14 THE STANDARD STYLE /EATING OUT/MOJO’S <strong>March</strong> <strong>22</strong> to 28 <strong>2015</strong> Mojo’s for much more meat! Tapas platter Starch and salad…Mojo’s serves arguably the best chips/fried potatoes in the country Mojo’s is based in one of the most historic former dwellings in Avondale. The lovely formal garden won first prize in competitions held before the First World War, despite the owner, a Miss Haddow, owning 83 cats! Dusty Miller I WILLINGLY ordered and ate beef last Thursday and totally delicious it was too! It was at that carnivore’s heaven, Mojo’s, in East Road, Avondale and I simply couldn’t resist a slice of beef sirloin, crisp and dark on the outside and on the rare side of raw, pink, on the inside: not quite still dripping blood but almost so! I’m certainly not a Hindu, but for several years I’ve taken it very easy on both red meat and red wine and almost never indulged in the two together. But a wonderful looking and smelling juicy joint of sirloin ready to be carved, off the skewer on which it had been lovingly braaied, proved too tempting to refuse. Mojo’s is a churrascarria (Brazilian/Portuguese for steak house); churrasco is barbecue or braai but with much more sophistication than those labels hint. Picture the world-famous Carnivore Restaurant, outside Nairobi, Kenya but pile on a slab of class and élan as found at some of the best West End restaurants and you’re getting somewhere. Barbecue it may be, but the crisp linen, sparkling crystal, expensive china and general fixtures and fittings (you could eat off the loo floors!) and brand new chairs speak of the best-run outlets in Europe, Cape Town or Manhattan! I ate with partner Mohamed Sami who was last general manager at Harare Sheraton, before the blue-chip international hotel chain washed its hands of Zimbabwe, packing in their local franchise back in 2006 when the “gold-leaf ” hotel became localised and indigenised as Rainbow Towers Hotel and Conference Centre. I’ve long believed if it hadn’t been for Mohamed’s immediate predecessor, fellow Egyptian (but Christian Copt) Magdy Anis (now in Partner Mohammed Samy. A Muslim he doesn’t touch the restaurant’s luscious cuts of prime pork. Tibet), Sheraton would have cleared out about 10 minutes after the first farm invasion. Magdy had a touching faith this country— especially tourism — would eventually come right and Egyptians especially, would flock in! Yeah, well…the jury’s still out on that one! Mohamed returned to Egypt to run Sheraton’s flagship outlet at Luxor (the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, Thebes, in The Valley of the Kings on the Nile) and I half hoped to see him for a drink on visits there. It’s was good I didn’t try too hard…he’d transferred to Sheraton Abuja, Nigeria: a place that almost drove him penga with daily head-on collisions with inefficiency, incompetence and blatant corruption. So he returned to Zim to help found Mojo’s! A unique eating experience there begins (maybe after a pre-prandial dop at an amazingly well-stocked cocktail bar) with a leisurely starter course of tapas. Then there’s a central salad. A bowl of savoury saffron rice, possibly Zimbabwe’s best twice-cooked chips…and finally the nyama! Apart from the wonderful export quality grass-fed, well-hung beef there were beef, pork and chicken sausages, pork fillet and pork chops (pork ribs are apparently currently unavailable here!), chicken thighs, breasts and wings. A great place to take teenagers and others with healthy (or unhealthy!) appetites. Mains don’t all come together. There’s a beer-mat sized card on the table. Green side up, it says “Yes, Please” in English and Portuguese and “gaucho” waiters/carvers will swiftly arrive and dispense meat, by carving it at the table from the huge stainless steel skewers on which it has been slowly cooked and basted. Reverse it to red and “No Thank You” and they’ll leave you alone until you feel you can perhaps sample a bite more. There’s no limit to the amount of meat you can eat, or how long you take to enjoy it. Mojo’s is where Blossom Manor and Haddow House were and was the brainchild of Mohamed’s partner, Julie Webb, a former Centenary tobacco farm girl who was general manager of Imba Matomba/Gecko Gardens/ Arnaldo’s, after starting out at Holiday Inns here and at the local Sheraton. A qualified chef with a hospitality degree from Bournemouth University, UK, she’s also a former GM of Leopard Rock in The Vumba with extensive overseas experience as an hotelier. Mojo’s isn’t the sort of place to go if rushed. My feeling is that it’s possibly more suited for leisurely supper than weekday lunch, with deadlines threatening menacingly, but it’s certainly a grand venue, eating al fresco on a typically sunny Zimbabwean afternoon. There’s a wide range of grown-up puddings: my fruit-filled apple crumble with raisins and vanilla ice-cream was exemplary. Others are banoffee trifle sundae, chocolate cappuccino cheesecake, passion fruit yoghurt mousse, vanilla cheesecake with a guava topping, served with mango salsa, ice-cream sundae and honey and nougat semifreddo (half-frozen) drizzled with chocolate sauce. Meat is carved to order at your table, here a juicy joint of beef sirloin All pictured by Dusty Miller Tapas starters with bread, salads, rice and “fries” and the eat-as-much as you like/can churrasco and pudding costs $25 at supper and US$20 for lunch. Eat indoors, on the verandah or in the lovely gardens. There’s a small conference room and facilities for private receptions and similar, with up to 300 covers. When I was there some time ago a hire company was erecting a marquee for a garden wedding with about 500 pax. They open Monday to Saturday lunch and supper. Fully licensed, well-stocked cocktail bar available for diners only. Safe on-site parking; guarded additional parking on verges on East Road. Smoking/no smoking. Child and handicapped friendly. Mojo’s, 10 East Rd, Avondale. Tel 705993/761639 mojos@zol.co.zw dustymiller46@gmail.com
<strong>March</strong> <strong>22</strong> to 28 <strong>2015</strong> THE STANDARD STYLE / FOOD & DRINK / WINE / AFDIS 15 wine cellar
Change language