Cherryflava

Restaurant review: Mesopotamia

Posted on 19. Jul, 2004 by Cassandra in Totally Whack

Cape Town is well-known for being a world-class destination for lovers of fine food and cheap beverages.

Putting this fine reputation to the test, Cherryflava ventured out into the cold winter night with a couple of friends to test out the fare at the city’s only Kurdish restaurant…Mesopotamia.
The venue is named after the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, now known as Iraq. As you would expect from an Iraqi spot…there are lots of carpets on the walls, giant bronze platters serve as tables, you sit on cushions on the floor and the CD player doesn’t really work that well.

Our waitress was from Turkey…and at times, it was a little difficult to understand what meze items were on special with the defective CD player repeating the same Iraqi top 20 hit for the 5th time.
While considering the translations of the menu, we tried some tasty beverages. Nothing fancy here…AFB’s all around except for one culinary adventurer who tried a traditional Kurdish drink which was yoghurt, lemonade and a type of aniseed shot. Very nice…another one of those please waitress.

Wanting a bit of variety with the starter, we decided on a multi-meze platter. There were countless types of humus and dips to dunk your nan bread into…very filling. For the main meal, the group shared a platter of traditional foods which included cubes of tender lamb and roast veggies. Tasty…but we did overdo it a bit with the starter.

Halfway through the evening, around the time your legs go lame due to lack of blood, the lights dimmed even more, the CD player fired up a new track and out came the evening’s entertainment…the bellydancer. Dripping with gold and well-posititioned cloth, she performed solo for a few tracks and then forced a couple of the diners to showoff their own booty shaking moves. A word of advice…get as much out of the bellydancer as possible, because you are charged for her services whether you like it or not.

Overall, the experience was a good one, although perhaps a bit on the expensive side. But it’s a small intimate venue with very few tables (or cushions I should say). If you’d like to experience Iraqi cuisine without the fear of getting a piece of shrapnel in your ass…this is the spot.