Maha, Bond St CBD

What is worse than committing a mistake? It is not admitting to the mistake. No one likes eating humble pie. It does not taste good. The pastry is soggy and most times it seems too big for one to finish.

If I have to imagine what the pie is like, it'll have a filling of large chunks of semi cooked bitter melon, with a mismatched sweet and sour sauce that is more sour than sweet encased in a dense wholemeal dough pastry case. Unsavoury as it may be, sometimes one just have to eat it, and with a smile on one's face.

So what has all these got to do with Maha? Read on.

I have been thinking of going to Maha for some time, ever since our company deemed it a suitable place to take our corporate customers there for lunch. I was thrilled when Gaz announced that has booked our next lunch at Maha.

Lunch is a set menu consisting of four courses and yes, we get everything as presented on the menu. No need to pick one of each plate for each course. I was already salivating over the thought of getting so many different plates of food.

The first course consists of little plates of (from top to bottom) chemen cured swordfish, truffled fava, village style borek, chickpeas with chicken.

The best dish here was the truffled fava which was so, so delicious. The aroma of the truffles was intoxicating. I could easily eat another ten bowls of this dish. It also had the sweet taste of the prawns in the dish. Shane Delia in his tv show used lobster meat, but prawn meat is good enough for me..

The second favourite dish in this course for me was the cured swordfish, though Gaz thought it was a little slimy for him. I thought it was different, and I like it with the kewpie mayo on the side.

Next up was the braised goat, and jerusalem artichokes (served separately in a little dish). The braised goat was not bad, but I really liked the artichokes. It was a good substitute for potatoes.

Next began the waiting game. We waited about 45 minutes for the next course, all the while watching as other tables got their courses before us. When we complained about the wait, the food was brought to us within 10 minutes, but by then we had already lost the mood and desire to eat.

To make matters worse, the waitress who brought our food did not seem to think it was strange that we should be waiting 45 minutes between course in a SET menu. When she came a little later to check on how we were doing, Gaz told her the truth and said that we did not expect to wait so long between the course and that we would probably not be able to make our next appointment because of the wait. Her response was decidely strange. She said to us that we should have told her that we have another appointment to go to, so that she can speed things up. Like it was NORMAL to wait 45 minutes between courses?

Here we have (from top to bottom) 12 hour roasted lamb shoulder which was very oily, salad and cracked wheat pilaf. Not pictured was the salmon, which was very delicious. The temperature of the lamb shoulder dish was not hot, as if it had been sitting on a bench for some time. After a time the oil congealed at the bottom of the dish, making it rather unappetizing. We did not manage to finish the pilaf and lamb, having lost our appetite during the wait.

Thankfully, our experience of dining at Maha was saved by one of the head waiters who was very apologetic and offered to bring us more beverages, and told us he will put our existing drinks on the house. We did not take up his offer for more drinks  and after a while, noticing this, he offered again. Finally we asked if in lieu of drinks, could we have something from their gift shop, which he very kindly complied.

We really liked the way he handled the situation and felt he was really genuine in his approach. If the other waitress had admitted to the mistake and not tried to cover it up by shifting the blame to us, we would not have felt as bad. Luckily her colleague recovered the situation well.

The last course was dessert which was orange blossom cake, chocolate fondant and doughnuts. We were too full, but we did enjoy this course a little more than the bitter third course.