| rev:text
| - The raison d'etre of opening a successful restaurant is to consistently make good, flavorful food, to act as an ambassador of exotic flavors, and to serve as a cultural bridge of sorts. Profit is the ultimate goal, but in order for you to earn that profit, you still have to create enjoyable food. If you don't, it's not worth the effort.
Location: Rue Bishop near Metro Guy-Concordia, near Bell Centre and Rue Ste. Catherine It's near a show venue and a touristy downtown area with limited parking options, so you are depending on constant foot traffic from curious tourists.
Venue - It's clean and cozy, built on a converted townhouse. Outdoor seating is available.
Service - Well, here's the story. When me and my SO walked into the restaurant one sunny September morning two Sundays ago we noticed that there are no customers. None whatsoever. There were 2 men eating in the dining room...one of which is the owner (who seems to also be the waiter). He was on the phone most of the time shouting in Arabic or French. The menu was a binder with photos (but not the actual name of the dish in Arabic or French/English) and a piss-poor description (example: Chicken with olives and herbs), and it was mostly incomplete (a majority of the items are not available). The owner disappeared for a long period during the service, and when we were done he insisted that we stay for coffee and dessert (I know what Arabic coffee is like. That's not coffee, and he gave us half a baklava...each)...which took up another 15 minutes. I think he just want to keep me and my date in the restaurant so it won't look as empty. When I offer to pay using a credit card he ran the card through the machine...and it mysteriously reported it as full (I thought those machines are not supposed to store transactions). I paid in cash and kept an eye on that card just in case.
Food - The items on offer (Kabsa, Mandi or Mansaf) are meant to be slow-cooked/slow roasted to develop its flavor. If you don't have a steady flow of customers the items would simply either sit there on the steam table (not good), or made with instant flavoring (just as bad). That's exactly what it tasted like. My date ordered the chicken with onions and sumac...which was bland. I ordered the mansaf , and it was also bland. The owner gave us the sauces, but sauces are supposed to meant as a flavoring counterpoint. You put ketchup in fries not because the fries are flavorless and needed to be fixed, you want it to develop other flavors. In this case, that's the only thing I can say about the place. Bland with flavoring added to make it more palatable.
I would like this place to succeed. These guys are the banner carriers of the cuisine of Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and those flavors deserve their day in the cool Northern sun. Unfortunately...this place left me disappointed.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)