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

Dorothy's Kitchen

Pizza! Quite possibly the best pizza in Suva ... and from the most unlikely place.

For years I thought the sign at the front of Dorothy's little shop was either a joke or a reminder of past glory: the place doesn't look like they sell pizza. There's no pizza menu visible when you walk in. It just looks like any other run-of-the-mill Chinese takeout: the small food warmer, the glass case with pre-cooked sausage rolls, the Coke fridge, and the faded, fake brick paint job on the small glass shop front

But Dorothy's is anything but normal. The secret is to ask ... and then you receive!

"So, do you really sell pizza?" I asked on my first tentative foray.

A laminated menu was produced from beneath the counter, boasting a pizza range equal to any of the dedicated pizza shops in town (and with a full Chinese menu on the reverse) ... and the discovery began.

Several trips later, I can happily recommend the Dorothy Special (pictured below), the Sweet Vegetarian and anything with chicken on it. These are good pizza: a good crust (not too thin, but not overwhelmingly thick either), fresh toppings, and held together by real cheese ... cheese that stretches when you try and pull a piece off.


Dorothy's also does a respectable meat pie; and on Saturday's only, sells Chinese steamed buns (chicken or red pork) that are worth a special trip up to Tamavua.


Service is usually fast and efficient, but you may want to phone in your pizza orders. Takeaways are the order of the day: there are only 3 eat-in seats (yes, seats, not tables).

For excellent pizza, friendly service, and a very respectable "made-to-order" menu, Lunch in Suva gives Dorothy's Kitchen a thumbs-up.

In Summary

Dorothy's Kitchen

MH Superfresh Shopping Centre, Tamavua

Opening Hours:

Mon - Fri: 10:00am - 2:00pm, 4:30pm - 8:00pm

Sat: 10:00am - 8:00pm

Spend:

$1.80 - $7 per person

Phone:

3385427

Verdict:

Thumbs-up

Photos by dsheehy