Chef

Monday, January 28th, 2013

Reviewed by Chef Samantha

I bought a City Slicker voucher for a Sunday Buffet at Moksh, so instead of R130 per person it worked out to be R130 for two of us. I would say this is a bargain but to go without a voucher and pay R130 per person would not really be value for money in my opinion. When we got inside we were shown to a section on the left which I assumed was a waiting area as quite small and we were told we would be informed when the food would be ready and we could then help ourselves. There seemed to be only one waiter in our area. There was a outside area as well but it's extremely hot in summer in Paarl, the temperature that day was 33 degrees outside so even with a umbrella you would die.

We were told to keep our plates etc and that we could go upstairs, so we took our knives and forks napkin etc with as he said we must keep them, we were told no just take your plate, it was all quite confusing as you are not explained what the procedure is when you arrived. So mum and me trooped upstairs on the wooden narrow staircase and chose a table, it was a much nicer, cleaner airy spacious dining room area than the waiting area or so we thought was the waiting area below, but we were quickly told we not allowed to sit upstairs and that we must sit downstairs at the table we were shown when we arrived. I said excuse me? I questioned this and said so the buffet was upstairs and we must sit downstairs. They replied yes! This I found not acceptable as for the elderly to walk up almost 2 flights of wooden narrow stairs up and down, in my eyes was not good. I asked if we could have a table upstairs as mum battled with stairs. We were told no that upstairs is for tables of 4 or 4 or more only. They offered to dish up mums food if she wishes so she would not have to troop up and down. I declined this offer as well as mum, as they do not know what my mother enjoys and what to dish up for her. By this time I was extremely annoyed about how the seating operated. Also the downstairs dining area looked more like a spare room that had no character what so ever with only 5 tables which were four tables of two and one table of four and the rest were outside, not sure what the number of those tables were. I said to mom she must remain downstairs seated and I shall dish up food for her and do the whole stair climbing thing up and down, it was quite annoying though as you walk up and down the stairs and people are on the stairs with plates of food and you having to move out the way not to bump them or mess your plates of food and watch your step as you try to do all.

The starters were some samoosa's which was like a lucky packet draw - you are not sure which is veg or meat. I feel they should be separated but that's my personal opinion. The meat one I luckily picked first was pretty good but I went for a second one and got a veg one which was not as nice and I left it. The garlic naan bread was good, but who can mess up a naan bread? The Onion Bhajis were quite yummy as well as the chilli bites.

The food was flavourful and nice but there was no prawn curry or a biryani as it states on there website and advertised on the voucher for the Sunday Buffet whether a coupon or not, if it states prawn curry and biryani there should be that on the buffet - although there was a fish curry, big difference from a prawn curry though! Anyway the lamb curry flavour was nice, they sadly used a very poor cut of meat for the lamb curry but that is if you could find any meat in the buffet dish, they used the ribs which had not been trimmed and were extremely fatty full of gristle, fatty skin and was mainly bone, there was hardly any meat and mainly gravy. I had to dish through to find some meat for mum through all the bone and cartilage in the chafing dish. We had a small plate eventually on our table which was mainly full of bones from the lamb curry - also the flies were terrible below, I had to keep waving my hands to scare them away from our food. I hate that about a restaurant when you have flies in the dining area. It makes you wonder what the kitchen area looks like. I shudder at the thought. The chicken curry was also pretty nice and full of flavour. On closer inspection you could see that the bottom so called dining area was not very clean and myself and mum wondered when last they had cleaned it as the cobwebs were pretty noticeable all over and it was very dusty.... anyhow back to the food.
We had to wait for dessert and I was looking forward to it, finally we were told the dessert was upstairs so there we trooped again upstairs past people carrying plates up and down the stairs, this time mom came up as I said she must choose her own dessert as i was not sure if it was one or two or three etc, there was only one dessert which was Kheer but we both did not enjoy it. It was a warm milky cardamon soup like dish with thin vermicelli noodles. I would of preferred the mango lassi or ice cream as mentioned on the advert and website but as they say mystery dessert so it's a luck of the draw I guess.

All in all I would not return to Moksh firstly due to the inconsideration for the elderly and make them climb up and down stairs, why don't they at least have two tables of two upstairs for this reason and secondly the false advertising on the website and vouchers of not having dishes that they advertise clearly on their website/menu etc. I guess maybe they know most the clientele will be using the vouchers so lets give fish instead of prawns and skip the biryani and use a cheap cut of lamb for the lamb curry.Maybe with all the other good reviews it was a genuinely good meal due to paying full price for the meals so you getting a better quality of food product at the end of the day but I am sure that was the ala carte menu and not like the Sunday buffet which I experienced.