways.

For starters, we ordered

Edamame

- which are immature soyabeans boiled in their pods and salted. This was the first time I dug into the succelent beans and enjoyed it.

Vegetable Tempura

- The tempura wasn’t as light and crispy as I would have liked. The vegetable pieces weren’t thinly sliced and that made all the difference.

For the maincourse we ordered

Sweet and Sour Chicken and Rice

- It is customary to order sweet and sour chicken/vegetables at a south east asian restaurant. It is a safe choice, if you ask me. There is very little that can go wrong. This was an average version of Sweet and Sour with chicken. Not good. Not bad. As for the rice, we had ordered for steam rice but it turned out more towards the sticky side. I am not a big fan of sticky rice and steered clear for the evening.

Singaporean Prawns

- Loved the prawns which were cooked to perfection. The gravy had a some yogurt or bean curd- I am not sure about this. But it tasted lovely.

Bakmi Goreng

- These Indonesian egg noddles were splendid. They are fried noodles with a generous helping of vegetables such as carrots, cabbage and shrimp, chicken and egg. I love this version of wheat noodles which were so refreshingly different from the regular hakka.

Braised Tofu for the Vegetarian Birthday Boy

-This was Tofu braised with vegetables and what looked like soy sauce. It was horridly bland and nothing ( neither salt nor pepper) could salvage this case. Quite an unfortunate choice by the birthday boy.

So Memories leaves me with no memories of anything spectacular. I find this a common problem with restaurants that seem to offer myriad of cuisines in one platter. They just do not do justice and seem like trying too hard. This I have to admit, that Memories did not have the run-of-the-mill menu. They had tried to incorporate varied flavours but weren’t able to come out with flying colours in all of them. I feel bad for Namit- Birthday Boy as he seemed to go hungry that night. We did not feel like trying any desserts so we just asked for the check.

A meal for 3 cost us 21.780 BD to be precise. Just about average for the average food.
But as custom dictates, I shall announce that Memories ( Bahrain City Center) has been SLICED!!
The verdict goes like this

Food- 3/5
Ambience 4/5
Service – 3/5
Overall – 3/5

It remains to be seen, whether I would be able to go and review another restaurant in Bahrain. Stepping out has become a problem with the sectarian clash here in Bahrain. I hope I am able to otherwise it would make me very sad. So fingers crossed.

Restaurant Review Project 15- Spices

The original plan was to stick to one restaurant review per week. But when we planned to go for dinner at Spices which is an Indian Restaurant at The Crowne Plaza, I could not just come back  and not write about the lovely gastronomic experience. Even before I dined there, I had heard only good things about Spices. So I was looking forward to it more than ever.

Spices of India

Upon entering, we were greeted by the loveliest of hostess and servers. What felt me bewildered was why were they all standing outside the restaurant? Were we too early for dinner? Certainly 7:45 pm was a not early for dinner. Once we did get past them,  after all the pleasantries exchanged, I realized the whole restaurant was near empty. Barring two gentlemen enjoying their drinking session, we were the only ones there.  The current scenario is Bahrain is really taking it’s toll on these restaurants. All the servers rushed to entertain and lavish us with all their attention. Mimi was the center of all the drama. The restaurant is very spacious and there is a healthy distance between two tables. This was quite a change from the others we have been to.

I always wonder, each time, we consciously choose to go to an Indian Restaurant – Why do I crave to eat the very same thing that I make at home practically every single day? I mean apart from the tandoor items and the lacchhaa parathas kind of specialty, 95 % of the items on the menu find way on our lunch and dinner tables every single day. Inspite of it, I find myself drooling over the tadka daal description on the Spices menu. My guess is it has to something  to do with conditioning. The moment my eyes set on the dal tadka and the baigan sabji on the list, I automatically started to conjure up these heartening  images of hot, spicy delicacies. Also, I have observed ( after having dined with a number of friends, acqaintances, and all alone too) that we end up ordering the same thing over and over again. It is quite okay to experiment with other cuisines but when it comes to Indian Khana, it doesn’t get better than yellow lentil /dal and the yummy vegetable or even a boondi raitha( mixed vegetable yogurt)?

Enough of the rambling! Now coming back to Spices. I need to admit that for an Indian Restaurant, it was quite elegant. Not saying this in a condescending way, but Indian restaurants usually concentrate on the food rather than the ambience. This may be because Spices is not a stand alone restaurant but a hotel – restaurant. The lighting was just perfect and it was flanked by large glass windows on all the sides. This provided a brilliant view outside while you sip your Mango Lassi. They have an extensive menu which we avoid and attacked the main course menu right away. We had little patience for starters and ordered our regular yellow lentil/ dal tempered with red chillies and cumin, with a basket of bread. The basket of bread is a good deal as it has all kinds of Indian Flat Breads such as the tandoori roti, the missi roti, the nan etc.  The other vegetable sides included the bhindi do pyaza ( Fried and spiced okra and onions) and Baigan Tava fry ( Aubergine fried in the onion-tomato gravy). To balance out the spicy food, we ordered the mixed vegetable raitha ( yogurt).

The servers placed a basket of pappads /poppadams which were complimentary with choice of chutneys. This is one complaint I have against all the Indian Restaurants, why is papad the only complimentary food served. It is such a cliche. Why not a vada or a samosa? I mean, somebody can be a litte innovative and do something that will set them apart.

Amit had ordered the Mango lassi while I consciously avoided it fearing the calories. Extra calories. But I couldn’t keep my temptation at bay and I had to take a sip. It was divine. Namit and I immediately asked for the menu and settled for the strawberry lassi ( that had maple syrup). But it wasn’t as brilliant as the mango lassi.

All food arrived at the same time. The presentation was lovely and it was piping hot. Full marks for that. Only thing left was for us to dig in. We got so engrossed in our food that we forgot to take photographs and finally had to do with the photograph of a single plate with all the delicious food.  This itself is the sign that the food was really quite good.

We made a conscious decision of not ordering non vegetarian but a quick glance at that section told me that the selection was varied and very interesting. Similarly their drinks section has a great selection of wines etc.

The staff was very courteous and trying their best to please us. Probably going a little overboard with their enthusiasm. By the time, we were done with our grub, a few Indian families had walked in.

Now for the verdict

Food 4/5

Ambience 4/5

Service 4/5

Overall 4/5

I, very proudly announce that Spices has been SLICED!!

A meal for 3 came to around 20 BD which is swell considering the portions and how yummy the food was.