Jody's @ MHCC

Closed ... as predicted by Kania Tiko. On the bright side, the location is just too good to go to waste ... so there'll eventually be another eatery here for us to scrutinise.

The MHCC complex has added a fast food place on the ground floor (on the Renwick Rd side) which the LiS team is duty bound to find out more about.
The interior looks like a typical fast food chain, obviously they've looked at the Macca's of the world and tried to copy what works. I can say that the ordering process is efficient and well thought out, however one doesn't always understand what the attendant is saying - the dude rattles off the options at a rate of knots in a language believed to be English.
There are a selection of toasted sandwiches, this is the pick of the bunch - egg with Jody's fire sauce (which seems to be some sort of Tamarind and chilli mix), but after eating one can't help but think that one could do a better job at home. Scramble some eggs, toast some bread, put on some tamarind chutney and tabasco, and you have a quick tasty breakfast. Kudos to Jody's for giving me the idea, but it's unlikely I'll be going back there for this one.

This the menu, it has far too many things on it.
This is a chicken burger - the smallest one that they offer as you can see from the $0.50 piece provided for scale. Its also one of the most boring burgers that we've ever eaten, not actually bad, just completely uninteresting.
This is their grilled fish with coleslaw. An utterly revolting meal - nothing short of a vile, disgusting abomination - in fact worth purchasing just to marvel with ones own senses at how bad cooking can get.
This the CSI pizza, and CSI does not refer to the forensic team that should be investigating the crime against food that the Grilled Fish is. CSI apparently means "Community Sourced Ingredients" which in this case are pumpkin, baigan, and tomato. This actually isn't a bad pizza, which is a good thing as their other pizza options are pretty horrible. This is the only thing I ate that I'd actually go back for.

A note about the price - this place is expensive! All the food above cost $28, and the two grown men eating it were not satiated at all and ended up taking the escalator to eat some noodles at Joji's.

I really have no idea what this place is trying to do, maybe it wants to be Indo-Fijian McDonald's, which might be a worthy goal if they could pull off more than one dish. Perhaps if they cut the menu in half and concentrate on a few winners (fried chicken, Indo-Fijian style pizza, funky roti parcels with some sort of original twist) they could make this work.

Judging by the empty tables we don't expect Jody's to be long for this world. It will not be missed.

In Summary

Jody's

Bottom Floor, MHCC, Renwick Rd Side

Opening Hours:

0900 - 2100 - 7 days a week

Spend:

$15 per person

Rating:

Thumbs-down

The Mango Café

The renovated premises of The Mango Café are a vast improvement over the old cafe: 2 stories now, air-conditioned, with a pleasant balcony along one side, and lots of glass and light. The atmosphere is relaxed and informal; the decor: muted.


Mango café offers breakfast, lunch and dinner menus ... and a sandwich bar. Whilst we've tried the lunch menu (the burgers and pasta dishes are good), this review is mainly concerned with their all-day breakfast menu.


Big Breakfast is hearty, but a little on the expensive side at almost $15.


A good bruschetta, available in vegetarian (shown above), chicken and bacon versions. The recipe is localised by way of a large hunk of long loaf as the base. This is the largest bruschetta I've ever seen, though the recipient feels a half-loaf would be appropriate given the long wait for service.


Eggs benedict with salmon: divine! Again, a little touch of Fiji in the form of long loaf slices instead of English muffin.


Italian eggs ... Kania Tiko praises these as the best scrambled eggs he has had in a long time. The sausage (cabanosi?) adds a nice contrasting taste and visual.


These coffee cups are beautiful, but a real ergonomic pain ... to the point of being a bit silly. Form follows function (or should for kitchenware); it's difficult to drink from this cup, and novelty of the design doesn't make up for that.


This little item is on the kid's breakfast menu as 'Toad in the hole'. If you come from British stock and know what a real toad in the hole looks like: redirect your righteous anti-American anger into hunting down the multitude of other names for the 'Egg in the hole/basket/nest'.

Whilst we have nothing but praise for the food, the front-of-house staff always seem to give us pause. The first time we were offered an iced drink on the house as an apology for delayed service only to have the offer withdrawn a minute later: "Sorry; that was meant for the next table."

The second time there was an ordering problem involving too many dishes and items that had been excluded from the order. This took 2 attempts to disentangle. Whilst we're a little puzzled as to why the waiter thought 4 dishes per child was a sensible interpretation of the order, the issue was solved to everyone's satisfaction with a minimum of fuss ... but it still took about 45 minutes for all the food to appear.

We're withholding a thumbs-up until the service issues sort themselves out, but the good food and pleasant atmosphere mean a thumbs-down would not be justified either.

In Summary

The Mango Café

Ratu Sukuna Rd, Nasese

Opening Hours:

Mon - Sun: 6:30am - 9:00pm

Spend:

$7 - $20 per person

Sweet-T-Pie Coffee Café

This Nasese eatery has closed ... well, it's been closed and sold and is currently under renovation by it's new owners. We will doubtless see further action at this location (it's too close to the new FIRCA hq to go to waste), but in the mean time, take yourself to the new Cakes 2000 digs on Butt St.

Cakes 2000 has had more locations and incarnations than I care to remember. Their latest incarnation in Nasese takes the form of a combined cake-shop and café-style eatery, alternately branded Cakes2000 and Sweet-T-Pie Café.

Their lunch menu consist mainly of:

• A BBQ/Grill section

  The grill has never made me happy ... steak not tender enough, chicken breasts not quite cooked ... or maybe I've just been on all the wrong days.

• All-Day Breakfasts

  A range of protein-rich, 'get-me-started' meals from $6.50 - $11. These have never let me down. The omelettes in particular are always good. Absolutely recommended.

  

• Miscellany at the counter

  A very boring selection of sandwiches, a couple of very heavy stuffed-croissants, a couple of salads, and quite possibly the best fresh fruit-salad in Suva. If you're lucky, you might visit when chocolate éclairs are available, otherwise there will be a small selection of deserts and cakes.

Drinks are a little limited. There is a small selection of fresh fruit juice & smoothies, and a limited espresso stand. A request for anything beyond that will get you a recommendation to visit the soft-drink fridge in the corner shop next door.

I am unable to recommend eating-in unless it is pouring rain, or you turn up very early in the morning to partake of the breakfast menu. The only tables available are outdoors, and under a heavy canvas awning, which does a wonderful pressure-cooker impression if the sun is anywhere in sight. This recommendation may change ... there seems to be work on a new premises on Butt St in the heart of Suva, which promises a large indoor eating area.

Update by kania tiko on 19th April: While the omelettes in general are good, the notable exception are the ones with cheese in them - they use some nasty processed kraft-like "cheese food" substance - prompting me to ask "what's wrong with good old Rewa Cheddar?" In their defence, Picky Eater swears he got the good stuff when last he ate there.

In Summary:

Sweet-T-Pie Coffee Cafe (aka Cakes 2000)

Ratu Sukuna Rd, Nasese

Opening hours

7am - 6pm Monday to Friday, 7am - 3pm on Saturday, 8am - 2pm on Sunday

Spend

$5 - $10 per person

Verdict

A caveated thumbs-up, and thumbs down to "processed cheese foods" of all kinds