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O-Negrão: a revolution in chic if not cuisine
Drive up Mohandiseen’s Geziret Al Arab Street and you’re
unlikely to miss the two gatekeepers, both sporting black T-shirts
bearing the word “valet” in fluorescent green letters.
You’ve arrived at O-Negrão.
A Brazilian colloquialism, apparently, for “big, black party-maniac,”
O-Negrão is owner Mahmoud Lasheen’s new, ultra-hip lounge/restaurant,
Brazilian style, which promises to “call the attention of your
needy taste buds and the stillness of your deprived soul to a revolution.”
That’s some pretty big talk.
Visually, local artist Mohamed Noman’s interior design relies
on hazy neon greens and dark grays to animate a spacious but austere
sharply-angled cubicle. A large edifice – boasting a myriad
of space-age televisions – splits the first section of the
restaurant down the middle. Grey sofas line the outer walls, and
like-toned chairs and tables do the partitioning. It’s best,
however, to avoid the tables closest to the door, where overhead
lights hang a little too low for comfort.
Venture further inside and you’ll find comfy-looking half-moon
booths. These give a hint of the exclusivity to come, and are most
appropriate for those parties looking to have a close, intimate
session without having to cram. The overall effect of Noman’s
design is that of a space roomy enough for one to relax contrasted
with strict lines that provide the distinct sense of being framed
in a picture – playing right into the hands of the shamelessly
flashy.
Like many of Mohandiseen’s baubles, the restaurant’s
backside is its showpiece. The massive room consists of two lounges,
replete with sofas and leather chairs surrounding flat-screened
plasma TVs. This seating comes at a minimum charge of £E 250
each. The final chamber, isolated from the remainder of the establishment
by glass doors, will cost you a minimum of £E 300. Here, private,
table-side phones are available, so customers can call in their
orders or make requests for their viewing pleasure from an invisible
control room (your choices, however, are restricted to football,
fashion, VH1 and sitcoms). Even PlayStation2 pods are available,
but there’s only one game to play – football.
The menu, meanwhile, is loaded with promises of “mouthwatering”
exotic food, but what actually lands on your table falls short of
what’s required to ignite any promised culinary uprisings.
The starters are the most eclectic mix, with a little Mexican
flair thrown in for good measure. Nachos, quesadillas and stuffed
jalapenos make up the supporting cast for the O-Shrimps, covered
with sesame seeds on deep-fried sugarcane skewers, and the Batata-Doce
Chips are slices of deep-fried sweet potatoes served with hot chili-meat
sauce. There’s also an assortment of sandwiches, fajitas and
burgers with the same ingredients you’d find almost anywhere,
with the exception of the Architect Burger. This is tangy, served
with pickled ginger, soy sauce, mustard and wasabi: the waiter actually
warned us we were unready for so subversive a burger.
The highlight of the main dishes is the Churrasco Hot Rock. Here,
skewers of semi-raw beef, chicken and vegetables arrive at your
table on a searing hot rock – literally – for you to cook
up to your own personal degree of pleasure. Those familiar with
Brazilian cuisine will find varieties of feijoada – beef fillet
cubes in a tortilla shell served with rice and kidney beans –
and recognize frango coco com bananas – chicken breast cooked
with butter and banana sauce and marinated in coconut milk.
The cocktails – which are virgin, as the place, despite
it being a “lounge,” is dry – are the most creative
part of the menu, featuring mostly thick and creamy vanilla-based
drinks.
While the food is certainly appetizing, don’t expect any
finesse in the preparation. Our steak arrived dry, drowning in its
own sauce, and the Cube Burger was slightly undercooked. This, coupled
with the waiters’ ambivalence towards the more daring items
on the menu, also gave the impression that the chefs were bending
recipes to cater to local tastes.
Ultimately, O-Negrão is more of an up-market café
than a loungey nightspot – a place to enjoy passable, if expensive,
trend-setting food in an upbeat, aesthetically innovative environment.
Waleed Marzouk
O-Negrão
14 Geziret Al Arab St., Mohandiseen
Tel: (02) 344-1002
e-mail: info@onegrao.com
Open daily from 10am to 2am; Minimum charge £E 30
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