Glass doors opened. Shir Ali and Dara saw the luxurious setting of the restaurant. There were columns of mirrors. On the right side, near the white wall, there was a rather big aquarium, where fancy-looking fish swam. On the left side of the wall was a large panel with ancient Greek statues, made in plaster. But the eyes of the statues were gilded.
The ceiling of the restaurant was painted with paintings, landscapes of mountains, fields, rivers were painted there, and in the middle stood the Acropolis.
Dara just said - "what a wretched bad taste"!
Shir Ali - could not object to him!
The floor of the restaurant was covered in pink marble.
His legs were slipping. You could stretch out on it.
On the walls hung decorative trunks of grapes, with leaves and bunches covered with gilding.
A rich but tasteless restaurant.
The gift did not expect much from the restaurant.
Shir Ali invited him to sit at the table. The restaurant had about 20 tables. They were small, but for four people.
The chairs looked similar to the "Viennese", but made of plastic and aluminum with a leather substitute in the form of a seat. And it was already clearly cheap.
However, it was pleasing that the tables were clean, there were beautiful white porcelain vases in which beige napkins stuck out. It was an elegant pink porcelain salt shaker. But there was no menu.
Shir Ali and Dara. They sat for 10 minutes no one approached them. Dara made a wry smile, then Shir Ali went to the checkout counter and asked for a menu. After 5 minutes he was brought. It was a greasy black folder made of substitute leather, inside were heavily worn laminated sheets with photographs of dishes and prices were indicated. They were unexpectedly tall.
Shir Ali at that moment, regretted not believing his cousin.
The price for the pierzole was 600,000 blackbucks. It was one serving. And the prices for the rest of the dishes were higher than for the "pierzola". Since Shchir Ali wanted to bring his cousin to another restaurant, he needed to save. The second dish he could afford was Margherita pizza with tomatoes and two types of cheese. The price was only 200,000 black bucks.
The exchange rate was 1 US dollar = 20,000 black bucks for 2023.
The order has been placed.
After 5 minutes, the waiter brought free black tea in a small 125 ml Amurut glass and a small baking. To wait for the order was not so boring.
But dissatisfied with Dara, he drank a glass in a minute, and he did not like the cookie, it was dry and choked on it. Coughing. The mood was not very.
"Well, and for hell did we come here? We've been waiting for 20 minutes and nothing ..." ?!
"Cousin, don't be nervous, they brought tea!"
"Are you really Shir Ali, is that really tea?"
"Be patient, they will bring everything now!"
Really brought, it was Margarita pizza. She looked like a pancake, and thin. Very thin, the thickness of the pizza was not more than 5 mm. For the whole average pizza, there were only 7 thin slices of tomato. The cheese smelled not very good.
"Dara, how's the taste?"
"Well ... the cheese is not tasty, it has some kind of machine flavor, the cheese does not stretch, the dough burned in the back, the tomatoes are dry. This is not pizza, this is a pancake, and not the tastiest!"
"How much is ... is it worth it?"
"$ 10, somewhere ..." reluctantly shared information Shir Ali.
"Do you call yourself a foodie"? "Is there a burnt, tasteless and expensive pizza? Well, I congratulate you!" said Dara maliciously.
He was disappointed.
But they brought one portion of the pierzole, one for two. That is what Shir Ali did to save a little!
On white, large, porcelain plates, lay two coals on the bones wrapped at the end with foil. These were lamb cutlets, pierzola. In the photographs, this dish looked pinkish with a golden crust. Black embers lay on a plate in front of them. For a small pile of rice, no more than one tablespoon, half of some rolled up pancake and a medallion of tomato and cucumber.
Shir Ali was discouraged by the look, serving and design of this dish. It was clearly losing. But now he wanted to appreciate the taste itself ?! What is he like?
Taking a spoon with rice, Shir Ali tasted it. It was surprisingly dry, rice stuck into the sky, stuck between the teeth. There was no taste at all. It feels like he was eating soaked cardboard.
Yes, rice also failed. Tomato medallions, they had no taste, they didn't smell of tomatoes at all. And the cucumber was kind of slimy.
"Vile, yes"? Dara immediately put in. "I would have cooked better at home, and would not have asked you for 800,000 black bucks. To taste some tasteless food, you wiped out $ 40!"
"Well, I wanted to try, start a gourmet life ..." Shir Ali joked. He was surprised. the reviews were gorgeous by 5 stars, not a single bad!
"Well, what are we trying coals, now"? suggested Dara.
Pirzola ?!
The meat tasted fatty, tasty, but black, charred patches of meat crumbled on the teeth. The most delicious part was where the bone was covered with foil. There was not much meat on the bone. Therefore, two healthy men, did not ate completely two small "pierzola".
And the halves of pancakes in a tube did not have a pronounced taste at all, as if they were eating papers or cotton wool.
In fact, it was a plate of feta cheese, fried in palm oil.
"Well, brother ?! Money down the drain"? said Dara softly.
"For $ 40 we could take a full pilaf with meat of 348 grams, a salad of onions and tomatoes and salt each for a whole plate, we would order 3 puff and tandoori-baked pies with meat and onions. And also 1 teapot of long green tea "!
"And these coals, wet cardboard and cotton!"
Shir Ali, touched his chin with his hand and held down.
"And the reviews were pretty good," he said.
"Yes, you're right, money down the drain"!
"But don't be sad, we'll go straight from here to another restaurant, they serve amazing steaks from the chef!" wandered hungry cousin, Shir Ali.
But Dara continued to doubt ...