Blowfish - Public Toilet or Restaurant?

Chopaholic had a hankering for pasta a few weeks ago and took my besto to Blowfish. We had been there a few times before and had good memories of the food. Parking as always was an issue, as Blowfish is a popular sunbathing spot and on this particularly hot afternoon there were the usual suspects strewn across deck beds stretching out like lizards on a large stone on a sunny day. After parking in a position and manner one was not particularly proud of, we went in and sat at a corner table. The waiter came over in reasonable time (why do they congregate around the bar and avoid eye contact with the customers?) and presented us with unfamiliar menus. To our dismay, Italian food was no longer on the menu, having been replaced by a medley of Continental, Indian and Thai fare. We were informed by our waiter that Italian food was now being prepared in an upper section outside the main restaurant building by the pool, but we were unwilling to expose ourselves to any more sunshine and mercifully he quickly proferred the solution to serve us from that kitchen in our cooler location. A second set of menus appeared but the dish we wanted wasn't on it, so we attempted to recreate it by adding some bacon (everything is  better with bacon the Americans say) to one of their new dishes. This is where the trouble started as for ten minutes we could not get the cost of this simple addition.

I had already placed my order with the first waiter whilst we waited for another waiter from the Italian section to tell us the cost of the addtional bacon (wasn't going to be charged for $20 pasta again) who promptly told us on his arrival that he didn't know! I couldn't believe he walked all the way down just to tell us that. After consulting with his chef and some swarthy manager type person, a price of about a thousand Naira was mentioned. By then we were very hungry and told them to go ahead and prepare the dish, ready to make a big fuss if the price turned out to be ridiculous.

With that sorted, I decided to wash my hands and sought out the rest rooms which were right next to restaurant, and I mean right next to it as in 3 meters away and in plain sight. I had assumed that like most places it would be tucked away somewhere, but somehow in this purpose built facility this was not the case. As I approached the pair of his and hers toilets, I could not tell which door to go into as both where wide open and I could not see the signs. Peering in, I found the right one and quickly washed my hands, shutting the door behind me as I left. As soon as I had done that, to my surprisea staff of the establishment came up and opened it again. When I asked him why he did that he told me that was the instruction he had been given, and as he did not seem to have the capacity to explain why I did not pursue the matter further with him. I did speak to the swarthy manager who tried to convince me that they found it more convenient to keep the doors open as patrons often did not know when the toilets were occupied. Aghast, I asked him if he had ever seen the door knobs that showed when a toilet was in use from the outside and how surprised I was that they would open up a toilet into an area where people ate. It didn't seem swarthy manager's apology was sincere and that he understood what the fuss was about (he wasn't Nigerian in case you were wondering) and I am not sure my protests made a difference.

Some bread came finally (we were told it would be complimentary by the waiter downstairs who later came back and told us it would be a thousand bucks) and it was pretty tasty with the fancy butter that accompanied it. When the meal was served we only received one plate of food as the first waiter did not pass my order on to the second, but at this point we were grateful to get something so we wolfed down the pasta, chicken and bacon together and scarpered.

Food was tasty, but service as is often the case left a lot to be desired, plus we also didn't take kindly to eating in a toilet (I felt I could smell it once I knew it was there!).

Our ratings...

 Our Metrics

• Quality - finishing/taste/experience = (*)
• Service - professionalism/timeliness/courtesy = (--)
• Value for money = (*)
• Overall score - average of the 3 = par for the course.

Our Ratings

(-) If you must or manage am

If you must/manage am but eat as far away from the toilet as you can.

Metrics Legend

• 1 star (*) = meets expectation or una try
• 2 stars = better than expected or una do well
• 3 stars = excellent or una too much 
• 1 blackmark (-) = below par or why now?
• 2 blackmarks = poor or wowo
• 3 blackmarks = to be avoided or e don pass be careful