The Tulip Bistro is an upscale restaurant in Wuse 2. It’s easy to locate and as usual, I’ve included the google map link here. It’s plush furnished nooks provides some level of privacy and it’s rectangular wooden dining tables and straight-backed chairs gave that “proper dining” feel to the eating experience.

Our waitress promptly took our order. She was shy but quite helpful in making our food choices. The Chicken Caesar Salad was served promptly, say 15 minutes. The lettuce, which made up most of the salad was fresh, crunchy even, not a single wilted or soggy leaf in sight.

I couldn’t make out what was in the salad dressing but it was zesty and really flavourful. Most importantly, it was in ample quantity – I love a lot of dressing on my salad.

Now, I was disappointed by the lack of Parmesan cheese in the salad and its replacement with apple slice. The apples gave a twist to the salad but I’d have preferred good old cheese. I’d have appreciated a few more croutons too. Overall, the salad was good but it could have been richer given its steep price.

Ah! The Shepherd’s pie was heavenly. It was just beautiful to behold, served separately in a small oval baking dish. It was nicely browned, had way more potatoes than meat but still very delicious. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the mashed potatoes as much as I did. I swear, I’ve never had mashed potato so smooth and savory, just melting in my mouth. It went really well with the salad too.

From the Grill, we had chicken and Giwan Ruwa fish on the skewer. We were unimpressed by the accompanying vegetables, they were measly and a sad comparison to what was offered on our prior visit.

We had to wait more than 30 minutes for the Shrimp Spaghetti because they had to go buy the shrimps. I like that they were upfront with us about the situation, affording us the option of waiting or picking something else. We opted to wait because I loooove shrimps.

To be honest, the plate and overall presentation looked nicer than the food tasted. It had a weird spice I couldn’t decipher. Thankfully, my companions didn’t seem to mind it.

Now drinks almost ruined this whole experience. The pineapple drinks came in lovely Mason drinking jar glasses but had way too much ginger in it, just like the last time. So we asked the waitress to fix it like they had done previously. She returned to tell us they couldn’t because they didn’t have any more pineapples. Just short of losing my composure, we insisted that we couldn’t consume it. They either made it drinkable or kept the drink altogether. After much ado, our drinks came back, diluted and consumable.

Summarily, it was a pleasant dinner, not spectacular but enjoyable. As I write this, I’m revelling in the memory and craving some of that mashed potatoes. I’m looking forward to dining there again.