Anew restaurant recently popped up on the ever-burgeoning food scene in Lahore. Excitedly, I decided to try it out. But the moment I looked at their menu, it had me confused.

City Café and Grill is located in CCA, Phase 5, DHA. The name would mean that they serve snacks, tea, coffee and then some desi food too. But essentially, they are a “pan-Asian” restaurant. Yes, no café menu, no local/grill food, but Thai, Chinese and continental. This confused state of mind was enough for me to go check out why City Café were serving what they’re serving.

Upon entering, accompanied by a friend, the first thing that struck me was the interior of the two-storey room. An exotic combination of dark green and brown: green wooden frames at the entrance and windows offset by red brick walls, brown furniture with green upholstery and table napkins, all brightened by sunlight entering from the large window at the front. I was fascinated.

Settling down by the window, I asked for the menu. And what was presented kind of overwhelmed me. Divided between Chinese, Thai and continental, it was one big menu with a lot to choose from and naturally took us time to place an order.

As starters from all three categories combined, we ordered Rice Balls Surprise, Finger Fish and City Café Special Prawns. The palm-sized rice balls were delicious; crisp on the outside, and filled with gooey cheese, rice, mushrooms and olives. They were served with equally delectable garlic, and honey mustard sauces. The fried fish was crispy outside and soft inside, but the accompanying tartar sauce had more vegetable chunks in it than the actual sauce. The king prawns were juicy, glazed with a special sauce developed in-house and topped with crispy shredded potato. We were on to a scrumptious start, hence couldn’t wait for the main course.

For the mains, we ordered City Cafe Special Beef, Grilled Fish with Butter Lime Sauce, Wok Fried Fish Noodles, Green Curry Chicken and Stuffed Olive Chicken. Starting with the best, the special beef was lip-smacking: crispy little pieces of beef, glazed with a sticky and slightly tangy in-house sauce and garnished with roasted sesame seeds. The dish of the day, for sure.

The rest of the main course was nothing to write home about. The grilled fish filet was cooked well, was topped with a sauce and looked appetising, but was insipid to my utter dismay. Tried to find solace in the accompanying sautéed veggies, but to no avail! The Thai green curry comprised tender pieces of chicken in a generous curry served with sticky rice, but they had gone overboard with either mint or coconut milk in the curry; there was an odd overpowering taste to it. As the Wok Fried Fish Noodles, we got a fried filet of fish resting on a bed of very ordinary-looking chow mein with all of it tasting bland. Not even the presentation could tempt me.

Lastly, the stuffed chicken pocket for slightly dry and lacked the juice, but was stuffed with a scrumptious combo of cheese, mushrooms and olives; generously topped with a sauce and sautéed vegetables and mashed potato on the side. But what’s a chicken that’s dry?

Not entirely happy with our main course, we looked at the elaborate dessert menu to tantalise our taste buds, but found out we could only choose from classics bread and butter pudding and molten lava cake, and a selection of cakes baked in-house. We chose the pudding.

What came was a loaf of bread sitting in the middle of a plate of delectable caramel sauce, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and a decorated with a spun toffee caramel nest. The bread was soft, yet lacked the punch, but with all the elements had together in a bite, it was a burst of flavour. The presentation as definitely better than the taste though.

It would be smart if City Café and Grill reduced the menu to a few dishes in each category instead of trying to incorporate every popular dish under the sun with no innovation or creativity. One doesn’t go to a new restaurant only to be offered what everyone else around is offering. Restaurants must focus on signature dishes or at the very least the taste of what they have on the menu.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2017