Paniniz (Quick Review)

Paniniz is a nice fast-foodish place to pop in for some good chow. While they clearly advertise their paninis to be their primary product, I have to say that their pizzas are also worth a try.

I’ve tried a few of their paninis but the best one by far is their Formagio in which they use Halloumi cheese. Now I had never heard of Halloumi cheese but Google tells me that it’s a Middle Eastern cheese and I can tell you that it tastes a bit like chicken and that it’s really good. The only thing I do not like or understand is their need to put cucumbers in their paninis. They really don’t mix. Ask them not to put in cucumbers, please.

They do take away, delivery and if you so desire you can go sit and eat there as well but don’t expect any kind of exquisite décor. It’s just a room with chairs and sofas. The staff, however, is very friendly.

I only heard about this place in Defence a few months ago, but apparently it has been around for some time in Johar Town. Clearly it’s been doing well if they are expanding. I definitely recommend this place if you want a quick snack that’s not too heavy on your wallet.

Address: DHA Phase IV-37 CCA Block.

Phone #: 042-35694253

Lahore, Pakistan

Luciano's

After reading about Luciano’s in the papers, I wasn’t too keen on trying it out. All the talk of the heavy socialite attendance and the crazy unique furniture gave me the impression that the restaurant wasn’t focused on the food. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The food at Luciano’s was different, creative and I thoroughly enjoyed my entire experience there. In fact, I think Iwill go as far as to say that my dinner was the best dining experience I’ve had in Lahore.

First Impressions

The obvious first impression: Everything is white. When I got past how white the restaurant was, I noticed that Luciano’s is a small and cozy place. There are only about ten tables and the dim lighting makes it an excellent setting for a nice intimate dinner. They have a small outdoor section overlooking Kasuri road with seating for about five people which is perfect for the winter months. I would have loved to sit there but it was already taken. There is also a bar in the corner where you can sit and have coffee or even lunch, I imagine. Luciano’s is probably the only restaurant in Lahore that I would call a romantic place.

The Food

First things first; I have to talk about the pre-meal bread. They served us warm dinner rolls with a creamy salted butter which were an excellent start to an excellent meal.

We then ordered the Prawn Stuffed Jalapenos* and the Shrimp and Avocado Mille Feuille for appetizers. The jalapenos were decent but a little too spicy for my taste. The shrimp and avocado was accompanied with a French pastry called Mille Feuille and a mustard sauce that tasted a bit like mulligatawny soup. This might be an odd description but the appetizer was simply amazing. It was definitely the highlight of my meal.

Our main course was the Beef Tenderloin Steak and an entrée called the Chicken Tower. While I didn’t order their Wagyu Beef specialty, the quality of the meat was still very good. One thing I particularly want to point out is how well made the beef was. My medium rare steak was a little cooked on the outside and nearly rare on the inside and the amalgamation was just perfect.

I was not too impressed with the Chicken Tower. It was essentially several layers of chicken, turkey, tomatoes, cucumbers and then some other ingredients that I couldn’t identify all piled up. There was just too much going on.

For dessert, we went with the Chocolate Molten Cake. I won’t go into too much detail because it was just a very good chocolate molten cake and there’s not much more to be said about it.

Conclusion

I highly recommend Luciano’s for its food and the atmosphere. I will post more about Luciano’s lunch menu when I get to try it out. In the meanwhile, make a plan with your respective other or a few close friends and make sure you call them in advance to book the patio table.

*I lost the notes I made on my Blackberry so the names might not be entirely correct

Food : 8 / 10

Service : 7 / 10

Pricing : 700 – 1000 per head

39/A2, Mian Mahmood Kasuri Road
Gulberg III
Tel: 042-37069461

Veranda Part 2

I’m not going to dwell on this too much. I went to Veranda again and my opinion of the food at this place has not changed. In a group of seven people, only four of us were satisfied with our food and that’s not a statistic that Veranda should be proud of.

The actual veranda of the restaurant, though, is amazing. I can easily see people spending hours outside smoking sheesha, having coffee or just some appetizers with friends. That, however, is the extent of what I would recommend there.

If you are compelled to eat there, try their pizzas or their chicken entrees. I have not had a good experience with their pastas or their red meats.

Veranda really needs to bring it’s A game to the table.

Veranda

Kamran Sheikh’s* newest project, Veranda, seems to have created a lot of buzz around Lahore. Many people have complimented the food and the décor of the place and I know quite a few people who have already become regulars. So when I was going there, I was expecting an amazing looking restaurant with an extremely professional staff and brilliant food. Well, I guess two out of three isn’t bad.

First Impressions

The entrance to the restaurant has been done up very nicely. The warm lighting and the small fountains outside give it a very mansion-y look that I enjoyed. I also like that they’ve don’t have parking right up front so that the entrance doesn’t have a very crowded feel (think Aylanto with its chock-a-bloc parking). Clearly, I spent too much time outside waiting for my friend to arrive.

When I finally walked inside, I was taken aback by how good the restaurant looked. The interior is extremely well done by any standards and I like that the restaurant is divided into two parts which gives it a smaller and cozier feel. I feel that the highlight of the restaurant is the courtyard. There is a lot of space outside and I can see it being extremely popular with people in the winters.

The Food

I’m going to be very direct. The food was abysmal.

Firstly, a lot of the appetizers on the menu (which sounded AMAZING) were not available which; frankly, I didn’t mind because the restaurant was just starting out. What I did mind was the reason the waiter give me “The chef hasn’t learnt how to make these things yet”. Ok then.

We ordered the bruschetta as an appetizer and the lamb shank and a seafood pasta as our entrees. I’ll keep it simple here. The bruschetta was excellent, the seafood pasta was okay at best and I could only force myself to eat two bites of the lamb. The meal ended very quickly.

Conclusion

I’m not going to give a detailed conclusion because I haven’t reached one yet. While I didn’t have the best of experiences there, I find it hard to believe that the food is actually that bad there. It’s very possible that we ordered the wrong things on the menu or the chef might have been having an off day. Either way, I’m going to reserve my final judgment on the food until I go again and then I’ll update this post.

Food : TBD

Ambiance: 9/10

Service : 8/10

Pricing : 700 per head.

6L, Gulberg II
Lahore, Pakistan.
Tel: 042- 35714764

*While Karman Sheikh’s website doesn’t indicate that he worked on this restaurant, I’m quite sure that he was associated with this project.

Pizza Hut's All You Can Eat Iftari Deal (A Rant)

Honestly, don't even think about doing it.

Seriously Pizza Hut, I understand that you're really popular and that I have to wait in line while I'm fasting to get in. I also understand that I'm paying a lot more than what I would normally pay at Pizza Hut for what I end up eating. But do you really have to make the food experience so bad too?

First of all, I can't believe that Pizza Hut would be so evil so as to not serve you ANY pizza for at least twenty minutes after the iftari starts. Instead, they give you all you can eat salad from the salad bar. I'm guessing this is just their way of making you fill up on salad so that people don't end up eating too much pizza. That's just evil.

Secondly, the pizza is stale. Why would you make all that fresh pizza, not serve it to us and then bring it out when it's cold?

Thirdly, "it's not available for the iftar deal" is not a good excuse for not having crushed peppers. Ditto for the garlic powder.

There is no reason to ever go to Pizza Hut for this crap deal that they have going on. I would urge you to tell your friends to not go for this ever. Perhaps some bad business would help them understand that they need to maintain service standards.

Trevi (And Why I Walked Out)

Trevi has been a source of great curiosity for me over the last few months. When I first saw the place, I had no idea if it was a restaurant, an art gallery or a fountain shop and the parking lot was always empty. Needless to say, I didn't venture in.

Next, they put up a sign a few weeks later that said "Trevi - Home of the Wishing Fountain". - Again, I had no idea what meant. Are you a restaurant, Trevi? Who knows. Keeping in line with their brilliant marketing strategy, their next piece of signage read "Trevi - The First Concept Restaurant in Town". Aha! So it was indeed a restaurant and not just any restaurant. It was a *concept* restaurant. I let the fact that the concept wasn't really mentioned slip and decided to go check it out anyway.

I was prepared for the worst. I was expecting a blandly decorated Italian place without any hint of good Italian food.. I was wrong on at least one of these thoughts. To say that I was pleasantly surprised would be a huge understatement. The restaurant had been done up amazingly. When I walked in, I saw a mini replica of the Trevi Fountains which looked extremely good and really added to the rest of the decor, which was very visually pleasing.

Before our waiter took us to our table, I noticed a small bakery on the side which I thought was a nice touch. Looking forward to my meal, I took my seat and started browsing through the menu. I went through the list of appetizers and decided on some bruschetta.

On the next page was the soup menu and I was shocked to find a Thai soup (Tom Yum Goong) on the list. What was a Thai soup doing on the menu of an Italian "concept" restaurant? Je ne sais pas. However, the oddity was overshadowed by the eclectic menu that was to follow.

The Italian entrees included some pastas, steaks and pizzas. For some reason, there was a long list of non-Italian entrees that included burgers, Thai food and last but not least, Pakistani food. Yes, this place that would like me to believe that it's entire theme is built around Italy, Italian food and one of the biggest attractions in Italy serves desi barbecue. This was the last straw. I paid for the bottle of water that we had ordered and walked out of the restaurant. I could not bring myself to eat in a restaurant that was so utterly confused about it's identity.

I feel that the owners of Trevi have completely mismanaged the concept and image of the restaurant. They had a very good opportunity which seems to have gone to waste. A nicely decorated restaurant with a clear Italian theme could have done well on M.M.Alam Road (Assuming of course that the food were to be good). I don't know why Trevi had to go down this road but I hope they can alter their strategy and focus purely on fine Italian food and not chicken jalfrezi.

Top 10 DIY Food Geek Projects

I found this really cool post on Lifehacker and had to share it. It's more for those on the adventurous side or for people who have lots of time to kill.

Highlights:

• Brewing your own Beer and Soda
• Making KFC style chicken at home
• DIY Smoker
• Homemade Pizza Oven

If someone tries any of these do let me know in the comments!

Hit up the link below for the full article.

Top 10 DIY Food Geek Projects

The Deli (Karachi)

From the moment I landed in Karachi, my friends were hounding me to go to The Deli. I had never heard of it before within hours of touching down in Karachi I was on my way to Zamzama. I should tell you guys, my favorite food in the world is sandwiches, so I was expecting a lot from The Deli. Unfortunately, I was thoroughly disappointed.

First Impressions

I walked into The Deli expecting to see, well, a deli. And by deli I mean a full fledged New York style eatery with giant pieces of meat hanging in open meat lockers and meat slicers preparing cold cuts to take out. Perhaps I'm a little too optimistic.

What I walked into, instead, was a cozy little Mediterranean style cafe. The dull light colors and the sunlight from the large windows gave The Deli a very relaxed effect. We picked out a table for two in the corner. I realized how these are much harder to come by in most Lahore where restaurants are much more expansive and the table-for-two's are usually placed next to random pillars (very annoying).

On the whole, I was quite happy with the decor and the seating of the place (after I'd gotten over the fact that The Deli was, in fact, not a deli.

The Food

We ordered the Spicy Prawns on Bamboo Stick, the supremely popular Roast Beef with Wasabi-Ginger Mayonnaise in Panini and the Chateaubriand with Mushroom Sauce. One out of the three was really good and it wasn't the panini.

The prawns glazed with a spicy/tangy sauce that tasted really good and frankly, they were really fun to eat off a stick. I was told later that I should have tried the Mezze Platter, so if you guys go soon, do check it out.

The panini was okay. There was nothing spectacular about it. It had barely a few slice of roast beef, I could barely taste the wasabi-ginger mayonnaise and the panini was soft and almost mushy. It tasted like something you could have made at home.

The steak and the mushroom sauce that accompanied it were decent. That's about it.

Conclusion

My favorite part about The Deli was it's relaxing ambiance. It's the kind of place where you can spend a whole Saturday afternoon drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. Additionally, the waiters are friendly and very efficient which makes the whole experience more enjoyable.

The food is not impressive at all. The Deli should try and focus more on their sandwiches, especially if they want to make deli-style sandwiches. I don't understand how their sandwich has gotten so much hype.

Perhaps I was served an uncharacteristically bad sandwich or maybe the chef was having an off day so I do plan to visit again and try some of their other sandwiches that sound amazing, but for now I give the food a low rating.

Food : 5/10

Ambiance: 8/10

Service : 7/10

Pricing : 650 per head

Phone Number : 021 - 35838954

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Red Apple

From what I can remember, Red Apple's chicken kabab roll was the first paratha roll I ever had. This was in Khadda Market around ten years ago. Ever since then, my yearly trips to Karachi included almost daily visits to Defence all the way from KDA just for a Red Apple roll.

Things have changed since then. Hot & Spicy opened up almost next door and the popularity of the kabab roll skyrocketed in Lahore as well. Defence is now littered with joints that will serve you every variation of kabab rolls known to man. Chicken seekh kabab chutni roll? You got it. Mutton bihari garlic mayo roll? Done! Beef chicken pineapple fruit salad mithai roll? Maybe.

Late to the party was Red Apple which finally opened up a few months ago. It seems to have gained a decent following as it is the only kabab roll place that people seem to know by name besides Karachi Silverspoon in Liberty.

First Impressions

Red Apple has been made into a proper fast food place in Lahore and by that I mean they have seating and you’re not forced to eat in your car. The seating area is decent but I don’t really see many girls / families wanting to go and sit inside. It doesn’t have the best of crowds.
My advice: Stay in your car.

The Food

I had a chicken chutni roll and a chick milai boti cheese roll and to be honest I found it hard to distinguish between the two. Both tasted pretty good though. I tried the beef seekh kabab roll as well and that was pretty decent too. All in all, the food wasn’t something that was a world apart from other kabab roll joints. Perhaps I was expecting more from it out of sheer nostalgia.

I will say, however, that the food was not greasy at all, which makes a big difference with kabab rolls for me. Most other similar places I’ve eaten at have food with enough grease in them to power a small car. Additionally, they serve their chutnis in small holders as opposed to dumping them in big plates which makes for a much cleaner experience if you’re eating in your car. You really don't want your car smelling of chutni for the next five months.

Conclusion

Red Apple makes for a decent meal especially if you are looking to sit and eat somewhere and not just take away. If nothing else, you can always get it delivered if you live in Defence. Red Apple has upped their game by providing online delivery services. If you guys are looking for a cheap eat that's a little better than road-side food, Red Apple is the place to go to.

Food : 7 / 10

Ambiance : 3/10

Service : 5 / 10

Pricing : 200 per head

Phone Number : 042-5747008

http://www.redapple.com.pk/lahore/

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Shun

For many years, Lahoris had no option but to go to Fujiyama if they wanted Japanese food. Not that there's anything wrong with Fujiyama, but it's always nice to have an option. Look at Karachi, they have Fujiyama AND Sakura*. Thankfully, now we have Shun.

First Impressions

Shun is located above the Berlitz Language Centre on Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri Road off Hussain Chowk. The first thing I noticed as I was walking up to the restaurant is their sign proclaiming that they serve Thai, Japanese and Chinese food. If a restaurant says they serve more than two types of cuisine, that's almost never a good sign. Shun, thankfully, managed to be an exception to that rule.

Shun sets itself apart from the slew of Asian restaurants with it's decor which is very simple yet pleasing to the eye. It's almost cathartic. My guess is that they wanted to go for an "earthy" look with the brown and green colour scheme. Whatever it is, it works.

The Food

Shun's specialty is definitely its Japanese food as much as they'd like to be a Japanese, Chinese and Thai restaurant and that's all they should focus on. According to their menu, it seems that they mostly focus on their sushi, which is a good thing because their sushi is amazing.

We ordered the Thai Chicken Satay, Tempura Prawns, Crispy Tuna Maki, Assorted Sashimi and the Gyoza and most of these were excellent. The Maki was very well made and the Sashimi was very extremely fresh and tender (Read: Melts in your mouth). The Tempura was very light and just a little crispy which gave it a fresh taste. The Satay, however, was nothing interesting. It was just chicken with a little bit of sauce. Not much to be said about it.

The highlight of the meal, for me, was the Gyoza. The dumplings were just perfect. The filling tasted good, the wrapper was boiled and potstickered and the presentation was excellent. Also, at Rs 230 for five pieces, it's very well priced.

Overall, I was very satisfied with the food and although a lot of people disagree with me on this, I find their sushi to be better than Fujiyama's. Much better.

Conclusion

I've come to really love Shun. It has good food with a relaxing ambiance without the air of it being a fancy restaurant. I guess the word I'm looking for is cozy. I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes Japanese food / Sushi.

Food : 7 / 10

Ambiance : 8/10

Service : 7 / 10

Pricing : 600 - 1,000 per head (depending on how much sushi you order)

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*Update : People are telling me there's another Japanese place in Karachi : Kamameshi. Typical. Expect Karachi to one up on Lahore.

Intro

I’m a foodie and I love the food in Lahore. I’ve been on this kick for the last few months where I’ve been trying to find Lahore’s hidden gems. Unfortunately, I’ve come to realize that either these gems are way too hidden for me or maybe there just aren’t that many to find. What would have made life a little easier was a directory of some sorts. Sure, there are websites which have an alphabetical list of the restaurants on M.M. Alam road but I want something that covers everything from Baking Virsa in the dark streets of Gawalmandi to Shun in slightly brighter Gulberg.

Another essential thing missing for a foodie is a website that does reviews for restaurants. I realized this as I saw a restaurant called Trevi open up on M.M. Alam road. I wanted to go and check it out but I had absolutely no idea what kind of food it served or whether it was expensive / cheap etc. You know, the basics.

So, if you haven’t picked up on it yet, I am going to focus all my eating/writing energies towards writing reviews for the various resturants, cafes, bakeries and dhabas. If anyone has a restaurant they would like me to review, mention it in the comments section / email me and I'll try to work on that. All your comments are appreciated.

Eat This Lahore.