I Beg Your Pardon

It's a rare moment in our household when one of my brothers is the one suggesting a restaurant. They're a little bit picky when it comes to dining out. Ang lalake pa talaga ang choosy, hehe. My choices of restaurant can't seem to please them. Laging may angal... they’re either too expensive or too bland! I stopped suggesting a year back because obviously, they won’t listen anyway. (They’re my brothers so natural ang pangongontra lagi! Hmpft! :) I let them do the choosing when we eat out. One day, my younger brother came home from a dinner with his friends. He raved about a restaurant named "Pardon." When I heard the name, I immediately quipped, "I beg your pardon?” as if I didn’t hear him. "Pardon nga!," he insisted. I find it odd that a restaurant is named Pardon. Anyway, since its the younger brother who suggested it, it must be good! E and I went to the place a few weeks after to check it out.

We found it!

Pardon Restaurant is located along Olaya Road. It's been open as a cafe since 1992 but was recently renovated and their menu revamped to accommodate a larger clientele. From a cafe, it’s now a Western, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese restaurant. I'm in doubt about restaurants that encompass a lot of cuisines because they might not deliver on the taste and quality of every thing but in a positive point, they have a little bit of every thing that my heart desires! The fusion of cuisines in Pardon is good for Eyecandy and I because we're fickle-minded when it comes to food. Sometimes we have opposing likes. E will say she wants steak while I want salmon sashimi. Or I want pasta and she wants noodles. Yeah, we are confused ladies sometimes. :P

Pardon Restaurant still has that cafe vibe going on, especially with their comfy chairs. The interior is refreshing with the plants and fountains. The rushing of water from the fountain is a little bit too loud and distracting but it's a welcome change too. The restaurant offers a shaded view of the outside with their floor to ceiling glass walls. Orayt, I'll let the photos show you:

Cozy, homey vibe

Perfect for (legal) couples on a date!

They also have dividers if needed.

Fountain in the middle of the the second floor.

You can actually see E and I's fickle-mindedness through the food we ordered. We wanted a little bit of everything so we ordered away, oblivious (or really ignoring) the fact that we're only ordering for TWO persons. Uhuh, this happens a lot. We asked the waiter for his recommendations and he suggested happily. He said that most of the food he's choosing for us are the ones ordered by most customers. We couldn't argue with popularity diba? So go naman kami with kuya's (the waiter) choices! Medyo nagkamali yata kami. Read to find out why:

Lobster Cream Soup, SR25

First and foremost, some of the food photos in the menu is misleading. The photo of this soup in the menu is a red soup with chunks of red and white meat (probably crab sticks) so we were expecting that even though we quite know that a "cream" soup is white. We were surprised when this arrived in our table. Although delicious and warm, the soup is rather runny than creamy. We liked the lobster bits though. Good omen: they're not scrimping on ingredients!

Stuffed Shrimps in Chili, SR27

This is probably the dish that garnered the highest rating in our card because of its uniqueness and originality. Woot, woot! We like the simplicity of the shrimp combined with the spicy rawness of the chili. The sauce helped the playfulness of the flavors. Yes, the flavors were dancing in our tastebuds, lol. It's just right.

Spaghetti Pardon, SR40

Garlic cheese bread, free with the spaghetti

If the restaurant lends its name to a dish, that only means the dish is unique and highly recommended. The kuya chose this for us because it tastes the same as Jollibee's, only better. That's what he said okay and we kindda fell for it because we grew up with Jolly Spaghetti although I thought that it's rather odd to combine a sweet, tangy spaghetti sauce with seafood but oh well... he had us with the mention of Jollibee eh! When the spaghetti arrived, I already smelled the herbed aroma and concluded that no, this is not like Jollibee's. The red sauce was true tomato and the sourness kicked in after I downed a forkful of pasta. There's a little bit of aftertaste that I couldn't point my finger into but it's all right. The pasta is loaded with crab sticks and shrimps so our disappointment waned after a while.

Seafood Fried Rice, SR27

I had no idea we were having a seafood night that night. Lol. Anyway, the server recommended the seafood fried rice saying that it's what most Filipinos order. We heeded his advice again only to be disappointed... again. The rice, while filled with seafood, was bland. They forgot the salt. Maybe they held it a little and completely forgot about it. I know for a fact that my tolerance for salt is at a normal level so I was quite sure that I wasn't tasting anything from the fried rice. 

Condiments galore!

I asked for soy sauce to heighten the flavor and E asked for other condiments. We think it's a bad sign that we're asking for condiments to add "taste" to what we're eating at that point.

Pardon Spicy Beef, SR33

When Eyecandy asks for spicy, she really means SPICY! (She has a thick tongue, lol.) She wants fireworks in her mouth! She asked the waiter to make this dish spicier than it is but when we tasted this, we couldn't taste any thing spicy in it. As in wala talaga! Eyecandy asked for chili flakes, chili sauce, whatever that has chili in it just to make the dish spicy. Lol. What we liked in this dish though is the freshness and crispiness of the vegetables used. Look at the photo and see the vibrance of the veggies' colors! We also love the tenderness of the beef. It's good!

Super Iced Tea (pitcher talaga?!)

Super ba talaga sa sarap? Their iced tea tastes like orange juice. We like the refreshing burst of citrus!

Chocolate Cake

This is a winner! We loved the mousse and cake combination in this slice. We also like the crispy, light wafer that served as the crust. Oh, and the chocolate icing and cute brittle at the back. It's a good thing they retained their cakes and pastries from their cafe days.

I also ordered salmon sashimi but the Japanese food was not available on the day of our visit.

So, what's the verdict? We had a lot of concerns on the dishes we ate in Pardon Restaurant. Maybe we just did not order the right ones. (The brother said we should've ordered the shrimp chopsuey!) There are food items that need to be improved. In fairness, when we aired our concerns to the waiter, he immediately informed the manager and they willingly cooked another order of fried rice. The manager apologized and assured us that we're a rare case. Lol. (Kakaiba kami eh, haha!) He assured us that they will make everything better and that they're glad to receive feedback from their diners. 

Oh and a plus point:

Easy to call the waiter!

We're happy we ate in Pardon. Of course, it won't be our last. We're excited for the other offerings. After all, we only tried a few of their extensive menu. We'll be back for the steak wrapped with bacon (oh goodness gracious!) and the sushi and sashimi.

Pardon Restaurant

Olaya Road, at the back of Al Nemer Center
T: 01-4160933 F: 01-2177067
info@pardon.com.sa
www.pardon.com.sa
(Ask for their catering and delivery services.)

§undrenched