Souza Lobo - A No Go!
If the name sounds familiar its because its a branch of the Souza Lobo in Goa, which too has been getting worse every year! Opened a few months back, I have been trying to visit since. Finally the time came, I gathered some friends and off we went on a seafood eatcapade. We ordered and ordered, not because we could not get enough of the food but because I couldn't believe that after ordering 11 dishes I still had not had one "WOW" dish!!. Nothing was indelibly awful but it was all painfully average. Anyway before I get too upset to even finish this let me proceed.
- Butter Garlic Grilled Calamari - The garlic was quite raw which made the flavour a bit over bearing. I guess there is not much to this dish but garlic and butter and both elements were well represented. The calamari too were the nice small, tender ones, not fat big and chewy! Came with fries.
- Masala Calamari - Not bad, tasty enough to eat but that's all I have to say really. Came with fries too. The fries were your typical old-school Indian fries that are fat and soggy, only missing the chaat masala. Ok so I might sound like I'm cribbing but to be honest this type of food can only be served with these type of fries. .
- Goan Sausage Chilly Fry - Came with fries - I don't think you can mess this dish up too much so they didn't. All the flavour is coming from the spicy vinegary sausages, throw in some chillies and onions (in this case A LOT of onions) and you're done!
- Tandoori Whole Fish - So after not being able to order the reichado fish or the fish stuffed with prawns because they were out of pomfret, we were recommended the tandoori fish. Not that I was expecting much but it tasted like standard tandoori anything. The fish could have been a little fresher, and the seasoning a little tastier.
- Baked Crab - Basically all the meat is taken out, mixed with some spices and a whole lot of cream. Put back in the shell topped with cheese and baked. Now it sounds delicious and probably looks it too and ideally it should have tasted just so but I think they forgot any sort of seasoning including salt, leaving it completely bland!
- Stuffed (Fried) Crab - This and the fried crab are supposed to be one of their specialities. In which case I should have accessed that there really is no hope for them. Like the baked version this too looked good but was even worse. I do not understand how they could mess it up so much. The crab again de-shelled was drowned in some sauce that tasted like a mix between the calamari masala and lots of sweet ketchup, topped with bread crumbs and deep fried. Was pretty much the grossest thing on our table that night.
- Rawa Fried Fish - Now its a real shame they felt the need to mess this up because it really is not that hard to make it good!.. Quite simply I think they forgot the salt, which cannot be forgiven because I was really looking forward to this one. .
- Goan Sausage Pulao - Yes we love our Goan sausages. The dish was edible but not anything you would keep wanting to eat or crave . . ever!. Sadly it was just okay.
- Prawn Balchao - Basically a traditional, thick spicy red curry. The dish grew on me, the first bite tasted a bit muddy. But got better as you went along. Again nothing I'm going to miss though. Also i think they use the same masala for this, the masala calamari and the fried crab.. yawn. .
- Souza Lobo Dessert - Don't think that was the exact name but it was basically a crepe stuffed with coconut, vanilla ice-cream, maybe some rum and topped with a drizzle of chocolate sauce. How could we not order this right? But yes they manage to mess this up as well.. I ended up removing everything and just eating the crepe and ice-cream . . for god's sake people! Really its just not worth ordering so I'm not even going to go in to explaining why.
- Bebinca - A very popular Goan dessert. It consists of thin jelly like layers of coconut, ghee and caramelized sugar. If you like bebinca then you'd be happy to know they got this one right. And if you are a bebinca virgin, well then I warn you that a lot of your kind don't tend to instantly like it. Don't let that stop you from trying it but do it elsewhere unless you are planning on making your entire meal out of bebinca!
Budget: Moderate
Contact:
011-46106838
011-46106839
M-51 , Greater Kailash Part II
http://www.souzalobodelhi.com