Based on the poll on my blog, the first abuja restaurant I visited was a Lebanese restaurant  called Al Basha Palace this past weekend.

When I told my friend we were going to a Lebanese restaurant, he stopped by Tantalizers to buy food because he wasn't sure that he would like the food. Thankfully I got to him before he could eat his pepper chicken, Imagine!

The menu had a large variety, mostly Lebanese but also included items like steak and barbecue chicken. The appetizers included hommos,falafel and many other traditional lebanese food. As soon as I saw Roasted Lamb Leg, I knew exactly what I wanted. I always lean towards lamb whenever I go to a Mediterranean restaurant. They typically make it so well. I looked up at my friend and he wanted to order the Chicken Barbecue, sigh! I asked him to see if there was something else he was willing to try. When the waited came to take our orders, I asked about the other dishes on the menu that didn't have descriptions underneath and he was able to give us a breakdown of the ingredients. He recommended the Sing Sing Chicken. Most entrees come with a choice of rice, fries (which I thought was weird)or vegetables. In the end, our order consisted of the calamari in hot chili sauce, the Roasted Lamb Leg with Oriental Spiced Rice and Sing Sing Chicken with fries and 2 glasses of Chapman.

THE REVIEW:

The calamari wasn't battered and deep fried like I was expecting. It was actually seasoned and stir fried in ground pepper and I think tomatoes. It was served with a basket of pita bread. I took a bite and it reminded me of eating bread and fish stew(Which I like to do actually). I mentioned this to my friend and to said it was more a generally seafood taste not fish in particular. I had to agree. It definitely not as spicy as I was expecting with hot chili sauce in the title. I enjoyed eating it, had to stop myself to leave room for my main course.

The lamb was moist and very well seasoned and the rice was generously portioned. The rice was garnished with chunks of onions, fresh tomatoes and toasted pine nuts. The sing sing chicken was nice as well, it had two grilled chicken breasts in a sauce made with mushrooms, green and red bell peppers and curry seasoned chicken broth. Chicken breast has a tendency to get dry on a grill, but this wasn't the case here. Most likely because the chicken was grilled with the skin on. It was delicious and my friend commented that the sauce would go nicely with fish. I looked on the menu and they do have the grilled fish version of the dish. Those fries however were not the business. The sauce would have gone better with baked potatoes or even boiled chunky cut potatoes.

All together I enjoyed my meal. The service was excellent. The wait staff were attentive, polite and didn't leave you waiting. The meal also did not take too long to come to the table. I liked the decor and lighting of the place. My main dislikes were the chairs in the dining room which looked cheap in contrast to the setting. The average price of our entire meal came out to about N4900 per person. Steep, in my books. A good place to go for special occasions.

FOOD: 4 out of 5

CUSTOMER SERVICE: 4.5 out of 5

AMBIANCE: 3.5 out of 5

PRICE RANGE: # # # # 

INFO:

Location: 11 Cassandra street, Off Usuma Street, Off Gana Street, Maitama, Abuja.

Hours: Opens at noon. 

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