Restaurant Review: Sarovar, Diera Gold Souq

Tired of gold and spice shopping in Gold & Spice Souq? Feel for some fresh juices, Indian south indian snacks, chats or even wholesome vegetarian lunches or dinners? You have picked the right place.  I got pretty nostalgic when I went to this restaurant last weekend. The last time I had been to this restaurant was a decade back and between then and now, the taste of the food, the ambience nothing has changed. Dont expect a big flashy place considering it is in the middle of Gold Souq. Instead its far from it, very humble, very small in size- accomodates jus 4 tiny tables. But this is what comes closest to home cooked Indian food to all the people living around Gold Souq and working there and also a good option for people shopping at the Souq.

We ordered paneer burji, daal tadka, rotis and the mini thali. Paneer burji n daal tadka were really very tasty. Mini thali which came with 2 veggie dishes, papad, yogurt n sweet gujrathi style daal along with steamed rice and 3 rotis was also equally good. Choice of veggies could have been slightly different since both were potato based-wish there was some more variety. But everything tasted great.

All in all had a tasty dinner over salted lassis after a tiring walk around gold n spice souq. Ahhh bliss!!

Restaurant Review - Smiling BKK, Al Safa

During weekends sometimes you feel like a nice quiet dinner and sometimes you feel like some place whacky. The latter is what I felt like this weekend.. So when we were driving around Safa n Al Wasl road, this neon lit mustachioed Monalisa caught our eyes. The name Smiling BKK. Kind of fit into the mood we were in so we decided to check out this place.. There's plenty of parking behind the building so that wasnt a problem.. So we went into the restaurant- our first time here. 

Let me first talk about the ambience since that surely stands out - The place is definitely not for people looking for a quiet weekend dinner but if you are game for a vibrant, rock n roll kinda hippie and cool Thai joint then this is the place.. Loud music, dimly lit funky interiors.. Very unconventional place featuring photos of Thailand, Hollywood stars and Monalisa in various guises including Einstein, Elvis and the likes are all over.. There were also  life size standees of Charlie Chaplin, Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, Marlyn Monroe and even one of Michelle Obama.. So its as varied as it can get.. Coming to the craziest part - They give you a toy machine gun along with the menu which you need to fire when you ready to order.. Crazy isnt it.. 

So we browsed through the very detailed menu, the names of the food items were as crazy as the place itself.. So you had things like Little Johnsons and Big Big Johnsons to Its been a hard day's night.. Can you believe these are names of dishes?? Had a good time just reading them.. So finally we decided to order chef special Nothing Shonky Here which was basically fried chicken wrapped in pandan leaves served with sweet chilli sauce as starters, Honkey Tonk Woman aka choo chee fish which was hammour fillet in red curry and then egg fried rice.. Phew.. Now that was some ordering we did.. To go with this we ordered iced lemongrass and berry juice blended.. 

Coming to the food, all of it was served together so we had it the Thai way which is everything together.. the starter was superb - fried chicken but its ok to cheat on your diet over weekends sometimes.. ;-) especially if the food is so yummy.. Excellent flavor , loved it. The fish in red curry with egg fried rice was also extremely good, slightly above my acceptable salt levels but nevertheless tasty.. Drinks - lemongrass was simple, berry was a thick juice and fresh too.  

All in all we were extremely pleased at our choice of restaurant for the weekend.. Came out of the place happy and satisfied :-) 

Restaurant Review: Slapfish, IBN Batuta Mall

As we meandered throught IBN Batuta mall after a movie, I came across this restaurant- the name was very unconventional but something told me that I must give the place a try (although I am not brave enough to try sea food during peak summers). 

The ambience of the place was nice, bright and modern which probably was the reason my heart n mind wanted to give it a try. After we were seated at our table, we were given an ipad menu which had pictures of how the dish we order would look like which was quite useful in helping us with making the selections. 

We browsed through the menu and finally decided to place an order for the Rodeo style barramundi sandwich and the daily fish plate along with our cucumber fresca n fresh orange drinks.  When the food arrived, must say it looked pretty much like the picture shown in the menu. The sandwich came with chips and coleslaw. The fish plate with salad and rice. Coming to the taste, let me go one by one:

Rodeo style barramundi sandwich- this had the fish fillet grilled and covered with freshly ground pepper, also had crispy onion rings, lettuce and sauce kept in between burger buns. Not sure if they had a brown bread option, would want to check it next time. Tasted really good I must say. The chips that were served as side were heavely - very crunchy n fresh. All in all I loved this one 

Daily Fish plate - Coming to this dish, it was grilled mahi fish, on a bed of flavored rice and fresh green salad with vinaigrette dressing. Everything tasted fresh and yummy, fish soft , salad crunchy n rice mildly flavored. Good good pick.

Both dishes were perfect in portions for one individual each.

Coming to the drinks, cucumber fresca was a bit too sweet for my taste atleast but otherwise fine.

All in all a great place to dine in for some awesome sea food. Highly recommend it.