Tasty fish in a tacky place

One reason I love going out on Sunday is the relative lack of traffic on the roads and we always try to dine out on that particular day. Last Sunday was no exception. Fellow trencherman and I craved for fish and the Gaba Landing Site came to mind. Truthfully, it had been several years since I had last eaten there. If memory serves me right I was not disappointed.

Not much has changed over the years although it would seem that the food vendors have organised themselves into some form of a cooperative venture as this is evident by the markings on their uniforms, which are in the form of doctors’ coats, what one might refer to as taawo in Luganda. The main eating section is along the Boardwalk consisting of a series of side walk eateries which can seat a couple of dozen patrons each. These are to be found the length of the route, with fierce competition among the touts jostling against one another and doing their best to lure diners.

Where to dine
Deciding on where to dine is hazardous and tricky. First of all, the eating joints are not named neither are they numbered and they all look the same with the same décor and setting. After much bantering and persuasion and for no particular reason, we chose one of them and the menu predictably was fish, chips and a so called salad. The whole fried fish is priced between Shs13,000 for the least expensive to Shs15,000 for the medium and the largest would be Shs20,000. Fries are Shs3,000 and the salad is Shs2,000 and soda costs a modest Shs1,500.

Food
I figured the largest would be enough for the two of us alongside chips and a salad. Upon inquiring about the type of salad to be served not to mention the hygiene aspect, the waitress with great assurance proclaimed that they used vinegar, which in her words would ensure that any inimical microbes would be eliminated.
After a 15-minute wait we were served the fish that came on a platter with the salad comprising exactly three pieces of avocado with some finely chopped tomatoes and onions and cleverly they were nestled on a shredded bed of cabbage. The fries were not bad and for 3K one would not have expected anything more. However, the fish turned out to be slightly off and was by no means fresh.

Forget the fact that it was simply deep fried, sadly one way of cutting corners is to buy dicey fish that is not up to snuff and would not be easily bought by customers (at a cut rate price) and hope to get away with it with the mistaken belief that deep frying will do away with the problem.

Ambience
The fish was not 100 per cent rotten but even if it were five or 10 per cent, which was indeed the case, the difference was noticeable. In the end, it boiled down to tolerance and we decided that considering the paltry amount we were paying and the ‘relative cheapness’ of the surroundings and area, discretion would be the better part of valour.
Accordingly, we ate and while paying, casually informed management of our displeasure and findings. Not surprisingly, they took the matter with great composure.
I would prefer to believe that our case was a rare one and I am sure that given the great multitude of folks that flock there every weekend, they must be doing something right.

The deal
Place: Fried Fish and Beverages Co
Address: Gaba Landing Site
Smoke-Free Zone: Nobody cares
Recommended items: Should have been the fried fish
Service: Mediocre
Ambience: Crowded, noisy and disorganised
Open: Daily
Menu: Fried fish, chips and a so called salad
The crowd: Interestingly people from all walks of life and that includes a lot of the hoi polloi

The Bar: Soda
The damage: Shs28,000 for the fried fish, a salad, chips and two sodas
Sound level: Very good
Rating: Ok/so so
Parking: Available
If you go: Daily