Saturday was Fen's birthday... dinner

So we met up wif Fen for dinner on Saturday evening. Missed the actual date, but I guess she didn't mind that we meet her up much later. CY recommended the place for dinner. Was located opposite Golden Mile complex (was it?) and in Haji Lane, which one of the lanes near Arab Street. We had no idea what was for dinner, but its was a nice change for me, so I didn't really mind. Turned out we were having dinner at Cafe Le Caire which serves Middle Eastern cuisine.

It's a small eatery and has a simple and traditional layout of a cafe from yesteryears. Seems that most customers go there for a simple fare and then some sheesha (I think that's how it's spelt. Need to check wif Rain on that) But they had a nicer decor upstairs, I guess it's meant more for those who wanted a cosy dinner atmosphere. Again, it's furbished simply, with about 5-6 oblong tables for 6 guests each.

The menu was quite a challenge to us. Coz most of the dishes were in Arabic names. Not that we can't pronounce the names, but more of finding out what's in the dishes. We took almost a good half hour to decide on the dishes we wanted. Apart from discovering the main meat(s) in the dishes, we were quite spoilt for choice (since we haven't exactly tried anything b4), and also a fair amount of digressing from our dinner orders.

I still can't recall most of the items we ordered. Oh, the ladies ordered the Kebabs. HY ordered the roast chicken (it has an Arabic name, but we went wif That Roast Chicken dish), CY had some meatball-thingy, and i ended up with the mixed sausages (of chicken, beef and lamb). Hey, what's better than ordering the try-a-bit-of-everything dish? And then there's the appetizers. I only remembered the Hummus, which is a chick pea (those soft yellow peas the kacang putih man sold) dip. And that went wif Arabic bread, which is something like pitas to me. We also ordered a feta cheese salad with green capsicum, tomatoes and green and black olives. Not bad, since I'm quite okay with sour stuff.

There was a dish called Tahbolleh and it surely stirred our interest to know what's in it. Turned out it was a cucumber salad, Arab style.

So the main courses came and we all tucked in. Following that was the birthday cake. Erm... Chocolate Coteau, it was called. Basically to us, it's a gaint 1.5kg brownie wif choc shavings on the sides.

That's Fen enjoying the choc bits. That's Fen blowing out the candles

That's the cake. That's Pat helping to cut it. And that's Fen (again!) enjoying it.
Hey, pictures 'nuff to do the talking non? :)

And of course, some couple/group pics to sum up the dinner :P

In my opinion, the restaurant is quite a nice place to chill out, especially when one is looking more of a place to sit around and chat. Quiet, cosy ambience with no crowd waiting for you to vacate the table. Maybe I'll try out the sheesha the next time I vist there again.