Le Nil Bleu

We entered Le Nil Bleu directly in the restaurant. The foyer could more properly be called a doorway, and soon I was occupying the same space as the coat rack as people shuffled in behind us. We stood uncomfortably in the entrance looking for our dining companions, envious of those sitting and enjoying their meals in the dimly lit African decor.

After several minutes, we were seated and I fixated on the crowd until our friends arrived and joined us. While I was waiting, I had noticed a thin and fragile looking statue wobble, perched upon a tiny table, swaying to the movement of the floorboards as wait staff walked by. This was foreshadowing unbeknown to me. As a waiter walked by, the floor collapsed in part, and our and the adjacent party’s tables shifted inward, as if losing one of their legs. We were soon relocated to a table at the perimeter, the vent from the wall pouring heat into my side as if part of my leg had been transported to Africa. Later, we’d notice that our old table now featured an engraved “reserved” plate, presumably for undesirable, but mindful guests.

At our new table we had great difficulty deciding on the menu options. The menu is not littered with many unnecessary items making a choice difficult, in fact, it is like a two page high school essay using no smaller than 14 point font. However, our goal was to maximize our selection, and choosing combination platters omitted a few dishes we had wanted, duplicated others, and allowed for absolutely no substitutions. Despite our previous disarrangement, we still managed to choose a balanced meal featuring a vegetarian sampler, the one vegetarian dish omitted from the vegetarian sampler, and a beef and chicken dish.
Le Nil Bleu…