KALAMARI - Not So Strongly Worded Letter

AkanmuAbuja@gmail.om

Rating: 8.7/10

March, 2013

Kalamari - Restaurant

No. 3 Bangui Street (Off Adetokunbo Ademola Way)

Wuse 2, Abuja, Nigeria.

Please see the bottom of this letter in the Highlights/Review section, as well as the bold sentences for the brief version of this letter/review.

Letter to Kalamari Management

Dear Kalamari Management,

This is a not so strongly worded letter to express my opinions following my experience at your establishment. I should inform you that this letter is being made available to the public through the internet, primarily for the purpose of empowering or entertaining other consumers curious about your establishment.

I was very positively surprised by Kalamari.

I actually found it harder than usual to find things to complain about regarding your restaurant. I’m not saying you were perfect (as is proof by the 8.7/10 rating), but considering I had dinner here with a friend on one occasion and then attended a friend’s birthday dinner party with about 25 people on a second occasion, I was amused that you didn’t do anything wrong or have any notable weaknesses. Basically, given the price and quality of food here, Kalamari does a great job.

Group Dining Experience:

I’ll assume that it is safe to say Kalamari is a good choice for a dinner party of 10 or more people. During the dinner party, which was on a Saturday (which I’m assuming is one of the busier days for a restaurant), you were accommodating to the birthday girl’s group by rearranging the tables to ensure that up to 10 people could sit together on the two or three tables that were set-up. Furthermore, you had a different menu for the dinner itself than what is on your regular menu. I enjoyed the assortment of appetizers you provided, and although I didn’t think the fried rice and chicken that was the main course were particularly tasty, it wasn’t bad in any way. It was also nice that you gave the guests a choice of beef or chicken with their meals. Furthermore, my friend could choose if to have music playing, which music, and at what volume. All these factors together were most impressive because my friend did not buy out the restaurant for the night and I even noticed that you had one or two other customers come in at some point, meaning you just have enough flexibility to pull a thing like that off. Good job.

All in all, I like that a person can call Kalamari and ask to set up a dinner party and have it go smoothly.

Regular Dining Experience:

Looking through the nicely put together menu made it easy for me to quickly see that Kalamari makes more sense as a choice for lunch than as a choice for dinner. This is proven in there being a wide range of salads and sandwiches to choose from, while there are only four full meals in total. This may explain why your menu has three appetizers that are strictly protein based and non-flour based. I can see why peppered snail, peppered gizzard, and bbq wings may complement a salad or sandwich better than a breaded, baked, or flour-rolled appetizer would. That being said, having something like spring rolls on your menu would probably improve it.

I was particularly pleased by the menu because there are not many (not enough) places in Abuja that celebrate the fact that there are more salad types than a simple chicken salad. Come to think of it, there are many places that simply don’t have salads on their menus at all in Abuja. One thing that did shock me though, was that although there is a bar inside Kalamari, there is no cocktail menu and there is in fact a small range of alcoholic drinks on the menu.

As far as the execution of your meals; I was impressed. The salad I had was well-dressed, while the chicken sandwich was also pretty good. Something that made me particularly happy was that the vegetables that came with all the food ordered were very fresh. The highlight though is your grilled fish. Well-cooked fish is one thing, but well-cooked fish that is properly seasoned and accompanied by the right vegetables is always a winner.

The pricing and portions of food here are very reasonable. A person can have a small lunch that is a salad or sandwich at around 1,500 Naira or less. Even reasonably priced is the large salad and sandwich platter (including chips and coleslaw) at 2,500 and 2,000 Naira respectively. On a similar wave-length, the full meals, which each come with rice or chips and a salad, ranged from 2,500 for chicken, to the most expensive menu item of 4,000 for grilled jumbo prawns. Another plus is that the full meals come in large filling portions. However, I was not pleased to see from the menu that you charged 300 Naira for takeaway packs. Based on principle, I see that as being greedy.

Service here was good and the servers were very helpful.

One thing that I’ve found difficult to do in Abuja is compliment a restaurant for being well-furnished and having a simple but elegant atmosphere. That being said, I commend Kalamari for being well-furnished and having a simple but elegant atmosphere. Overall, it all seems to be modest and understated, rather than trying too hard to be fancy. The white walls with black and white photo prints in certain areas; wooden tables with nice center-pieces; unique ceiling lights that are noticeable without being obnoxious; and a very good use of space to avoid the feel of claustrophobia in the tiny restaurant all add to the experience at Kalamari.

Please feel free to contact AkanmuAbuja@gmail.com if you represent Kalamari and would like to respond.

Warm Regards,

Akanmu

Highlights/Review

1.     This is a ‘not so strongly worded letter’ and thus, positive review.

2.     The food here is pretty good for the most part.

3.     Service here is good.

4.     Seats groups of 2 – 8 and is a good choice for larger groups too.

5.     Although there is a bar in here, there are a thin amount of cocktails and alcoholic drinks available.

6.     The salad and sandwich menu each have much more depth than the actual full meal menu and so this would be a much better place for lunch than for dinner.

7.     The grilled fish is really good.

8.     Salads and sandwiches range 1,200 to 2,500 naira depending on the size of food you want. Full meals range 2,500 to 4,000 depending on which of the 4 you order.

9.     They have a different menu and a different appetizer spread than the regular one if you contract them for a dinner party.

10. They have an all-day breakfast that consists of one large order that is an assortment of breakfast items that costs 3,000 Naira. I haven’t tried it and so I can’t attest to the quality but it seems to be conceptually good (I mean who messes breakfast food up?).

11. There is a choice for a small bottle of wine at 2,500 Naira or a large bottle of wine for 5,000 Naira. It’s not the best wine but it is a comparatively better deal than many places I’ve seen in town who also sell wine by the bottle.