It's such a leap of faith, going to a completely unknown restaurant in an unfamiliar town. Rather like going on a blind date with someone you've met online (or so I would imagine, she adds hastily). Their profile photo looks appealing, they sound as though they'll be fun and they seem to like all the same things you do. Then you meet them, and you can tell at first glance it just isn't going to work out.
It was like that with me and my latest date, Hotel Maiyango, a mysterious stranger I encountered online, while vainly attempting to find somewhere interesting to eat in Leicester. Judging from its website, the Maiyango has got it going on. A boutique hotel in the historic city centre, with a restaurant that has won gold in the Taste of England regional tourism awards, serving an eclectic, seasonally changing menu, using local ingredients, sustainably sourced fish and veg from the community allotment? Mmmmm, this could be the start of a beautiful relationship.
And then I had lunch there. The boutique hotel turned out to be on an arterial road, sandwiched between a Subway and a minicab office, and the unique, intimate atmosphere of the restaurant was hampered by the fact that the sole waiter and I were the only people in it. A bit awkward, as the whole place has been exuberantly done up as a Moroccan pleasure palace, a sultry temple of hedonism and fun. Every surface, including the ceiling, is covered with some kind of billowing draped fabric, or planked with timber. Lamps twinkle in the gloom, and loud, Buddha Bar-style souk-hop pumps from the sound system. It probably rocks at night, when it's full. But at lunchtime, with only two people in it, it feels like a deserted nightclub.
Read more at http://www.independent.co.uk/
Read more at http://www.independent.co.uk/
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