Sanafir

$18 / South East Asian

- plus $5 add on options

After (at least) 6 months of saying we'll try Sanafir out, we finally sat down to this member of the Glowbal Collection. You may be familiar with other restaurants in the group including Coast, Italian Kitchen, Trattoria, Society and of course Glowbal Restaurant and Afterglow.

Upon entry, it's a pretty hip South Asian vibe. With light curtains decorating one wall, and a host of soft lighting, you almost feel transported to a mid/high end restaurant in South East Asia.  The music as we stepped in seemed to be a bit more ethnic, but as the time passed, the music picked up in beat and bass, creating a more contemporary lounge feel.

We opted for all 3 add-on options: calamari, naan, and patatas. At only $5 each, it was worth a try, and while not exceptional, were quite tasty.

 Starters:

1) Grilled Tandoori Prawn skewer chickpea and pea shoot salad

2) Chicken, Chorizo and Poached Egg salad

Salad #2 was something different. It was a little lacking in ingredients though, only one piece of egg and 2 pieces of chorizo.  Our friend who had the same didn't even get tomatoes.  Perhaps it was a lack of a proper toss. The paprika honey vinaigrette was lovely and just right, not too spicy, just adding flavor.

On to the main: 

Punjabi Butter Chicken mango chutney, raita and papadum

Nice presentation and flavor, though some more rice would have filled the plate more, and lead to more enjoyment eating the sauce, that sadly was left once the chicken was cut and consumed.

Dessert: 

Five Spice Chocolate Cake Cardamom Yogurt and  Berry Compote

A wee bit on the small size, but probably a blessing in disguise. More like a brownie than cake, the chocolate was well balanced with the spices, so that the taste was not overbearing of chocolate, but light enough to enjoy and want more of.

This was the only dessert option, which could be a good thing, or not, if the other options would have been more tempting.

Food: good

Service: okay

Recommend: yes - we were surprised to find Sanafir at $18, definitely worth a trip.  

Sanafir is said to be Arabic for meeting place. Purpose accomplished, this is a great place to relax with friends after work and sample some exotic fare. While there was only a small sampling of the menu, we will be back to try out the rest of the regular menu.