LAHORE: Tierra Nuestra is the latest addition to the expanding list of Pan-Asian restaurants in town. Located on the Mahmood Ali Kasuri Road in Gulberg, its Spanish name roughly translates as ‘our earth/land’.

Going with the name, the facade is made up of marble boards and tiles in earthy tones of grey and brown. The same nature-inspired theme is followed inside with wooden panels on the ceiling, rocks and marble all in hues of grey, black and brown. It might sound rustic but the overall interior is neat and sophisticated. There’s another floor upstairs that is scheduled to open soon and comprises a cafй.

I was accompanied by a friend when I paid the restaurant a visit the day it opened. Settling down, we were mighty impressed with the wide-ranging menu comprising some of the best that Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Thai cuisines have to offer. And thankfully, not only was there enough variety but also some dishes that at least I hadn’t heard of here in Lahore. But unfortunately, we were told that being the launch day they could not offer us the regular menu at that time. So we were thrown back on a few select dishes.

From the starters, we ordered the only item available – the Wasabi Prawns. The prawns were cooked perfectly and fried in a light, crispy batter, drizzled with a beautiful, light yellow wasabi sauce. Pretty good start to a meal.

Next up, we had the Tierra Nuestra Special and Thai Tom Yum Gai soups. The special soup that I had ordered was nothing to write home about. Though we were told that this was inspired by the ever-popular “19-B” soup, it was a far cry from it: bland and colourless, only a hint of spice, loaded with chicken pieces and barely any prawn. But the Thai soup that my friend had was everything that the special was not. This fiery, red soup was packed with flavour and had the right amount of spice a Thai soup usually has, succulent pieces of chicken, mushroom, lemongrass, Chinese ginger and Thai chili garnished with coriander. Wish I had ordered this too.

Then came the Japanese Kane Salad with crab stick, fresh iceberg lettuce and some other veggies, drizzled with a special mayonnaise. I felt we could have easily missed this one.

On to the main entrйe, from the chicken section – which I tried my best to avoid but couldn’t because of the limited options at that time, I had the Korean Henry Chicken and the friend, Thai Garlic Beef. The delicious Korean chicken had crispy, tender pieces of meat, tossed in a sweet and sour sauce, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and served with soft basil rice with a fresh salad on the side. The Thai beef, on the other hand, was not impressive. The chunks of beef – mixed in a garlic sauce with onion, capsicum and herbs -- were chewy. The accompanying garlic rice was aromatic and tasty, though.

We also tried some of their Tierra Nuestra Vietnamese Fish, which was a revelation. Soft pieces of fish that melt in your mouth, stir fried in chilli tomato, assorted vegetables and oyster sauce was an explosion of spicy flavours. This, for me, was the dish of the day.

Overall, it was a unique, yet pleasant experience barring the restricted menu. Ignoring some of the regular fare offered by every other restaurant, there are so many exciting dishes on offer: assorted sushi, Crispy Coconut Prawns, Miso Soup, Som Tum Salad, Mio Shatami, Miso Chicken, Korean Kindo Chicken, Korean Red Cook Chicken, Hong Kong Chicken with Lychee and Pineapple, Zingori Juha Fish and so much more. One thing’s for sure, I’m definitely going back for these though the damage on my pocket could be significant, considering the average price of Rs800 to Rs900 per dish. I wish they introduce some interesting desserts too because when I visited they only had four flavours of ice cream.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2017