Fitch Rates Café de la Paix 'AA'

Fitch Ratings has today assigned the Abu Dhabi-based Café de la Paix (CDLP) a Long-term Food Issuer Default Rating (FIDR) at 'AA' with a Stable Outlook.

Café de la Paix's rating reflects Fitch's view that there is an extremely high probability of good dining experiences at this local eatery. This is based on a strong history of providing excellent food, an easy-to-get-to location and relatively low prices.

The restaurant serves a variety of French and French-inspired fare, and all of it can confidently be called scrumptious, if not superb. The crèpes (both sweet and savory) will satisfy you if you're in the mood for a light meal, while the salads, sandwiches and pasta dishes are all excellent choices for a bigger sit-down dinner. The caesar chicken salad is highly recommended.

Café de la Paix, founded in 1998 in Abu Dhabi by a Sudanese woman, imports many of its ingredients from France. Surprisingly, they manage to keep it all fresh and delicious en route. It's some of the best food available in the capital in its price range (meals are around Dh50; locations are at Wahda Mall and Marina Mall). In a word: go.

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Fitch Assigns 'A-' Rating to Cosi

Fitch Ratings has today assigned Cosi an 'A-' rating. The Outlook is Stable.

As a lunch place, Cosi is just okay. It has soups (they change every day, but most are good), sandwiches (go for the TBM or Tuscan Pesto Chicken first), and flatbread pizza (oily, but hits the spot sometimes). The salads are passable, too.

Though Cosi has locations all over the world, the restaurant aims a step or two higher than the average slophouse, priding itself on its bread, a flat-ish roll baked up on location. Thing is, the bread ain't the best thing since, uh, sliced bread, even if it beats a Big Mac roll. Bottom line: meh.

In sum, the upside potential for Cosi's ratings is currently limited given its bad dining risk profile. Downside potential could arise from the failure to deliver good food on time.

Meals are about Dh30 a person. For delivery in Abu Dhabi, call 02 443 7605. You can also look at the menu online.

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Fitch Rates Garden Coffe[sic] Shop 'A'

Fitch Ratings has today assigned Garden Coffee[sic] Shop in Abu Dhabi an 'A' rating. While Garden is mainly a shisha place--food can be had by ordering from outside establishments--it is a justifiably popular café with people in the neighborhood despite the obvious-yet-in-the-end-charming misspelling of "coffee" on its large red-and-white sign.

Garden's shisha is not the best in the world (or in Abu Dhabi, for that matter), and shish quality can vary considerably from night to night, ranging from hard-to-draw-on with minimal smokiness to an easy inhaling experience with thick, rich smoke. Still, it is a cheap and comfortable spot: the Dh10 shish is definitely worth the price.

"Garden's shisha highlights its continued strength in challenging global eating conditions and its relative resilience, so far, to the tastiness crunch," says J.T. Fitch, Head of Emerging Vegetables in Fitch's ratings team. "Nevertheless, Garden faces a challenging near-term outlook given the variable quality of its offerings."

The shish:


Hamdi, the Garden Coffe[sic] Shop shishmaster!



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Tastiness Crisis Raises Spectre of Downgrades: Fitch

Fitch Ratings says today that capacity shutdowns in the taste and waitressing sectors, as well as declining food output and a slowdown in meal satisfaction, are painting a bleak 2009 demand picture for UAE taste experience producers. Against depressed demand and this uncertain economic backdrop, volatility in scrumptiousness and deliciousness will present additional challenges for UAE restaurants.

Given the sudden and pronounced nature of the downturn, near-term visibility on restaurant conditions and gastronomy guidance for cyclical sub-segments of the industry (Ethiopian, Filipino, Tex-Mex fusion, Asian taste-plosion, french fries) is very limited. The agency views the downside rating pressure for food issuers exposed to these specific sub-sectors as high should gustatory and/or economic conditions deteriorate beyond levels currently envisaged.

Fitch Assigns Ya Zaein an 'A+' Rating

Fitch Ratings has today assigned Abu Dhabi-based Ya Zaein (YZ) a Long-term foreign food Issuer Default Rating and senior unsecured rating of 'A+'. The agency has simultaneously given Ya Zaein a Stable Outlook.

The rating reflects Ya Zaein's strong delivery of consistent lunch sandwich and pizza offerings from a brick oven. While Ya Zaein is hardly on the cutting edge of culinary innovation, it is both cheap and satisfying. Recommended are the labneh falafel sandwich (ask for a "big" one), the tomato and cheese sandwich and anything with mortadella in it. The tuna pizza is also said to be tasty.

Here's a pic of the labneh falafel, ready to be devoured:

And the goodness inside:

This is not a place to take a date or your mother, but it is a reliable, no-frills lunch spot that you'll be going back to often if you live or work nearby.

Meals cost Dh10. Delivery is available at 02 445 4008. Here is the menu.

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Fitch Rates Oasis Chinese 'CCC+'

Fitch Ratings has today assigned Abu Dhabi-based Oasis Chinese a Long-term Food Issuer Rating of 'CCC+'. The Outlook is Stable.

The rating reflects Oasis's poor offerings across its menu, including watery, sickly-sweet noodle dishes and oily egg rolls. The rating also takes into account the bloated feeling diners experience after meals and the almost universal regret expressed upon forking over Dh20 for another bad meal. With the much better Ahmed Al Arabi restaurant right next door, the restaurant's viability as a regular meal option has been severely compromised.

Although Oasis has been affected by several adverse shocks this year, the agency sees them as within the tolerance of its ratings rather than warranting negative rating action.

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Fitch Assigns 'BBB+' Rating to Ahmed Al Arab

Despite the conspicuous "AAA" on its sign, Fitch Restaurant Ratings has assigned Ahmed Al Arab in Abu Dhabi a 'BBB+' rating with a Stable Outlook.

The lamb kebabs remain a good choice, and although there is a risk that the quality of food can ebb as the night goes on, Fitch believes this risk is not likely to materialize and is commensurate with the assigned rating.

Fitch believes that Ahmed Al Arab will be able to continue to provide edible food close to the Garden Coffe[sic] Shop, a shisha joint near the intersection of Muroor Road and 15th Street. This is captured by Fitch's Going Concern Assessment on Ahmed Al Arab, which is an internal view on the "survivability" of both the restaurant's overall franchise and its delivery business.

The rating also benefits from a generous helping of curried spinach and bread that seems to come with every order. Price of a meal for one: Dh15.



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The Methodology

By following careful procedures and initiating regular performance reviews, we aim to provide sound guidance to restaurant consumers everywhere on the edibility and relative deliciousness of their dining options. The table below constitutes a basic framework for understanding our restaurant ratings.

Edible Grade

AAA
Highest culinary quality. 'AAA' ratings denote the lowest expectation of bad dining experience risk. They are assigned only in case of exceptionally strong capacity for supply of delicious food. This capacity is highly unlikely to be adversely affected by foreseeable events.

AA
Very high culinary quality. 'AA' ratings denote expectations of very low bad dining experience risk. They indicate very strong capacity for supply of tasty morsels. This capacity is not significantly vulnerable to foreseeable events.

A
High culinary quality. 'A' ratings denote expectations of low bad dining experience risk. The likelihood of quality eating is considered strong. This capacity may, nevertheless, be more vulnerable to changes in circumstances or in variable culinary conditions than is the case for higher ratings.

BBB
Good culinary quality. 'BBB' ratings indicate that there are currently expectations of low bad dining experience risk. The capacity for good eating is considered adequate but adverse changes in circumstances and volatile culinary conditions are more likely to impair this capacity. This is the lowest edible grade category.

Speculative Grade (aka Junk-Food Grade)

BB
Speculative. 'BB' ratings indicate that there is a possibility of bad dining developing, particularly as the result of poor cooking skill; alternatives may be available that allow for better dining at a similar price. Restaurants rated in this category are not edible grade.

B
Highly speculative.
'B' ratings indicate that significant bad-taste risk is present, but a limited margin of safety remains. Some adequate dining experiences are possible; however, capacity for consistently good food is contingent upon a sustained, favorable push to improve the menu.

CCC
Terribleness is a real possibility. Capacity for good dining is solely reliant upon sustained, favorable improvement in menu offerings and replacement of top chefs.

CC
Vomitus of some kind appears probable.

C
Vomitus is imminent.

RD
Indicates an entity that has made some but not all of its patrons sick by serving tainted meat and has defaulted on most of its taste.

D
Indicates a restaurant that has defaulted on all taste.