Panoor Restaurant, Near National Paints, Sharjah

Despite the conspicuous name board, Panoor is a humble restaurant with average ambiance. Somehow the interior looked very old and shabby. Kerala snacks wrapped in thin film on those big trays invited us in. We were hungry. Hence decided to skip the snacks and go a bit heavier. A waiter with a rather long face came to our table and announced that they have Biriyani and Chappathi. That's alright, because at half four in the evening, no one expect them to serve the full menu. But we were not satisfied and asked him to look inside the kitchen for something a bit more interesting.

He went inside the kitchen and came back to report that they have Kappa (Tapioca prepared in termeric, chopped green chilly and crushed garlic pods), the ultimate Kerala heavy weight snack. Well, we had to go for a plate of Kappa, Mathi Mulakittathu (Sardine chilly curry) and of course, some Chappathy. Even we thought that Biriyani was a tall order as an evening bite. We had ordered for Milk Tea as well. The tea came first. It didn't feel like one prepared with fresh milk. That unmistakable taste of horror, condensed milk, betrayed it. We were not happy about it.

Our utter disappointment was short lived as the Kappa and Mathi Mulakittathu were very good. Kappa was a bit dry, but tasted very good. Cooked enough, spiced up just right and with the proper yellowish colour. Two medium sized sardines in that very good gravy was of right saltiness, satisfactorily tamarind flavoured and the spices in it were well balanced. The gravy was of the right thickness too. But one thing lacked. The WOW FACTOR. Both the dishes were short of that special feel which makes a dish great from being just good. 

The Chappathies were not very good. They were very large in size and unbelievably thin. Machine made for sure. And not made from Atta (wheat flour), we suspect. That's cheap, you see. We were running short of the fish curry gravy as we entered in to the advanced eating mode of 4 Chappathies and Kappa. We wanted some more gravy and they provided it with a special smile. That special smile was so special that it would cost us something in the end. Right. When all the dishes were finished, we decided to notice those snacks once again and ordered Pazham Pori (Ripe banana slices coated in thin layer of dough and deep fried). Pazham Pori was as disappointing as the tea. They didn't use ripe bananas. The banana slices were very thick and hard. 

The surprise was the bill. Just 24 Dirhams. 24 for two to fill their empty stomachs with Kappa, Fish, Chappathi, Tea and Pazham Pori. Not too bad. The bill was so surprising that we looked in to it once again. Kappa was 5, fish curry was 6, Chappathies and teas were 1 Dirham each and the banana fry was one dirham fifty each. Very reasonable. But the real surprise was the extra charge for the extra gravy. Come on, that's a ripoff, even after considering that special smile. We latter came to know from a restauranteur friend that those Chappathies were ready-made in a factory and available in the open market for as cheap as 35 fills each. Not so reasonable then. Panoor is an average restaurant with average ambiance, average service, average price and just about average tasting food. Average. 

Rating Description

One Star: Avoid.

Two Stars: If you are really hungry and thats the only restaurant nearby, you may dine in there.

Three Stars: A very good restaurant in it's category.

Four Stars: Excellent cooking; worth a detour.

Five Stars: Exceptional cuisine; worth a special trip.

Restaurant Contact Number: 065352754

Location Map

China Wok, Al Qusais

Finding proper Chinese food in Dubai is a bit of a task. That's the reason we thought it's worth a special trip, when we heard of China Wok and the Chinese food they serve. So we did visit them on a Friday evening. The location was behind Grand Hotel. There were some parking space and luckily one was available. As we entered the restaurant, a very bad smell surrounded us. The smell was so bad that it made us think seriously about having food in there. Since we were keen about tasting their food, we decided to ignore the smell painfully. The interior design resembled those in early James Bond movies in which the bond visits the Asian villain. It was very dark, full of dull yet red in colour and filled with random Chinese letters.

The restaurant had nearly 10 tables. As all of them were empty and no one was there to offer us a particular table, we choose to dine on a random one. Even though we enjoy the cold weather, we had to ask some one to switch off the arctic wether generating air conditioner. After another session of waiting, somebody approached us to take the food order. We ordered sweet corn chicken soup first. The piping hot soup came relatively fast. It's colour was curious. After a couple of minutes, we decided to not wonder about the strange dark colour of it anymore and started tasting it. There was the smell of the soup. It smelled of slightly rotten fish. Could be a special fish sauce they use. The taste was below average. The disappointing soup didn't let our desire for Chinese food down. 

We ordered for more. Special fried rice, Dragon Chicken and Devils Chicken were ordered. The China Wok Special Fried rice was mixed with chicken, prawns and bits of lamb. The prawns were so tiny that one need to look for those very hard to notice them. Good job that the prawns were not prominent, because the diner could save the shock of discovering the uncleaned ones. The other meat pieces were hard to find as well. The fried rice tasted very similar to an average fried rice one can find in any average Dubai restaurant. The only thing not average about it was the price. 25 dirhams. Almost double that of at similar restaurants. 

Dragon Chicken and Devils Chicken had very comparable tastes. The only difference was that Devils chicken had a gravy texture and dragons chicken was dry and had bits of cashew nuts in it. We have reasons to believe that both the dishes had chicken batter fried in the same method and then prepared using same ingredients apart from the amount of water and cashew nuts obviously. Both these dishes had the rotten fish like smell and the colour used in those can be used along with a couple of litres of white spirit to paint a medium sized building.  The taste was not too bad but both of them had a strange sweet taste.

The prices were not cheap. The Soup was 16, Fried Rice was 25, Devils Chicken was 26 and Dragon Chicken was 21 Dirhams. The ambience, food presentation, taste, cleanliness or the service standards didn’t really justify the prices. The service was particularly bad. No one smiles in there. No one has a pleasing face. No one comes to the diners with suggestions or willingness to help. The diner really need to work hard to get the notice of the serving staff even though almost all the tables were empty. This restaurant doesn't deserve a special trip. It doesn't even deserve a detour. We would rather avoid it. The very sad part is that we couldn't find proper Chinese food in Dubai this time. No matter, we will soldier on.

Note: Their washroom was of very bad standard that we had to not use our hands to eat so that we could avoid a trip to the washroom.

Rating Description

One Star: Avoid

Two Stars: If you are really hungry and thats the only restaurant nearby, you may dine in there.

Three Stars: A very good restaurant in it's category.

Four Stars: Excellent cooking; worth a detour.

Five Stars: Exceptional cuisine; worth a special trip.

Restaurant Contact Number: 042631590

Location Map