Maha

5th August 2011

With my father in town both me and my brother went in to the city to meet him for dinner. As he had been to the point at lunch for a work lunch (still on my list!), he was not that hungry but decided to try our luck at Maha. I thought it would be interesting to see the difference between a one hat middle eastern restaurant and the 2 hat Momo i visited on Wednesday.

Very different in style and decor from Momo it was more of a downstairs bar / club feel rather than a fine dining. Also as we hadn't booked on a friday night they only had room at the bar for us. Ordered a Efes turkish pilsner and went through the menu. A similar sharing plates theme at more affordable prices, the a la carte menu offered very poor value so me and Joe (brother) went for the 4 course souffra with my dad not very hungry he just wanted to pick at our food but was told that rather than share 2 portion for three he could just have the main for $20. (I think he would have preferred to not eat at all).

The first course consisted of warm bread with various dips and olives and a cured kingfish and black foam dish served in a shot glass. It was good filling and well cooked food. Only small issue was there was only 2 pieces of medium sized bread which was insufficient for the amount of dips. However it was quality food and portions were ample.

This was followed but our small plates which featured seasoned quail and a spanner crab and cheese middle eastern pasta. Both were quality with the quail being the better dish with the pasta lacking some wow factor or bold flavour.

The large plates were next with a fish dish and a meat dish accompanied by a middle eastern bread salad (ok nothing special) and an almond rice rilaf (bold almond flavours and great taste). The fish was firm and well cooked and was combined artichoke. Solid dish and nice flavours.
The meat dish was excellent. Fall apart lamb shoulder with a green olive and pine nut tabouleh. Beautiful meat combined well with the tabouleh. Best dish of the night.

The desert consisted of 3 different small deserts (2 of each for both me and joe). The first was a turkish delight donut. Good turkish delight and a soft doughy donut was good although more turkish delight filling and less donut would have been better. The next desert was served in a shot glass and consisted of layers of blood orange gel, citrus mousse, sweet biscuit and mandarin sorbet. The flavours worked well together and was a complex but good dish. The final desert was a carrot cake with yoghurt ice cream which has a good constrast with the carrot flavour mixing with the soft cold yoghurt.

Was a decent night out and good quality food but the gulf in class and quality between the one hat middle eastern restaurant and the 2 hat version was very noticeable.