Zim on a Plate, Zim in a Glass
Restaurant Reviews
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Shop 6 Ground Floor NSSA Building
Julius Nyerere Way/Nujoma Street
Harare
251450 /0772 397 559

 

Bannie’s - open 24/7/365!  Wow! 2011
I love HIFA week. The city centre is abuzz with crowds and happenings. All sorts of people are around and every moment is an opportunity to meet and greet. We decided to lunch at a restaurant that is conveniently located next to the HIFA site. Bannie’s is a restaurant and pub on the ground floor of the NSSA building. Their motto is “let your tongue do the tango”.

The dining area has floor to ceiling windows that provide a bustling view of city streets. The outdoors vibe is completed with umbrellas and large potted plants. I was impressed to see that they have big gas lamps strategically placed for the nights without ZESA. You have the option to eat in an enclosed dining area but we found it too warm for our tastes. The “garden” area was much cooler and also provided an opportunity for some serious people watching as there are constantly people walking by.

We arrived just before 1 o’clock and the place was nearly full. We stood around uncertainly looking for assistance. Inside the restaurant it was hard to discern who was working since there were many people inside buying take-out. We decided to accost the waiter from the outdoor area and request our table. We were told to choose wherever we wanted. We took our seats and he promptly brought us some menus. The menu was quite extensive offering beverages, breakfast, starters, lunch dishes, light meals(pies), sandwiches, confectionary(cakes), salads, desserts, milkshakes and smoothies. However, within some of these options the choice was limited to three dishes.
I assumed that breakfast was over but our waiter told us that we could still order it. I was sorely tempted by a $6 breakfast that could double as brunch but we decided to go the whole hog and have a three course meal. We ordered mazoe, coke and water to drink. We ordered 2 starters and were told that they were unavailable. So we asked for our drinks and more time to peruse the menu. We noticed that the menu said 24 hours/365 days, could this be true? Our drinks were delivered timely and we asked about the extravagant claim. Much to our surprise, we learnt that we were dining in an establishment that never closes, WOW!

My friend ordered the chicken curry, once again this was unavailable. It would seem that being constantly open during HIFA week will deplete your stock faster than you can replenish it. We finally settled on roast chicken and chips for my friend and a rib burger for me. We ordered a chicken salad to share.  We sipped our drinks and observed the clientèle.

It was a diverse group with a range in age and personal style. It seemed like some were on their lunch break and others looked like they were meeting up with friends. There were no children. 
We finished our drinks and realised we had ordered 20 minutes earlier. When the food arrived we were able to forgive the wait because it looked delicious. The roast chicken appeared crispy on the outside but was tender on the inside. My friend said the chips were good and tasty. The vegetable garnish consisted of carrots, baby marrow, onion and tomato. These were perfectly cooked. My rib burger was served smothered in mustard. The side salad had lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, onions and tomato with a little salad dressing. The chicken salad was delivered last and it was beautiful. Lots of roast chicken atop a bed of lettuce, onions, red peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes. The food was cooked well and it was a solid, satisfying meal.

We decided to have dessert. We wanted ice cream and black forest cake but sadly there was no ice cream and only queen cakes. So we asked for smoothies and those were unavailable too. We finally settled on cappuccinos. After we paid the bill we walked back to HIFA. The recurring theme for this meal brought to mind a favourite lyric of mine “…you can’t always get what you want, you get what you need”!
Family Restaurant
3 Plates
Expect to spend $8 to $15 per head
NSSA Building by National Gallery, Harare

 

Bannie's open 24/7, good basic food, room to improve otherwise 2010
Bannie's is situated on the ground floor of the NSSA Building, placing it in a prime spot to catch the business lunch trade, art gallery visitors, tourists, and office workers generally.  It's open 24 hours a day, so if you feel like a T Bone at 3 am after a night out on the tiles, or work shifts and are starving hungry when your shift ends, then this is definitely your handy place to grab a convenient bite!

After capturing my thoughts, I jumped on The Cheeseman website to read its previous reviews.  I had just had lunch there with a colleague, and was interested now to see how it had fared under the  critical eyes of Zim on a Plate reviewers, and establish if it had attended to areas of recognised deficit over the past couple of years.  Interestingly, its weaknesses seemed to have remained much the same.

Our meal itself was very good.  We opted for T bone steaks, feeling very carnivorous that day, and hungry after a lot of running around doing CBD based business and errands.  These were well prepared and very tasty and the chips were very good.  The Cake of the Day which we chose for dessert was fine too.

In other areas, though, Bannie's can certainly up their game a bit.  We received no welcome on arrival, and found waiting staff to be less than attentive and not especially friendly.  Service was slow - it took 20 minutes to get our main meal, and had we been on a tight time schedule as most people grabbing lunch in a working day inevitably are, we might have grown more impatient.

There were only two options available on the fizzy soft drinks side, an area of deficit recognised by last year's reviewer also, and these days, there's just no excuse to be short of drinks choices.  For an establishment open all day and night, surely one would expect to find a full range of enticing coffees and other beverages options, cold and hot, and all of them available? 

Choices were a bit limited on all fronts, in fact, with a selection of standard, ordinary run of the mill dishes - and we established that several items shown on the menu were not actually available anyway, making options even more restricted.  For a placed open such long hours, it would be to their benefit to introduce a few more interesting and inspiring options, and to ensure all items on the menu can be ordered at any time.

Bannie's has so much potential - the ideal situation, large spacious premises with plenty of room to serve many diners at once, and certainly, it was fairly busy over lunch hour.  However, the indoor seating we quickly found to be very hot, the weather being as it is this  time of year, so we chose to sit outside in the Bannie's seating set out in the hallway, which was much cooler.  It would surely be easy to cool patrons down inside with strategically places upright fans?

The décor is uninspired and decoration of any sort rather scant.  It's all very well to opt for the minimalist approach, but this does not need to translate into a rather characterless environment.  Much more could be done here.  The ambience overall was lacking in inspiration, vibrancy and energy, making this a rather unmemorable occasion.  Similar comments have been made in previous reviews, so we'd like to encourage Bannie's to strive for more interesting décor, improved service with better trained and presented staff, and a broader range of both food and drink, which would much improve the dining experience here.  Let's hope they will soon rise to their potential.
2 Plates
Expect to spend $10 to $15 a head

 

 

Bannie’s open 24 hours a day, with limited choices 2009 
After some tiring household chores we decided to round off the hectic day with dinner at Bannie’s.  Just to make sure, we called and made a booking, and were told that the restaurant is actually open 24 hour a day.  The seating arrangement at Bannie’s is such that one can sit outside the main enclosure of the restaurant with a full view of the parking area as well as the entire goings on in the surrounding shops sharing the ground floor area of the building with the restaurant.  The chairs and tables are aluminium and give the restaurant a cosmopolitan feel something akin to Sopranos in Avondale.  The chairs inside the restaurant are made out of teak, well polished and impressive.  The outside arrangement is also very neatly decorated with green plants in stylish pots.  We were ready for a refreshing and invigorating experience.  We stood right by the door, wondering whether to sit inside or outside.  My companion preferred the inside seating for the warmth while I suggested the outside.  My real motive, though undeclared, was the desire to keep an eye on the car! 

The waiter who had evidently noticed us just stared at us until we asked her whether we could sit at any table.  Eventually we settled for a table for two inside and waited for someone to offer us drinks.  Finally, the waiter, who seemed to be the only one on duty, brought a menu and immediately left without a word.  When we were finally given the opportunity to order drinks, the choices were extremely limited.  The majority of options had simply run out that evening, it seemed! 

The menu was basic, with simple offering like Beef or Chicken Stew, Beef Curry, Chicken Curry, T-bone Steak, Pork Chops and Fish.  All these are served with rice, sadza or chips.  From the menu, it was quite evident that the restaurant struggles with variety and would not do much without beef and chicken.  I ordered a pork chop whilst my companion ordered a t-bone steak, medium to well done, with chips and rice respectively. 

When the meals came, we were very impressed with the size of the portions which were extremely generous.  Both came with Bannie’s Garden Salad, a simple affair comprising fresh lettuce, cucumber, tomato and onion.  This was more palatable than the side vegetables which were over cooked and failed to give the servings much colour and appeal.  My pork chop was succulent with an appetising hint of garlic and pepper (which slightly compensated for the lack of any kind of sauce to accompany the steak and pork chop).  We were advised that sauces are only available when the chef is there, which at the time, he wasn’t!  Regardless, we enthusiastically delved into our tender meat and healthy salad - and these meals were fine.

When the waiter came to clear our table, she also brought our bill.  Oops!  Dessert was not even offered!  We had seen some irresistible looking black forest and chocolate cakes on the display stand at the entrance, so we decided to ask for pudding, regardless of this service blunder.  My companion insisted that she would have nightmares if she left without indulging!  I ordered the chocolate cake whilst my companion ordered the black forest gateau. 

When it came to coffees and teas, we were warned that we could have as much variety as we wanted as long as we ordered Rooibos, Tanganda or Ricoffy, or Rooibos, Tanganda or Ricoffy!    Anything else would be tantamount to mutiny and would be met with commensurate force!  I ordered Rooibos whilst my companion was happy just to have the cake.  The chocolate cake was divine and the black forest unforgettable with its fresh cream topping.  This was a good way to end an otherwise average experience.

Bannie’s also serves full breakfasts - eggs, grilled tomato, Cambridge sausage, two pieces of toast, chips with tea or coffee would not be a bad idea before dashing to the office.  I strongly suggest to management that being a coffee shop in the centre of town it would be in the establishment’s best interest to greatly increase the variety of both hot and cold beverages.  A place describing itself as a coffee shop and restaurant, yet without a cafe latte, cappuccino, hot chocolate and so on, offered on the menu, seems off the mark.
Family Restaurant
2 Plates
Expect to spend between USD $10 - 20 per person for a meal  

 

Bannie’s in NSSA building perfectly placed for HIFA, popular with business folk 2008
Bannie’s enjoys a great location near the CBD – and should see very brisk business during HIFA, now just a couple of weeks away.  Situated in the small shopping arcade beneath NSSA in the Social Security Centre, this coffee shop and restaurant is right next door to the National Gallery.  Its décor is smart, modern minimalist, and there’s plenty of room both inside and out for a relaxing coffee or meal in a pleasant setting.  It’s only a five minute walk away from my office, so is a very convenient spot for a bite at lunch hour.  Judging by the several groups of smart-suited business people who were also grabbing a lunchtime bite or holding meetings over laptops and coffees when we popped in, Bannie’s already has a good following amongst people who work in the vicinity.  

As it happened, when we went to review Bannie’s, we were served by a trainee waiter.  He wore a badge to this effect, and since all waiters have to learn their trade somehow, we certainly could not hold his newness on the job against either him or Bannie’s.  Yes, he was inexperienced.  However, we found all the staff at Bannie’s to be courteous, friendly and helpful. If our waiter in training had instead been an old hand at the job, we’d certainly not have given him top marks, especially regarding his knowledge of the menu which was rather lacking.  However, we did not allow his trainee-ship to have a bearing on our overall rating of Bannie’s.  Fair is fair, and we all have to start learning our job somewhere, sometime.

Bannie’s is definitely focused on a specific target market; clearly, this is the people who work in this part of town, where there are many nearby office blocks, not least of which, the one in which the restaurant actually resides.  The menu offers a range of typical basic business lunches, from assorted tasty beef, chicken and other stews and curries of various kinds, to chicken or steaks, all served with your choice of sadza, rice or chips, to omelettes, a couple of salad options, a full English breakfast which is available all day, toasted sandwiches, and light meals such as chicken pie or egg roll. 

There’s nothing wildly adventurous-sounding from the culinary perspective, but neither would one expect this, since the majority of Bannie’s takers appear to be busy working people who want to grab a quick but simple, satisfying lunch with a friend or client, or hold a meeting over a coffee with cake.  Ice cream, smoothies, milkshakes, various coffees and soft drinks, also feature on the menu.  We did however establish that quite a number of items offered, were actually not available.  Pricing was very reasonable all round with food items ranging from $3 for light meals to $9 for a T bone and chips.  Our lunch came to $12 – very good value.

We both chose omelettes, a ham and tomato and an onion and tomato, and I must say that they were particularly good, as were the chips with which they came.  We also chose cake for dessert.  There were 14 enticing cakes listed on the menu, but it turned out that only one of these was actually available, and when it came, the cake was rather dry and old, and had obviously come straight out of the fridge, though the icing was good.

Inside, Bannie’s unfortunately has a distinct odour of old chip oil which I found rather off-putting, and was the reason we chose to sit outside.  The music being played was really rather too loud for our liking, though it didn’t seem to worry any of the other clientele.  The bathrooms were very clean, though there were no hand towels or dryers in either the ladies or gents.

Bannie’s definitely has a lot of potential.  The location is very good, and I would encourage it to take full advantage of its perfectly placed proximity to all the exciting happenings at HIFA – for which it needs to ensure that more of its really rather well varied menu, especially its cake menu, is all available.  Bannie’s is currently open seven days a week from 8 am to 7 pm, and  from 20th April, will be open 24 hours a day.  This would be a good spot to meet friends after work and before going home, for a coffee and a catch up.
Family Restaurant
2 Plates