Showing posts with label oriental. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oriental. Show all posts

Monday, November 21, 2011

Oriental: Mamoona Cuisine (English review)

last visited: 11.11.2011
where: Hanauer Ldstr. 2, Frankfurt
phone: 069/17427597
It is indeed amazing what Ghani has made out of the former and legendary Unity club. He has already proven his creativity by transforming a small public toilet at the city center into a nice and cozy bar named Lala Mamoona and here he surpasses himself and excites us: Chic and bright, all in pastel colors and decorated with style. Emphasis is put on details with the leather wrapped menu describing vital ingredients of the Moroccan and Lebanese cuisine being only one proof for that. The staff is very friendly without being too intrusive or acting artificially. Starting with the bartender whom you will meet first when you enter to the rest of the staff - the way they treat you is very consistent.

As an appetizer we choose okra (lady`s fingers) in tomato sauce and oriental spices (€ 5.50) and falafel with haloumi cheese (€ 6.80).

The okras are fresh and well coated in a spicey and well-flavored tomato sauce. I'm not a big falafel fan and probably never will end up as one but here they definitely taste different from what you get at most of the take aways. It seems as if they frequently change the oil they use to fry. The haloumi is perfectly grilled as it is not hard to chew (folks who tried them at home will know what I mean) and goes very well with the chickpea sauce.

We feel that 30 minutes is a tad too long to wait for the main course but on the other hand we don't really know how long it takes to prepare a lamb roll (lamb in oriental bread, hummus and wild herb salad - € 10.50) or a chicken tajine (chicken stew, pickled lemon, olives, onions and saffron rice  - € 15.50). Saying "it was worth the wait" may sound clichéd but they deliver! The same lamb role could be served at the IMA Multibar: The size is rather big and in combination with the hummus filling occupies some place in your stomach. The lamb is tender and according to its taste the meat seems to come from a young animal indeed.
The eye catcher here is definitly the chicken tajine served in a clay pot in a straw basket. The chicken is incredibly tender and the lemon-olive-onion gravy is completely eaten up with the support of the saffron rice.

When paying (€ 40 for two, excluding drinks) the staff informs us that there is buffet every Sunday containing most of the dishes they server with some live music starting at 6 pm. We'll definitely go for that....

Okra

Falafel & Haloumi chees

Lamb roll

Chicken Tajine



Friday, October 28, 2011

IMA Multibar

last visit: 21.10.2011
Where: Kleine Bockenheimer Straße 14, Frankfurt
Auf Deutsch lesen / Read this in German
Why strive to the city center of Frankfurt when you have a variety of choices to dine around my place in Bornheim? Sure, the "Heimat" on the Berliner Strasse is definitely worth a visit but most wallets wouldn't sustain regular visits. I'll try to explore that part of the town better in the future. As fate would have it my co-worker goes back to the US for a rather long period and since the hotel he is staying at to catch his early flight next day is quiet close to the Freßgass (a famous pedestrian area with rather sophisticated bars and restaurants and of course a McDonald's) and my research as well as me recalling some recomendations I thought to try out IMA Multibar for a small and informal farewell dinner.

I had booked a table for three people in the afternoon and if this Friday is a benchmark it is definitely recommended to do so. The interior is designed minimalistically without coming across too cold.

The place is pretty dense and I guess it might be quiet crowded during lunchtime but that is nothing that bothers me nor influences my review. You can easily check in advance if a place is convenient for a certain purpose and what ambience you can expect. I mean you wouldn't go to McDonald's for a candlelight dinner or expect a drive through at Jamie Oliver's place.

Corresponding to the set-up the menu is kept simple which on one hand - supported by the sight of the open kitchen - hopefully indicates that this place offers few but delicious choices but it definitely saves me time translating everything to my colleague.

On the menu we find various kinds of wraps, various oriental appetizers, a freestyle platter (with hummus, guacamole or freestyle addition couscous, potato-chickpea puree), baked potatoes and salads. These dishes can be enhanced with plenty of extras like vegetables, beef, chicken, smoked duck breast, fried goat cheese and many more.

We select a large freestyle platter (€8), a small salad with beef (€4,50 + €3), a wrap with smoked duck breast salad, pineapple - mango - mint chutney, sour cream and balsamic dressing and one with Tiger prawns, salad, potato-chickpea puree, homemade chili-vanilla jelly, yogurt - wasabi dressing and Asian dressing (€ 8.50 / € 9). The friendly waitress recommends a rasperry-I-forgot-the-other-ingredients-dressing for the salad and we decide to go for it.

Being located in this area of the town and with every dish coming for less than € 10 we fear to be served with tiny portions good for a picture in a sophisticated restaurant guide but not sufficient to fill our stomachs. Luckily that's not the case: The wraps are big enough to be tried by each one of us and each one of us agrees: Delicious, fresh and healthy! The many sauces, relishes and chutneys in that thin pita bread are perfectly complementing the duck breast/tiger prawns being a non-dominating but very important support act. The small salad is fresh and teaming up with the beef it becomes a quiet a portion delicately coated in that rasperry-I-forgot-the-other-ingredients-dressing. The freestyle platter can give any other dedicated oriental restaurant a run for their money and is not only eaten up in no time but we also leave the platter brightly polished using the bread that came along with it.

I am getting a watery mouth just writing about it. € 32.50 (excluding drinks) - good value for money - go for it!



Small salad with beef and rasperry dressing

Freestyle oriental platter

Wrap with smoked duck breast