I’ve been looking forward to trying out Aarya at Montecasino for a very long time and we finally did last night!
Aarya, located at Montecasino, Fourways is run by South Africa’s first MasterChef SA winner, Deena Naidoo. It’s open daily from 06h30 – 22h30.
THE FOOD & DRINKS
When you think about Masterchef something very specific comes to mind, i.e. food that is awesomely tasty and a menu that is mouth-watering just hearing or reading about it.
Sadly, that was not the feeling I got reading through the menu. I felt the menu was rather limited and bland and I actually took a really long time to decide what I actually wanted to eat. We finally ordered the grilled salmon on vegetable and mash stack with roasted cherry tomatoes, rocket, pesto and balsamic drizzle and char-grilled bbq basted pork ribs with a side of fries.
When my salmon arrived, something didn’t seem right. It was supposed to be salmon on vegetable and mash stack – the salmon was only placed on green beans and I received no mash. The mash was then brought separately after we asked about it and we were then told that even though the menu says it’s a stack, the mash actually comes separately. I think the mash actually serves no purpose being served on the side. The mash was not nice at all. It tasted very buttery. The green beans had no seasoning, at least no seasoning that I could taste and although the rocket, tomatoes, pesto and balsamic drizzle was probably supposed to give some give some flavour to the fish, I don’t think it really adds anything to the dish.
From the taste I had of the ribs, I didn’t really enjoy it. The meat on the ribs from John Dory’s tastes better. The basting was tasty though.
They have a very limited beer selection (SA beers, Peroni and Windhoek). They did, however, have a wide selection of wines and cocktails.
PRICING
Prices range from R55 – R220. If I enjoyed the food I’d say it’s worth the price.
THE SERVICE & AMBIENCE
The service was terrible.
The restaurant wasn’t busy at all but our waiter, although he checked up on us, he was never around when we actually needed him. Our table had no serviettes. A table or two away from us was dirty for the duration of our meal (they left before we had even received our food) and another table had not even been set again once cleared. We also weren’t given a steak knife for the ribs and our cutlery on our table was not matched up accordingly.
The ambience isn’t really anything to rave about but then again it was a quiet night. The music was ok – not what I expected them to play though.
RATING
1/10. Probably won’t go back.
Have you been to Aarya? What did you think?
Hanging With Leanne 