Two Dinners

We so enjoyed our last foodie experience up at Arab Street, that we decided to head back there on Friday evening for some more Middle Eastern delights. Unfortunately though, this time’s experience couldn’t be more different from the fabulous Turkish food we enjoyed at Alaturka. We’d heard good things about Al-Tazzag, an Egyptian restaurant on Haji Lane, so that was our destination of choice, but as I said, not a particularly good one.

It started with the hummus. Now let me explain, Mr Greedy Glutton had a bit of a hummus ‘habit’ when we lived in the UK, which he has managed to kick since we moved to Singapore, except for rare occasions such as this. I therefore had to carefully prepare him for the disappointment before he tasted the Al-Tazzag hummus, which was, in a word, awful. I don’t know what else to say, it just didn’t taste like any other hummus I have ever tasted, and definitely not in a good way.



The Baba Ghanoush was equally as bland and disappointing, and even the pitta was stale… oh dear, not a good start.



Unfortunately it didn’t get any better after that. I ordered the Chicken Sheesh Kebab, which was, again, really pretty tasteless, but worst of all came served with frozen potato wedges!



At least mine turned up though, which is more than can be said for Mr Greedy Glutton’s Koftas… after 15 minutes and not being able to even locate any member of their waiting staff, we actually got up and left, deciding that if the rest of the food was anything to go by, it wasn’t worth waiting for anyway.

We were obviously still hungry by this stage, so we went in search of more food. Unfortunately Alaturka was already closed, so we took a seat outside at Amirah’s Grill next door, and ordered up a couple of Chicken Shwarmas. They weren’t great, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend them or return for another one, but they were a massive improvement on where we’d just come from.


To say we went home disappointed is an understatement… ah well, you win some, you lose some… I’m just glad that this wasn’t our first experience of eating in this neck of the woods, or we might not have returned in a hurry…

Al-Tazzag – Haji Lane
Amirah’s Grill – Bussorah St