The Damada Experience!

Adamawa is a state that doesn’t have many upscale hang out places, but Mr Sai’du T. Baba-Bikoi’s Restaurant Damada, Located at No 30, Atiku Abubakar road, Jimeta, is a place to go. With a variety of cuisines and impressive environment, you couldn’t find anywhere better to eat in Adamawa than Damada. Restaurant Damada’s slogan promises an “unforgettable experience”, and after our visit (Amina Kollere, Haneefah Adamu, Halima Olajumoke Sogbesan, and Prof. Samuel Tesunbi) they have kept that promise. This is a collective report on our (the students’) experience at Restaurant Damada.

The grounds of the restaurant, which seem to be still under construction, are wide and spacious enough to park up to ten cars. Without the valet services and parking shades, we have the opportunity to pick a very convenient parking spot.

RECEPTION:
The reception at Damada is a tiny booth-like corner by the entrance of the restaurant. It has a well-polished burgundy table and two chairs. On the reception table is a telephone, stacks of menu with two unfriendly receptionists busy writing checks for patrons.

DÉCOR & AMBIENCE
The décor of the restaurant is très magnifiqué. It is what we imagine an African-themed restaurant would look like. In place of the expected chandeliers are wicker lamps that hang from the roof. The ceiling, on the other hand, resembles the long forgotten thatched roof. The place mats are made from raffia and on the walls hang really beautiful African paintings. The impressive artistic representation of a calabash is a view.
There is an array of well-polished burgundy tables and chairs. These are very comfortable and they allow for free movement. The plasma television is on a minimal volume, not too loud to interrupt patrons’ conversations or too low for one to hear what is on. The air inside the restaurant is cool and fresh, despite the heat outside. Thanks to the 6-split air conditioners and 2 industrial size standing fans!

STAFF & PROFESSIONALISM:
The waiters are not professionally dressed, and guests are not ushered to their seats. However, after we are seated, a waitress, who looks like she’s having a bad day, walks over with the menu and hands each of us a copy. She makes no attempt to smile, as she answers our questions half-heartedly. We request that she give us some time to go through the menu; while at it, we order for three cups of medium sized chapman and a bottle of water. She leaves promptly to get our orders ready. The table already has placemats, salt and peppershakers, serviette, as well as an empty tooth pick case on the table.

MENU:
The menu has over a dozen entrées. Savory and taste bud awakening as they seem, the entrées range from local dishes to oriental meals, continental and gourmet meals. The menu consists of appetizers, such as soups and salads. There are main course meals made from rice, spaghetti, potato, couscous, chicken, fish and beef. That’s not all. There are oriental and Nigerian dishes, as well as desserts, sandwiches and pizzas. The vast selection of juice and drinks is definitely eye-catching; they vary from natural juices, to artificial drinks, yoghurts, wines, cocktails, mock tails, beers and table water. The menu caters for all individuals with a particular eating orientation.
In a state like Adamawa, where there are people from different parts of the world, it is important for a restaurant to offer different kinds of entrees; Damada does a good job of it.

FOOD:
On the day of our visit, the owner is present. As a result, he offers us complementary appetizers. These snacks are delicious samosas and spring rolls, which are served with chilly and garlic sauces. This is one appetizer everyone should try. Not only is the presentation spectacular, the samosa and spring rolls are searing and crispy; the sauces are really spicy so much so that they [can] cause some sort of explosion in the mouth, awakening taste buds in the process.
   

About an hour after the order is made, the food are ready. We all eat different meals, and so we have different recollections of taste.
For instance, the person who eats Couscous and lamb chops with green salad remarks: “The couscous is nicely done, cooked with minimal water but soft enough. The lamb chops is well cooked in a sweet and sour sauce giving it an edgy taste. The salad was an absolute bliss! The lettuce is so crispy, and the dressing is so alive. This is another meal that does wonders to the taste buds.”
While another person who prefers  jollof spaghetti and chicken says: “The food’s aroma is appealing. The presentation of the jollof rice and chicken is also very good. The food is garnished with cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and green pepper. The jollof spaghetti is good. There is a subtle garlic taste; the spaghetti and the chicken are soft, spicy and searing.”
The third customer, whose meal is spaghetti al tonno with chicken, says it is “awesome, searing, and well spiced. The spaghetti is well cooked so that it comes out in attractive, slim, and long strands. The meal is garnished with green peppers, and red peppers. The chicken is well spiced as well and the sauce is amazingly tasty.”

CONCLUSION:
There you have it! The Damada environment allows for relaxation, and it complements the Adamawa culture especially by the décor. The restaurant clearly has trained chefs as is apparent in the taste of the food.
However, the service is slow and is kind of a turn-off for customers wishing to drop in for a quick lunch.
The waiters also need to improve their customer services in order to attract customers.
Restaurant Damada--except for the momentary flies that slide in when the doors open--is certainly a place worth visiting for a second and a third time. Though the food is expensive by Adamawa standards, it is worth it.
However, for a standard and proclaimed restaurant, such as Damada, we expected everything to be properly spelt out and easy to locate. For instance, there is only one visible exit leading into the restaurant. If there is another one, then customers need to be told so that in cases of emergencies it would be easier to evacuate customers from the restaurant.
Overall, we award restaurant Damada two stars for the good services and amazing food.

Restaurant Critique

 By: Haneefah Adamu, Halima Sogbesan & Amina Kollere.

 RESTAURANT CRITIQUE

What you are about to read is an account of our collective experiences of our visit to the AUN clubhouse, Amina, Hanyfah, and Halima. On one sunny afternoon, our professor, Dr. Samuel Tesunbi, treated us to lunch at the club. While there, we took the opportunity to critique the restaurant.

The AUN University Club restaurant is regarded as one of Adamawa’s finest restaurants. The architecture of the club is splendid, with a very large and spacious parking lot. The absence of valet services gives patrons a chance to drive around freely, with no hassle.

RECEPTION:

Upon entering the AUN club, the restaurant is the first thing you see through the glass door. There are no doormen or people waiting to take your coat, but then again, the clubhouse is no 4-star restaurant.  Sitting at the counter are two expressionless, weary-looking receptionists glued to their computers as they sort out the takeaway orders. An incoming customer that wants any attention at the reception would have to walk up to the receptionist to make requests or ask questions. The reception is feebly decorated with three wood carved figurines standing on a small mahogany table, the reception has a very high roof which makes every sound resonate and there is no music to eliminate the noise while a person sits and wait for his or her order.

AMBIENCE:

The blue painted, well-lit restaurant sitting area has eight wooden tables with four lightly foamed, closely knitted metal chairs that don’t allow free and comfortable movement. The ocean blue paint on the wall doesn’t complement the furniture and the dark grey tiled floor or the off white painted ceilings, which then gives the eating area a dull ambience.

Instead of the two displaced paintings, the décor should be themed to complement the overall appearance of the restaurant. Though there are five air conditioners in the restaurant, it still feels drafty and stuffy, especially as more people come in the restaurant for lunch. As for the floor, it is relatively clean, but it could have been cleaner, and the most shocking of all is, the presences of  flies in the restaurant!

STAFF & PROFESSIONALISM:

Upon entry, we did not get ushered to a table; we just roam around to find a table to settle ourselves in. After taking a seat, a shabbily dressed waitress (all waiters are professionally dressed in 4-star restaurants) with a smiling face presented us with a menu. An average order with less than ten customers in the restaurant takes up to 20 minutes. While we were waiting, we were conversing and watching television with nothing to nibble on. 

MENU:

The menu consists mostly of African dishes with few foreign dishes. With the wide variety of faculty and staff coming from all over the world, we think the entrees should be more diverse. We notice that there is a fine selection of drinks and beverages, ranging from soft drinks, beers, wines, and spirits, but there are no natural juices on the beverage menu. Not everyone likes artificially flavored drinks. Water is not free at the clubhouse; a medium sized bottle costs N150, and a big bottle costs N200.

FOOD:

The waitress comes with tablemats, glass cups, cutleries, and water.. The big bottle of water we have ordered is not cold.  We order fried rice and boneless chicken with green salad (N1550), beef burger and potato chips (N1150), and Jollof rice and peppered chicken (N1150), which came 20 minutes later.

The fried rice is well cooked and the vegetables are really crunch. The chicken is properly deboned, well spiced and sautéed that it awakened every taste bud on the tongue. The salad, with English dressing, is not as enjoyable because the lettuce isn’t crispy.

The potato chips have been fried to a golden brown and the burger has visible lettuce, onions, and tomatoes. However the top of the bread looks burnt, this is not too attractive. The chips come with ketchup. The chips taste great. It has just the right amount of salt, and it is dry enough to be enjoyed. The beef burger is also good. The beef is well spiced, and the tomatoes and onions taste fresh. The lettuce on the other hand tastes like it has started wilting. The bread is also really soft and enjoyable.

The Jollof rice is not as enjoyable. One of us who ordered the Jollof rice thinks she could have cooked the same, or better, standard of Jollof rice in her kitchen. She believes the chicken was well spiced but too tough (they probably under-cooked it). She also did not think the food was worth the wait

Still, our colleague admits that the meals hot and edible, though we had to keep batting away flies as we ate which was as difficult and uncomfortable as Jackie Chan fighting off goons in the movies.

BATHROOM:

There are his and hers bathrooms at the university club restaurant.. However, they are not something to boast of. For a place that receives many patrons, this may need some revisiting. While the toilet provides running water, a clear mirror, tissue and a hand wash, there are ants by the sink, on the wall, on the floor, and the toilet bowl. There is no air freshener provided.

Overall, two of us agree that the restaurant has a very good culinary service, except for some professional services and maintenances, which are in dire need for improvement. The third person disagrees with the culinary services and thinks it isn’t worth the while. We give the AUN Club Restaurant one star!