15 - 21 February 2001
Issue No.521
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 15 - 21 February 2001 Issue No.521 |
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Resturant review
Not quite Graceland
Something new happened in Maadi recently: a dining boat with two restaurants, a pub and a disco has been inaugurated on the Corniche as Le Memphis (I can't help but think of Elvis when that word comes up). We wanted to eat but the time of our visit only allowed access to the pub and disco because the restaurants had called it a day. In we stepped at Joe's Pub and out we wanted to be in a second: it is too loud for human ears -- unless you just want to sit, not talk to anybody and get totally drunk and/or get up and dance the whole time. The place is relatively small, but the speakers are fit for a stadium.
We ended up staying anyway, having no strength to get off our chairs. The mood, it's all in the mood. Ours was a mixture of extremes and we found ourselves dancing a little, screaming in each other's ears a little, staring at the void a little, watching the next door table a little where a big tipsy crowd seemed to be having a lot of fun dancing on chairs.
Food might help, we thought. At Joe's you can have a whole range of cold and hot mezze -- we mainly picked hot because, well, some like it hot. Until the waiter brought our order we had ample time to realise that Joe's is not much different from many established pubs in town and seems to be on its way to speedy popularity, considering it is only a couple of weeks old. The singer we had (Wednesdays only, it seems) sang pretty well and had one of those pleasant faces you can trust.
Before we could really get into the dancing, the food arrived. Our Fried Calamari were not necessarily amazing, as the batter was too soft, but the Fried Prawns, on the other hand, were extremely tasty. What did the trick was the size of the bite: the prawns were chunky, juicy and slightly chewy. Basically, they tasted of prawns -- unlike the calamari, which didn't taste of anything. We also had some Chicken Livers, which were very good, although completely sauceless, bringing the Tartar Sauce into full use. The Fattoush was OK, with crunchy croutons and crispy lettuce. What was really good were the fried mushrooms, with their sharp, lemony seasoning and the garlicky aftertaste. What was a strange surprise was the Tarama, which came as an odd mixture of minced mushrooms, some eggs and a full, albeit small, calamari torso (without the tentacles) on the side of the plate. That is not my idea of Tarama, but at least my dear husband thankfully took care of the calamari.
That was about it. Nothing sweet, only some Coke, some more deafening music and a LE133 bill.
Joe's Pub, Le Memphis Boat, Maadi Corniche.
Tel: 5240536
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