Jack of all trades

Sometime during the first month when I started to hang out with Hello Kitty in Jordan, we walked past a curious pair of restaurants in her hood.  Both advertised themselves as 'fusion' but the cuisines listed ranged from Indian to Mexican to Italian... and more.  We were curious, but didn't have the cojones to walk through the door.

Months later, over a meal with Rickachu - who happens to live mere steps away from the restaurants - we learned that they had previously tried to eat at V. Dimpal Fusion and Pizza House... but had not succeeded without booking a table in advance.  They had to settle for dining next door at Mala's Fusion Cuisine, but clearly V. Dimpal was the more popular (and presumably serves more delicious food) of the two.  So we made a pact to dine there together.  Somehow we never found the opportunity to make good on our promise.  Until tonight.

The restaurant was crowded tonight, as expected, although there wasn't a line outside.  Many of the tables were squished together into long, communal tables, so be expected to dine next to complete strangers - much like we do at local cha chaan tengs (茶餐廳).

We get some papadums to nibble on while we pondered over the menu.

Got myself a mango lassi.  Not bad at all.  

Since the restaurant's menu offers a diverse range of cuisines, I figured that the only way to do it justice was to spread our order among them.  So here goes...

Four seasons pizza - apparently one of the house specialties.  The eclectic range of toppings included diced Cajun spiced barbecued chicken, roasted potatoes, button mushrooms, and spinach.  As for sauce, there was a mix of Thai sweet chili sauce - yes, the ones that come with fried prawn cakes and Thai roast chicken - and sour cream.  Strange?  Yes.  But I didn't mind at all.  In fact, I had half the pie by myself.

Nachos - we had originally opted for Tibetan momos, but they weren't available, so we went Mexican.  These seemed to have been made with Doritos chips, or something similar.  Guacamole, salsa, sour cream, and cheese on top.  No meat here.  Not great.

Barbecued baby back ribs - actually pretty good.  Meat fell off the bone.  Hello Kitty's guess, though, was that they boiled the ribs before barbecue to ensure that the meat was tender... but the process deprived the frozen ribs of any remaining flavor.  That doesn't matter to many, though, as smothering it with barbecue sauce would work for most.

Chicken tikka masala - very tasty.  In fact, our favorite dish of the evening.  Very tender chicken.

Garlic naan - crispy and damn tasty.  Garlic makes a huge difference... duh!

We saw another table getting a plate of Thai-style fried prawn cakes, each of which was the size of my fist.  I was really, really tempted, but we simply didn't have room...

This place seemed to be a popular place for birthday celebrations, as there were no less than three parties who had birthday cakes brought out - and the restaurant played some happy birthday music.  The bar also kept sending out trays of nothing to those tables, and eventually they offered to everybody - including us.  Cheers!

P.S. I think out of the four of us, I actually enjoyed our meal the most...