Mazati @ Bristol

Today, the two post-graduates who studied here in Bristol last year graduated. :D Because we haven't seen them since this summer, we met them for dinner last night and took the opportunity to drag along the rest of the Bruneians here, whom we haven't met for awhile now. Hadi's friend also told him of this halal restaurant (which we haven't tried before), so it seemed like a good opportunity, hehe.

This particular restaurant was called "Mazati" and served Lebanese cuisine. I wasn't actually certain on whether to write on it or not, since my pictures were all *horrible*, but I thought I might as well, hehe. So here we go :)

The whole restaurant ... felt like a cave. But in a good way. It was in the basement and so was dim and dark, with brick walls, but the it felt cozy - though a touch claustrophobic, meh. :P I'm not the tallest person around (in fact, I am probably one of the shortest), but I felt like I would bang my head on the ceiling. Well, okay, maybe not that bad. But looking at the ceiling made me feel much taller, haha. That's all.

Now, on to the food. Squint, and you might begin to see how our food looked like. Haha, even there, I could barely see my food. The lighting was *much* too dim.

This was my dish - Farrouj Meshwi (hoho, I know the name!). Its apparently marinated WHOLE chicken, semi-deboned (actually, cut in half also) which has been grilled and is served with fries and garlic sauce. I loved the garlic sauce, so yummy. And the fries were salty and flavoursome, so no complaints there. The chicken was juicy and tender (and crisp on the outside) but I only tasted a small hint of the marinade. Maybe they didn't marinate it enough, haha. :P Whatever the case, this cost 9 pounds and I thought it was an *ok* deal. Better than having a quarter of a chicken for 6 pounds, no? :D This would definitely be a better "sharing" dish, but everyone else wanted some lamb (or fish). I am the only true chicken fan, haha! (oh, and Jai :D *pokes*) I had to give Hadi slightly under a quarter of the chicken, but managed to finish the rest. Was very very very full the whole night though.



Hadi had spicy grilled lamb pieces (lahm meshwi) which have also been marinated then grilled. I forgot to ask him how it was, but it looked spicy. Very red. The rice portion was pathetic though, haha. Barely two mouthfuls.


This was one of the other's dishes, lamb shank (kharouf mehshi). This was supposedly one of the more tender parts of the lamb. I wouldn't know. But it looked impressive, haha. Its supposedly marinated, then cooked with "special herbs". Its rice portion was more, as you can see, and there was supposedly minced lamb in there as well! Sounds worth it for 10 pounds...

The drinks, there was the usual, meh. What I found funny was that in the menu, there was "Freshly squeezed orange juice" but then they crossed out the freshly squeezed! Haha, honest of them. (Once in Brunei, I ordered oren campur - mixed orange juice, thinking it was juices of different kinds of citrus fruits mixed together, but it was just orange squash! Misleading...)

The service there was a bit... slow. I think there were two people on the waiting staff only, and the restaurant was close to full (even though it was a Tuesday night). So the ordering took a bit of time, but the food didn't take too long at all. Also, what was nice was that they served warm fresh Lebanese bread to eat with your meal. This was free, but then they charged 10% for service fee. Sigh. Oh well. It was to be expected, I guess.

So, the verdict? It seems like the other people were happy enough with their food, although there were complaints from some of the people who had a mixed dish with both lamb and chicken. They said the chicken was better, haha! Some people were also impressed with the "value" of my dish, since it *is* a whole chicken, although its a rather small one. But still. Quite worth it, hehe. Especially if you share, which I would, if we ever go here again. What's interesting though, is that they change their menu with different seasons. We had the winter menu, so it might be interesting to check out the spring menu next time.

My main complaint, though, would be the prices. I paid a total of 11 pounds for my dinner. Compared to the less than 1 pound if I eat at home. Okay, maybe I'm being a bit karit (greedy? selfish?) haha, but hey, being a student, I am entitled to that, I'm sure, haha. I just don't like spending a lot of outside food, is all. Fast food's the cheapest here, at about 2 pounds for 2 pieces of chicken and fries. *drool* I love fast food chicken. But getting off track here, haha. *back to the point* I wouldn't mind coming here again, although I would prefer not to eat out too often. The main point of us going for dinner was to hang out with the others though, and that, we definitely did. I'm pretty sure everyone had fun last night. I know I did, and I hope the others did too. :D

Quote of the day: The other night I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument going.