Dine Halal

AFFY’S PREMIUM GRILL

Tel:  (905) 239-5415
Web:  www.affysgrill.com

The family and I were very excited to go to Affy’s, especially after hearing great reviews from friends and family.  Located in Pickering, this is one of the few halal restaurants that serve steak along with a variety of other grilled meat dishes.

Overall Summary:

The Food:           3 out of 5
The Experience:  1 out of 5

The Food:  3/5

We ordered the “Chili Nachos” as appetizers, which weren’t disappointing nor very impressive.  In other words, it wasn’t something you couldn’t make at home.  While the dish was warm and had a fair bit of chili on it, the meat lacked taste and spice.  Some more cheese melted over the chips would definitely have improved the dish, in addition to more dips (a small spoonful of sour cream sat on top of the chips).

Our reason for coming here was to try the steak and for the most part, it didn’t disappoint.  I had a medium-cooked 10-ounce “Affy’s Classic New York Strip Steak” with a side order of french fries and a garden salad (drizzled with balsamic vinegar dressing).  The steak was soft and easy to cut (which is a refreshing change from some of the other halal places that serve what they like to call ’steak’, such as “Kara Mia” or “Zaffron”).  However, like the chili on the nachos, it lacked a distinct marinade or spice and instead had a good yet generic taste.  The spicy peppercorn gravy added a bold pepper flavour but wasn’t spicy at all.  Temperature-wise, the steak was warm but not hot (it was pretty clear that it rested somewhere in it’s journey from the grill to my mouth) the way I would typically expect a steak (or anything barbecued) to be.  More importantly however, it wasn’t evenly cooked - instead of an even distribution of ‘redness’ (see a description of a Medium steak here), half seemed like it was medium-rare while the other half seemed like it was almost well done.  While it didn’t seem like a huge strip (8 inches in length), by the end I was comfortably full.

We didn’t order dessert although they mentioned that they had a separate dessert menu.  Beverage-wise while we all had water, they did bring a non-alcoholic cocktails listing to our table which described a variety of fruity blends that could be made in addition to the ones listed in the menu (such as a strawberry daiquiri, banana benche, and a pina colada, to name a few).

The Experience:  1/5

Everything was great…until we arrived.  We were a party of six and the table that we had reserved seemed a bit small, so naturally we requested another table be attached so we can sit comfortably.  This seemingly simple request was met with interrogation from our hostess; according to her, the space that was reserved was sufficient.  Haggling ensues but before things got out of hand, our request was granted.

The restaurant’s decorum was impressive.  Comfy seats and clean, well-organized tables are surrounded by maroon walls and comfortably dim lighting.  Tableware was arranged properly and, for the most part, glasses and cutlery were clean.  The bare walls could have been dressed up with some pictures/paintings, but they certainly didn’t take away from the classy yet not-too-formal atmosphere.

Going back to the service - it sucked.  A few examples:

1) After ordering and receiving chili nachos as appetizers, our waitress kindly declined a request for bread, instead informing us that they typically serve complimentary nachos and salsa to customers in lieu of bread.  When we asked why these weren’t offered to us, she replied that since we already ordered the chili nachos, she didn’t bother bringing them (or informing us about them prior to ordering).

2)  After ordering our steaks, one of the members of our party remembered that we hadn’t specified what type of sauce we wanted (”cajun lemon butter” or “spicy peppercorn gravy”) on our steaks.  When we asked the hostess why she didn’t ask us which we wanted (but did ask about side dishes, how to cook the steak, salad dressings, etc), she said that she just assumed we wanted the ’spicy peppercorn’ since we didn’t say otherwise (I didn’t know hostesses assumed what you wanted when they forget to ask…)

3)  When the electricity went out (see below), the credit card payment system stopped working.  Which isn’t necessarily a problem if the restaurant has contingency plans for such occurences (VISA chits, ATM on site, etc.)…except they didn’t.  So we were asked to pay in cash.  Thankfully, there was enough cash-on-hand to cover all six of our meals.  But I can only imagine the embarassment of bringing family, friends, or potential clients to a restaurant and not having enough cash in my wallet to cover the meals (because really, who carries huge wads of cash these days, right?).

Referring to the above, as soon as we finished our meals, the electricity went out in the entire block and so the restaurant was pitch dark save for two small emergency lights.  This is the first time that’s ever happened to me and it’s obviously not their fault.  But what IS their fault is that it took 20 minutes after the power outage to bring candles to each table.  Oddly enough, the smoke from the kitchen was slowly filling the restaurant, creating a haze that smelled like meat.  Normally I love the smell of meat but not when I’m wearing a wool sweater and a wool jacket, both of which retain smells pretty well.  And this, sadly, was no exception.

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Overall, we were satisfied (but not enthused) with the food and didn’t leave hungry.  But our dining experience was certainly tainted by the poor service and the fact that we left smelling like meat.  Given that it took over a half-hour to arrive at the restaurant, we may consider going again but it definitely won’t be anytime soon.