Our quest for good Middle Eastern food never ceases. A lady at Apollo hospital told us about an eatery in Vasant Kunj that serves Lebanese fare. Nikki, along with our daughters Tanya, Eman and I started off at 7pm from our residence in Sarita Vihar. We were given the number 9717775454, and told to reach the flyover near the Hyatt Grand. The place is just off the road opposite the Masudpur market.
Located in the basement with a huge lantern at the entry, the place is huge and very sparsely furnished, loads of lanterns being the sole elements of decor. Called the Mosaic Lounge, it is meant to be a lounge but is actually a “Dhaba Lounge” if you know what I mean! Very very basic. The basement is divided into two sections. On the left ( L Shaped) you have a recreation area with a carrom board, some gym equipment and a table tennis board.
The dining end had an air conditioner, some middle eastern artifacts and Arabic music. We could see two guys of middle eastern descent doing the cooking. Dr. Raffi Aslanain came in next. He is a tall fair man who had gone into catering, forsaking medicine for the love of food. Till about January, he was exclusively into catering. The lounge is a recent development.
Coming to the food. A dash of Arabic coffee ( complimentary) is served on arrival. We ordered hummus and mutabbal with pita bread, a Chicken shawarma, mutton shawarma, a falafel and a grilled meat platter to give us a good idea of the quality of food.
The Chicken shwarma was was among the best that I have had and my kids agreed. Mind you, their standards are quite high as they have lived in Bahrain for quite sometime and go there every year to meet their grandparents in their summer holidays. The meat in the mutton shawarma was not of a high quality and had a rather ‘put off’ smell to it. The mutabbal and hummus were quite musty to taste and the oil seemed to be sesame rather than pure olive. These are basic dishes and I am surprised as to how people go wrong with it. I mean, what can go wrong in mixing tahini, garlic, salt and olive oil to chick pea paste or grilled aubergines? While the pita bread was excellent, we had to leave the hummus and mutabbal uneaten.
The falafel was crisp and the accompanying sauce (meant to be yogurt with tahini) was first rate.
The mixed grill platter had grilled chicken, grilled mutton pieces and sheesh tawook. The mutton again was quite undone and the grilled chicked was rather dry but the sheesh tawook was was passable.
The fun however was the game of table tennis that eman and I played while Nikki and tanya were enjoying the carrom board which is why we did not mind the slow service.
- Naheed
