A welcome addition to the boonies

What you need to know:

Sundays are always a day out for my family - my young son Kalibala and his mother; all in all, a day to explore new eating joints and places where the boy can play and romp around unfettered. Naturally, having a toddler means one has to be quite circumspect in matters of the type of food on offer at the chosen rendezvous and sometimes it’s preferable to brown bag it for the lad than to offer him something strange and not to his taste.

Place: Sizzlers and More.
Location: Along Gaba Road, next to Timber King.
Rating: X.
Smoke-free zone: Not allowed indoors.
Type of food: Sizzlers and Indian Cuisine.
Price range: A meal for two with a few drinks will cost at least Shs55,000.
Recommended dishes: Vegetable mix grill platter, chicken tikka.
Service: On the whole not bad though they badly lack a supervisor or somebody of rank (at least the Sunday that we were there this was the case).
Ambience: Good and we liked the parquet floors.
Sound level: Acceptable.
Opening hours: Lunch and supper every day.

Sundays are always a day out for my family - my young son Kalibala and his mother; all in all, a day to explore new eating joints and places where the boy can play and romp around unfettered. Naturally, having a toddler means one has to be quite circumspect in matters of the type of food on offer at the chosen rendezvous and sometimes it’s preferable to brown bag it for the lad than to offer him something strange and not to his taste.

Sizzlers and More was our latest dining-out venture and as is my wont, I generally make it a point of inquiring whether or not mashed potatoes were available for the boy. I was assured that in fact they were part of the menu and so Kalibala’s food was a cinch.

Upon arriving and being seated, you can imagine our consternation when we were informed that mashed potatoes were a missing item. Fair enough, how about ordinary spuds that I could spruce up with some margarine? Assured of their availability, I dashed out to pick up some Blue Band, only to return and be told that potatoes were out of stock! My phone calls to Mr Oboroi (owner/manager) were not helpful since he was not on seat (yawn) and there was nothing that he could do to alleviate the situation save an apology.

On that note, we almost felt like taking leave but then I was persuaded by the lad’s mother to settle for rice; after all, it was after three and we were famished. For those not au fait with Sizzlers, these are literally sizzling sounding meats or vegetables that come on a very hot cast iron platter and are commonly found in the Orient. According to the menu, they are served with ‘boiled vegetables, French fries or mashed potatoes’. Popular amongst the diners, they come in a choice of fish, lamb, pork, chicken or vegetables.

From the sizzlers, I tried the Szechwan fish (supposedly a hot humdinger of a dish from Southern China) and while it was indeed hot and sizzling, the sauce had an irritating sweetish sauce that overshadowed the heat of the fish. By the way, I am the first to observe that many a time recipes call for sugar though they may be hot and sour and for my part I always omit the irritant.

The accompanying vegetables were done satisfactorily (restos are renowned for desecrating veggies) and the rice too was impressive. Fellow trencherman is always big on chicken tikka and sure enough she made short shrift of what she chose and only wished that she had been given a larger portion! The so-called pilao was the side order and anyone expecting pilao of the traditional sense would do well to avoid choosing it and for a hefty Shs8,000, it is more of vegetable rice.

Besides the sizzlers, they also have an array of traditional Indian entrees such as mutton boti kebab, chicken curry, spicy chicken wings and chili garlic prawns, etc. Of course, no Indian restaurant would be complete without a vegetarian selection and these range from the vegetable cutlet, cottage cheese Shashlik or the more well known Paneer tikka, etc.

Sizzlers and More is a welcome addition to the boonies and hopefully will in time be much appreciated by the suburbanites of the area. The place is clean, spacious and the waiters are polite and helpful. What is sorely missing is somebody with authority such as a manager. The Baganda have a saying, “omusigire amala bitono” and had he been around during our visit, I am sure that the mashed potato caper would have been resolved without much ado.