Two weeks into Ramadan and we’ve come to
the following conclusion: eating out just doesn’t compare to home-cooked
fetars. Most of the usually impressive restaurants we’ve reviewed have produced
sub-par results in Ramadan, where food is usually mass-produced, re-heated and
overcooked.
Sky Lounge is one such case. Located on the
top deck of the Nile Lily floating boat in Manial, this lounge/restaurant has
everything going for it: an amazing Nile view,
a cool evening breeze, comfortable seats and couches, shaded gazebos and
stylish deck decor.
Sadly the food didn’t live up to the
restaurant’s cool image. Our set menu of
140LE included a soup of the day, a choice between a Greek and Caesar salad and
a main course of either scaloppini with mashed potatoes, almond chicken, Cajun
shrimp or grilled chicken. For dessert,
the choice was between either fruit salad with ice cream or peach caramel
konafa.
Our soup of the day was mushroom cream soup.
At least we think it was: there was barely any hint of mushroom flavour in the
cream soup. Although the soup was served without bread, we cajoled and harassed
the waiter till a bread platter was brought over. For 140LE, we’d expect bread
to be included in the meal.
The Caesar salad was pleasant but not
particularly adventurous, with slices of Gouda
garnishing the light mayonnaise and crouton dressing. The Greek salad was mediocre
: despite containing the usually strong flavour of feta cheese, the salad had
barely any taste.
Our main course of Cajun shrimps arrived in
a very impressive display with mashed potatoes and a small bowl of the Cajun
sauce on the side. The shrimps were large and nicely flavoured; though they
were overcooked and quite dry. The mashed potatoes were bland and could have
been creamier to complement the shrimps’ texture.
The scaloppini was a bland dish of sliced
beef with lemon sauce, mashed potatoes and vegetables that were overcooked.
However, the most disappointing dish was the almond chicken with basmati rice.
The chicken itself was so overcooked that it was quite tough to slice through
and even tougher to chew on, while the basmati rice tasted slightly chalky.
Despite being ravenously hungry after a long day of fasting, this reviewer had
to push away the plate two mouthfuls in.
The sole highlight of the menu was the
caramel peach konafa; which came in a round mound with a healthy dollop of hot
caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream on top. Although quite heavy and sweet, the
dessert was finished in seconds and almost compensated for the disappointing
meal it had preceded.
To the restaurant's credit, the PR manager stopped over to check up on us during our meal, and he apologised profusely when we told him of our dining experience and offered us a free yacht cruise as compensation. Smart PR move, pity about the food.
The whole fetar experience was quite a
shame at Sky Lounge, especially since the restaurant’s setting and view delighted us. Perhaps it should be chalked down to a typical
Ramadan dining experience. Let’s hope Sky Lounge’s dining is better after
Ramadan.
