Continental fusion?

 A glitzy occasion in Meikle’s Stewart room featured Nederburg wines from Afdis, Bacardi Rum cocktails and seafood supplied by Seapride. Restaurant week has grown and this season sees 17 participating restaurants. 
But the Eatout website gives minimal information only a month before the event. 
Perhaps the site is undergoing maintenance but suddenly there is very little information and few restaurant listings. There is certainly a new and refreshing look to the site but I could find information on only 30 Harare eateries and other than the participating outlets, no details on restaurant week.  According to the very brief blurb, sponsorship is improving, but no news as to which corporates are on board or what deals and events are being offered. If the site is being refurbished, it would be good to be told. 
I was wanting to check out Avondale and Belgravia listings where new eateries proliferate. Steakout was the only one under Avondale, and Belgravia included Fishmonger, Soul Food and Da Eros. Not that helpful. Eatout is a great concept and a really useful service but it’s easy to get lost in cyber space and if not continuously updated an internet presence is almost useless. Hope that’s remedied soon.
In the meantime have resorted to trawling the streets and local grapevine for updates. In which spirit, made a first visit to Sopranos in Avondale. I have previously been put off by the almost continual road mess right outside with water oozing through crumbling tarmac. (Currently dry — though a bit bumpy.) Décor is clean and slick — tiles, aluminium, glass – but hard to pinpoint an identity.
Quite frankly I found the menu both puzzling and expensive.  ‘Welcome to our Halaal Continental, Fusion Restaurant which offers mouth watering Western, Indian Oriental, Chinese and Italian cuisine.’  Why? How do these cuisines combine all in one kitchen? Not very well appears to be the answer.
My friend chose mutton korma at a hefty US$16 served with plain rice but unadorned — no sambal nor chutney. She declined the offer of a small portion of salad for US$2. The mutton itself was okay — though rather too much tomato flavour and not enough spicyness. I chose a chicken wrap — served with salad and chips. Also okay — though anywhere else you would expect a lot more for US$12. The chicken pieces were juicy, though I found the tortilla a soggy and the wrap without character. Which is how the whole menu struck me. Fusion, in this case, seems to mean a bland sameness rather than exciting combos.
Also it’s expensive. Plate of fries — US$6! Burgers are a ridiculous US$14. US$16 if you go for the Godfather — one of the few references to a Sopranos’ theme. The only other is the Don’s breakfast — eggs, tomato, steak and chips (US$7). Don’t recall seeing anyone eating that in the television series though could be a worthwhile deal depending on the steak.
Light meals or starters list vegetable soup along with chicken tikkah and various kebabs – but only the veg soup was available. The menu exhorts diners to check with their waiter for almost everything so perhaps only one of each dish in the different cuisines on offer — Italian, Chinese, Indian, Portuguese — is prepared? 
If so — would be helpful to have that information — on a board or from the waiter.
-g.jeke@yahoo.com