Hello, foodies of Hive. I hope you all are doing well today.
Today, I will make a food review of this steak place that I visited for my sehri this Ramadan, a day ago, where I went with my friends. And, the story that follows afterwards may seem something like a comic book klutzy mc, but it's just the non-normal life for me.
! [This time I did not take random people's pictures as it would be rude, and my friend did not permit me to upload our selfies, so the food pics will have to make do.] This is the spoiler content.
Without further ado, let's begin!
Each year, during Ramadan, my friends from school decide on a place where we would go for sehri and spend a nice night filled with the latest updates of our lives. This year was no exception. 2 days before we decided on where to go for sehri this year, we talked over which restaurant showed the most promise. And after separating certain aspects like travelling expenses and overall expenses, we chose a steak place that was almost near us, and our overall cost would not go over $10.99. We had set the date to go on a Friday, at 1 am, and we had reserved a table for 4. We were to meet up at my friend's house at 12 am.
The day arrived, and boy was I busy that day. It was not a typical Friday as I had forgotten that I had been invited by my brother's in-laws for iftaar. After that was finished, I received some nice Eidi from my brother's father-in-law, and boy was I pleased. It was late, and it would take me an hour and 30 minutes, as dreadful traffic was at hand at 11 pm, when I had left for my friend's house. And somehow, I made it back to my friend's house at 12:40 am. It was only then that I realised that I had left my charger in the in-laws' house and my phone only had about 33%. We stayed there for an hour playing some card games before we decided to grab an Uber and reached the restaurant at 2:17 am.
The first thing we saw was a bunch of enraged people standing by the front desk demanding seats as it was a housefull. We also joined them and told that we had a reservation for 4, they took 15 minutes before they got us seats while more people poured in. We saw one friend group of 9 members started to accuse one another when they couldn't find a seat for 10 minutes XD. It was hilarious. The waiters moving around paid us little to no attention as they were busy taking orders from other customers; they simply smiled and went away when we asked them to come over to take our orders. Finally, after 15 more minutes, when the place had settled, and the guests waiting were all seated, our time to order finally arrived.
We had 5 options:
🍗Rooster's Feast - $4.87
🥩Filet Feast - $8.13
🥩Suhoor Emperor - $12.57
🥩 Hunger Trouble - $8.13
🥩 Hungry Ranch - $10.98
While each of them looked sumptuous, I decided not to fall for photo trickery and go with what they were to serve. My friend and I took the hunger trouble as it had the nice stuff we wanted from a steak place, while the other 2 went with rooster and fillet. The waiter mentioned that it would take about 30-40 minutes.
Sure enough, after 42 minutes, they arrived with our food, and mine looked fantabulous. The steak was perfect, although it was well done and I prefer medium rare, but I did not want to take a chance with them making it raw. The only flaw in my dish was the sauteed veggies; there was a portion where it was way too salty, making it difficult to eat.
My friend's dish was the same, but her steak was imperfect, a little too pink. I called it out as raw, and the veggies were the same salty ones. The chicken wings and shashlik were good. You can see in the picture that the pinkish hue was a bit too vibrant in there. She asked that they change her steak twice, and they did so.
Her brother's fish originally had white rice, but they ran out, so they substituted it with mushrooms. The veggies... salty. The steak, pinky. You can see that the rawness did not go down in his one. He asked that his dish be changed. The first time, they perhaps torched it and drizzled it with pepper sauce, hoping it would subside the pinkish color, but it did not go down. He became frustrated after he found more raw bits and went straight to the front desk, brought out a waiter, showed him the dish, and asked that his dish be changed. He looked angry, and rightly so. By then, the steak was highly charred on the outside, but the inside was good enough to eat. This was not a good choice for him, he admitted.
Lastly, my friend's rooster platter looked good, but you can see that the rice had some white spots, meaning it was not cooked to perfection and contained uncooked bits. The meatballs and mushrooms were good, as he put it. The chicken was not raw and was somewhat good. He ate silently without making a fuss because he was hungry... not the best move, I must add.
The steak was good, the mushroom was great, and the chicken was flavourful with the cheese and sauces. The only bit that annoyed me was the veggies. By the time we had finished eating, the restaurant was half empty.
Overall, our experience was bad, like really bad, but my experience was good, but could've been much better. Also, we had to call for our drinks and water several times to each waiter and only after 15 minutes of serving the food, we received our drinks.
One of their waiters came over and asked how the food was with a smile after we had finished our food. My friend started to grill him about the rawness of the food. I pointed out that my veggies were too salty, and everyone else chimed in. Her brother pointed out that he had to send back his food twice for it to be cooked. My friend with the rice... meekly pointed out that his rice was a little undercooked. The waiter smiled and said that usually they have 18 people in the kitchen, today they only had 7 people. Which is why they could not deliver properly. He later brought in a bunch of dates as a complement. He brought in the bill, and that is when we noticed that they had forgotten to add an extra bottle of water. We paid the bill and called for an Uber before heading out.
However, the story does not end here. No, no, no, I encountered a few events that came about after we paid the bill and left the restaurant at 3:50 pm.
We made a mess when we started to calculate each other's share of the bill, took a few selfies, and headed out. The ride home was fun as we talked about how bad the food was and who had suggested this place until we reached the last stop. That is where I realised that I had dropped by TK 1000 note... not in the car but somewhere else. My friends felt bad but left anyway, as it was 5:30 am, and they had to be present at home before their mom turned furious.
With 6% of charge left on my phone, I made a desperate call at the restaurant. How did I find their number? I had bought internet before I went outside, as I assumed I would need it; I checked the messages in the messenger group and found their number. With a lot of hope and desperation, I pressed my ears against the phone, waiting for a voice as their auto-caller ads came in as the charge in my phone dropped from 6%-5% suddenly, a voice came from the other side. Overjoyed, I calmly told that there was a table of 4 that dined near the window area and may have left a TK 1000 note there. The guy, with a solemn voice, shouted, "Attention, everyone, there is a case of missing cash. 4 diners sat near the window and dropped off some money. Did anyone find that money?" "Yes! I found it", shouted a staff member whose voice came through the phone like the ray of hope I was wishing for. "The man on the phone said, "It seems we have found that TK 1000 note, Sir, is there any more cash that may have been left behind?" I promptly said no and asked them to Bkash me the money as I was already home. Within 20 minutes, they sent me the money. The phone's charge was now down to 4%. Keep in mind, the opportunity to drink water was now over and I had to walk all the way home and my throat felt salty the rest of the day.
After I walked toward my home, I forgot that the watchmen were sleeping deeply, and I did not have their number. I pounded on the steel door handles in the hopes of waking him up, and called out his name even. No response. I made another desperate attempt to wake him up by kicking the door a little more violently. That's when he heard it and brought the keys of adornment and opened up the gate.
But the last hurdle was still not passed. I still had to get inside my home. I knew everyone was asleep. So, I chose to wake up my uncle. I called him up on my phone and gently knocked on the door. After yet another few sweaty minutes, he woke up and opened the gate. My phone's charger was still at 4%.
The final problem. I still had to get my charger back from the in-laws. I decided to wait till morning to call my sister-in-law's brother and ask him to send me the charger via courier. I slept heavily for a solid 5 hours. At exactly 10:38 am, I called him and asked for the charger to be sent. He did, and my phone's battery was down to 1%. I kept hoping that the driver would come up fast... he took his sweet time. After 42 more minutes, he showed up. My god, never have I ever gone through such a turn of events ever, that too during Ramadan.
