Pizza at Platter

If you haven't tried the pizza at Platter and go drooling on pizzas, you should probably be planning a visit this week.
They serve wood fired pizzas. If you are not careful here, you can easily either get a charred pizza or have a underdone one. The dense heat gets the pizza done very fast and you should be very good with your timing if you are preparing pizzas in wood ovens. But wood oven will always give you the best pizzas in the world with a woody smoky hint.
They seem to get it right almost every time. The pizza has a thin soft proper crust, unlike bread based as served in many places, with slightly crispy edges.
What makes this pizza so special to me is the heart of it. The heart of any pizza would be its sauce. The sauce has vibrant flavours, with the refreshing kick of basil. This is a pizza keep on stuffing yourself with whole day may be and not get tired of that easily. Toppings are generously served too.
You can see your pizza being prepared by the chef and the dough just gives you the idea of the story to follow. When you can see the dough made right, and the pizza pie rolled out from it, it is just too hard to wait for the climax of the tasty adventure.

Mac N Jack

How often do I have a 'short' post of a review?
I wonder too! (lol).
This is just going to be one of those rare ones, since it does not need much to be said about. When something is good, you actually do not have to say much. You will just have to read and go for a taste to believe I guess.
Mac N Jack, in sec7, uttara was on my list for a long time, but could hardly make time for it. And then the other day, my boss got it for our light kind of lunch and I couldn't help but giggle inside and say to myself 'That saves me the money for another tasty adventure (or could also be another "insipid" nightmare actually)!'
Jokes aside, their burgers are good.
I had the original beef burger and I could taste and see small dabs of mustard on the meaty patty, with a good bit hint of sourness from pickles on the mayonnaise smothered crown and heel of the bun. The interesting thing is that all those flavours were in a perfect balance and complemented each other in that light and juicy mayo based body. The filling also had slices of onion giving it that earthy spicy  dimension to the taste and holding in that perfectly slight bit of extra sweet and sour flavour from the tomato slices the burger needed.
(I know! This is isn't how 'short' is defined in dictionaries tongue emoticon .)

*Image-Taken from their page*

Tokyo Express

It was a sudden dine out at Tokyo Express and a boring redundant day ended with an exotic meal.
I am not an expert on Japanese cuisine, but I always love to dig into and research. All the dishes may not be authentic, but food that tastes good sells! You cannot serve a spicy hot beef bhuna to western palates usually used to sublime subtle soothing flavours. Similarly you cannot bring in everything Japanese to suit the local palate.

There is not much wrong with the taste, though it was filled with assorted salad vegetable, cheese and a fish you just could not tell. The wrapping leaves a lot to be desired. Loose wrapping that promises to fall off when roughly messed with chopsticks.
Nigiri platter was good. If you get your rice right here, you cannot go wrong with making these. 
Tip: The best way of having nigiri that has wasabi in it already is just by dipping the fish side in the soy sauce and eating it. Otherwise, you can just put it in the mouth without the sauce, chew it, and then quickly have the pickled ginger. The sweet taste coats your mouth and complements the raw fish perfectly. Try either ways please.



If the sight of cooked octopus does not creep you out and you don't mind trying it (since most locals here would not dare to and be disgusted thinking of it as an acquired taste), then let me tell you that octopus does not have much flavour. It is much like chicken breasts; bland. But the firm tentacles when fried right are just so good, that you feel like chewing them to the end of time; makes a perfect starter and you could think of starting as a road side delicacy on a cart at this point. Soy sauce with minced garlic and chili goes well with the tentacles.



Chicken Nanban had a nice crispy coat served with a sweet and sour garlicy mayo that had the hint of soy sauce. The original sauce would though be much more sour and light in texture, this particular one was on the heavier and slightly sweeter and less sour side. In terms of taste, you cannot take anything away. Like I said, food that tastes well sells! Unless you are from Japan or have already tried it there, you should not have much to complain about this dish.

Downtown Cafe

I am really surprised with people's reviews on certain food related groups on facebook. If that wasn't a rare bad service, which I highly doubt it was, the experience in Downtown Cafe  was just too horrible to even waste words on it.
I went to try the souffle that anyone who tried it in Khilgaon said it was wonderful at a very cheap price and all those words were typed on those groups. It was just a cup of burnt chocolate trash! I will not waste any more minute on this rubbish dish!

Burger LAB

Now that is an interesting name. They are new and they are at the Bashundhara gate, close to HURDCO International School.
Their menu is as interesting as their name and they sound really good. You can go there for a BBQ radiation, or choose to get a spicy flame on or think about the BIG BANG. And if you like cheese and in the mood for a selfie, you certainly have the option to "SAY CHEESE".

The Daily Star is caught up writing articles on burger carts and joints these days, and so I thought, I might dig into a few too while the trend lasts. And i was lucky enough to check in there last night, just when they were taking snaps for the newspaper.

However, I didn't enjoy their burger.

I ordered what they call "BIG BANG". Yes, "BIG BANG", and it does not come with Sheldon Cooper's theories. It is a burger that has double patties, cheese, egg, jalapenos, pickle, mushroom, bacon and salami, garlic mayo and ketchup; wonder what was left. It is a big burger by height, that might ask you to have a very flexible jaw to allow you to open your mouth as wide as one to win you a Guinness Record. People who like to get their hands messy might enjoy this burger.
Apart from struggling to have a bite on the burger, I would not deny that there is a good balance in the taste. Bacon and salami give the chewy bite with the hint of garlic and sour pickles and jalapenos make a nice combo here. Egg has a full done yolk.

So what went wrong with this burger?
The patty is dry and does nothing to add to the taste. It just piles up in there and rests in for the sake of this burger to be called a beef burger or a chicken burger. What is worse is the after taste of burnt oil, and this taste stays the rest of day and often reminds the odd experience when burped. Needless to mention that this burger is a recipe for feeling bloated. It is clear why, when you look at their cooking process. The patties are soaking in oil in the pan when cooked.
The fillings would often slip and mushroom would win the race against others in dropping down. Bun are totally soggy (or swaggy may be according to them) half way through.

I don't understand why you need to be so generous and offer everything at the cost of the quality of your burger! When building up a burger like that, it is essential to keep in mind if you would eat that and feel good about it. You cannot go serve something that you don't feel right.

This was my second visit and I really wanted to write something good about them. It is a shame that they were disappointing again, even after a few pointers in my previous visit.

At George's Cafe in Uttara

I am kind of happy to come across a place that believes in homemade products.
They serve good buffalo wings, which are perfectly done, juicy and succulent on a tangy tomato sauce with a hint of herbs. The dish comes with an aoili. Aoili is pleasantly garlicy, but I find it unfair when an aoili like that is served with such a good sauce under the wings. The aoili masks the goodness of the sauce and renders it useless. Aoili here is totall unnecessary.
The George's Cafe Burger is just buttery in texture in the mouth with a few chunky bites. Taste is dominated by nutmeg though. Taste needs a little more balance here.
The Banana and Cream pie was excellent. Banana and cream are a good combo in a pie that had a perfect crust that doesnt break apart on slightest pressure.
Chocolate Milk Shake was a disapointment. It tasted like store bought cheap chocolate milk. The positive point here is that they use homemade icecream.
They also prepare their own ketchup and mayonnaise.

At Fish & Co.

After all the mixed reviews from all around I couldn’t resist the temptation to check in for lunch. I was quite curious about the new thing in the city and I think I should have come here earlier. Could have saved many from wasting their hard earned money probably.
I had a soup of the day and a platter.
Soup of the day was much like seafood chowder and it was okay. There was a distinct flavour of celery in the soup. Texture was creamy, and had a stingy serving of fish and carrots unlike real chowder. Honestly, the soup was a bit bland for me, but I think that leaves you the option of adding salt and pepper according to your preference. However, there was a major flaw in presentation. The plate was messy around the edges and that is not a restaurant quality service in my book.
The platter I asked for had grilled calamari, grilled prawns, white fish, chips and paella rice. Grilled calamari was slightly overdone, some being too charred and having a burnt flavour, otherwise a bit chewy (grilled calamari is chewy). Chips were not perfectly crispy, and for me, chips must be crispy on the outside. Grilled prawns were a bit creamy in texture, but I prefer the perfectly done crunchy and firm textured prawns with a softer bite inside. I expected the white fish to have a bit of a flavour, but it was plain and simply done fish on the pan. Rice was cooked perfectly to al dente, but bland for my taste buds. The whole meal had just one distinct flavour-CELERY. Rice tasted a bit different though, but lacked salt and pepper, so that you could add them according to your preference. There was nothing special about it. The meal didn’t seem to pack any real flavour, and so I had to ask for their garlic lemon butter sauce.

Garlic lemon butter sauce is my favourite thing with any seafood, and I demand it to be served right. The only thing that seemed totally perfect about that meal was the sauce. It wasn’t too garlicky, or too lemony, but with just the right amount of sour kick and the richness of butter complemented the sauce.

I will not be returning to this place though. Food wasn’t worth my money, but I probably could have gone back for second tasting. The reason I wouldn’t bother doing that is their service. I would not pay a single paisa here for the service I received. They are ignorant of guest’s preferences. I had to shout out loud at one point to call them. They wouldn’t confirm me when I changed my order and I wasn’t sure about what was coming to the table. I had to ask for tissue papers several times before the request reached their ears. They pushed my chair countless times as they rushed across and I don’t appreciate that when I am dining. In shot, they would show themselves to busy for you making you feel like an uninvited guest to their store. That for me is the worst kind of service in any kind of restaurant. The guest is the boss in here and in Bangladesh guests love to be pampered.