Review: Hirajheel Hotel, A House of Purity Foods

Home, Chaos and Other

The entrance

Despite its rather unfortunate full name, Hirajheel is a stalwart on the Dhaka food scene. Located in the Motijheel business district, its proximity to the Dhaka Stock Exchange, big banks and various other offices guarantees the restaurant a steady flow of customers. Known for its breakfast “soup” (more on that later) and Ramadan staples (it does a good kebab, almost as good as Star), Hirajheel has been around for over a decade. Dhaka has quite a few even older historic eateries, and each venue has established itself a reputation for doing particular dishes very well. For example, next door to Hirajheel is Ghoroa, which beckons from mom's youth and is the local go-to for good khichuri. 

The interior

I'm willing to bet that Hirajheel at its inception represented a slightly upmarket version of the traditional Bangladeshi “restaurant” - often locally misnamed as "hotels". These are quick and dirty operations: menu-less with a set number of largely unchanging dishes served in a canteen style space. Business is geared towards feeding a regular, local clientele of blue collar office workers, day labourers, rickshaw pullers etc. Decor and ambience do not exist as concepts, prices are rock bottom and the food is simple yet often very good. With Hirajheel things are a little more elaborate - the waiters (sometimes) wear uniforms, and the interior is clean, painted and tiled. Prices are beyond what a rickshaw puller could pay, though they are within reach of most and nothing compared to certain newer restaurants in town. There is still no menu that we could see, however, and finding out what's being served today beyond the usual required a friendly yelling match with the staff.

Review: Barrafina Frith Street

Snap Decisions

Cecina de León, or air dried beef at Barrafina

I'm spending a few days near London before flying to Bangladesh for the winter, and so I'm taking the chance to catch up with friends in different parts of the city. I stopped at Barrafina last night with a friend - completely unplanned and more as the first stop of many during the night as we met up with various other friends. As such, we didn't have a full meal but I wanted to write a quick review nonetheless. Barrafina had always been on my recommended list for good tapas, but until recently I flew to Spain so often I never really made the effort to visit. 

The interior is small, brightly lit and seats no more than a couple dozen people on stools around a bar/kitchen while people queue near the wall behind them. There are another three or four tables outside, with overhead heating for the winter. I hadn't realised the nature of the venue before walking in, and it was close to Christmas so the queue was long. We were quoted an hour waiting time, but were offered drinks and nibbles to pass the time. Normally I would have left due to both the length of the queue and the seating arrangements, but while we stood around thinking about alternatives we were told they had a table free outside. Living in Scotland makes London feel quite summery (even in December!), and we though why not since we weren't going to be there for more than an hour.