Restaurant review Raspberry? Is this a joke? Injy El-Kashef is one of two little piggies The reason why I ended up in the newly- opened branch of that little House of Donuts opposite Al-Shams Club is simple: how many people know that they can now grab a scrumptious bite before, say, heading to Al-Salam movie theatre (as I did,) or after picking the kids up from their karate class at the club? Exactly -- not many. Had it not been for that movie that I absolutely had to see for lack of a better place to go before my appointment two hours later, I would have never discovered House of Donuts' little pink, yellow and turquoise umbrellas in that part of town. My friend and I decided immediately that we would be sitting on one of the two tables outside; not only because we wanted to smoke, but also because the inside is such a tiny affair that our presence, in addition to the guy behind the counter, would have produced a Shobra-at- rush-hour image that none of us was particularly keen on. That said, the guy behind the counter totally lacked any enthusiasm for the job; he seemed to be there by mistake. In fact, he was positively dim-witted, and moved with the speed of a tortoise, unlike the usual House of Donuts' personnel who are courteous, efficient and quick. I may even venture to say, he attempted a little smart calculation that my friend exposed by mere chance. Tut, tut, tut...bad boy. Luckily, at least, the donuts more than made up for Mr Weasel's shortcomings. Let's put it straight: on the way over we were so famished that we consequently sunk into such an irritable mood that the drivers of almost every car around mine became subjected to verbal abuse just because they happened to be sharing the road with me. You may think this is no excuse for pigging out on two savoury items and two donuts each, but hey, I do. So this was the LE74 deal: a) a mini-pizza and cheese-filled croissant each and (yes, and) b) a frosted ring plus a chocolate filled donut topped with chocolate icing for me and (uhum...another and) a large chocolate chip cookie and a raspberry filled donut dusted with powder sugar for her. (It sounds really excessive now; how strange that it seemed perfectly reasonable back then). Now, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the pizzas: topped with olives, onions and green peppers on a tomato paste under melted cheese, they were flawless. The fact that I still added salt means no more than me having been a goat in a past life; I would never blame that on the pizzas. In fact, these mini-pizzas are so popular that, although House of Donuts is a 24-hour affair, at 6.45pm the only two left were sitting on our table. The croissants, however, although fresh and not too greasy, disappointed me in their lack of promised cheese. We took bite after bite, expecting the savoury cheese flavour to hit but nothing happened. Last but certainly -- certainly -- not least, came the sweets. What bliss is that sugared ring??? What a joy is that chocolate filling in the doughy, soft, yummy piece of donut??? As for the raspberry, well...as long as my friend enjoyed it, I am happy; but I ain't gonna do raspberry when chocolate is in view. And hence, we shared that last item: the deep, profound and meaningful chocolate chip cookie. Oh, one last thing: don't even bother with the hot cocoa. It is so hot it will burn your tongue, and so bad it will make you gag. You have been warned. House of Donuts, Abdel-Hamid Badawi St, opposite Al-Shams Club, Heliopolis
