Let your taste buds soar with wings at Lammah

Lammah is the most under-rated restaurants that I have come across recently. Their service is impeccable and the food is pure junk food with actual ingredients. I can vouch for that because I was inside their kitchen and saw how the staff prepared my meal.

The chefs are so talented and are constantly on a hustle because of large number of orders. This is a take-away or dine-in-your-car kinda restaurant but since there is a huge parking area in front of the restaurant, its a must try place.

I tried their greek chicken soulvaki kebab with fries, the kebabs were marinated overnight and were not loaded with spices, just subtle hints of whole spices with tenderness of the chicken. Loved these!

I am so excited to introduce you all to the most indulging pasta dish I have ever come across in the UAE. The Ottoman Red sauce pasta with cheetos, this was honestly the best! I am actually drooling while I write this. The pasta was creamy and cheesy with a large dash of cheetos, this was bomb!

I also had the cheetos shrimpster burger and omg! it was super delicious, simply tremendous! I would definitely go to Lammah every week. Especially on the days I feel blue. Thank you Team Lammah for a wonderful experience of flavors. I highly recommend you visit this place.

December 10, 2019 0

Sway with Pakistani spices at Des Pardes

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.

October 20, 2019 0

Feel the vibe with A Cappella

A restaurant’s atmosphere sets the stage. It’s about more than just a dining room away from home. Food takes the spotlight as guests become its audience. Factors such as music, lighting, artwork and spacing combine to create comfort, intimacy and even romance.

A cappella is just the right restaurant to visit with your special one. Located in Pointe the Palm; the restaurant offers a variety of mocktails and fine dining options. The staff is extremely courteous, they look after you with undivided attention and make the entire dining experience worthwhile.

I started off the culinary journey with pani puri that comes in a theatrical presentation with smoke blowing from everywhere around and you can witness laboratory inspired funnels carrying chutneys and tiny pani puris lined on the sides. It definitely looked awesome. I believe the stuffing inside paani puri could have been improved.

This place is a goldmine for people who enjoy alcoholic cocktails but since I stay away from all kinds of intoxicants, the staff made sure I don’t miss out on the experience so they served me a non-alcoholic lychee mocktail that was super tasty and pretty.

Then I had amazing beef sliders, the beef patty was juicy and not overly spiced but the caramelized onion at the bottom of patty were the real deal. The entire slider was outstanding. I also tried the cheese slider that was actually made with a cheese patty and it was brilliant! I am definitely ordering beef and cheese sliders separately the next time.

Then came the show stopper lamb chops, they were glazed with slightly sweet yet charred spices. The lamb was soft and convenient to eat with a knife and fork in such fancy setting. Right after this I witnessed bhuna murgh approaching my table and my eyes were wide open with excitement because usually you expect finger food in such settings but this was beyond my expectations. The chicken looked amazingly charred from the corners and was cooked perfectly.

After all of these delicious meals, I was served mac and cheese and this one is honestly the best I have had so far. There was fried garlic chopped into crumbs and garnished on top which provided extra flavor to the dish and the cheese inside wasn’t just liquefied cheese that usually tastes weird. It was pure cheese that melted with the macaroni.

Finally, it was time for desserts (my favorite part of the dining experience). We were served Tiramisu and a chocolate pecan globe. Even though the chocolate pecan was sinfully indulgent, my winner was tiramisu. It was gentle and the mascrapone cheese was added in just the right amounts for a smooth texture.

Thank you for such an amazing night Team A cappella! I would recommend my readers to visit this restaurant on a Friday as they have bollywood nights and I am sure they will be super!

September 2, 2019 0

Brunch at Bakemart Gourmet

My husband loves having breakfast here but this time we decided to visit Barsha branch and also invited guests. Being terribly in love with the smell of their freshly baked breads and those gorgeous cakes you get to see when you enter, we roamed around the bread station until our guests arrived. They took so long that it was almost lunch time so we all ended up ordering mains.

We ordered corn tabbouleh as starter. It was loaded with parsley, corn, tomato, onion, couscous, mint leaves, spring onions all drenched in arabic dressing. This was served with khubuz.

We had their fillet steak and mushroom which comes with mashed potato, poached vegetables and dark mushroom sauce. Loved the flavors here but the steak itself was really over cooked. I did tell them that I like my steak well done but I didn’t say rubbery.

The other dish we tried was chicken scallop. Now this one was a stunner, loved every bit of the crispy fried chicken topped with herbs cheese and that demi glazed sauce was beautiful. This came with a handful of french fries.

The other dish we ordered was the chicken chasseur; it comes with sauteed vegetables and mashed potatoes and a mushroom sauce. The mushroom sauce here was way better than the one with chicken scallop. But the chicken itself was overcooked and disappointed us.

August 6, 2019 0

Food Earth and Love- all together.

Located in Trade center, Dubai; FEL is bound to impress you with their neat white vibes and simple decor. Their interior and food both are based on the popular belief “Less is more”. Now I don’t meant that their meal portion sizes are small because they were enormous. I meant the use of flavors and plating techniques and the menu itself that isn’t composed of ten pages of this and that. Its fairly easier to decide what to eat since the menu describes each dish clearly. FEL uses the freshest and organic ingredients only for their meals. Before I begin dissecting my experience for you, please understand that FEL stands for Food, Love and Earth. I find it beautiful 🙂

We were served Ice water upon arrival and I specifically loved their glasses.

I started off with a classic cup of coffee that was quite a giant cup but was really strong. I then had their summer salad which comprises of heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, balamic vinegar and Parmesan cheese. You may even add chicken to this if you’d like to. Priced at 38 Aed, I feel it was really filling and delicious.

Next up, were the cali chicken wraps. These looked absolutely colorful and a treat for the eyes. The chicken were sliced into thin strips for these and everything tasted brilliant. The chicken was spiced to perfection and even one lettuce wrap was really filling.

Then came something that literally blew my mind. It was a burger that looked pretty simple in a time when burgers come with oozing cheese and ketchup and what not. When I took the first bite, I was so happy and surprised. I looked at the burger patty and asked the server which protein was used to make this? And he tells me that its a vegan burger. I swear my eyes popped out a little. The burger patty was made up of potatoes, beetroot and peas. I mean it was unbelievably good! Try it for yourself, ask for the impossible vegan burger.

I also had the spiced chicken bowl that was made of cajun spiced chicken, cabbage slaw, coconut rice, seared vegetable and avocado cubes. I felt the coconut rice were slightly sweet and needed a more spicy chicken to pair with but the chicken was less spiced so the overall flavor did not quite appeal to me but the seared vegetables were great!

Thank you Team FEL for the wonderful dining experience. I highly recommend my readers to visit.

August 4, 2019 0

Pakistani chinese food in Sharjah

I know its a cardinal sin to admire Pakistani fusion of Chinese cuisine but I can’t help it. Growing up in Pakistan, I always enjoyed the Chinese food served there at various restaurants. Peking in Sharjah serves exactly those amazing dishes with a fairly average ambiance and several options to choose from in their menu. What caught my attention was the server’s dress code wearing a lovely kimono, she was efficient with the menu and even guided us about serving sizes.

I ordered american chopsuey, egg fried rice, chilli ginger chicken and chicken sizzling manchurian. The chilli ginger chicken was my favorite as it wasn’t loaded with chilli or garlic, the flavor of boneless chicken blended so well with all the other ingredients.

I felt American chopsuey was a let down as the one I used to have back in Pakistan was served with a fried egg on top and I believe that’s how this dish is supposed to be served.

Chicken sizzling manchurian was nicely done, it sizzled all the way. The flavors were pretty good except for the quantity of chilli in there that I felt could have been a tad bit higher. Nevertheless, it was good and I recommend you try this one along with the ginger chilli chicken.

The fried rice were average. Nothing special about them. May I suggest the chefs to tweak these with some burnt garlic to give that amazing authentic fried rice flavor 🙂

I apologize for having no pictures to put up with this blog post as I was starving at the restaurant and gobbled up the dishes pretty quickly.

July 16, 2019 0

Levantish is where taste meets the myth

Levant’ish is an amazing restaurant in Al Qusais that serves Lebanese, turkish, syrian cuisine. Their kebabs, hummus, Shawarma, Lentil soup, Tabbouleh, Fattoush, Babaganush, Lamb Chops,Moutabel and labneh are the highlights of menu. They have indoor and outdoor seating and a baby seat is also available.

I specifically went to this place to enjoy breakfast. I ordered the Levant’ish breakfast platter which comprised of foul, labneh, mix manakeesh, choice of omelette served with juice, tea or coffee. Along with this I also ordered Fatteh Laban and sujuk omelette with shakshouka. Yep! I always order more when eating for breakfast.

I did not like foul as it had a lot of sour punch to it and did not taste fresh. The manakeesh though were amazing. We got cheese manakeesh and zaatar manakeesh, both were super. They served us fresh labneh where we shamelessly dipped our breads in. Instead of omelette, we were served fried eggs (2) and they were cooked well with steady whites and runny yolks.

My favorite item on the breakfast table was undoubtedly sujuk omelette. It had crumbled lamb kebab in there with the egg and together everything tasted divine. Fatteh Laban was quite spectacular too with warm chickpeas and toasted crumbs all layered together like a casserole topped with pomegranate seeds.

However, the shakshouka was a bit disappointing as I was expecting traditional Turkish shakshouka with eggs on top and tomato sauce everywhere else. The eggs were scrambled in the tomato sauce and the flavors weren’t that distinct either.

July 8, 2019 0

Chase the flavors with Manoushe street

Manoushe street has always been the talk of foodies for as long as I remember but I never really got a chance to try them out. Last week I accepted a blogger’s meet invite after a month I guess and I am so happy that I went there and tried their menu because it they had various combination of breads, salads, pizzas, wraps, Labenese kaak and manakeesh.

What I loved the most was how all manakeesh and pizza had this soft doughy bread that tasted beautiful along with their toppings. If you are a vegetarian then you my friend are in luck because they serve amazing veg manakeesh and pizza. Their potato wedges and homemade hummus was pretty awesome to begin with.

From pizza, I tried pepperoni pizza and three cheese pizza where my favorite was the pepperoni one. It was fresh, juicy pepperoni and the soft base made so much sense. Also, I would totally recommend you order their baked halloumi; even if you are not a halloumi fan. These guys bake it to perfection.

The tidbites with zaatar and spinach were also very nice. I specifically admired the sujuk because it was loaded with cheese and chicken. Tastes so much like a quesadilla but only more in terms of filling.

Thanks for having me Team Manoushe street, your service and quality of food was amazing.

July 3, 2019 0

Play with fire at the Wok’s Den

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 🙂

June 1, 2019 0

Falafel Party from Operation Falafel

I always plan to eat here but never actually do that and it had been 4 years so I finally decided to order food home and see what the hype is about. I placed order through zomato and it got accepted but then I received a call from the restaurant that they are out of eggplant so they cant put it in my wrap 😦 that was just sad, so I agreed for a wrap without it. Although they delivered complimentary hummus to make up for it but hey! ain’t no hummus makes up for eggplant in my wrap.

Anyway, the falafel were pretty crispy and good. I just feel they were overpriced just because they had a chutney filling inside. Normally, you get a falafel for 50 fils or 1 aed from street restaurants but this one was 10 aed for 4 pcs because its “stuffed”. The menu reads that these falafels are stuffed with pine nuts, onions and shatta but all I could taste was shatta (hot sauce)

The wraps were fine nothing extraordinary about those. I would suggest the restaurant to increase their quality of food in terms of flavors and decrease the price a tad bit 🙂

May 23, 2019 0

Even chicken recommends Chicken Cottage

Last week I went to Chicken cottage in the mall at JBR, Dubai. Its located on the ground floor with a great space for seating. The most intriguing part of their food is that they don’t use any preservatives for their meals. All ingredients are halal and fresh. I was fasting when I went here and planned to break my fast with the crispy chicken. So I ordered and waited for sunset to enjoy the meal. The service was a bit slow and I actually had to wait 20 minutes more but the restaurant was full of fresh fried chicken aroma so I didn’t mind. I was given complimentary dates and water.

The fried chicken I ordered was spicy and tasted really good, they have a sauce station where you can grab mayonnaise, ketchup, salsa as much as you like. I loved their salsa. It paired amazingly well with the fried chicken. Also ordered the spicy grilled chicken which was a surprise because it was superb. The flavors, tenderness of chicken and the glaze on top with that perfect charred flavor was outstanding. Loved it! I highly recommend you try their grilled chicken.

Next came the Monster burger which was actually a monster. Layered with a crunchy hashbrown and a chicken patty, this burger was pretty good. The only thing missing was a tangy sauce inside, so I slathered salsa inside and munched on this beauty 😉

For dessert, we got the chocolate brownie with vanilla icecream that was gorgeous! you can never go wrong with this combination. Absolutely loved it. Thank you for hosting me Team Chicken Cottage.

May 23, 2019 0

Kulfilicious- Your best bud for the summers

With the heavy summers approaching, kulfi and falooda are desserts that help bear the heat with a smile on our face. But only if they are made with perfection, the flavors and textures should be spot on. Hence, this place “Kulfilicious” that has over 12 outlets in Dubai. This blog is about the Deira branch that is also listed as Al Muteena under zomato. Its a colorful place with old bollywood timeless movie posters and the songs that they play are from the same movies. Their quirky stools, tables and a rickshaw inside are so instagrammable.

We started off by placing our orders: one for the royal kulfi falooda and the other was Gud Bud that’s based on a custard instead of kulfi and has more dry fruits in there. The best bit for all you vegetarian fans out there is that this comes with a vegetarian jelly also.

Loved the crunchy texture of gud bud, it had rose flavored milk at the bottom that was amazing if you eat and sip together. Super refreshing for any day of the year.

For the royal kulfi falooda, my three flavors were: Gulab daani, kaajuddin and malaika (rose, cahsew and creame) Loved the combination of these three. However, if you don’t want your falooda to be overly sweet then don’t choose gulaabdaani. I love the flavor of rose and the sweetness to it therefore I will always choose this one 🙂

The cherry on top is that they don’t use any preservatives and all the flavors are made locally. The service was pretty great and I highly recommend you try their desserts at any time of the day. You won’t regret 🙂

May 9, 2019 0