THE moment the food arrived, my guest exclaimed, “Where has the Orchard been all this time?” It’s been right here under our noses. But I can understand if you never took it seriously.
On Dewinton Road, painted in lush greens and bright oranges like a mango, sits this small restaurant that is apparently — and deliberately so — dedicated to serving fruit products.
Various forms of plastic fruit hang from the ceiling.
We got in on a Tuesday evening. It wasnot crowded and the service was able to arrive quite fast. The waiter was friendly and eager, but I still suspect that he was just winging it when we asked him what the exotically-named dishes were made of.
The menu has a range of fruit and vegetable foods. Smoothies, salads, juices, milkshakes — one section not only lists juices, but also, in brackets, the health benefits of said juice: heals insomnia, improves eyesight, strengthens bones, smoothes skin etc.
I would have liked to try the juice that makes you cleverer or the one that helps you detoxify your system, but I am a hardcore carnivore. I am all about meat. If you are like me, this might be the reason why you never wandered into the Orchard before.
So we had a beef salad and a chicken salad. The juice arrived first, in flamboyant glasses that I had to pun were a bit “fruity”. I had sugarcane and lemon juice. It’s awesome — you have to have sugarcane juice at least once in your life.
Then came the salads. They look very good. The person who arranges it on the plate has an artistic flair.
I don’t trust myself to give a good assessment of the food.
I cleared the chicken, but left half the foliage on the plate. So after telling you that the ambience of the place is comfortable (easy listening music in the background) and the service is enthusiastic, if not fully-acquainted with the details of the menu.
I shall let my guest tell you about the foliage — rather the food: “It was gooooooood. Damn! The juice was killer.”
