The Coffee Clock, a coffee shop situated on the premises of the Mount Pleasant Sports Club at 40 Bargate Road Northwood, Harare, opened this year and is a new entrant in the Zoap contest.
BY LE CONNOISSEUR
Phoning to make sure it would be open, we were informed the staff was present and busy cleaning up after a recent big function.
The manager assured us, however, we were welcome to visit and have some lunch.
We arrived, parked our car and made our way through buildings of Mount Pleasant Sports Club, to find some ladies thoroughly cleaning the Coffee Clock premises after the function we’d been told about.
they kindly offered to put a table outside under the palm trees where we could sit and have lunch.
It was a warm, sunny day with a cooling breeze that made our blue tablecloth flap happily.
The menu was quickly brought and we ordered drinks, which come via the club bar.
Meanwhile, we looked at the menu, which was offered standard fare such as steaks, chops, fish, calamari, chips, some sauces and a salad.
My wife decided on the hake and chips and I chose the calamari and chips. We both ordered an extra green salad to go with this.
While waiting for the food to be prepared, we strolled around the club grounds, observing the newly painted and very blue tennis courts, the somewhat dry-looking golf course, and the more happy-looking swimming pool which had an attractive-looking braai, a bar and sitting area and various jungle-gyms for children.
Walking back to our table, we saw that the barman had brought our drinks, but had made a mistake with one of them, which, however, was soon rectified, and the food arrived soon afterwards.
It was served on snazzy plates. Standard commercial bottles of tomato sauce, vinegar and vinaigrette were also brought. The hake seemed rather dry.
The chips were fine, but the sauces would certainly be improved upon by providing homemade offerings instead.
The salad was excellent, with ribboned salad leaves, onion, cucumber, gherkin, bean-sprouts, feta and stuffed olives.
