Why is it that I’ve heard nothing but praise for the new Carriage Halt Restaurant in King George Road, Avondale, whereas I heard almost nothing but complaints, whines and whinges about its brief predecessor Jaipur?
Eating Out with Dusty Miller
(That’s when Jaipur moved from the Hindu Sunrise Sports Club to be replaced by Tandoor. Jaipur traded only very briefly as a sit-down restaurant at Avondale, but their Graniteside takeaway still thrives.)
Well Jaipur never succeeded in getting a licence (to sell grog) during its inter-regnum, while I heard Carriage Halt hit the ground running, fully licensed and carrying a wide range of wines, spirits, cocktails and liqueurs at attractive prices.
Indian food doesn’t seem, currently, to be flavour of the month in Ha-ha-ha-rare (Africa’s fun capital) and, oddly enough, when the Asian community eats out, they apparently much prefer to enjoy cuisines other than the ones they presumably get at home.
Carriage Halt serves old middle-of-the-road Western steakhouse favourites. Nothing sensational sounding, but pretty sensationally cooked, served well, attractively and swiftly on professionally hot plates.
Kid Range Prices are about mid-range for Harare suburban restaurants, but portions are among some of the more generous to be encountered.
I went on Wednesday for lunch, choosing a rustic table and bench arrangement in a sun-kissed garden, avoiding the shade of an advertising umbrella as there was little warmth in a watery sun and that was tempered by wind blasts straight from the South Pole.
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There seems far more car-parking available than there was at Jaipur.
Maybe it’s just been demarcated a little more sensibly? The main building (yet another former Colonial-era bungalow) has been extended. The garden’s full of turn of the 20th century agricultural implements, flowers, colour and aroma. Indoors there’s a display of mainly American collectible bits-and-bobs from the 1930s-1950s.
Manageable prices The menu is sensibly concise, with just a few blackboard specials available. I think that’s the way to go nowadays. Concentrate on what you know will sell, then cook it properly, keep prices manageable and serve nicely and quickly.
If I hadn’t been soaking up the atmosphere, making notes, chatting to management (mother-and-son Viki and Tyler Cameron) and had stuck to two courses, I could have been back in my office in The Kopje within an hour of leaving. And that’s important for many.
Starters include chicken livers at US$4, beef trinchados (Portuguese marinaded beef) at US$5 and, all priced US$6: deep-fried calamari, mussels in a creamy garlic sauce, seafood cocktail and the crumbed button mushrooms I opted for.
These were six plump, good-sized jobs, full of fresh forest fungi flavour, without a trace of grease or fat from the deep-fryer, served with a tantalisingly tangy.
citrusy tartare sauce and a colourful side salad. Great thinly sliced oven-fresh Continental-style crusty bread and butter had been served in advance of the appetiser has had a delightfully chilled Golden Pilsener Lager at US$2. All beers and ciders, local and imported cost the same and there’s a sensibly priced wine list.
Individual salads as a main course are US$4 each and a table garden salad for four pax is US$6. Vegetarian pasta will set you back US$7.
In descending order by cost, mains peaked at US$21 for grilled Mozambique prawns; T-bones or rump steaks were US$17 (special blackboard items included fillet steak combos at US$20); deep-fried calamari as a main course US$13; fish and chips US$12; piri-piri chicken US$11 and chicken strips at US$10.
For just US$8, I went for beef lasagna which proved to be one of the nicest servings of this oven-baked pasta dish available in Zimbabwe currently.
Lashings of first-grade finely minced beef steak without a suggestion of fat, bone or gristle (which often gives mince that “gritty” texture) in layers of yieldingly soft pasta, with a rich béchamel sauce, the an added tomato-based Napolitano-type sauce and lots of top quality Parmesan cheese oozing and melting into the steaming, rich popular Italian dish.
Again it came on a piping hot plate with a slightly larger, more comprehensive version of the side-salad which accompanied the starter course. Waiter Andrew kept a pleasant eye on the table without overdoing the: “Is everything ok, sir?” routine. At some restaurants, I swear I’ll scream if I hear this sentence one more time! Grotesquely named A closer look at the economically priced wine list previously mentioned: All South African Cape labels, whites include the grotesquely named Splattered Toad Sauvignon-Blanc at US$15, a Goats-Do-Roam (lovely pun on the classic French Cotes du Rhone!)Chardonnay at US$16; Boschendal Le Banquet, from Franschhoek at just US$15 and Tall Horse Sauvignon-Blanc at US$10.
That latter one always reminds me of the last sailing up the east coast of Africa of the MV Melody. We drank it by the gallon at fun-filled candle-lit suppers both before and after being attacked by Somali pirates off The Seychelles!
Reds include Man Vintage Cabernet-Sauvignon and Nederburg Baronne at US$14, Goats-Do-Roam Shiraz-Grenache (US$16) and Splattered Toad Shiraz-Cabernet, US$18. “Better” boxed South African wines (presumably as opposed to Chateau Cardboard?) are US$1,50 per 125ml glass and if you BYOB, corkage is US$2 a bottle.
Five puddings are priced between US$4 and US$6 and at the upper end, there was no way I would miss what proved an extraordinarily generous slab of that South African trademark dessert, hot, baked Malva pudding with ice-cream, decorated with sliced strawberries. Bottom line: starter, mains, pudding, two lagers, cappuccino (a bottle of the house mineral water Dusty Mouth was delivered to Dusty Miller gratis!) was US$26.
Carriage Halt, 117, King George Road, Avondale. Tel 303394; 0778 842 903. Opens lunch and supper Tuesday to Saturday (12-2:30; 6-9:30). Sunday lunch only. Safe guarded parking on site or main road (close to Avondale Police Station). Child and handicapped friendly.
Smoking/no smoking. Eating indoors or out. Fully licensed. [email protected]
