Lahore: eating like a king

Last night I was at Lahore, a Pakistani restaurant in Hendon. I was meeting up with some relatives who were in London on a holiday and also to catch the Chelsea premiership match with Charlton (piff...).

This is my third or forth time at this amazing restaurant. They serve some of the best lamb based curries in London. The furnishing is a little weird. Hung on the walls are this glass rendition of Chinese/Japanese landscapes. The waiter later told us that the place used to be a Chinese restaurant but the art deco was so lovely that they decided to leave it in its place when they took over.

Attempting to destroy my diet and quest to buff myself up by summer, my grand aunt ordered two portions of grilled lamb, two portions of lamb kebab, a plate of bryani rice, a lamb rice dish, a bowl of tandoori lamb, a bowl of curry aubergine, a bowl of dahl and two portions of naan bread. That is on top the complimentary 'unlimited' bowls of salad and pappadam. Now you can imagine five people trying to finish this!

I wish I could take some pictures but it was rather rude in the presence of old relatives (and I left my camera in the car). Rather embarrassingly my uncle thought otherwise and was soon snapping away with his Canon Ixus 500, not at the food mind you, but at us.

The grilled lamb which is my grand aunt's favourite is excellent. They call it lamb chop, but it looks nothing like the crap we are served in Malaysia. Very spicy and tender. I would recommend anyone to order at least a portion.

The kebab is even better. One of the best kebab I ever had (they also run a fast food take away next door for those who just want the kebab). Very tender if not a little too dry. Nothing special about the rice dishes. The bowl of tandoori lamb cutlets is excellent. The curry sauce is tasty but not too spicy. Probably to cater to western tongues. Not that it matters.

Hardly surprising we did not manage to finish the meal. Because my grand aunt is flying to Malaysia today for a two week holiday, I was assigned to be the bearer of the doggie bag. More Indian for me tonight then.

The meal was a snip at £67. Looks expensive at first but for the amount we ordered plus our waiter was courteous enough to provide two portions of mango ice cream deserts (on the house of course), I think it was quite reasonable.

Food: 8/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Service: 7/10
Value: 7/10

Note: I will try to dig out the proper address and update this blog later on. There are so many South Asian restaurant sharing the same Lahore name it is impossible to know which one I am talking about.