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