Monday, April 26, 2010

BUNGALOW’S RESTAURANT – AN ALTERNATIVE TO FINE JAPANESE DINING EXPERIENCE

Bungalow’s restaurant is referred to as the hottest and most wired place in Victoria Island, but that you cannot agree with until you find time to dine within the concealed atmosphere at the Bungalow’s restaurant. Bungalow’s is home for Sushi and Teppanyaki food and I can say categorically that Bungalow’s is Nigeria’s only destination for Japanese food. With a spacious dining room that allows for group seating, official or business gathering, Bungalow’s also has one of the widest ranges of Sushibar in Nigeria, with a magnificient high-tech Teppan-yaki Area. Dining at Bungalow’s restaurant is dining on a whole new and different level.
Bungalow’s has three categories; the Bunyaki Teppanyaki menu – which provides a range of contemporary surroundings in which to enjoy authentically-prepared Japanese cuisine, Sushi menu – a menu of mouth-watering sushi prepared by the dexterous sushi chef, and the Bunbeanos – it’s something and more about coffee, cocktails and cold drinks. At Bungalow’s dining is simply orgasmic, every taste is a memory, it’s more than just dining, it’s also about the cooking itself, the chef at the Bunyaki entertains diners with his culinary expertise as he sears in the natural flavours of the ingredients in front of you at the Teppan-yaki table. Dishes on offer at the Bunyaki include; Teppan-yaki cuisine – a combination of western and eastern finesse, Sushi – which contains three varieties; Special Avocado Roll (Smoked salmon, cream chees, Avocado), The Victoria Island Roll (Crab, Avocado and cucumber), and the The Bunyaki Roll (Unagi {Frshwater Eel}, Avocado , Macademia nuts) Sashimi and Tempura – dish of fried seafood and vegetables.














Watching the chef prepare teppanyaki is an important part of the meal. The diners' plates rest on the hot teppan, assuring their food will not get cold. Teppanyaki differs from traditional Japanese cuisine in many ways. With teppanyaki, the salad is served first, followed by the main course, vegetables, fruit, and dessert. Main course consists of beef, lamb, chicken, and seafood. Salad and dessert are prepared almost like the Western-style. Unlike the Western style, but the salad at Bungalow’s is rather small and the dressing usually sweet or sour.
Ordering bunyaki at Bungalow’s is quite simple and healthy, as you can tell the ever willing chef how much of every ingredient you desire to have in your meal. You can determine the amount of seasoning oil you want in your meal as the chef prepares the menu right in front of you. The quality of teppanyaki ingredients at Bungalow’s make it a healthy choice compared to other barbecue style-cuisine around here.
Bungalow’s has re-defined the fine style of delicious food within its warm, modern and cozy environment, with a central concern of providing quality food at a value for money price. Bungalow’s also mixes and matches from small dishes of mezze, skewers of lightly marinated meats, fish, shrimps prawns and fresh succulent meat, shicken and vegetables, steamed rice, fajitas and the best fresh salad.
It was quite interesting as the teppanyaki chef involved me in his dexterous act of cookery, using his tools; a knife, a fork and two spatulas, he cuts, stirs, seasons and put each diner’s portion onto plates on the teppan, a beautiful scene of culinary experience to behold. As he prepared the meal, he served simultaneously as each menu was ready, and for each bite, it felt like leisure in dining paradise. Watching the chef prepare the menu right there is part of the dining experience that has just one major effect on you – satisfaction. While every one other diner on either side of me, I stared in amazement at this skillful chef that made every moment of my experience a beautiful one, I guess others were not that amazed as they were used to it, or perhaps they just acted so.
For starters the Milo soup (N1000) – milo paste, tofu, mirin, hondishi (stock of fish), and seaweeds had this existing taste I guess came from the quantity of flavourable ingredients used by the chef, he sure did not mince his ingredients. For something I do not understand, I do not enjoy salads, but the Vegetarian Salad (Namasai-N1600) – iceberg lettuce, mixed bell pepper, carrots, cucumber and some other thing I didn’t recognize gave me a second thought on salads. Going on like this might not be a good idea as I thought, the best option was for me to take a break, so I told the chef to hold on for a moment while I digested the first part of my dining journey. After a few minutes the Tempura came calling, with patience and respect for proper digestion I gobbed every part of the slightly fried Ebi tempura (N2, 300). Every bite was like a thrill to ‘cheese’ land.
Deserts at bunyaki is on a whole dimension of its own, the bunyaki cake – chocolate Cadbury, waffer biscuit and tofu (N1100) And for the beverage dessert, the sensei (green tea) – N350 is definitely not a bad idea.
After a second thought, I decided to have the Victoria Island Island roll, which had the calamari salmon wrap with crab cucumber mayo and togorashi which came for just N3,550 and the Seafood cocktail containing the salmon, tuna, shrimp, smoked salmon, mackerel, parsley, spring onions for N3,550 also.
Bungalow’s favourite for me is the burbeanous, a section that shares variety of drinks, from coffee (I love coffee) – iced coffee, iced caffe latte, iced caffee mache, iced caffee mashe latte, iced salmon caffee latte, Maple caffee latte, Almond caramel caffee latte, Caffee latte with soy, Royal milk with soy, tea, Royal milk tea and Maple Royal milk tea. To hot drinks – Espresso, Caffee Latte, Cappucino, Caffee Mocha, Maple Caffe Latte amongst others, and Fruit Cocktails.
When it comes to fine dining, I mean one that leaves an unforgettable memory, then Bungalow’s is somewhere to meet your expectation for quality ingredients, service and hygiene standards. Although this doesn’t fix Bungalow’s in that ‘perfect place’ or ‘five star’ restaurant level, (that I can say is yet to be accomplished in Lagos, not even Nigeria. But for a good experience of fine Japanese cuisine in a warm environment, Bungalow’s offers that on a platter of gold, no, say silver.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Long Lost Love

Hello,

I know it's been ages and owe you a huge apology, just as i owe to myself. While the past few months have been quite busy and demanding, i have everyday thought about this blog and the list of articles i have on my 'crashed' laptop which could have saved my 'lost' days. Again, i apologise.
Okay, so i'm back and this time for real, i recently started a column oln restaurant reviews in the Sunday Guardian Life Magazine. Well it's quite interesting, fun and a bit discouraging - talking in terms of customer relations, potential health hazard environs and lots like that.

This is it, i have decided and finalised with my personal assistance...lol who has agreed to post my reviews weekly, so you too can share in my restaurant or let me say dining out experiences.

So, less talk, more posts right?

Here it comes, enjoy!
Corporate What?
Remember those school essay question that started with a seemingly outlandish proposition followed by the most open-ended word in a language; “Discuss”. Well, I Just got one: Eating out now does more harm than good. Discuss.
Based on a recent experience, it’s obvious Lagos’s tendency to do everything to an extreme creates the possibility that too many spectacular restaurant will starve each other. And now, even low rollers with thin wallets, now have plenty of dining options. Like tucked away between offices on Ikosi Road is a nondescript little restaurant called Corporate Rice. I don’t much like the Corporate Rice Restaurant. I even take issue with the name. I would have never noticed it if I didn’t happen to be starving when I passed it. To be honest, I didn’t expect much. I figured it was a tourist trap that would charge high prices for only average food. After all, there aren’t too many places to grab a bite to eat between corporate offices. However I decided to give the place a try.
When I first walked in, my fears were not abated. The restaurant was empty, and the décor was nothing special either. However, I was given the choice to sit in an empty dining room with old artworks and wooden seats that one, hurt my butt, two, looked hundred-year old. There was no real entertainment; the only one that seemed like one showed local stations that could put you to slumber amidst dining. Now I was starting to get un easy. It suddenly became clear – this place was a quaint find!
Well, it does not hurt much; at least it gives me something to write about. Once seated, I started to peruse the menu – the menu consists of local cuisines of various kinds; Ofada rice, beans and plaintain, white rice, efo riro, okro soup, amala (yam flour), semovita, etc. Corporate Rice catered more for offices who request lunch and perhaps breakfast. It turns out, Corporate Rice was better known among office workers than I had realized. How do they take that stuff is quite questioning.
Of course, the real test was to taste the food itself. Being Nigerian food, I decided to share the common stuff. Let me first mention, it’s very difficult to decide on any one thing here, because the entire menu looked and sounded disturbing. Still I had to narrow it down, and so I choose three items; the famous Ofada rice, fried plantain and few assorted meats. I have been to few restaurants where you only get half of what you’re paying for. But at Corporate Rice, you simply get no value for your money. The rice was fire broiled but burnt and the sauce? Could cause a stomach rumble even just looking at it. Restaurant? No, it’s more of a cafeteria.
The worst thing about this meal was that I could feel fear setting in, considering the probability of a day of digestive illness the next day. Knowing the food was not only prepared ugly, but also every last bite tastes even worse. It was a wrong treat to a starving stomach.