Charcoal BBQ & Grill

Charcoal is one of those places that I always hear about, but never bothered going. Well, ta-dah! As a last minute thing before the start of puasa, we went there today (at the recommendation of Ka Pijah who, apparently, is addicted to the food there).

Anyway, as soon as we entered, the place impressed. Although it was a bit *too* dim for me (I prefer a brighter sunnier room), the restaurant was very cosy and exuded a quiet warmth. Or maybe that was just me feeling the heat of the grill. Yes, like most restaurants nowadays it seems, you can also watch the chefs at Charcoal prepare your food as you wait. The seating all looked *very* comfortable. Unfortunately, they were unable to seat a party of 10 at the comfy chairs, so we got typical restaurant chairs instead :(

Service was (unexpectedly) good. As soon as we came in and joined the other people in our group who were already there, we were seated and handed a menu. We did have to wait a while before we were able to place our orders, but that was nothing major.

One look at the menu, and I'm glad that we were being treated there by one of my aunts (as opposed to me paying for myself :P). The main dishes were upwards of $15 typically, and the appetisers were about $5 each. The drinks and desserts were also not less than $5 each, eep! >.<>

Apparently, THE best dish in the restaurant (according to Ka Pijah) is the ribs (from beef - or cows? - in case you're wondering). I forget the full name of the dish, but they come in two seasonings, I think - hot and honey. Because there were so many of us, we ordered the party platter, which consisted of chicken wings (appetisers), corn on the cob, various veggies and of course, the ribs. Each platter was about enough to serve 4-5 people (relatively big eaters, all of us).

The food was actually quite good, although I had some misgivings, since it WAS beef (hey, I

'm a chicken girl! ;) ) But the ribs were reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllly tender, and I mean REALLY tender, and were not all that strong tasting really. You could barely tell it was beef. The seasoning was acceptable, though a bit too sweet for me. I think we didn't get the spicy version, but we did get spicy chicken wings, which was waaaaaayyyyyyyy too hot. I could smell the spiciness, without even tasting the chicken. So yeah, hot. As I me ntioned before, lighting was really dim, so my picture isn't all that great, but oh well, good enough, I guess.

The presentation of the food was actually quite good, particularly the drinks and desserts. I think they just love putting all sorts of decorations for the drinks, even an aloevera leaf o n the rim of one of the cups! (Note, this should not be sucked on. Pretending to have an aloevera leaf tongue is really not as funny as you may think it is. I hope you get the POINT). Even the apple juice looked really nice, but I got a horrible picture so I'm not going to show you what it looks like :P But here are a few pictures you can drool over.

So my verdict? The food was good, though a bit too pricey, for me. It wasn't really my type of food though, since I definitely enjoy chicken more. A beef person might enjoy it more, a pure meat eater very much so, since practically the whole meal consisted of just protein protein protein (except for the drinks and desserts, of course. And the wedges.). But it was defnitely an interesting experience. I'll probably never go there again, unless someone brings me along (um, hint? :P) but I defnitely recommend to those of you who like their meat to go and try this out. :)