A Disappointing Dining Experience at Noman Restaurant

After 41 days, I finally gathered the energy and motivation to make a post again. What pushed me to do this were my old pictures, which I was going through today. Lately, I’ve been extremely busy with work and family, which is why I couldn’t post anything during this time. But today, I’m back on Hive with this post, and I’ll try to share something from my life regularly.

Once again, my post is about eating out, but this time it’s different. This will be my most negative review ever because I’ve never had such a bad experience at a restaurant before.

I’ve mentioned Noman Restaurant several times in my previous posts because it used to be our go-to place for Friday lunches. The food was good, the menu had a variety of options like fast food, Pakistani, and Chinese dishes, and the place was clean with decent seating. These were the reasons why it was one of my favorite restaurants and a preferred choice for lunch.

On September 27, after Friday prayers, my colleagues and I went to Noman Restaurant as usual. This time, I took pictures of the entire menu. Everyone placed their orders, I ordered my favorite chicken qeema with hot naan, while others ordered pulao, chicken quarter broast, and chicken rolls. During our conversation, I even praised the restaurant, saying it was the best in Korangi.

When the food arrived, I started taking pictures for my post. I originally planned to write this post back in September but kept wondering whether to share this experience or not. But today, while looking at the pictures, I decided to post it because if I’ve shared all the good experiences, I should share the bad ones too.

We started eating, and everything was fine until one of my colleagues noticed something in his broast, it was a hair. At first, we were shocked, but then someone said it might have fallen in late. However, when we looked closely, we realized it was inside the broast, meaning it had fallen in while cooking. We discussed how food is usually prepared in hygienic conditions, but eventually, we decided to ignore it and continue eating since such incidents can happen anywhere, even at home. Though I tried to brush it off, it still made me feel uneasy.

A little while later, another colleague found something in his pulao. At first, I thought he was joking, mistaking a clove or something else for an insect. But when we looked closely, it was actually a fly. Judging by its condition, it was clear that it had fallen in while the rice was being cooked, not afterward. That was it for me, I lost my appetite completely.

We immediately called the waiter and then the manager to complain. We told them that we had been eating here for a long time but had never experienced anything like this before. The manager apologized and took the pulao away. Meanwhile, we talked about how, just moments earlier, we were praising the restaurant, and now we were witnessing such a terrible experience ourselves.

Although a replacement pulao was served, I couldn’t bring myself to eat anymore. Others continued eating because they were hungry, but I had lost my mood completely. When they finished, someone asked whether we should pay for the meal. I said that we should have walked out the moment we found the fly, but since everyone had continued eating, we had no choice but to pay. However, we made sure to write detailed feedback and file a complaint about what had happened. I wanted to leave a review on Google and other platforms, but my colleagues convinced me not to, saying the restaurant would be more careful now. So, I stayed quiet.

That was my last visit to Noman Restaurant. Even though my colleagues kept making plans to go back, I always refused. I know hygiene issues can happen anywhere, but after seeing this with my own eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to eat there again. I’ve had many good meals at Noman Restaurant in the past, as you can see from my earlier posts, but after this incident, I never went back. My experience was so bad that I didn’t even take pictures of the hair or the fly otherwise, I would have shared them here too.

Image Source for above three pictures

Later, I searched for Google reviews of Noman Restaurant and found that this was not the first time such incidents had occurred. Several customers had already reported similar issues, including finding flies in their food. This confirmed that my experience was not an isolated case, which made me even more certain about my decision never to return.

I hope no one else has to go through what we did. What would you have done in my place?

All above pictures are taken by me through my cell phone Infinix Hot 40i.