I've heard much of the Al Ibrahimi all-you-can-eat dinner option, and I pass the restaurant almost daily on my way home from work (or anywhere else for that matter).
Having had a light breakfast and no lunch, I figured yesterday was a particularly good day to try a buffet. (I started writing this post the day after the expedition.....it's not exactly yesterday anymore...more like sometime last week!)
So off I went with my trusty dining companion walking in a typical balmy summer evening to Al Ibrahimi. We arrived exactly at 7, which coincidentally was when the buffet starts. The service was pretty good, the staff only too willing to show us around the buffet and explain every dish before we decided the fare looked tempting enough to stay. The tables were simple and fairly clean, although a few stray food spots on the tablecloth told us that they hadn't been changed after the last meal.
We decided to start with a salad but didn't find much in terms of variety. There was fattoush and tabouleh, both arabic salads, which I decided to avoid as I thought arabic food would be best done in an arabic restaurant. I shouldn't have put so much thought into it, for by the end of the meal I had sampled everything, and gotten myself immensely confused anyway!
There were a lot of deep fried items like pappadums and pakodas in the center, surrounded by many different dressings - just not enough salads to put them on! Two types of raitha (spiced yoghurt), hummous and some freshly cut cucumbers and other salad-y veggies were also present. The salads are more of a side-dish than a starter, so I just filled a plate with pickles and pappadums, filled a bowl with some raitha and brought them to the table to accompany me for the rest of the meal.
The salads failing as a starter, I thought perhaps we could try soup for a starter. They had two flavours, Chicken Corn and Hot N Sour. Both were very average - I've tasted better. The chicken corn soup was marginally better than the hot and sour (which should have been called spring onion soup for all the sliced spring onions that were in it!)
Course two was a sampling of the grills on offer.
Meagre - was the word that came to mind, although whatever was there was good. Two chicken grills and two fish (although one fish item was fried) was all that was on offer. I would have much preferred some meat grills as part of the variety.
The garlic tandoori fish was the highlight, mildly spiced, very garlicky and grilled to perfection.
My dining partner that evening enjoyed the fresh sesame naan that was quite unique. I've never personally seen it being made or served in Abu Dhabi, although it did bring back pleasant memories of the time we ate these wonderfully thick, soft, buttery and sesame-topped bread freshly made at the Global Vilage in Dubai...mmmm....
Course three - Paya Curry. This was a highlight for me, although this is one dish that is a developed taste and not everyone can enjoy it at first go.
Paya is basically lamb/goat's feet cooked on a slow fire for hours. It's usually eaten as a soup and is a traditional breakfast dish in Pakistan and even parts of India. If the idea of eating trotters is unappealing, the soup itself tastes incredible and is a must-try. I would go as far as to say that this should be Ibrahimi's signature dish. Spicy, yet soothing somehow with a very unique flavour that even I'm at a loss for words for how to describe! Note: This dish must be eaten hot!
Course four - the rice dishes. There were two - the mutton biriyani and the chicken pulao. The mutton biriyani was spicy and the cuts of meat were clean and cooked incredibly well, although the rice did seem a tad overcooked. The chicken pulao on the other hand, was brilliant. Very mild and subtle in its taste, it provided a lovely break from the rest of the spicy food and the basmati rice grains were long and flavourful as good basmati should be. This easily took the place of my favourite of the evening, in close competition with the paya curry.
Whatever you do, DO NOT make the mistake of trying out the "chinese" offerings. This was my course five, and although everything looked really good on display, it all tasted decidedly odd. The rice seemed undercooked, they used canned mushrooms for the stir-fried veggies, the sweet and sour prawns tasted stale and overall the experience was not pleasant. The only items that were edible were the vegetable fried noodles (though a tad oily they were not terrible) and the beef chilli. Take my advice, go to a chinese restaurant if you desperately crave chinese! At Al Ibrahimi, stick to the native Pakistani dishes and you should be alright.
Speaking of native dish, one that disappointed badly was the harees. This should technically be quite similar to 'Haleem' (See Shan post), but it was nothing like it. The traditional 'wheat' seemed to be replaced by oats, and it felt like we were eating meat-flavoured oats....Seriously, if that sounds weird, believe me it was. One half of a teaspoon was all I could manage, and even that seemed too much! Blech.....
DON'T try it unless you want to be put off Haleem/Harees for life!
The chefs made fresh batturas (deep fried round bread) to be eaten with channa (chickpeas curry) and although they looked really tempting hot out of the pan, it was too much to manage. I thought being able to see the kitchen was a nice touch though...
With all the spice and oil, we really needed something more than water to wash it all down, but to our dismay, there was nothing on the menu but fizzy drinks, milkshakes (?!?!) and fruit juices/smoothies! Odd accompaniments to a heavy meal I would think. The staff were only too happy to oblige however when we asked for an ice tea - although not on the menu. Wayy too much ice, but otherwise drinkable, lemon wedge and all!
Finally, the desserts. This was the best of the lot, with a immense variety, and we were slightly disappointed that we were too full to really enjoy it. The one thing they did lack was labelling, and so I'm not sure exactly what I ate. Avoid the cakes/brownies/mousse (they had chocolate(like artificially flavoured chocolate - something out of a box perhaps?) and coffee(too runny)). Stick to the warm desserts, like the bread-pudding-like-thingie or the kheer-like-thingie or the sweet-vermicelli-like-thingie (I did say there were no labels!) :P I quite enjoyed the green and orange jello though, not due to any special taste, but simply because it reminded me of my childhood, and the quivering green jello brought back lovely memories of watching the first Jurassic Park in the movie theatre. (Remember that scene with the kids eating the green jello, and it starts quivering in time to Mr. Dino's footsteps? :D)
Fun times were had by all, even though the food wasn't exquisite. Seeing the adorable little vertically-challenged doorman on our way out was the icing on the cake, and as we walked back slowly in the breezy night air with tummies silently protesting over too much food, we decided if there's ever a next time, let's go a la carte...
Till next time folks!
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