‘Suprise’ Birthday Bants

HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS!!! 

Sorry, I have been overwhelmed with the chores of the holiday period; the things we African ladies go through for family. This food experience happened at the ending of 2018. So please do enjoy!!! 

I was on my way to see Aquaman when my bestie called, she asked what I was doing later that  evening to celebrate my birthday. After a lot of quizzing, I found out a mutual friend (let me just call him Mr W.) wanted to surprise me with dinner at Cilantro. It is a restaurant in Sarius Palmetum garden located at 3259 Ibrahim

Babangida Boulevard, Maitama, Abuja. I had heard a lot about Cilantro and I planned on visiting soon, so I was really excited about the waka.

After the movie and small waka waka, I went to my bestie’s office and we both headed for my ‘surprise’ dinner. We had been to Sarius Palmetum garden before so it wasn’t difficult to locate (Finding it the first time was not so easy). I hadn’t seen much Christmas décor around so I had a huge smile on my face when I saw the lights there. The place is big, they had quite a generous outdoor sitting area and a decent indoor space.

A waitress approached us as we walked towards the entrance, she asked if we had a reservation. LOL. I was genuinely surprised and at that moment I was thinking “If person no get reservation we no fit chop here?” After telling her we didn’t, she asked where we would like to seat (worries quelled), she took us around till we found an outdoor spot we liked. She was patient and nice, she even took pictures for us and made sure we liked them before handing us over to the waiter who was going to attend to us. There was some nice Indian music playing in the background, which was cool. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this is an Indian restaurant.

The menu was quite intriguing, an array of indian cuisine and the only name I was familiar with was naan bread. Our waiter was quite impatient, he kept rushing us to place the order so we told him we needed more time to think but he could get the naan bread for starters. After a while we called his attention to clarify if their chicken dish came with a side of rice or something (the menu didn’t specify.)  Although the waiter said it didn’t, I found it strange, it was another waiter jejely passing by who explained it. He said the chicken tikka biriyani (made with grilled chicken) and chicken biriyani (normal chicken) we were looking to order was essentially boneless chicken mixed with basmati rice so we didn’t need to get a side. The second waiter was the real MVP because without him we would have ordered nonsense. We eventually ordered naan bread, our main course, pineapple juice (for my bestie) and water for me, and Mr W. still hadn’t arrived yet. They will say ladies dey waste time.

He finally showed up a few minutes after we were served the naan bread alongside mint and pepper sauces. The mint sauce looked weird but it was a typical case of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ because it tasted nice. I preferred it to the pepper sauce which was just bleh. Mr W. ordered fried rice with shrimps and a bottle of water. Remember that waiter that was impatient and lowkey rude? He was extra nice to Mr W.

Another waiter approached us with what was supposed to be our order but was saying something else, when we insisted we had asked for the chicken tikka biriyani and chicken biriyani, he was confused. The impatient waiter came to sort it out in due time; apparently it was the right order but the new guy just wasn’t getting the names right (SMH). I noticed they had many waiters on ground, which is a good thing, but I think they should stick to one waiter per table to avoid the mix up.

I had small portions of the chicken tikka biriyani, fried rice & shrimps as well as my chicken biriyani and I can testify they all tasted amazing. Mr W. invited someone else and when she arrived she didn’t have to order anything else because our meals were more than enough (perhaps that’s why their prices aren’t too friendly). We even had leftovers after stuffing our faces. When the bill arrived Mr W. joked about needing more water to drink because “the bill fit make person faint.”

Ambience : 9/10
Price         : 5/10
Food         : 9/10
Service     : 7/10

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