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Showing posts with the label restaurant

Greens - A Salad Lover's Paradise

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We had dinner from “ Greens ”, a salad bar, a few days ago. Dad is a herbivore. I like salads as well, but I always try to chuck out any tomatoes. Plus, if I don’t like the dressing, there’s a good chance it’ll be left uneaten. An actual salad bar is very rare to find in Riyadh, other than the side salads you can take at restaurants like Pizza Hut and Steakhouse. Naturally, this fueled our curiosity, and we made our way there. The restaurant was bright and cheery. A variety of food like fresh juices, shakes, and a whole lot of other stuff that was organic and healthy were available, plus racks of chips with all different kinds and flavours. I’ve never had a chance to choose the ingredients for my salad before, so it was quite a task, because of the several options.   The place held a calm and peaceful atmosphere, and we really did enjoy dinner.

Great news! Nando's has finally come to Riyadh!

It was a long time ago, but I vaguely remember Mom pulling up Google Maps on her laptop and typing frantically to check if there was any branch of Nando's in our city, or the next. But now, a Nando's has come up just five minutes away from our home, which means Mom’s prayers have finally been answered. It was very unexpected, and Mom and I got this bit of news from Dad while we were still in India, which only proceeded to me requesting Dad if he could book tickets at the earliest date possible, so that we could fly over immediately after the exams. We had lunch yesterday from the aforementioned restaurant, and the wait was definitely worth it. The restaurant also had a really cheerful atmosphere and was pretty lively. My parents and I love peri-peri chicken more than fried chicken because it is more healthy and juicy, plus you don’t get tired of it easily. There are other restaurants, though, which also serve peri-peri chicken. I had mentioned in one of my ear

Looking for Nando's in Riyadh?

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Update:  Great news! Nando's has finally come to Riyadh! It’s not Nando's, but it’s the next best thing- Veri Peri Portuguese Grill ! Dear readers, you know the passionate love for the restaurant ‘Nandos’ that my family and I hold ever since we tried it for the first time in London when I was six  years old.  After we reached Riyadh, Mom searched the Internet for Nandos. No luck. Nandos didn’t exist in Riyadh. But then BAM! 6 months back, Veri- Peri Portuguese Grill started itself about a mile away from our home. We tried it out for the first time today. Can I just say it was TAS-TY.  And it’s already popular. The restaurant was teeming with people when we got there. Just like the menu said, the chicken was juicy and had our favorite Peri-Peri sauce.  The chicken is soaked overnight with the sauce which is why it’s so delicious . If you are a Nando's lover living in Riyadh (hi-five), this is the place for YOU.

Le Chateau, Riyadh - The Clown Restaurant

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Out of all the restaurants I have gone, the weirdest one is definitely Le Chateau.  With a French name, Italian breakfast and Chinese menu, this is a very confused restaurant. The food here is just, okay. It’s not really great and it’s not too bad either. The restaurant looks really weird too. After seeing it, I took the opportunity to name it “ The Clown Restaurant .” Just yesterday we had our class assembly. I was for the poem. Nida was doing the anchoring. When it was my turn, my hands were shaking a little while holding the microphone. But I was able to recite the poem smoothly, giving little breaks and saying clearly. I just don’t know why my hands were shaking. I was not nervous at all. I am usually put for a song in an assembly. It was actually kind of the first time for me to read something out loud. A few days back, Chandana and I were in the library and we came across a fat book called “The Book of 5001 Jokes.” 1. Sherlock Holmes- I see you are we

Breakfast at Buffalo's

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Dad took a right turn and I was surprised to see that he was parking the car next to Buffalo's , a southwest café and restaurant. We had never gone there before but it had been on our “List of must-go restaurants.’’ “Why are we stopping here?”I asked Mom as Dad got out of the car. “I thought we were going to have breakfast in IKEA.” “Um…we are. We just need to buy Dad some shoes from Crocs” came the reply. Dad returned after some time, and declared the shop was open. We got out and started walking and went inside a restaurant on the other side of the parking lot. That’s when I knew it was a surprise planned for me in the honor of my advance birthday. We settled down at a table and when the waiter gave us our menus, I noticed that instead of “Buffalos”, the cover page said “Basero”, which left me really confused. When I pointed it out to Dad, we looked out of the window and saw “Buffalo’s” on the other side. That meant we had come to the wrong restaurant! So, instea

Maharaja by Vineet at Riyadh!

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“Do you know Vineet Bhatia is opening his restaurant in Riyadh?” Mom asked.  I was standing with her in the kitchen. “He is opening ‘ Maharaja ’ in September. It is beside Chilis.”  “Who is Vineet Bhatia?” I asked. “He is a famous chef of India. His cookery show comes on Travel and Living channel.” Mom loves watching Travel and Living.  They show a variety of places, steaks, ice-creams, sandwiches etc. But she does not want to experiment any type of different food. I would have protested against that but then I realized I probably would lose my love for those foods ;-)  Google is going to release self driving cars . Dad showed me this on Larry Page’s Google+. The bright side is that it would be really useful for old people and kids. The day when there will be only self-driving cars will be a great day. We will just have to ask parent’s permission and then we can go by ourselves to Baskin Robbins for ice-cream, or to a friend’s house or to the park or anything. An

Freaky Friday

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Since today is the weekend, we have a couple of restaurants to try out in our mind and one of them is the ‘Red Lobster’. I don’t know if it’s good or not but my father had his heart set on eating big, fat lobsters so he seems very enthusiastic on going there. You see, Dad would be non- vegetarian the first 6 months and be vegetarian the other 6 months. Which is also one of the reasons I call him an omnivore. He loves eating salads a lot. But, in the very rare times we would buy ice-cream or if I would be having any fruit, he would request for a ‘small bite’, but by the time the ‘small bite’ would be taken, the fruit would not be seen. I saw the movie ‘Frozen’ a few days back and I really liked it. My favorite character was definitely Anna, and she looked very cute when she was young. There is a metro coming in Kochi, so according to the video, it is fun, you can save 20 to 50 per cent of your normal travelling time and more. The metro's starting point is at Pet

Lunch at Back Yard Grill

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I can’t believe this! Only 9 days left for my vacation to end. I am so angry! I don’t know why the days of vacation have to whiz by and the school days go so, so slowly. My family loves trying out various restaurants, so just yesterday, we went to Backyard Grill because whenever we passed it, we would say ‘Hey! Why haven’t we tried that out yet?!’ When we entered the restaurant, we felt the ambiance was not as good as compared with Apple Bees and Steak House. It seemed a little dull. There weren’t many options in desserts either. But the food was just great. I had a Silverado burger, and I could not stop eating the minute I took the first bite. I would have chewed my fingers too if I hadn’t got a grip on myself. My Mom was going to order chicken teriyaki, but it hit her that whenever we would order the chicken teriyaki, it would always be sweet. We aren’t exactly fans of sweet chicken so she skipped it and ordered a sizzling fajita combo meal. We checked

Thank God, It's Friday!

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SLURP! SLURP! These were the noises my Mom’s straw was making as she drank the ‘Ultimate Gold Medalist’ that my Dad had ordered for himself. The cocktail had looked very nice and my Mom just did not seem able to tear her eyes from it, even though I waved my hand in front of her eyes. She saw right through it as if it was invisible. Apparently, my mother had fallen in love with that special cocktail.    I did not see anything too special about it since it looked like a regular cocktail. But when I had a sip, my heart melted for it, and I was drinking just as merrily. We were at the restaurant T.G.I. Friday’s . When we went to London, we had tried out this restaurant with uncle Sujesh and we had instantly liked it. We got the main course we had ordered and wow, were it delicious. My Garlic chicken pasta magically disappeared after a few minutes. As the cocktail was originally for Dad, me and Mom ordered a ‘Friday’s Sundae.’ The name was kind of funny, because it ca

IKEA Breakfast

There was deep rumbling from somewhere. Unfortunately that was not thunder, but my stomach growling. We were on our way from the badminton class. I was getting hungrier by the minute. I was given 2 options - Asraya Turkish restaurant or some other Arabic place. I did not have any interest in either of them but I saved when Dad pointed at DQ Grill & Chill , which we hadn’t tried till now, we could have our food from there. We loved trying out new restaurants. This place was called Dairy Queen (DQ) though I had no idea why it was called that. As long as I was concerned, it seemed to have burgers and the usual stuff and I didn’t think it to have any dairy items. We ordered onion rings, quesadillas, 2 grilled chicken burgers, large grilled chicken salad for my Dad and 2 sandwiches.  The place was a bit crowded, but still there was not much noise and we found a table. The onion rings were delicious and the quesadillas were to die for. Everything was yummy and the growli

l'OLIMPO - The Italian dinner

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I picked up a slice of yummy pepperoni pizza, cheese trailing after it. It looked and smelled delicious. In less than 4 seconds my slice was gone. Dad was looking at me, astonished. “Nobody is going to steal your slice.” I gave him a suspicious look. If Dad requested for a small bite of anything I was having, from guavas to ice creams, pretty much half of it would be gone. Go figure. We were at l’OLIMPO , an Italian restaurant. For me, dessert is more important when we go to restaurants like these, and I would always go to dessert section first, whether we bought any or not. For Mom, the place looked like a ‘wonderland’, for me it looked a little like ‘ Steak House ’, only little more stylish. I like Steak House, but now whenever I think of it I always remember the ‘great zucchini’ incident . We had chicken Caesar salad first. Dad love salad a lot, which is why I called him a ‘herbivore’. I poked my fork and attacked the lettuce since I found it difficult to stab it.

End of grade Six

Yaaaaaaayyyyy!!!!!!!! I am sooooo happy! SA-2 (Summative Assessment) has finally finished. Now, there are 2 weeks stretched in front of me which I am going to spend by watching TV, playing games on the computer, reading books etc.  And of course, no studies. I am going to be in 7 th grade and I already feel so grown up. I can still not believe how fast time flew. Today, my BFF Daniya is hosting a party and I am also invited. She has also invited my other 2 best friends, Anne and Chandana. Since Daniya is leaving Riyadh and going to India, this is  a goodbye  party. The 4 of us are best friends and we always stayed together as a group. I love them all so much  J .   Daniya said we could wear a traditional dress so I am going to wear my mango-colored latcha. Anne said she would wear her churidhar, and Chandana planned to wear her half-sari. On the first day of the holidays, we went to AppleBees for dinner. Yum! Just thinking of the food served there makes me h

Dubai Diary - Day 2

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I was still out cold in the morning of our 1 st day at Dubai and Mom woke me up at 10 am. Gradually, I knew I had to get up. Hey, I did not remember I was in Dubai that time!  “Let us order breakfast” Kochakka handed over a menu from “Palm Valley”. I and Mom pondered over the menu for some time. Mom’s suggestion was pepper roast. I was like “Not for me, I rather have a paratha!” Dad wanted idli and Kochakka, dosa. So soon I was gobbling down paratha, Dad was eating idli, Kochakka had dosa and Mom, her pepper roast.  It went like this for 3 more days. Mom joked that “don’t forget that we are going back to Riyadh and don’t expect all these from me” It was time to explore Dubai, I was very excited. Kochakka offered me the front seat, it was a real privilege. We first went for a drive, looking and admiring all the buildings and we were all excited to see the Burj Khalifa. It looked totally glamorous while sparkling in the sun and showing off its smooth, silver color.

Dubai Diary - Day 1

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Are you wondering why I have not written for so many days??? I have 2 reasons…..                 1.      We went to Dubai for 4 days. Yaaayyyy!!!!                 2.     Exams are going on… After coming from Dubai, I had a lot of class work to complete so I was very busy. We had tons of fun in Dubai! We went to the aquarium, Burj Khalifa, Ski Dubai etc.  Kochakka lives over there and we stayed with him. The night when we arrived at Dubai airport, Kochakka was waiting for us at the arrival.  On the way from airport, Mom said “Kochakka, take us to some interesting restaurant”,  “We are on our way” he replied.  Soon we reached at “Punjabi Dhaba”. They served good food and there were even some Punjabi dances and songs.  It was the first time I was going to such a hotel and I felt it very entertaining and interesting.  Kochakka took some photos of me standing with the dancers. There was a funny incident. When I went to take the photo, I totally forgot that I was

Dinner at Awshal restaurant

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As usual our Thursday evening started with a discussion of where to go for dinner.  It was a hard choice. “You have 3 options” Dad said, “American, Indian or Arabic food”. “No Indian food tonight” Mom said. I added “No Arabic too”, Dad laughed.  “Why don’t we go to Awshal, the restaurant which I told you about?” Dad suggested and we agreed. We ordered seafood grill and bar-b-q. Altogether it was yummy. I wanted to end dinner with chocolate mousse as desert, but unfortunately it was not available today. In my last entry I wrote that I was going to beautify my hand. Yes, that’s exactly what I did. Last night I put on nail polish and mehndi on my palm. Today I did another design on the back of my hand.   I must say, it is beautiful. Thank goodness for the computer. Yesterday, I found something interesting in my new edition of National Geographic magazine which is a magazine for kids. It said: “If you eat cheese after every meal, it actually

Dinner at Bangkok seafood restaurant

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“Here we are” Dad announced as he parked the car in front of a restaurant called 'Bangkok seafood restaurant'.  “Thai food is served here as Bangkok is the capital of Thailand“ Dad explained. It was spick-and-span inside. There was a fish tank too. We scanned the menu quickly. All the food had funny names like ‘Goong gang’. Then we called the waiter. “Which food is good among these?” Dad asked the waiter. The waiter and he spend some time like that and I started to feel hungry. Finally we ordered ‘ Tomyam goong ’, which is soup, ‘ Pad thai noodles ’, some beef, chicken and ‘ Halo Halo ‘ for desert. Our waiter was from Nepal. Unfortunately it was a long time before Dad realized that he knew Hindi. And it would have been more easier to speak with him in Hindi, because Dad knew it too. “Hello Hello, what is that?” I wondered out loud, after the waiter left.  “It is sweet of Philippines, and it is ice cream. Don’t say it’s name as Hello Hello. It is Halo H

Goozy!

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Yesterday we went to Goozy. It is a restaurant and has tasty food. But the most I liked was the Kunafa , which is an Arabic sweet. I was sorry that I could not finish it up because I was full. Me and parents were feeling fat, I couldn’t walk properly. We have to buy a birthday dress because of my birthday next month.