PPP: Mecca Bah and dessert at Freestyle Tout

Its really hard to coordinate PPP. Thankfully, I didn't have to bother organising this one since one of the doctors at my workplace did. She was one of our junior residents and she had been with us for two rotations. Anyway, she chose Mecca Bah for 7pm and of course no one really showed up for until 8pm. I wasn't on great terms with some of the doctors that turned up so I didn't take photos of their meal, that and the table we occupied was for 16 people. I apologise in advance for the quality of these photos, we had an outside table and I was using flash, hopefully discretely.

The tiny menu

This is a copy of their full menu. Below is a picture of their roseberry iced tea, a mocktail made of strawberry, Madagascan vanilla, rosewater and cranberry juice, this was ordered by L., It was sweet and fragrant drink, but nothing worth ordering twice.

Pretty little thing

I ordered a pink fez, a mocktail of pineapple juice, cranberry juice, vanilla syrup, lychees, mint and lime. The main flavour was mostly pineapple juice with a slight additional sourness from the cranberry juice. I love pineapple juice to be honest, so I'd reorder this again but then again plain pineapple juice would probably be cheaper, if not quite as pretty.

Not quite as pretty

This is their Amaratto sour that one of the doctors ordered. I had a sip. I wasn't a fan. She said it was pretty damn good though and ordered two of them.

It looks nice doesn't it?

My Boyfriend ordered the Madagascan Vanilla tea because of the name. The fragrant of the tea was glorious and I really would've preferred to have this with milk and sugar. He managed to get four cups out of this glass teapot. The glass tumbler was a stupid idea, due to the fact that glass conducts heat so well. He adds that the flavour of the tea improved after some long stewing on the third and fourth final glass.

Really hot glass teapot and tumbler

Initially we couldn't decide whether or not we wanted to go with a banquet option since there were so many of us or to just go with our own decisions. The pharmacists and their partners opted for banquets while the rest of us were grimacing since it seemed none of us had ever had good experiences with banquets before. There were actually enough people opting in for the banquet that they could've easily gotten it for themselves as well.

In the end, we ordered our own food and shared turkish bread and dips as an entree. The bread was extremely soft and fluffy Turkish bread. It was almost ridiculously soft and I was a bit surprised at how it looked to be honest. I was expectly it to be slightly spongier in texture and have a better hole texture. The bread was still quite tasty however.

The oddest turkish bread I've ever seen

From left to right, we received hummus, tahini and then baba ganoush. The hummus was smooth, creamy and fluffy with an almost too smooth texture to it, it was good but not the best hummus I've ever had. I had a taste of the hummus and then decided to ignore it. The tahini had a pool of olive oil and za'ataar spice pooled in the centre and had a strong garlicky flavour to it, I also ignored this. The baba ganoush was the most flavoursome of the bunch with a subtle smoky flavour and mild sweetness, L., also agreed with me but my Boyfriend disagreed and said that the hummus was the best.

Creamy blobs

One of the doctors ordered this lamb meatball tagine baked in a tomato sauce with two eggs and a side of couscous. I remember a few years ago when I had it, the sauce was quite watery and insipid, with the meatballs being both simultaneously dry and oily. I was a bit hesitant about the dish to be honest and I declined to try it again. The doctor stated that he quite enjoyed it and that the richness of the gooey egg yolks made it a bit too much for him. He added that the meatballs were a bit dry as well.

Dodgy meatballs ):

This is the very popular grilled spiced swordfish with a spicy couscous, I think about six people ordered this including L.,The swordfish was a firm, meaty slice of fish as swordfish tend to be, L., was very happy with hers as had tried on numerous occasions to order this without success as it was sold out every time. She didn't end up finishing it though, and she made her husband D., eat the rest.

Swordfish complete with a giant metal skewer

This is another doctor's food, vine leaf wrapped fish with parsley, artichoke and olive salad. The doctor who ordered this had spent a lot of time in Ireland and praised the fish used. She said since leaving Ireland she hadn't had this style of rich and super oily fish and had really missed it. I had a little taste of her fish and remembered thinking that it was almost unbearably salty and ashy bitter from the vine leaf. Once the leaf had been removed, the flesh was much more palatable and plainer in contrast. She agreed with me and ended up scraping most of the vine leaf off, it was odd since we all remarked that the vine leaves used in dolmades is never this salty. The artichoke and parsley made a good accompaniment to the dish however the olives were much too salty.

Not the most appetising looking of things

I got the sardine, caramelised onion, roast tomato, olive and rocket pizza. I didn't really enjoy the pizza, it was too salty and oily for my taste since there were both sardines and olives on there. The dressed sourish rocket on the top of the pizza really helped cut through the flavours but I regret ordering this otherwise.

Wonky pizza

My Boyfriend ordered this Moroccan spiced calamari with bean salad. He was very surprised when he got this dish and he was expecting crunchy golden fried calamari I think. The calamari was cooked very well, being meltingly soft and not at all disgustingly chewy. The bean salad was terrible, just a very hard plain white bean tossed in a bit of oil.

Meh

All in all, we were probably at Mecca Bah for a good two and a half hours. We didn't order for about an hour, then spent forty or so minutes waiting for our food and then spent the rest of the time talking. During that time, Chelle, Ms M for Megababe and D., all arrived to the dinner. Chelle and Ms M for Megababe headed over to Freestyle Tout and scored us a table allocation on the sidewalk. We ended up blocking off the sidewalk which made me extremely nervous in case there was a fire. This was the pizza they ordered to eat as they were waiting for us.I honestly have no idea what it was because I didn't take any photos of the menu as I knew it was online, too bad it looks like the online menu hasn't been updated in quite a while.

You look delicious though pizza

Ms M for Megababe ordered the apple crumble, a cream Anglaise with a scoop of vanilla Cocolusicious icecream and a chocolate squiggle. When I asked her what she though of it, she waxed rhapsodical about it. Well, I supposed she did, she gave me this ecstatic look and enthusiastically replied, "Oh my god, it was sooooo good!" Despite finishing that pizza with Chelle just minutes beforehand, she managed to eat all of it before the rest of the desserts had even arrived.

Chelle ordered a Little Taste of Queensland, a macademia white chocolate slice with caramel sauce, two scoops of white chocolate, caramel macademia ice cream along with a pretty milk chocolate sail. No one with us seemed to know what to make of the milk chocolate sail, everyone was examining it when Chelle received her dessert. When I told them that it was edible, they all seemed quite happy about it haha. I remember Lu., had this one of the first times we went to Freestyle Tout and I remembered the slice is deliciously sickly sweet, like caramel slice sweet. It'd be too much for me to finish by myself. Chelle said she liked it, but didn't elaborate any further.

I realise I've had bread and butter pudding with butterscotch sauce twice, but its too delicious to pass up. I also got a scoop of mango gelato, which wasn't as good as I was expecting, it definitely had a strong mango flavour but none of that succulent super sweet, slightly tart flavour that really good mangoes have. I love this bread and butter pudding however, soft, squishy and eggy with plump sultanas throughout it. The hot butterscotch sauce rapidly melted the crap out of that chocolate lace and I kept slapping my Boyfriend to stop him from eating it.

This is a chocolate deluxe sundae with vanilla, chocolate fudge, macademia ice cream, hot fudge sauce, marshmallows, cream and a giant chocolate sail. One of the other doctors ordered this and he ate it all before anyone noted. I think he may have shared this with his partner, who also shared her dessert with another female doctor.

This is the warm flourless chocolate cake with chocolate sauce, mixed berries, raspberry sorbet and a chocolate sail. This was ordered by three of the doctors.

This is the vegan cake with vanilla ice cream. I don't even remember what else was in this cake but the pharmacist who ordered this was very depressed by what he received. He didn't finish it and he said it lacked the love in chocolate sails and flaming alcohol that everything else had.

L., ordered the creme brulee with vanilla bean ice cream, raspberry sorbet, berry compote, biscotti and a fluffy bit of pashmak, a Middle Eastern cotton candy style confection made of almonds. Her creme brulee was set on fire and was still merrily burning away when it reached the table. We were all very impressed. I know from experience that the creme brulee is smooth as cream and as just about as rich here and not as sweet as some others I've had. It tastes almost like set cream, that's how creamy it is. The berry sorbet and compote are sorely required as they add a much needed acidity to the bland cream of the creme brulee.

I have no idea what this is, I think its a steamed ginger pudding with a custard, pistachios and desiccated orange slices which are mostly decorate. I think there is a blob of vanilla ice cream in the centre too. D., ordered this and he remarked that it was nice.

Mecca Bah
Atmosphere: 7, busy little restaurant that is perfect for large gatherings. The only thing that would be a drawback is that it enforces one bill to rule them all, no bill splitting.
Service: 7, very friendly waiter who was very understanding with our massive table and how we straggled in in dribs and drabs.
Food: 5, I didn't like the food here at all. I can't fault it for anything since it was well cooked, the flavours weren't to my taste the first time I visited here or the second.

 

Freestyle Tout 
Atmosphere: 7, very, very busy little place. One of those eateries you'd have to shout to make yourself heard in, thankfully we were outside so we could hear a bit better.
Service: 8, superb from our patient and very enthusiastic waiter, he did a very good job keeping track of us all. The guy running the floor inside the restaurant, wasn't half as helpful or cheerful as him though, from my experience the times I've been here though, he never is very happy.
Food: 7, I still love Freestyle.