If wishes were horses...

A friend at work and I were discussing places that are ideal to just sit and relax and probably keep reading books without being bothered. Of course this place had to serve good food as wellJ He is a fellow who loves good food and has been in the kingdom for around five years now. He asked me if I had been to Casper & Gambini’s ever. I have had food from this place for more than ten times during lunch at work. Nothing fancy, plain old sandwiches, some good salad, but it ended there. He told me I should visit the place in Al Hamra district if I wanted to really experience the true Capser & Gambini.

The Majestic structure looks truly fabulous.

So we were there a couple of days back. The place is pretty easy to find and you wont miss it. The huge structure in a pleasant site although I did have my doubts as it looked pretty dull from the outside. Once inside though my doubts died a silent death at once. It is huge, and I mean really huge from the inside. Picture this, tall celiengs with contemporary furniture and lots and lots of space. Being a weekday there were very few people when we reached there at around 8.00 pm. What caught my eye though is almost everyone present there was either logged on to their laptops or were reading a book sipping on some coffee. This was like a dream come true for me. The staff was courteous and seated us in comfortable low sofas facing the main road in the smoking section (simply because the non-smoking was not facing the road as we wanted.)

The menu was quite a regular fare except for the tapas section. Tapas are Spanish starters and can be served hot or cold depending on what you order. I am not entirely sure if the all the tapas here are served warm but the mozzarella tapas that we had was a warm one. The dip that accompanied it was divine, mayonnaise mixed with salsa. The menu includes a variety of salads. The mains are served with fresh steamed vegetables and a sauce. There is a more than generous share of Italian food with their pizzas hogging the limelight. On ordering the veg pizza  we realized why, it was one of the best pizzas we have had in Jeddah. Not overtly cheesy, fresh veggies and just the right amount of sauces. We were not very hungry to order more, we were there actually to check out the place. I decided to end my meal with a coffee while wife decided that she needed some fries to munch while we read some books.


The complimentary fresh bread basket with olive paste



Deserts looked very promising. We did not have any and left it for the next time, but the chocolate fondue and the cheesecake are a definite next on my things to do.
What is amazing about this place is the service. We were welcomed and treated as if we have been going there for ages. The waiter kept coming after every 15-20 mins to check on us. When I ordered my coffee it took a good 15 mins for the same to come. In the meantime, the waiter came to me twice to tell me that the coffee was freshly brewing and hence was taking time. All this does not come very cheap though. Be ready to shell out that extra to enjoy the place, food and service.
Good show, C&G, you definitely have won me over.

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