A version of Persian…“P”

Persian in Lane Cove

P is for Persian

Anahita Meat & Wine, 7/54 Burns Bay Road, Lane Cove

Organised by ARI on a Friday, June 2010.

A typical night in everything but the cuisine.

9 Party goers

[Still pumping out the numbers, not bad!]

The ORIGINALS [minus Sez who had to work late and teach a z u m b a class!], Ali, Lori [Alanna’s friend from “O”], Mack [friend and ex-colleague], Erin [colleague who joined after our after work drinks in Pyrmont] and JAMIE! The Georgian Peach, a friend of my two very good ATLiens, Jaime and Brittany.

Pre-curses

Ari informed us it would be a set menu for $55, which included entrée, main, dessert and soft drink. We had to prepay the $55 as soon as we walked into the restaurant. This delayed our typically late party of 8 [one diner was even later!] more so as we all fumbled for cash or credit and lined up to pay before being seated. Corkage was charged at $6.20 [what is with the expensive corkage?! CF "O" Alpha Dinner]. This unfortunately or fortunately caused us to partake in after work drinks from 4 pm to make up for the wine we would inevitably choose not to drink.

The set menu Ari sent to us did not reflect what we actually received. We were short a Kado, Keyar and a main meal of chicken. Of course, we could have misinterpreted a lot of what was going on that night, because frankly, it was a bit of a mish-mash.

[Note: This really shows that research and communication pays. Upon adding the link to the restaurant, I saw that corkage was actually charged at $6.20 per bottle, not person. I started cursing Ari's typical male lack of attention in typical female quick to blame style, "he was probably wrong about the dishes we were expecting to receive too!" As I trawled further through the website, I saw the menu which Ari copied and pasted from - indeed he was correct in what we were to receive. And the site quotes the banquet and show at $42 pp, not the $55 we prepaid. In typical fashion, I felt contrite about my curses towards Ari and typically started to curse the things I could not change. More worse than a business not having a website (in this day and age, really!) is a business that has a website that is out of date.]

Platters

Stand outs of what we did receive were the dip platter with Kashk (roasted eggplant with goat whey) and Moosir (yoghurt mixed with Persian spices), and the Joojeh (chargrilled chicken wing and drumsticks with saffron and lemon juice).

The dips

Mmm...Chick-en

The main meals were average fare, beef and possibly lamb slabs with roasted tomato. Served with basmati and saffron rice, which is really nice with a knob of butter melted on the top.

Meating out

Mmm, Alanna and Lori with the rich, creamery butter rice. Covered in rich, creamery butter.

 Dessert was a type of cakey, fried icecream with raspberry coulis. Not the rosewater rice noodle described on the menu. Speaking of which, we were missing the soft drinks too.

Put offs

We ended up ordering two bottles of wine, for which we also had to prepay. I am a little befuddled by this strange ritual of prepaying in a restaurant. It really got me offside actually, especially when you are part of a large group.

The music show was a nice touch, though it was quite loud and put a stop to all conversations. It was also quite Latino, a bit strange for a Persian restaurant. It was nice music though.

Check out his little sax!

The patronage was also slightly Rotary Club, acceptable for a Hungarian Sunday lunch, but on a Friday night, kind of put a weird vibe to the night.

“]

Sums up the patronage well: An actual, real life user of the BAG HOOK!

[Bag Hook photo requested, in between laughing, by Alanna to add on the blog]

Performance

6/10

Pro: And the company was, as always, lovely, especially with the special guest star, the Georgian Peach/Southern Belle, Jamie.

Cons: Low score due to the prepaying, the value for money, the service, the ambience, and the location [most of us had to trek from the city to the ‘burbs and then back into the city. I would like to implement a city-only radius to these dinners]. Ari commented that the food and music were not typically Persian at all. The buttery rice was the only authentic dish [though Jamie said it was very Southern US as well]. But we must have these low ranking dinners to really enjoy the gems!

After party antics

Everyone shuffled home, slightly disappointed with this Alpha instalment. Jamie, Erin and I went to the Argyle to meet up with a friend of mine who was leaving to London. We then went to the Sugarmill in the Cross until morning. I did not mean to have such a rowdy night [cue rolling of the eyes, then cue Keira rolling into some vodka]. And typically, fade to black…