(Un)Holy Iftar

It’s been a while since my last update. The entire gang got together for iftar at a place called “The Diner” which is next to Espresso on Khayaban-e-Shahbaz. All in all there were thirteen of us inclusive of current and ex-Ogilvians.

At iftar time we were served an iftar platter which comprised of 3 mini burgers, a few buffalo wings, chicken sticks and some samosas and pakorays. Because we were hungry at that time it all seemed pretty good.

The iftar deal for ‘The Diner’ was Rs. 895 per head exclusive of tax and we could pick any item from a given menu there would be unlimited servings from the iftar menu, just to be clear, ‘unlimited servings’ means that you can order as many items as you want within the given menu and not huge servings.

I wanted to play safe so I ordered the “Mushroom Steak”. After a good 45 minutes of waiting and throwing tantrums, the food finally arrived. If the company had not been so much fun, we would all have gone nuts.

When the food arrived, they gave me a “Pepper Steak” instead of my original order, but, I rolled with it because of the fear that they would take another 45 minutes if they had to change the order. It would actually have made no difference either way because it was by far the puniest steak I have ever seen in my life! It was the first time in my life that I was done with my meal before the waiters were done serving it! There wasn’t enough of the steak on the plate to actually gauge the taste of it, all I can say is that it was a very dry steak, as if it was prepared hours in advance and just heated in a microwave before serving and the mashed potatoes were way too salty.

Our newest gang member, Sadia, ordered the “Prawn Pasta” which had a whopping one tiny prawn in it and smelled horribly like fish. She could not get passed a few bites, I don’t blame her, it was virtually the same story of discontent up and down our table. The only saving grace was the “Vanilla Ice Cream Brownie” which someone suggested that these guys got from Espresso!

The horror story that is “The Diner” does not end here. The very next day myself, Mahreen, Yasir and Sadia all mysteriously seem to have upset stomachs!

Overall, the only good thing about the entire experience was the people we brought. “The Diner” however, spectacularly makes the top of the Blacklist, eliminating Kahva! All readers are warned, you go to “The Diner” at your own peril!

Room Service At The Office

June 17th, 2010: This is just something I have to mention, I ordered in with a couple of friends from a only place called 'Room Service'. I had tried it out with some friends when it opened up and had some consistency issues, but, people had been telling me for a while that the place had gotten it's act together. It was about time I gave it another shot.

They have a menu that has a good range, pastas, burgers, salads, soups etc. The Prices were not exactly very cheap but considering the serving per order they sent over, it was pretty reasonable.

I found the Beef in Oyster and Mushroom Sauce to be an interesting option, but, on recommendation by Hufsa I ordered the Beef Teppanyaki. They said they would deliver in 30 minutes and they lived up to that promise. The food got here warm and on time.

The Teppanyaki looked brilliant even in the food saver, I'm sorry there are no pictures because at the time it just did not cross my mind, I was more focused on eating the food.

Enough about the setup, lets talk about the food itself.

My greatest fear with beef is that some chef's out of an attempt to churn out food at a quick pace, leave it slightly undercooked, no such worries here. The food was very well cooked and the balance of meat and vegetables was pretty okay, I can't even complain that there were more veggies than meat.

The food tasted fantastic, there was a very healthy serving and I finished it all. Nothing was under or over cooked, even the rice and the vegetables and there wasn't too much or too less of any spice. It was all just right. The proportions of the ingredients was balanced out very well. Points scored for Room Service that gave me a pretty good meal.

Overall, a marked improvement from the last time, this time I was impressed. I just have one question and one recommendation. The question is: what is up with all the asterisks in the menu? The recommendation is: Punh-leeze send over some better cutlery! The plastic forks and knives are just sad!

Menu below! Give it a whirl and leave a comment!

Cheers,

Z

A Farewell To Remember!

12th June, 2010: We were giving a bunch of our own a farewell dinner, Fatima, Faisal, Shaheryar and Ardy have left our ranks to pursue adventures elsewhere. On a Saturday, we took them to Fuchsia.

This will probably be the shortest update I will ever make on this blog. This blog is titled Food and "WHINE" so an essential element is criticism, now read on.

The food was fantastic! There is no other way to say it. It was absolutely perfect, it came on time, the service was friendly and prompt. The best part is, the food was not served ala carte, so everyone could have everything.

For starters we had the Prawn Fritters, Prawn Dumplings, Marinated Beef Soya Sauce and the Garlic Chicken. Shazia graciously handed me her Tom Yum Soup which was a little salty but brilliant nonetheless.

For our main course we had the Dried Beef in Basil, Red Curry Prawns, Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Chicken in Green Curry and Red Snapper in Tamarind Sauce.

There is nothing I can whine about in Fuchsia. It's my new favourite place in town!

Cheers,

Z

All I want is Flo: Shaheryar Mirza

This is a brilliant piece written by my great friend and colleague Shaheryar Mirza. This will put into perspective the eating habits of the Ogilvy-ites.

Enjoy!




*Part 1 inspired by 'All I want is you' (U2)
**Part 2 inspired by 'Killing me Softly' by Roberta Flack
*** Dedicated to our food-lovin' gang.


PART 1

You say you want
Diners with chairs of gold
Home delivery to remain un-cold
You say you’ll trade
Sabzi for Dominos
Nando’s for a slice of toast
But all the orders we place
From the taste-bud to the waist
When all I want is Flo

Yaa-sir he caught
A Daewoo with no one on it
A bumble bee in his bonnet
A song without a sonnet
A Bombay with no bakery
All the bitches in the night

You say you’ll give
Your blood for BAT
Your sweat for Disco Auntie
Your tears for daal roti
But all the shawermas we ate
From the platter to the ‘pait’
When all you want is Flo

Mimi she brings me
Wet tissues in a time of dryness
Chocolates in a time of blandness
A Dabur from the chemist
She says she’ll wait
Till everyone agrees
It’s a total democracy
Nothing’s free
In love and gluttony
But all the Butter Puffs she slays
From teatime to After-Eight
When all she wants is Flo

You say you want
Khao soi from Simple Dimple
Lasagnia from Room Service
A Zinger from Uncle Sander’s
Green Curry from Chairman Mao
But all the ulcers we embrace
From Sindhi Muslim to every DHA Phase
When all we want is
Let’s face it…sex
No wait
Flooooooo…all I want is Flooooooo

Fahad get the plates
Mohsin line up the Coke
Sani attacks his Student Biryani
Hasnain prowls like Daku Rani
Henny’s I shrunk the kids
‘Cause the sandwich never came
If it’s Bihari from Mealtime
Sherry’s to blame
All Roasters and no service
Makes Shazia crabby
Zubi went to Kahva
And found it shabby
Hufsah smacked the rider
‘Cause he was 2 minutes late
Sanober stopped bringing Karhee
Since she put on weight
When the day is done
We turn to brew
And when the Achaari’s too spicy
We go “Aaachooooo”


--------------------------

------

PART 2

I heard they served a good meal
I had they had a style
So we went to Cafe Koel
To eat appetizers for a while
And there she was this French girl
A stranger to my speed dial

Recommending her guests fish fingers
Steaming my rice with her words
Grilling me softly this French girl
Grilling me softly this French girl
Thrilling my steak knife with her swirl
Grilling me softly with her song

She said I run this place called Flo
We get a pretty good crowd
I almost dropped the butter
Her 'Bonjour' left no space for doubt
I fumbled with the English language
But she just kept right on

Marinating my mind with her fingers
Seasoning my wine with her words
Tried to woo her with my rendition of 'voulez vous'
But she didn't like Abba
She may have grilled me softly
But the bill came harshly
And so I bid 'Au Revoir'
To my French muse
And went back to Chicken Sour
From Eaton

A Studio In Disguise

Sunday 25th, April: This is the first and probably the last time that I write about a place that I have not been to.

My friend Danial arranged a get together so we CBM'ers can celebrate the close of a semester. We decided that we would go to a place called Studio Cafe. We were a group of 17 people, so, we decided to call ahead and tell them we were coming. BAD IDEA!!

Apparently, to have a reservation at Cafe Studio, you need to pay Rs. 800 per head! This will just get you a main course and a drink... not even sheesha!

But, to be fair, they did give us another option. Run up a bill of Rs. 10,000 at least!

I know what you are thinking, why call ahead? Why not just show up? My answer to that is, we were dumb enough to be nice enough to give Cafe Studio a head's up.

I will not black list Studio Cafe because you need to have bad food to make the list and we never had the food, all 17 of us ended up going to a place called Hot Bites, I did not like the food, but with all my insane friends yelling, screaming, clicking pictures and calling me "gulabo"(something to do with my red t-shirt) I was having way too much fun to even remember what the food tasted like. Honourable mention (drum roll) Sonia the Spunky Chick, Danial, AJW, Talha, Owais, Sana, Kanwal, Fatima Sahi, Fatima Sayani, Anem, Asim, Fahad, Myself, Ali and Waqas! If I forgot anyone... live with it!

But this update is about Cafe Studio, my only advice to them is... Guys if you manage to chase away a group of 17 people who were coming to spend some cash... that is just bad business acumen, and bad business acumen is the first step to the death of a business!

Regards,

Z

Revenge of The Patio

March 9th, 2010: Let me start off by saying thank you to all my friends for this day. It was my birthday and they all took me out for a birthday lunch at a place called The Patio. Smita who drove us all around, Mahreen who bought me a wonderful book on Karachi title Karachiwalas, Yasir, Aneela and Hufsa. It was a day like none other, I did not know any better, I'd say birthdays seem to get better the older you get! Thanks guys for a great Tuesday!

Anyhoo... Down to the eating part!

The Patio is located down the street from Flo and Koel. It's a nice place when you first walk in, with a nice and sunny environment, something like a cafe in a tropical island. We ordered starters, the Honey Lotus Stems, the Melting Mushrooms and Calamari Rings, which were actually quite nice and set the stage for a fairly decent meal to come.

Little did we know.... I ordered the Veal Medallions with Mushroom, Yasir had the Vegetarian Platter, Mahreen and Smita had the Grilled Chicken Tournedos, Hufsa ordered the Mushroom Crepes and Aneela had the Quesadillas.

The food was actually a little decent, at first. I actually liked my veal medallions even though they were not cooked all the way through, which made them slightly chewy. Hufsa hated her crepes which were basically pancakes. There were no major complaints while having the food. Even the "Limupani" we had was ok even though it was Mitchell's Squash with pepper ground into it.

I cannot tell you how much it cost, because I did not pay! A perk of being the birthday boy!

Let me now explain the "Little did we know" which is above. When we got back to the office Smita started feeling slightly uneasy. Mahreen had the same thing and upon coordination we found out that they both were feeling uneasy. Smita did not come in the next day and Mahreen was really sick after wards. On top of it all, me, the birthday boy, who had an interesting dinner planned, had tummy issues!! Later on we found out that Yasir was in the same boat as us. Hufsa did not finish her pancake roll and Aneela has not had any complaints... yet!

Even though that was a very good day for me, but I have had no complaints from the gang about this, The Patio very easily makes the blacklist. Never will I go there again nor will I suggest it to anyone else. If you are in the neighbourhood and feel the munchies, go to Flo or Koel. That is the best advice I can give anyone, stay as far away from The Patio as possible.

You have been warned!

Regards,

Z

The Patio's patio

Veal Medallions

Vegetable Platter

Grilled Chicken Tournedos

Quesadillas

Gyro-scopic Stability

March 1st, 2010: We found this new place, well new to us, Pitacos. We wanted something new delivered to the office and this place kinda fit the bill. The menu was pretty interesting ranging from salads, tacos and sandwiches. The price was pretty reasonable too, Rs. 170 for a gyro seemed like not too bad a deal.

The menu that we found was nicely worded, there was a fair bit of humour involved in the ordering process. It was quite a huge task ordering a gyro called the "Al Pachino Beef" and not making it sound gay. Everyone had their fun with their orders.

Pitacos has a policy that entitles you to a 10% discount if you order before 12:30. Needless to say the ordering was timed to perfection that we availed the said discount. The food took around an hour to arrive and it came to roughly Rs. 200 per head.

The food came with its own set of challenges, the first was deciphering which meal was which. The tacos were the easiest to figure out but the gyros were simply labeled beef and chicken. Yasir had to call up the Pitacos for a tutorial on figuring out the orders. After substantial amount of confusion, we all dug in, much to our disappointment. They were all completely flat, no flavour whatsoever!

It seemed that the meat was simply boiled and stuffed in. Not to take away from Pitacos, the gyros were pretty well stuffed with meat, vegetables and sauces, but the overarching problem was, nobody could taste any of it! How they managed that... I do not know. Even the tacos were "Nasty and tasted a couple of days old!" complained Shazia. It was so bad, that Hasnain and Mahreen did not even finish their gyros. I did not hear a single good comment from anyone who was part of the gyro party.

We all unanimously decided that we were not ordering from Pitacos any time soon. This has proudly landed Pitacos on the blacklist. So people! If you are thinking Pitacos... Change your minds!

Regards,

Z

Ten Flew Into The Cuckoo's Nest

February 26th, 2010: It was Misbah's last day in the office and we all wanted to take her somewhere special for her final farewell lunch. The destination of choice: Cafe Koel. It was 10 people from the office who were part of the goodbye lunch.

I called ahead and asked them to hold a table for us, which they did despite the fact that they don't reserve tables and they were nice enough to call up while we were on our way there to check if we were still coming.

It was a nice place nestled away on the same road as Cafe Flo. I would have missed it if my friends didn't already know where it was. The courtyard was pretty cool but our table was inside and we found that our long table was occupied by a group of our own people who had gotten there first and two complete strangers. In all fairness, the table was divided by some sort of fishbowl.

For starters we had Strawberry Salad, Artichoke Dip, Chicken Potato Salad, Sesame Chicken and Chicken Bites. The strawberry salad was simply awesome! There is no other way to describe it. The sesame chicken had a hair in it which was promptly removed when pointed out. Overall the starters were very well made and then came the famous 'Shikanjbeen' which actually made me a fan of the place. It's something you have to try out for yourself.

The starters had given raised the bar that I was finally hoping that I had found the one place with absolutely nothing wrong with it. But, alas, no such luck. I had ordered the grilled chicken in mushroom sauce, it came looking superb but tasted a little flat. The chicken was oddly tasteless even with the mushroom sauce on it. The strongest flavour in the entire dish was the pepper.

I thought that I was the only one who felt like that but most of the people were not fans of the main course meals. All of which looked fantastic in terms of presentation and there were healthy servings of each dish. Shazia couldn't finish the prawns she had ordered because they were too tough.Faisal our GM could not finish his fish and called for a drink called Fire and Ice whic came out looking very cool with a red chilli on to of it and according to Faisal it tasted spicy.

Overall, I'd recommend Koel for the starters and the 'Shikanjbeen' but the food really did not make an impact. However, it was a good experience eating there but I have a fun gang that I hang out with and we'll probably make any eating experience fun.

But, this lunch was about sayng goodbye to ojne of our own. Misbah is leaving us for a bigger task that life has offered her. I believe I speak for everyone when I say, Misbah, best of luck for the futre and I hope you have a wonderful life ahead of you. Remember us in your prayers and keep reading my blog!

Cheers,

Z

Qulcha Sandwich

Grilled Chicken With Mushrooms


Fire and Ice

Going With The Flo!

Tuesday 19th January, 2010: We threw a farewell party for one of my good friend Aisha,who is leaving Ogilvy, at Cafe Flo. It was just me with 5 chicks at Cafe Flo! Yes people! It is so!

The place was a little hard to notice, being nestled away inside a 'gali' past Abdullah Shah Ghazi Mazar. It was actually pretty nice in terms of outlook, it was pretty cozy. I decided to order a "Number 31", its a name I still have trouble pronouncing, Paupiettes Du Poulet Farcies (saved the name in my phone at the bequest of Mahreen). Smoked veal wrapped inside chicken breast with musrooms and for my drink I had a 'Bango', just because the name has a certain ring to it :)

The Bango came early, and I have forgotten what it tasted like. Why, is probably what you are thinking and believe me I have a pretty darn good reason.

It took forever for our food to arrive and we had a bit of a run in, over the extremely late starter salad, with a waiter who seemed to be in a bad mood. Points subtracted immediately! The STARTER salad actually came after the main course was already on the table and people had already started eating.

With all the grief we endured waiting for our food, the taste of the Bango, it all disappeared when I dug into the steak. It was heavenly! The mushrooms, the veal and the chicken blended seamlessly to make this beautiful creation which I recommend everyone to try atleast once before they die. The sweet potato on the side, should have been replaced with more of the steak! The meat was very well cooked all the way through, and properly marinated, and did not have that fake "steamed chicken" texture that other places have.

It is refreshing to finally have eaten a meal which I can find absolutly nothing wrong with. Bravo to the cook! Flo can try paying their staff a little more just to keep them in a good mood. That is the only territory where Flo loses points.

Cheers,

Z

Ce'st la vie mon ami!

January 18, 2010: After the toughest job looking for the place Owais and I finally found the advertised Cafe La'vie. If I had not been hell bent on finding this place we would have given up half an hour into our search.

Nestled away in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, right behind the airport runway, Cafe La'vie, was a small and unimpressive place. Owias and I had walked in with expectations of French ambiance, with French music and a rustic chateau like setting. To our complete and utter disappointment, it looked like a random ice cream parlour. We could actually point out where corners were cut in the space like the cheap chairs and the false ceiling and the awful wall paper.

In short, the first impression of the place was not that inspiring. The menu was an orgasm of chocolate and the prices were reasonable. I would like to point out here that Cafe La'vie carried only desert, shakes, coffee and juices. I ordered a slice of cake called Black & White (see picture below) and it looked like a cake with fudge plopped all over it. However, taste wise, it was pretty ok but it kept growing on me the more I ate and at the last bite I was convinced that it was divine. No desert has ever managed to give me the feeling and it felt good! From the fudge to the the white chocolate, the mesh of the different tastes of chocolate, was quite literally like having a party in your mouth.

For my drink, I wanted to be adventurous and chose something called Black Velvet. A milk shake made in combination of chocolate and bananas. Sounds odd and that was my rationale for giving it a go. It tasted like walls chocolate ice cream and a banana shake. The two flavours were very distinct and were enough to put anyone off, however after paying 93 bucks for a shake, I was not going to leave it in the middle. Towards the end a flavour of chocolate fudge set in and that is when I started appreciating the drink. It was disappointing that it was only at the end, but it left me with a good memory of the shake but in retrospect, going through the awful taste at the beginning was not worth it.

Overall, Cafe La'vie, deserves a pat on the back for effort, but it just manages to stay off the black list because of the cake. It's a place I would recommend to give it a go if you live close by but coming from a distance, the trip won't be worth it!

Regards,

Z