Eateries

Luscious Salad Counter at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge (Mall One).

The Pantry by The Polo Lounge is usually in the top three on the list of places to hang out at whenever my friends and I plan to meet and grab a bite. I love this place and the much welcome food on offer which is pretty different from the usual café/restaurant fare.

The main branch of The Pantry by The Polo Lounge is located inside Mall One on Lahore’s Main Boulevard while a newer one has recently opened at Emporium Mall in Joher Town.

Menu ‘chalked’ on blackboard opposite the salad counter at Mall One – that lovely retro looking floor design!

The Pantry by The Polo Lounge at Mall One has rustic wooden tables paired with wood and rattan chairs, both painted a soothing shade of white that adds a lovely brightness to the surroundings. A nice airy seating area, which is actually in the middle of the mall, with glass windows (plus a smaller inner sitting area) makes for a pleasant meal here and I always prefer coming here during natural daylight hours.  This might not be a big deal in the grander scheme of things but personally I prefer well-lit, airy looking spaces and eateries that fit the bill, such as the one in question, do get my vote when considering going out to eat.

The Pantry by The Polo Lounge at Emporium Mall; love the old-fashioned flooring inside and the loft-like ceiling design!

The new branch at Emporium Mall catches the eye from afar with its European style outdoor café seating. It has a larger seating area inside and follows a similar design principle with the signature rattan chairs but with an interesting ceiling look which feels something like modern loft cum industrial. It is a smaller location but offers pretty much the same wonderful menu and good service. But the most aesthetically pleasing part about this location of The Pantry by The Polo Lounge has to be the arresting flooring inside the eatery. It is a more elaborate style of the same but simpler flooring design in front of the menu blackboard at the Mall One location.

Pretty ‘outdoor’ seating area at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge (Emporium Mall) for times when you want to enjoy your meal and watch the world go by…

I don’t know what this particular flooring style is known as but I do know that this kind of gray, black and off-white tile design was in my maternal grandmother’s home in one of the older parts of Karachi. I believe I’ve seen such flooring in photos of other older Karachi homes too. Full marks to The Pantry by The Polo Lounge for choosing this particular floor design!

Gorgeousness on a plate – salads at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge (Emporium Mall).

Yes The Pantry by The Polo Lounge is undeniably chic in that understated rustic sort of way and what it offers in terms of food is no less elegant. The eatery serves a variety of delicious offerings starting with breakfast. Their English Breakfast Platter consists of a choice of Mushroom Omelette or Herbed Cream Cheese Omelette, baked beans and sausage served with a bread basket. The platter includes an order of waffles served with syrup, all to be washed down with good tea. Other than that you have Eggs Benedict, Granola and Bagels to choose from. My personal favorite is the Herbed Cream Cheese Omelette Platter.

Another look at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge at Mall One’s salad display.

Apart from  breakfast, the regular menu at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge is also wonderful and varied; I personally believe that the salads here are this café’s main strength. You have a stunning looking salad counter with various salads placed in pretty Mediterranean style plates and bowls at different heights for added visual appeal. All the salads are fresh and sprightly and contain ingredients ranging from plump couscous and peppery rocket to grilled artichokes and flame roasted peaches and they all pretty much taste amazing. I usually stuff myself with so much of the salads  that I hardly have room left for the main course. Hence I almost always end up getting things doggy bagged to take home.

Grilled Vegetable Sandwich at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge at Mall One – so yum!

The sandwiches here always hit the spot, especially their hot toasted ones. I adore The Pantry by The Polo Lounge’s Roasted Vegetable Sandwich and have that 9 out of 10 times whenever I’m here. The Herbed Chicken Sandwich and the Beef Brisket Sandwich are quite popular with my family.

My favourite pizza, the wood-fired Caponata Pizza at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge at Emporium Mall.

The rustic artisan pizzas at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge are some of the best I’ve had in Lahore so far and the Pizza Caponata with grilled aubergine, pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, buffalo mozzarella and pesto deserves a special mention. All pizzas are served with fiery chilli oil on the side.

Fresh tasting Pesto Fettuccine with grilled chicken at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge’s Mall One location.

The pastas on the menu include a herby Pesto Fettuccine and a beefy House Special Lasagne – both are deliciously satisfying and perfect when all you need is comforting pasta.

Succulent Grilled Chicken at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge (Mall One) – can’t remember if this was the Herbed Chicken or the Chilli and Cumin one.

My chicken loving friends can never get enough of The Pantry by The Polo Lounge’s grilled chicken platters and the Herbed Chicken seems to be the most sought after.

Refreshing Caramel Lemonade at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge (Mall One) – try this if you’re feeling slightly adventurous and want a lemonade with a twist!

The drinks at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge are lovely and they have iced teas, fresh juices, lemonades, a few mocktail type drinks and even sattu! I am particularly fond of their Strawberry Mojito and the pleasantly unusual tasting Caramel Lemonade.

We are usually pretty stuffed by the time we’re done with the savoury part of the menu but since we are dessert fiends, we usually do not leave without partaking of something sweet from the menu.

The hopelessly beautiful dessert display at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge at Mall One – these beauties are not just a pretty face; they taste pretty awesome too!

The desserts are very good at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge and you just cannot make your way past the gorgeous dessert display without shamelessly ogling it and wishing you could have everything from there. Worth mentioning are the mini lemon meringue pies with their flaky crusts and tart lemon filling topped with spiky toasted meringue and so are the generous slices of moist carrot cake, dotted here and there with walnuts and topped with a creamy cream cheese frosting. The tall wedges of sticky toffee date cake are wonderful when dense, comfortingly large slices of treacly cake are called for.

A decent cup of chai is all I need at the end of the day and the tea served at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge at Mall One with Mini Lemon Meringue Pie and Sticky Toffee Date Cake provides a fitting end to a satisfying meal.

Dessert is almost always accompanied with some strong tea and The Pantry by the Polo Lounge does surprisingly good chai, which was a revelation as it was totally unexpected – many places just don’t get chai right but thankfully the folks here know how to make a reasonably satisfying cup of tea. Bonus marks for the ultra pretty teapots!

Pretty salads on pretty plates at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge (Mall One).

With newer additions to the Emporium Mall menu such as the Roast Beef Burger, the Classic Beef Burger and the Mongolian Chicken Rice Bowl, things look promising for The Pantry by The Polo Lounge and for its faithful fan following. Their service is almost always faultless but I was particularly impressed with the welcoming and hospitable staff at the Emporium Mall branch with their smiling faces and pleasant attitude. I hope they stay this way.

As much as I love The Pantry by The Polo Lounge and am happy to see it doing well, the only downside to it is that the main Mall One location (much closer to me hence more accessible than the Emporium Mall one) can get extremely crowded and fairly noisy. I am the sort of person that goes out of their way to avoid crowds and crowded places so this is perhaps the only reason I stay away from it at times. So this popularity thing is a two-edged sword for me – I’m glad when good eateries are drawing in customers but exasperated at the hordes of people crowding around, especially in smaller spaces. That also explains why I don’t have as many photos of the interior of the Mall One location despite it being quite pretty and despite my being there so many times – it is almost always way too crowded.

Comforting Carbs: Pizza Caponata, House Special Lasagna and the ubiquitous Mint Margerita at The Pantry by The Polo Lounge (Emporium Mall).

Other than that, the service is attentive, both the locations are lovely and the food is delicious – what more can one ask for? Kudos to the team behind The Pantry by The Polo Lounge for getting it right nearly every time.

You can check out the official The Pantry by The Polo Lounge Facebook page here and the official Instagram account for the eatery here.

Note: This is not a sponsored post and I was not compensated by The Pantry by The Polo Lounge in any way for it. The views expressed in it are entirely my own based on my experience.

Considering the fact that I am a food lover and living in Lahore, a city known for its fierce love for food, I don’t really eat out that much. Or not as much as folks think I do. I like trying out a few new places here and there sometimes but just like most people, I have a few go-to places that I keep returning to from time to time and Mocca Coffee Gulberg, housed in Mall 94 on Main Boulevard is one such place.

Most restaurants and cafés in Pakistan offer some pretty good sehri and iftar deals during Ramzan. So when one of my good friends and I decided to catch up over some good food, we headed to Mocca Coffee Gulberg to partake of the exquisite looking Ramzan Platter that they had a picture of on their Facebook page.

Known for its fine micro-roasted coffees and superb gourmet food, Mocca Coffee Gulberg loves the concept of uncluttered space and lots of it – none of that standard ‘restaurant-café’ look here. Their minimalist Scandinavian design aesthetic is reflected in the stripped-to-essentials chicness of wood, space and light. This place has perhaps the most cleanly modern look out of all restaurants in Lahore, a winning look indeed as it gives an immediate sense of calm and peace as soon as I step into it. It is also, in my opinion, perhaps the most efficiently air-conditioned café in Lahore, an oft overlooked but important consideration when operating an eatery in Pakistani temperatures.

The glass entrance door of Mocca Coffee Gulberg takes you straight to their gorgeous patisserie display counter – under elegant glass cloches, you will find familiar sweet treats like buttery croissants and Swiss chocolate brownies and more unusual ones such as marzipan apple pie and Paleo energy bars. This drool-worthy section of the cafe with its mouthwatering selection of sweet beauties has something to satisfy every kind of sweet tooth.

Rooftop seating at Mocca Coffee Gulberg

Mocca Coffee Gulberg has a pretty nice open-air rooftop sitting area which is great for cool evenings and winter days. It is my favorite place to have breakfast in winter. I was very happy to see that they’ve built a closed section right next to the open-air seating area so you have the option of sitting out in the open and taking in the views or sitting inside when its a bit too hot to sit out in the open.

Closed seating area at Mocca Coffee Gulberg rooftop

This closed rooftop seating area is another example of simple minimalism and has the same pared-down design aesthetic like the rest of the café. The beautiful large floor-to-almost-ceiling doors and windows shaped like hollow one dimensional Rubik’s Cubes give a sense of still being out in the open while inside the merciful comfort of an air-conditioned room.

The Mocca Coffee menu is not only delicious but healthy and nutritious into the bargain. From fresh artisan salads, stuffed savoury crespelle and vibrant pasta dishes to detox breakfasts, Paleo brunches and well-thought out vegetarian options, it makes me want to order the entire menu in one sitting.

Ramzan Platters at Mocca Coffee Gulberg

Since this time we had gone there especially to try the Ramzan Platter, we ordered two of those plus grilled paninis for later. Mocca Coffee’s iftar platter is a bit different than most restaurant/cafe iftar platters. It consists of:

• pitted dates
• dried figs
• fresh peaches and mangoes cut in small dice served in a small glass
• two spicy crisp fried chicken strips
• a decent sized piece of grilled chicken breast with a deliciously piquant sauce
• a portion of Greek salad
• choice of 2 macarons or slice of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
• a glass of fresh fruit juice or lemonade (we opted for a ginger-lime lemonade and an apple-mint-ginger smoothie

Everything on the platter was fresh, tasty and refreshing – a complete mini-meal. The chicken was hot, the salad, fresh fruit and drinks cold and the dried fruit and sweets at room temperature – perfect.

Grilled Paninis at Mocca Coffee Gulberg

Our paninis arrived after we were done with the Ramzan Platter; frankly the iftar platter was filling enough but since we are fans of Mocca’s paninis we’d ordered  them anyway. Each panini (grilled paprika-jalapeno panini for my friend and marinated grilled vegetable panini for me) was accompanied by a side of potato wedges encrusted with a paprika and rosemary coating, some crisp salad greens with sun dried tomatoes and black olives and some tangy aioli. Both paninis were deliciously crisp grilled with flavorful fillings but since we’d already had the Ramzan Platter, we could finish just half of our paninis and doggy bagged the leftovers for later.

Overall another pleasant experience at Mocca Coffee Gulberg. We stopped at the luscious patisserie on our way out and exited the café with a box of 8 different flavored macarons, the finest in Lahore in my opinion. Yum!

Note: This is not a sponsored post and I was not compensated by Mocca Coffee Gulberg in any way for it. The views expressed in it are entirely my own based on my experience.