On Tuesday evening we ventured in to Five World Kitchen…read morewhich opened last Thursday evening. We had in a hand a flyer for 20% off. It's
a new international Banquet & Bar, fixed price dining restaurant. You can
find it where Mamma Mia used to be, nearly opposite The Opera House. Firstly, my experience shows the photos on their website in
no way resemble the food served, and there are lot of dishes on the 'theatre
kitchen' menu which were not available. There was one other party in the restaurant when we entered.
We were told a large group were coming in later so we didn't get our first choice
of table, however, we did manage to negotiate window seats. The first thing we
noticed (other than the dead, dried up flower decoration on our table) was the
poor finish to the décor; areas not painted and holes left where things used to
be. We ordered house white wine which was pleasant and a jug of tap water which
came in a stylish jug. After asking, the waitress explained we could order a
starter and a main from the menu, or we could mix and match with the menu and buffet
or just have the buffet everything is the same price. I chose prawn cocktail
which did not come with the garlic crostini listed in the menu. It had a nice
decoration of fine carrot, which I found fiddly to cut as the cocktail was
presented in a very tall and thin cocktail glass and I was concerned about
breaking it or knocking it over. There were only four medium size prawns, with a
bland avocado mousse. I ate the four prawns with a little mousse and a lettuce
leaf, before realising the lettuce hasn't been washed properly. I left the
rest. My companion chose the Calamari with garlic mayo. The Calamari was like
trying to eat the sole of a shoe very tough indeed. It was left. We faired a
little better with the buffet. I selected hummus (couldn't see any pitta bread),
mini spring rolls & Thai fish cake (frozen variety) stuffed tomatoes, mozzarella
and tomato, feta and cucumber, mushrooms (not sure what they were in), and a disappointing
attempt at vegetarian sushi (the rice was hard). My main course, Char-Grilled
Cheese Beef Burger came in a burnt crispy bun, twice the size of the burger
inside. It tasted nice though. The chips unfortunately tasted of fish so I left
those and the salad garnish hadn't been washed properly. The coleslaw resembled
a cheap and embarrassing affair you'd find in the economy range at a
supermarket chain. So, apart from the burger, most of it was left. My companion
tried the Black linguini pasta which came with 'hard' calamari so this was also
left. Back to the buffet and this time I tried the various curry, rice and
sweet and sour chicken. This was much better than the menu food and I thought
some of it was up to Indian restaurant standard. My companion disagreed saying
it was like a ready meal, however, he admitted liking the Thai red curry. Next,
I tried the Noodle bar where you select what you would like the chef to cook,
who cooks it and brings it to your table. Before I had taken a bite of mine I noticed
a very large black hair running throughout the noodles. We attracted the
attention of the waitress who went to speak to her manager, came back and asked
if I would like one cooked again. I declined and we explained the rest of the
meal was far from satisfactory. I was surprised waiting staff who hadn't
noticed we left the starters and main course mainly untouched and at no time
did it occur to anyone to ask whether everything was okay. After consulting
again with the manager we were offered 30% off. We declined suggesting as we
already had a 20% off voucher, 10% wasn't satisfactory. We settled at 50% off and
left without sampling the desserts.
