No appetite for La Cucina
The small French-Italian restaurant in Karachi makes big food faux pas
PHOTO: Facebook
If you’re in Zamzama and the excess walking and shopping have left you fatigued, take a food break at La Cucina. The dishes there will taste better when you’re hungry.
If you don’t head out with the intention of dining at La Cucina, you might not take the trouble to find it. Peeking shyly out between intimate boutiques in Lane 6 of Zamzama Boulevard, the dimly-lit restaurant does not boast a prime location. Its exterior resembles a French country restaurant with exposed brick walls and arched windows adorned with a frame of ferry lights. Inside are more brick walls and imitation windows that look out into the vastness of painted seascapes and bright blue skies. Barring one cracked floor tile, the interior and exterior themes are tied together seamlessly.
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Once you’ve picked a table for the night (I had plenty of choice as the restaurant was empty) and pulled the high back chair closer to the table you’ll be taken care of by an eager waiter whose enthusiasm will diminish with each disappointing course.
La Cucina claims to be a French/Italian restaurant and their menu, listing great choices ranging from pasta dishes, seafood, steaks and pizza, is testament to the zest and flavour of the two cuisines, but the dishes that leave their kitchen are not. Their Scampi Al’ Ail, five oven-baked shrimps doused in garlic butter with scattered parsley and a dome of finely shredded carrots on a bed of lettuce leaves, might evoke fond memories of an aromatic day in Eze, France, but one bite of the rubbery, overcooked shrimp and you will snap right back to reality.
Poulet Grille is a signature dish in French cuisine and at La Cucina it is paired with Mexican rice! While the thin chicken fillet was tender and the rice al dente, the sauce poured over the chicken, comprising lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and crushed pepper, was indelibly salty. After complaining, the waiter apologised with a complimentary tangy mocktail, Blue Spark, but the damage was irreversible.
The fledgling restaurant has high food aspirations, but it stumbles on execution. While it made some tragic errors, the missing béchamel sauce in their Lasagne Al Forno is nothing short of a cardinal sin. The dish had all the comforting qualities of a lasagne and could sit comfortably on a dining table at home, but in a restaurant that markets itself as a French/Italian specialist, it lacked backbone.
Overall, La Cucia has not mastered either the Italian or French way of food. Their menu is also very misleading. Their Nutella Twix Brownies is a large slice of chocolate cake draped in chocolate sauce with two dollops of Walls vanilla ice cream. Be it sauce, bread or cheese – the three vital components of the two cuisines – all flavours were muted and the dishes just lacked pizzazz. But since they are not arrogant, I reckon they might just be able to turn the tables around.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Verdict: La Cucina is an addition to Karachi’s pseudo French/Italian restaurants. But while the dishes aren’t an ode to the respective cuisines, they are pleasant enough to be tried at least once.
If you don’t head out with the intention of dining at La Cucina, you might not take the trouble to find it. Peeking shyly out between intimate boutiques in Lane 6 of Zamzama Boulevard, the dimly-lit restaurant does not boast a prime location. Its exterior resembles a French country restaurant with exposed brick walls and arched windows adorned with a frame of ferry lights. Inside are more brick walls and imitation windows that look out into the vastness of painted seascapes and bright blue skies. Barring one cracked floor tile, the interior and exterior themes are tied together seamlessly.
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Once you’ve picked a table for the night (I had plenty of choice as the restaurant was empty) and pulled the high back chair closer to the table you’ll be taken care of by an eager waiter whose enthusiasm will diminish with each disappointing course.
La Cucina claims to be a French/Italian restaurant and their menu, listing great choices ranging from pasta dishes, seafood, steaks and pizza, is testament to the zest and flavour of the two cuisines, but the dishes that leave their kitchen are not. Their Scampi Al’ Ail, five oven-baked shrimps doused in garlic butter with scattered parsley and a dome of finely shredded carrots on a bed of lettuce leaves, might evoke fond memories of an aromatic day in Eze, France, but one bite of the rubbery, overcooked shrimp and you will snap right back to reality.
Poulet Grille is a signature dish in French cuisine and at La Cucina it is paired with Mexican rice! While the thin chicken fillet was tender and the rice al dente, the sauce poured over the chicken, comprising lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and crushed pepper, was indelibly salty. After complaining, the waiter apologised with a complimentary tangy mocktail, Blue Spark, but the damage was irreversible.
The fledgling restaurant has high food aspirations, but it stumbles on execution. While it made some tragic errors, the missing béchamel sauce in their Lasagne Al Forno is nothing short of a cardinal sin. The dish had all the comforting qualities of a lasagne and could sit comfortably on a dining table at home, but in a restaurant that markets itself as a French/Italian specialist, it lacked backbone.
Overall, La Cucia has not mastered either the Italian or French way of food. Their menu is also very misleading. Their Nutella Twix Brownies is a large slice of chocolate cake draped in chocolate sauce with two dollops of Walls vanilla ice cream. Be it sauce, bread or cheese – the three vital components of the two cuisines – all flavours were muted and the dishes just lacked pizzazz. But since they are not arrogant, I reckon they might just be able to turn the tables around.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Verdict: La Cucina is an addition to Karachi’s pseudo French/Italian restaurants. But while the dishes aren’t an ode to the respective cuisines, they are pleasant enough to be tried at least once.