[Rating:3.5/5]
Update: 6 January 2011 – Quite coincidentally, my next visit to Geoffrey’s was with Naheed (again!) and Indu a few days back. We opted for their lunch package, which includes a soup, appetizer/salad, main course and dessert for 295++. The breads were fresh and delicious, our soup (Cream of Chicken) was hot and tasted good, Grilled Chicken Salad was well made and full of flavour while finally, the Chicken Steak with Gravy and Vegetables was perfectly cooked. The portion sizes were just right and I went away happy. The service was excellent and so was the food, a marked change for the better from my previous experience. We’re happy to bump Geoffrey’s up to ‘Good’ and recommend it for your next working lunch.
Naheed, Kiranjit and I decided to step over to Geoffreys for a quick lunch yesterday. Based on my last experience there [Sunday buffet brunch and beer], I was only too happy to recommend the place. I wouldn’t do so readily today.
Lets talk about the environment first. Service was fast, friendly, efficient anf thoughtful. The ambience was quite normal, what with their particular brand of music playing in the background. The temperature could have been a bit on the warmer side, but thats ok I guess. Also, the suspended televisions had horribly noisy reception. And oh, they really ought to fix those shaky tables.
Coming to the food – we ordered a Geoffreys mixed grill, grilled lamb chops, classic chicken steak and a non vegetarian mezze platter. The mezze platter was absolutely excellent and was served with muttabbal, tabouleh and hummus. The hummus could have been a little thicker, but the flavor was right. Full points for that. We enjoyed every morsel.
The mixed grill however, was *all* fried with nothing grilled in it and badly fried at that – everything was soaked in oil. The lamb chops themselves were fine – the brown sauce however, was a total disaster. First it arrived congealed and barely warm; secondly the chef had obviously thrown in those readily available mixed herbs into the mixture and hadn’t bothered to wait before serving. result: a prickly, scratchy and uneatable sauce. The chicken steak too arrived barely warm and the sauce here too wasn’t worth eating. The bread was old, dry and disintegrated into crumbs on being touched with a fork.
In short – everything except the mezze platter was junk.
Conclusion: Go if you must, but stick to the beer, buffet and mezze | meal for 2: INR 1,100 [no alcohol]
Sid
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The Tabouleh ( parsley salad with burghul wheat served as a part of the mezze) that I had with Sid & Kiranjit was good enough for me to take my wife Nikki , kids Tanya( 16), Eman(11) and father in law to Geoffrey’s to try out the Lebanese spread. Nikki had lived in bahrain for 23 years before we got married and my father-in-law has been working in Bahrain since 1970. And all of us are big fans of lebanese cooking.
At eight on Sunday, the place was half full and the music was louder that what it would be in a disco. Infact after the third request to get it down to decent levels, we threatened to walk out if they did’nt reduce the volume and the threat worked. Why do most restaurant staff play music the way they like it ? The music is meant for guests, laddies, so turn down the volume. If the wanna hear "like a virgin" at 150 watt RMS, I’ll do it at home on my nakamichi!
We ordered two veg mezzes, Shish Tawook ( grilled kebabs to us!) and a cottage cheese dish. The hummus this time and the Mutabal ( lebanese baigan ka bharta in olive oil!) had a garnish of red chilli powder this time. An over enthusiastic Chef showing his artistic talent I guess. There were more breads this time and the Pitta was good, even though it is traditional to serve lebanese bread hot from a wood fired oven. The cottege cheese preparation was good but I havent had that in the middle east. Would recommend it though. The most disappointing was the sheesh Tawook. Came in a skewer hung from a hook sort of a device. Great presentation, but it tasted nothing like the original which is juicy and succulent and is suppoosed to be marinated in onion juice with a hint of garlic. This one was dry and had cardmom in it. Service again was not at it’s best and the bill of Rs. 2000 for 5 and a half was on the expensive side. But the Mezze is recommended! The service is not!
I’m wondering why restaurants don’t take customer feedback, design a process and then stick to it?
Sid
i have been to geoffreys in select city mall, i found food horrible….. ambiance was fine …but food was pathetic……