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
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