Oh, it’s good to be back on the mad ‘dodgem car’ roads of Lahore. My city was visible only after 500 feet from the aircraft. The heat and power breaks did not deter me from ringing my nephew, Bairam the Banker, for an immediate briefing on the ‘eating out’ situation. “Mamoo, start with Chinese and I recommend Mandarin Kitchen in Z Block of Defence.”

No matter where you live and work in the world, the Chinese food of Lahore is a unique feature that one misses, for it has become part and parcel of local cuisine. The shopkeepers of Shah Alam Market refer to it as ‘Cheneese’ only. So after my car was up and running I went to have a look at this eatery. I must confess it exceeded my expectations. For sure the better eateries of Lahore can match any of their rivals in the capitals of Europe. On a recent visit to Seville in Spain, a Moroccan waiter asked me where I was from. I said Lahore. “Oh, then our food cannot match yours.” Plucky chap knew how to flatter foreigners. Luckily, fewer eateries in Lahore close than new ones open, adding to the dazzling variety and catering to the exploding numbers.

The polite manager took me around to show me the place. It has an open front kitchen whose aroma is blocked by a huge glass front. While seated at your table you can see your unique order being ‘processed’. If ever a kitchen was spanking clean and ‘transparent’ to its customers, this is where it’s at. As a compliment, I was presented a small glass with a green liquid. I stopped the manager from telling me what it was. After smelling it and taking a small sip, I said: “This is mint with crushed ice, 7-Up and a dash of lemon.” He took a step back before I added: “Fresh mint has a better aroma as opposed to imported bottled ones.” He rushed to get the menu.

Here the experience of my nephew came to use. After the complimentary mint drink and Chinese crackers, the Prawn Soup was delicious. They had done a good job for the soup stock was just apt, not too strong as prawn stock tends to get. The small chunks in the soup were delightful, adding to its authenticity. A good chef aims at authenticity while remaining mellow about the end result. This soup, if overdone, can be ghastly.

Next came four items: the standard egg fried rice, followed by chicken and cashews, sweet and sour beef and an extra fried prawns. It is amazing how popular prawns have become. So everyone went for the fried prawns first which had a spicy sauce to accompany them. Oh, they were good. With the egg fried rice I preferred the chicken and cashews. The pepper in the gravy was heavenly and it was a combination that forced me to say to myself, “It’s great to be back for Lahori Chinese is the best.” A few Indian scholars I met claim Mumbai Chinese is better. So the fight is on.

Next, I tried the sweet and sour beef with some egg fried rice. That brought back memories of my outings in the legendary Shanghai Restaurant of our youth. But Mandarin Kitchen makes equally good food, if not better. In food it is the after-taste that matters most, and in this case it lingered on as a pleasant experience.

Now let me go on to marking this ‘eating out’ experience. Our marking ranges from one -- meaning bad -- to nine -- meaning exceptional. We will use nine parametres and then average out the experience to mark the eatery.

For the food quality it gets six, for taste seven for portions six, for ambience it gets seven, for service quality it gets seven, for quality of the crockery and cutlery seven, for overall cleanliness eight and, finally, for prices six, as it is a bit pricey. Add to this the ease of parking your car and this place gets seven, for they have a valet system to assist. This all averages to 6.8 out of nine which is very good. I will certainly try this place again and definitely recommend it to others.

It would not be out of place to mention two additional factors: the menu size is just about right, not too few choices and not an endless list either. This explains the open kitchen where what your order is immediately made. Nothing is pre-cooked. Secondly, this three-storey eatery has a Japanese section also called Sumo. Now that is a pretty weighty title and explains why it is on the third floor. I did not go there, but will do so in the future.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2018