Ramadan – Captain Lychee

Now I know that Pakistani restaurants generally share this reputation of un-hygienic and overly spiced food but I as a foodie confirm that the food you eat at a hawker stand is far better than the one you get at fine dining 5 star luxury restaurants. Des Pardes is a small cafeteria kind of place in Oud Mehta and they serve Karachiite cuisine that means coal smoked karhayi with layers of oil on top and crisp naan straight from tandoor.

The staff was so friendly, I had to pinch myself to realize that I am not in Pakistan just yet. We ordered Chicken peshawri karhayi that’s a north frontier delicacy in Pakistan. It is specially delicious because the amount of spices in here are quite low, the meat gives its original flavor in combination with tomatoes.

We also had the galawati kebab curry which was outstanding. The chefs nailed this one as it was packed with bags of flavors and a variety of spices. The kebabs itself were tender.

The chicken biryani wasn’t as good as I was expecting. Perhaps it needed more moisture, the masala was a tad bit dry but even then it tastes pretty decent.

The showstopper for me was the lassi. I have been extremely disappointed of the lassi standards here in Middle East because yogurt blended with sugar is considered as lassi at most of the restaurants. But I grew up having the perfectly proportioned milk and yogurt lassi and I am so glad that I found it at Des Pardes.

The best bit is that these guys are open 24 hours. I highly recommend you enjoy movie night on weekends and hit it to Des Pardes for mouth watering karhayi and grilled kebabs.

Wok’s Den is a nice restaurant located in Jumeirah 1 near La Mer with free parking and some really cool dragon graffiti on the walls inside. The kitchen has giant glass windows so you can watch the chefs in action while your food is being prepared.

The service is top notch! Our server made sure we were comfortable and helped us decide different dishes from the menu. Since we were fasting, the staff made sure that all our food was ready a minute before sunset so that we won’t have to wait and that made me feel super happy.

So we ordered Dragon shrimps and stir fried momos with schezuwan sauce for appetizers. The dragon shrimps were absolutely lip smacking, super creamy and soft to chew. The momos were an instant hit because the filling was so flavorsome and generous and the final toss in schezuwan sauce was ethereal.

For drinks, I ordered a pistachio shake and their specialty drink called Dragon’s Fuel which is suoer fun cocktail that has an intense kick of spice to it. Its literally like the sweet tangy and spicy gummy bears. I would recommend you go for it but have it in small sips instead of gulping it all in one go. Whereas the pistachio shake was great too!

For the wok, I chose soba noodles, mushrooms, snow peas, bok choy, sweet corn, black pepper sauce with chicken stripes. Loved the flavors in there and it wasn’t loaded with salt and chilli. The combination of flavors was just perfect. Wanna see how the wok was made? go check my Instagram page 😉

Then we had the triple schezuwan fried rice which were subtle and flavorful. They also have a black bean chilli sauce on the table that you can add to your food as you like. It was actually amazing and not too hot.

For Dessert, their coconut fried icecream was so delicious. I know it sounds so simple but please try it. Thank you Team Wok’s Den for the wonderful iftaar. Can’t wait to drop by soon 🙂

Osh is a classy restaurant with some amazing interiors, located in La Mer; Osh caters to foodies with elegant Uzbek cuisine needs. Recently, I was invited to their Ramadan menu tasting and as I walked into the restaurant; their upstairs is dedicated for smokers while downstairs for non-smokers but since the meet up session was upstairs I climbed up and witnessed a dark ambiance with light only focusing on food.

We were served starters with Baba ganoush, hummus beiruti, fattoush and an egg salad. I loved baba ganoush, it had a lovely smokey flavor to it. I also tried their sambosuk that were accompanied with red tomato dip, loved these little bites. They were my favorite. Also had the lentil soup which was super comforting as the base was chicken stock. I absolutely adored it.

For mains, we tried the mix grills where Lamb kebabs and chicken kebabs were served with fresh salad. I particularly loved the chicken ones, I think the lamb kebabs needed more cooking time but they also were flavorful.

I tried their jellab drink which was presented in a gorgeous way with dates on top and lots of pine nuts inside. Loved it.

For dessert I had the chak chak which is basically crispy fried honey noodles. I wish it came with icecream because then it would have been an instant hit.

Thank you for the amazing service Team Osh.

Category: Ramadan

Sway with Pakistani spices at Des Pardes

Play with fire at the Wok’s Den

Ramadan menu tasting at Osh Dubai