Kabobi fresh in Richardson

Ok, a scathing restaurant review coming up.

Usually I am a very generous person and tend to overlook if one or two dishes don't taste good in a buffet. Because, taste like beauty is relative term. A bland Mediterranean dish might be perfectly cooked but a person like me who is used to the spices in India might not find it appealing. So I do consider all those aspects while writing reviews and would never deduct points for authenticity even if doesn't flatter my taste buds. Mediterranean food is supposed to be bland, that's how it was meant to be. Period. What really annoys me is the lack of thought on the "Value for money" department.

So you might be wondering what made me visit this restaurant in the first place, if I am not such a big fan of Mediterranean  food. Oops, forgot to mention the name. Kabobi fresh in Richardson. This place has live music. A super cute keyboard player occupies a corner of the restaurant and plays lovely music. And the ambience is very soothing with perfect lighting and seating arrangement. Yes, you might want to call it a fine dining experience with all the associated frills. I love all that but only if the quality of food matches the price. 16 USD for one person, no way! Especially when there is no lamb in the menu. With just one chicken item (tikka kebab) and beef in almost all other items, it's exhorbitant if you ask me. They have used beef like a garnish, adding to the veggie items as well in shredded forms. What is left for a non-red meat eater to eat then!? Only fish n chicken sadly. I am not  a salad eater either so that leaves out the greenies. The fish was cold and over fried. Desert menu was limited with rice pudding and some gelatin like substance, which my 7 year old niece could have prepared. There was also another version of rice pudding which was yellow in color and looked and tasted yucky.

There was only one item which I liked in the entire buffet menu, "Bademjaan", it was a fried eggplant dish with yoghurt I think. I filled my tummy with that.

I would recommend this place for dates only. And when you have too much money to spare. The romantic and chic ambience might act as a catalyst in bringing two hearts together but a strict no-no for foodies like me ☺️

Spice creations in Allen

Last Friday, me and a few of my friends went to a restaurant in Allen named, 'Spice creations'.

It was a lunch buffet with the focus mainly on non vegetarian dishes like chicken kebabs and fish. Most of the dishes were above average but the fish item deserves a special mention. It was, I think Tilapia fish which was batter fried and sautéed is some kind of gravy which was perfectly spiced with lot of flavors.

The single item in the desert called as semia payasam was eclectic in taste. And it was extremely difficult for me to stop after a couple of spoons. I am usually not a big fan of sweets but semai and gulab jamun are the only two deserts that make me forget my health related resolutions! Otherwise, I am a good girl and can stay off deserts for months at end.

Ok, that's it for now. Just wanted to jot down my impressions before I forget the experience.

Dimassi's Mediterranean Buffet

Last evening, we went to a Mediterranean restaurant called as Dimassis's in Richardson which is around 10 miles away from my home.



Mediterranean cuisine is mostly famous for its signature dishes like hummus, falafel, a wide array of salads and ofcourse the lamb shanks.

This place is no different. May be the only thing that makes it stand out in the crowd of such places is the quality of chicken dishes. Believe me, there are too many Mediterranean restaurants in and around Dallas. Because of the huge Arab n Mediterranean population. Interesting point to note is, such places are frequented by desis and Americans as well these days. Americans find it palatable because the dishes are bit low on spices and desis because... Oh! We are an inquisitive lot, we love to try out any alien cuisine that's worth eating! Btw, I did try sushi couple of months back and shall write about that  experience another day!

Ok, so all the dishes were good. The only let down was the fried chicken which was not as succulent as it should have been. My roomie cooks better fried chicken than them. They had pizzas too, as a part of the buffet. Not sure why though! It dilutes the whole essence of the meal, if you ask me. May be they wanted to appeal to a wider audience. The Baklava which is the quintessential Mediterranean desert was better than average. The best ever baklava that I had was at "Cafe Istanbul" (Shops at legacy). I am yet to jot down a review on that! Food was heavenly there.

As you can see in the above pic, the ambience and décor is nothing to talk about. Typical diner. Monotonous seating arrangement. I don't know why, I am a big fan of table cloths. .A restaurant will always earn brownie points from me, if it has table cloth. No such frills here, sadly. For 13 USD per person, at least they could have invested a little bit on the "Frills".


I think, I should stop going for buffets, it's such a waste. I can hardly taste a few items and I am full and so I cannot do justice to the concept itself. Anyways, this is it for now. Time for second coffee of the day...ahhh! I love Saturday mornings! It rained last night and it's beautiful and shiny outside...but then in US, it's always beautiful... ☺️

Pei Wei

I don't know exactly, what is the lethal correlation of Sunday afternoons and the crazy desire to eat out! Especially when one is dog tired of running errands all day long and feels devoid of the energy and imagination of cooking something from scratch at home! Not that I consider myself a Nigella-reincarnated blessed with the talent of dishing out something exotic in matter of minutes! So I do the next best thing. I try out different restaurants and jot down my experience. Pls note, readers! The opinions expressed in this blog are strictly my own and adhere to my own gastronomical sensitivity.

So on another such expeditions, me and my roomie ventured out today and ended up in Lewisville which is around 20 miles from Plano. We were famished and ended up in a place which had quite a few restaurants. We decided to take a break from our incessant tussle of selecting Mediterranean or desi fare, So flipped a coin and zeroed in on "Pei Wei."

I chose a dish called as "Dan Dan" which was a soupy broth kind of a thing with shredded chicken, sliced cucumber, bean Sprouts, garlic and scallions. The soup had soy sauce as its base. I added some chili paste to enhance the spiciness. It turned out to be lip-smacking! Full of Asian fusion flavors, it transported me to China town!!! Ha ha!! Another dish that we ordered was fried rice with chicken, red bell peppers, broccoli and some other vegetables. It was yummilicious too! And the quantity served was enough for two people, we couldn't finish even half of each dish.

Service was super-fast. Interesting part, since we were first time visitors to Pei Wei, the drinks were on the house!

Ambience was peaceful and serene. This has reserved its rightful place in top 3 of my favorite non-desi places to eat. 

Nirvana in Houston

As you already know by now, I love to try out exotic dishes in various restaurants and pen down my experiences, of course in my effort to give back to society as people do find restaurant reviews useful 😉 You can consider it my way of contributing to society/CSR or whatever.

Anyways. So I am in Houston and the first thing that I do in any new city is to google for top 10 restaurants for desi food. Yeah, yeah, you might find it funny that why would a person who has eaten Indian food all her life would go exploring for that in US! Well, distance makes your heart grow fonder, sometimes. I truly believe in this adage. I miss the Indian street food, the cacophony of noises emanating from vehicles, vendors, dogs, cows on road and what not! I miss the polluted air, water and the familiar feeling of being at home...Oops, digressing from the topic!

A friend of mine took me to "Nirvana" which is very famous for desi food  and is extremely popular not only amongst the Indian crowd but Americans too. Truly enough, I found most of the tables occupied by Americans 😊 God only knows how do they digest the  spicey desi food. I heard an interesting anecdote on this. The love of Americans for Indian food is like the craze for "Game of thrones." Either they love it or they detest it. There is no in-between.

So the restaurant owner is an elderly bespectacled gentleman from Bangladesh who loves to chat up with the customers and welcomes everyone with a heartening smile and greeting in Bangla (If you are Bong) I cannot express how I felt after hearing those words in Bangla after almost a year! I always had very close Bong friends at my work place and MBA days, so I do have a soft corner for anything that has even a remote Bong connection. Be it the Bong food, language, culture or songs!! Btw I even got to see a statue of the great Rabindra Nath Tagore in one of the parks in Houston. Was completely floored!!! Digressing from the topic again!

Salmon stuffed Naan! Does it sound crazy?! May be! But believe me, it was insanely delicious!! I have eaten salmon in fried and baked forms before but never stuffed in a naan along with with a variety of spices. The naan was extremely soft and flavorful. We also had batter fried fish, I think it was Tilapia which is the closest in taste to the rohu and pomfret that we get in India. So it was yummilicious! To say the least.

Ambience. The decor of the place was very aesthetic. The environment was peaceful. Apart from a noisy family occupying the table next to ours which enjoyed dropping plates at 5 mins interval to break the monotony of enjoying a peaceful meal, it was a great experience! Definitely, deserves multiple visits.