After a tough week at work, you’d think the last thing busy professionals would want to do would be to stress themselves out by testing their mental acuity. As it turns out, the popularity of the friendly night-out quiz is so widespread that just about every establishment in Abu Dhabi hosts one.

Ready to put our wits to the test, we headed down to one of the oldest – and best-loved – nightspots in the capital for Greavsie’s famous quiz at Heroes in the basement of Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi on 5th/Hamdan Street.

Though recent renovations have brightened the room, Heroes maintains that comfortable traditional English atmosphere, enough that you’d be willing to believe it was pouring with rain outside. By the time Greavsie was ready to begin, every table was full with quiz participants crowding around their respective answer sheets. We love Greavsie for a lot of reasons – including his iron-fisted “don’t argue with the quizmaster” rule and his absolute willingness to shame anyone in attendance who needs shaming (like the rowdy crowd at the table beside us).

Even better, his quizzes break the Anglo-centric mould. We’ve heard quizmasters in this fair city ask questions about the order of stops along the London tube line and obscure English footballers. Greavsie’s questions are so multinational, however, that even the table of Finnish nationals managed to hang in to the end and have a great time.

Though sorely tempted to tuck into a massive platter of nachos, we puzzled over our answer sheets with a couple of Heroes hearty sandwiches in hand.

After six rounds of standard questions plus a photo round displayed on the TV and a music round – with buckets of frosty beverages awarded to teams winning each round – it was time for the International Playboys to take the stage, a fitting end for an already raucous evening, even if it was a school night.

Bring your team along every Monday night – the quiz kicks off at 8pm. For more information, call 02 621 0000.

Laura Fulton