No Bite-Size Pieces at Marco Polo

Severally, I passed through Marco Polo Restaurant on Karim Kotun Street, Victoria Island, but the first time I stepped into the building was for a business meeting. I wasn’t that impressed, because it appeared like just another of its type, well, after my experience I could not pick any special thing or feeling from it all.
Although Marco Polo is aware of the sensitive nature of the restaurant, business, catering and food service in general, I think the restaurant pays too much attention to customizing everything they own. From the uniforms, badges, menu cards, table covers, crockery and cutlery. I wonder why they all kept shouting “Marco Polo!”
Customer service is on the average at Marco Polo as the waiters are considerably on call, although it seems you have to repeat the order to the waiter, at first I thought it was the particular one that attended to us. But not until I noticed the voice from the next table repeating for the second time, “How many times do I have to say that exactly?”
On the other hand, cleanliness is a big one at Marco Polo, the environs is simply charming, a good dash of colours, the colours and designs still stay clean and beautiful on the walls. The convenience is fresh and the atmosphere is just cool, for that I felt relieved. At least it’s said that a good atmosphere encourages a good dine.
Marco Polo Chinese Restaurant offers a menu of food and beverages with a distinctive taste – which depends on how active your taste buds. The restaurant which started about seven years ago started out offering the best service, but based on regular diners at Marco Polo, it has come to be a-less- than average restaurant.
Marco Polo offers three main menus; the Main menu, the Vegetarian menu and the Chef Wung’s Special menu. Because it’s a business meeting and two, it’s my side paying the bill, I decided to take it cool, Cool like, just get the usual, so I did and saved everyone my speech of ‘what I want in it and what I don’t’. But the ’opponent’ didn’t care about who was paying or not, at least it was tagged a business dinner at 7pm.
There’s one thing though, Sushi at Marco Polo is simply irresistible, when I saw it, and I thought it was a crown of shame on us for dining there, but a first taste of the meal restored me back to life. Marco Polo offers a real alternative; the sushi is a welcome culinary addition to the other varieties on course, the fabulously fresh sushi and sashimi is made beautifully along with traditional dishes which makes the dining experience a fusionist affair, the menu is simply seasonal. The food was great as mentioned but my Chicken Tepanyaki was such a big chunky fillet, that I had to use a knife and fork to cut/eat it. I don't normally complain about there being too much food, but I always thought Japanese food should be small, bite-size pieces you can pick-up with chopsticks?
The intimate dining room is clean and crisp, with comfortable upholstered chairs and dark wood furniture squared up against a deep red wall. A striking tree sculpture, made from bamboo, spreads up the walls and across the ceiling, with lights dangling above the centre tables.


Hmm...I wasn't really impressed with this place at all. For a restaurant that openly boasts about winning lots of remarks, I expected award-winning food and service but the waiters and management seem to be out of the decent type. I really found this odd considering the wait-staff have a touch of snobbery. We ate beside the window to get a view of the beautiful street and the range of lovely cars parking in and out of the lot.


It seems all the things that made Marco Polo "Swell" are now gone? Now it is a typical sushi and tappanyaki on the Island. I don't write this to be mean or cruel the food is still good at Marco Polo but not what it once was. Maybe I will start eating somewhere else each Sunday since it seems there’ll always be a meeting at Marco Polo.

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.