Cleopatra It's rare to find a truly authentic Middle Eastern restaurant in Singapore and Cleopatra is one of the few or in fact the only restaurant that serves original Arabic food cooked by Arabic chefs. With a reputation like this, how can Makansutra not check out the place? Moreover, Middle Eastern food sounds really exciting especially after all that spate of Asian and Continental food that we have been eating. As expected, the décor is fitted with Arabic interior trimmings but in true Makansutra spirit--eat first, look at décor later! Middle Eastern food is well known for its meat dishes, so we ordered the chicken, lamb and beef for our main courses. In Chinese restaurants, you are served tea once you're seated. At Cleopatra, instead of tea, Arabic coffee is served in small cups when you take your seat. At first taste, we couldn't make out what we were drinking until we realised that the drink had been boiled with cardamon and ginger. We couldn't decide if we liked it. You can try and tell us if you like it!
The appetizers were good and we specially recommend the humus with the chickpea dip. It was so shiok (satisfying) that we had to have two servings-- even though we also had the pastry with spinach as appetizer too. The meat dishes were served grilled in kebab-style or in chunky pieces. All the meat were very well marinated, you can literally smell and taste the spices in the meat. Though tender, we found that the meat dishes were a little dry as we preferred to sink our teeth into succulent and juicy beef and lamb. We wondered if Arabs preferred their meat dry? Dessert was baklava with almonds and sultanas served with ice cream. It looked like popiah (spring roll) skins sprinkled with a generous dose of almonds and it really tasted heavenly! You can't end your dinner here without trying this special dessert.
Overall, we were a little disappointed with our main courses but highly satisfied with the appetizers and desserts. The ambience was really pleasant-- small and cosy with extremely attentive service. It's a nice place to experience a taste of Middle Eastern dining. Post
dinner investigations
|
