Zim on a Plate, Zim in a Glass
Restaurant Reviews
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Shop 2B Fairways Building
Sam Nujoma Street ext Shopping centre
Belgravia
Harare
335602 011 615 343

 

Greenhouse Dining at Adrienne’s 2012
Adrienne’s is situated in the shopping centre on Sam Nujoma Street (Old Second Street Extension) between Belgravia and Avondale.  This makes it an ideal place for light lunches for diplomats from the area, businessmen and shoppers.  It’s also open in the evenings for pre or post theatre dinners.  There is also a smaller menu for snacks and tea or coffee during the day.  On Wednesday they have a special for ladies’ lunches and on Tuesday they have a senior citizens’ special.  On Sundays there is a roast special and on Saturday nights there is the recent addition of karaoke!  Adrienne’s are open seven days a week from 10:00 am until late; it’s often quite busy so it’s a good idea to book in advance.  The design of the restaurant is delightful, resembling a large greenhouse or garden gazebo with large windows looking out onto charming gardens – tranquil during the day and cosy at night.  It’s made up of a bar area (very well stocked), two larger rooms and an outside veranda area – so never fear, if karaoke is not your thing - you can sit far enough away not to be bothered.

The menu is extensive and varied enough to suit all tastes.  Starters include chicken liver pancakes, grilled Haloumi and Scottish salmon.  I decided to try the spicy meat balls which were excellent, not TOO, TOO spicy and served on a bed of rice.  My partner had the fresh homemade soup of the day – on this occasion a hearty pumpkin soup with croutons.  There was an African butternut and peanut butter pancake on offer which sounded quite exciting and would be a good option for vegetarians.  There is also a selection of salads available as either a starter or main course (for the health conscious ‘ladies-who-lunch’).  For the not so hungry there are baked potatoes or pancakes with a variety of fillings, pastas and omelettes.  There’s also a rather intriguing offering, vegetable patties served with garlic, basil and tomato, which I think I’ll sample on my next visit.  There is a good selection of fish available including calamari, Kariba bream and kingklip. I chose the prawns which are served with chips, rice or baked potatoes and come with a delicious garlic sauce on the side.  A generous portion that was lipsmackingly delicious!  Also on the menu are a selection of steaks (for the dedicated carnivores) and a variety of chicken options, including Beira chicken, kebabs and schnitzel.  Under ‘This and That’ on the menu is a selection of pork or lamb chops, curries and stir fries.  I told you, there’s SOMETHING for everyone!  My partner had the beef stroganoff which was rich and delightfully creamy.  I can highly recommend it, but it’s definitely for people with a large appetite!

For desserts (if you can still eat more) you can choose from, amongst others, crème caramel, chocolate mousse, apple crumble or fresh fruit salad.  I had the chocolate mousse and my partner had the apple crumble served warm with ice cream.  Both were really good even though we’d just about eaten ourselves into a coma by then.  But don’t despair, there’s really good coffee to round off the meal and give you enough of a caffeine boost to see you home safely.

There’s a good selection of beers, wines, spirits and soft drinks available from the bar – not sure if you can bring your own but management seems to be quite accommodating.  The service is efficient, quick and friendly and we were pleased to see the proprietor walking around and chatting to diners.  The food is presented pleasantly but quite simply and there is a refreshingly relaxed unpretentious ambience.
Family Restaurant
5 Plates
Expect to spend $20 to $40 per head
Sam Njoma Street Extension Shops (near Reps Theatre)

 

Adrienne's - great value, and spoilt for choice 2011
Having heard from friends about the prawn special at Adrienne's sometime at the beginning of the year, I vowed to make time to go there especially.  I finally managed this weekend and I was not all disappointed - what a feast and such a bargain too.  A couple of months ago we went to another restaurant where my partner ordered 6 prawns and was charged $24.  Here at Adrienne's one gets 18 prawns for $20!  What's not to like?

Tucked away in a corner at second street extension, Adrienne's is at the end of a row of fast food outlets next to the busy road.  We expected it to be noisy due to the high volume of passing vehicles but were pleasantly surprised at how sound proof it is. The menu is extensive featuring many meat dishes as well as vegetarian fare - one is spoilt for choice!  As we perused the menu, our waiter was on hand to explain the more exotically named dishes such as Frito Risso - a platter of calamari rings and prawns combined.  I have always loved seafood but have never really seen it as a Zimbabwean speciality, as we are landlocked.  I have always looked forward to trips to South Africa as I make it a point to visit Ocean Basket frequently to get my seafood fix.  

So I am very glad I have finally found a place in Harare where I can indulge and assuage my need more frequently - Adrienne's!  We went there prepared for a long and leisurely dinner.  My partner ordered creamy chicken liver pancake and was not disappointed. It was served with a garnish of beetroot, cucumber and tomato. The chicken livers and creamy sauce were delicious and wrapped up in a thin, light pancake.

My grilled halloumi starter did not disappoint either.  My partner decided on Spicy Garlic Pork, which is pork strips stir-fried with green beans, carrots, broccoli and red chilli peppers. I found the pork to be quite tough and chewy but the flavour was exquisite. The combination of garlic and spicy chilli tantalised my taste-buds. She ordered rice as her starch and it was perfectly cooked. She loved this dish, especially the added red hot peppers!

I went for the Prawn Special which is 6 prawns served with vegetables, garlic sauce and a starch - a choice of baked potato, chips or rice.  One can eat up to 3 helpings in situ!  No take away is allowed so if you are tempted, ensure you have a lot of time as there is a lot of eating to do!  The prawns are big, perfectly cooked and well presented.  I have to admit that my bravado slipped and my stomach failed me after 8 prawns but my partner was happy to finish off the second platter.  We sat quietly for a few minutes and when the waiter came to offer my third helping.... I conceded defeat!  There is no way I could do it without resulting in some sort of explosion! 

We waited a while longer and were able to fit in a pineapple mousse and a fruit salad with ice-cream for dessert.  She was quite concerned about this dish because she usually finds pineapples too sweet for her teeth.  However, she figured a sweet dish would balance out her spicy meal.  The pineapple flavour was just right and it was not too sweet.  It was quite easy for her to finish her serving, which she enjoyed immensely. Fortunately we managed to make it home - sated, and ready to go attempt another challenge on the three servings of prawns very soon!
Family Restaurant
4 Plates
Expect to Spend $25 to $30 per head

 

Adrienne’s – a star trapped in a time warp (2010)
This long established restaurant is quite eclectic in its choice of furnishings, but like its location, looks rather tired. The effect of the setting is that one gets the feeling of being inside a slightly larger than average English conservatory.  It was a chilly night outside, but a carefully placed gas heater banished thoughts of cold food and goose bumps.

After being welcomed and seated, I noticed that diners were few in number for a Saturday night.  No wine list was available and our waiter confessed he had little knowledge of the stock they held and proceeded to bring all 6 bottles from the chill cabinet to our table, one of which we knew as an acceptable sauvignon blanc, and our choice for the evening.  The soft drinks arrived promptly, the ice bucket was arranged and our wine opened quickly and efficiently.  Our waiter, a man of older years, had done this many times before, and offered my husband a glass to taste first.

We opted not to have the specials, as the choices on the main menu sounded far more appealing.  I remembered having smoked salmon as a starter when I last dined here a while ago, so asked whether they had any, as it didn’t feature on the menu.  Paul our waiter would ask the kitchen.  A very jovial and honest exchange ensued when we asked him about the lamb curry.  He advised us that although the dish was delicious and flavoursome, in his opinion, there wasn’t quite enough of it on the plate!  We decided to put his theory to the test anyway.  Our order was swiftly despatched and, almost immediately, toast in a basket appeared along with news that smoked salmon was in fact available.

We were suddenly plunged into darkness and as light was evident either side of us, we knew it couldn’t be load shedding.  In a flurry of activity a candelabra was produced, candles lit and our starters bathed in a rather more romantic light.  We were informed that a fuse had blown and was being dealt with.

The starters were good but the prize has to go to the sautéed button mushrooms.  They were indeed firm and fresh, had exactly the right amount of garlic butter and were served piping hot.  The portion of grilled Halloumi cheese with onion jam was small for the price of $5, but enjoyable nonetheless.  The delicate slices of salmon were a perfect shade of pink although a bit shredded at the edges. The meatballs were sadly let down by their lack of pleasing presentation, but the delicious sauce made up for any shortcomings in the looks department.

Our waiter filled our glasses discreetly, folding a clean napkin over the neck of the bottle, each time. The main dishes all arrived together and filled our table easily.  My abundant plate of prawns looked plump and smelled suitably pungent with garlic.  They tasted as good as they looked and I remarked that they were better than prawns I had tried in other restaurants that actually specialised in seafood.  The children heartily ate their chicken kebabs with honey and mustard sauce.  The chunks of chicken were fashionably charred but were still succulent skewered between pieces of crisp green pepper. As predicted, the lamb curry was indeed on the small side, and at $15, the same price as the prawns, was disappointing not only in size but in lack of presentation.  It was served on the bone, which my husband enjoyed, but was really more of a stew than a curry. 

It was my daughter’s birthday, and Paul surprised her by singing the birthday song and serving an enormous ice cream sundae with fresh fruit pieces complete with sparklers and dripping chocolate.  Even more pleasant, we noted, was that it wasn’t on the bill.  The puddings at Adrienne’s are rather uninspiring, with only the apple pie really being of interest.  However, we were informed they’d sold out, which was unexpected news, there being so few diners!  Being too full, we decided to forego coffee but I did have a Dom Pedro and was pleasantly surprised to be offered a choice of whiskeys. 

Adrienne’s is sorely in need of a facelift but it does have some gems on its menu.  The dining experience proved to be far better than our expectations upon entry, and some of the dishes, and the service, are extremely good.  The sautéed button mushrooms and the prawns in particular are both worthy of lofty praise.  However, the star that pipped the post was Paul, our waiter.  Without him my daughter’s birthday supper would have been perhaps a little lacklustre.
Family Restaurant
3 Plates
Expect to spend $15 to 25

 

Adrienne’s - good, but not great 2009
Adrienne’s has always had a curious ‘feel’ to me.  A bit of a glass house or conservatory air, wrought-iron and glass walls, a strange sense of impermanence, though not in a bad way.  Yet it has snuggled down on the edge of the old Second Street Extension Shops over many long years like a plant in a sleeve gone wild and well-rooted – a fixture now, with its origin apparent but at odds with the bordering concrete buildings.  Wood-slatted wrought-iron chairs around circular tables are arrayed throughout the three internal rooms, also with glass internal walls, lending a feeling of space and there is also a pleasant looking outdoor dining area that I have never used.  It had been a while since I last went into the shopping centre and it is quite a mission; the tar barely holds together myriad potholes, well-watered and blossoming with the rains, they are set to overrun the rapidly decaying parking lot like a canker.  But Adrienne’s enjoys the benefits of location and having REPS at the other end of the shops guarantees some patronage of the theatre crowd – one of the stalwarts was dining there today.

We were politely shown to a table for lunch by our waiter who looked after us well throughout.  The menu is fairly small but eclectic and caters to all tastes with a bit of everything, from two different curries, fish in the form of Kariba bream or hake, chicken Kiev, chops, steaks of various cuts and even sadza and nyama.  For starters the crumbed mushrooms were not available so I tried the halloumi cheese which came with a fairly pleasant clear orangey coloured sauce, whilst my companion had a small green salad. 

There wasn’t anything striking on the main dish side, so it was a toss up between the pork chop à
la Portuguese or spare ribs – the latter won.  Now I’ve had some quite acceptable meals here before but today wasn’t a great success.  The ribs themselves were fine but the sauce, which - let’s face it - is what makes spare ribs, was a great disappointment.  There must be a fair number of recipes for spare rib sauce, but whatever one you use, it is fair to expect something piquant – tangy or sweet-and-sour or spicy or something…  I was amazed that this one was utterly bland and didn’t taste of anything – I couldn’t even taste the julienne carrot, and the tomato sauce it was based on, merely stained the ribs an odd red, but without imparting any flavour of its own.  Toss that recipe away, please. 

My companion’s Kariba bream was fine, she said, but slightly overcooked and rather dry.  We followed this with ice cream and fresh fruit salad; there was very little else on the dessert menu.  Even here it did not come up to scratch, the orange was badly segmented so that many pieces had the fruit sandwiching the tough inner skin and some of the soft fruits had probably been picked too early and were rather tasteless.

Despite our not-so-great day, I know Adrienne’s can do better, but also feel there is much lost opportunity here.  All the dishes are rather generic and what you can get anywhere else.  Thus it is all perfectly fine as a simple family restaurant, but there is nothing to draw you in, no really special dishes, nothing outstanding that I would particularly want to come here to enjoy.  Show-goers are probably a sizeable part of the clientèle in the evenings.  Do some of these come here almost by default through proximity, as I have done in the past?  

It is not at all difficult to create an imaginative, new and exciting menu, even with simple dishes, by engaging and demonstrating some culinary flair.  However, regardless of a slightly disappointing meal this time, Adrienne’s has nonetheless, with its 82% score, earned itself a healthy 4 Plate Rating.  This is very clearly a good restaurant, with value for money pricing and very good service, where high marks were attained.  Adrienne’s could, however, be great!
Family Restaurant
4 Plates
Expect to spend $10 to $20

 

Adrienne’s pleasant but some former magic lost
2008 Review
It had been a long time since visiting Adrienne’s (in fact the last time was celebrating an anniversary for the Inns of Zimbabwe - an organised function as opposed to a restaurant experience).  What we did remember was how charming and enjoyable the concept of conservatory-styled dining, simple, well-prepared fare and a delightful, unassuming and understated ambience, had made all our experiences at Adrienne’s.  Accepting an offer to re-visit Adrienne’s was embraced with a sense of interest… Given the plight of this country it was certainly going to be fascinating to see how Adrienne’s had fared (excuse the pun) the rough weather.

On entering Adrienne’s it certainly appeared not to have lost the ambience we recollected from days gone by.  The conservatory feel to the building is very reminiscent of restaurants prevalent in the French Quarter in New Orleans and certainly some restaurants positioned adjacent to a well manicured ‘jardin’ in Paris.  The restaurant certainly looked neat, clean and tidy with all fittings in an acceptable condition.  However, the lack of clientele on a supposedly busy Wednesday night was somewhat disconcerting and saddened us.  Whether this was a function of the state of the economy or possibly the current reputation of the restaurant was yet to be seen.

Greetings from an effusive character… Paul, our appointed waiter, menu mentor and a long standing veteran, proudly wearing presidential styled spectacles, guided us to our “intimate” table by the window, next to, and what seemed on top of, the only other couple in the whole of the restaurant, making both parties feel uncomfortable.  Needless to say, the other couple escaped for more privacy on the far side of the restaurant…

Once seated, Paul’s warm welcome clicked immediately into the well drilled routine of requesting our order for drinks which involved going through the new Zimbabwean mineral availability – yes tonic and soda were available…. !  As for a wine list, none was available, however my guest was invited to peruse the wine rack in the bar area.  He returned within a short space of time hinting at a rather limited selection of wines.

Menu selection looked appetising…  with the usual range of meals to suit all sorts of palates.  As is typical in Zimbabwe today, it is very difficult to judge the relative merits of a meal from its pricing….  The food ranged from the ubiquitous fried haloumi cheese, giblets, a delightful surprise of a fresh prawn cocktail, French and Greek salads, to main courses that ran from seafoods (calamari, seafood platter, prawns) through to various beef, pork and chicken dishes that included a beef curry.  Lighter meals were provided with a choice of pancakes or baked potatoes, with vegetarian options. 

Given that we had passed up on the wine, we felt emboldened financially to try some seafood dishes as starters; the fresh prawn cocktail and deep fried calamari (the latter of which included chips and vegetables as this was only served as a main course).  If there is anything to learn from this order, it is the paramount importance of insisting on fresh ingredients.  The prawn cocktail was refreshingly pleasing -  the prawns were indeed …fresh…! As opposed to the dry, rubbery calamari that comes straight from the freezer and then is deep fried to order.  Could we ask if any chef out there would write in to this column with a proven method of tenderising frozen food – do you soak the ingredient in milk or bash the hell out of it…?

For out main courses we elected to try more standard fare.  I ordered grilled pork chops that I was assured were fresh;  ‘purchased that morning’ - and my guest, a medium rare fillet steak.   

The food was served with gusto but its presentation showed little for us to enthuse about.  Large serving of meat (only pepper sauce available for the fillet) and a starch accompanied by vegetables which were represented by wobbly boiled gem squash filled with creamed basil spinach… (we’d seen this already as it was served with our calamari starter). 

Our main courses were substantial; however the bland presentation and preparation did not excite the palate, leaving one with a feeling that these dishes would have been more enjoyable if they had been prepared at home.  Harsh words, I know, but when you are paying a lot for a meal (dining out is an expensive exercise in Zimbabwe today), and using precious petrol to get there, the restaurant needs at least to meet, if not exceed, the customer’s expectations, and provide something really special….

Our conversation during the meal reminisced about the good times we had had at Adrienne’s in the past and the food we had formerly eaten there (like smoked salmon starters, really sumptuous salads, original pastas such as broccoli and bacon, and succulent steaks served with a myriad of sauces).  We observed that this was somewhat in contrast to what was now offered, and though it is understandable that some items have disappeared from the menu, it is  a bit disappointing that what is made available today is cooked without the original passion or flair.  The restaurant may have repositioned itself to a different target market with different tastes but we still maintain that dining out in Zimbabwe is, and always will be, about the provision of excellence.  Adrienne’s, though enjoyable enough, seems to have lost some of its former magic – a phenomenon increasingly prevalent within Zimbabwe today – which is sad.  Nonetheless, the service itself was warm, friendly and efficient. 
Family Restaurant
3 Plates