Celebrations: Love for food or food for love?

As Valentine’s Day approaches, eateries try to attract more customers.


Our Correspondent February 12, 2012

LAHORE: Something special every year for this day is necessary to keep customers coming in, says Kamran Sheikh, manager of Verandah Bistro, a Mediterranean eatery near Mini Market.

This year too, he said, the restaurant has a special menu.

Customers will be welcomed with a seven-course Valentine’s special menu with options to choose from fish, chicken, pasta, steak and prawns. Also on the menu are strawberries margaritas and a red dessert. The restaurant will also use special red serving dishes.

While recently opened restaurants in town are offering special deals to get reservations ahead of the day, managements of established restaurants such as Yum, Café Zouk, Freddy’s and Ziafat feel that they do not have to make any extra effort.

Managers at Café Zouk and Yum said their restaurants had been booked in advance and it would be hard to accommodate more customers.

“We do not feel any pressures to make special arrangements for Valentine’s Day,” Yum Manager Muhammad Ilyas told The Express Tribune. Café Zouk’s manager felt likewise. “We are crowded regardless of whether it’s Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Day, Christmas or Eid,” he said.

The Noodle House, which opened in October 2011 in Gulberg, has over 50 reservations for Valentine’s Day so far. Manager Hashaam Aziz says he hopes to get more.

Explaining the menu for the day, he said, “We wanted something well-rounded and unique. Something no other restaurant in Lahore will offer.”

At The Noodle House, dinner for two includes a menu of refried salmon salad for appetiser, red curry with roasted duck for the main course and deep-fried green tea ice cream for dessert for Rs2,799.

“Lahoris are unfamiliar with roasted duck in red curry and green tea ice cream,” he said. Including dishes, which are “unheard of and delicious,” he believes, will give the restaurant “an edge.”

While some restaurants are adjusting menus to draw clients others, relatively new ones, are making alterations to the décor.

The manager at Café Upstairs, which opened little over a week ago, told The Express Tribune that customers will be offered free heart-shaped cookies and roses.

He said since the restaurant has yet to be officially launched, only small changes will be made in the décor for Valentine’s Day.

The manager at Opium, a Thai restaurant that opened in Gulberg in December last year, said the restaurant will be decorated with yellow and red lights with confetti and roses at each table.

He said free Thai chicken spring rolls will also be offered to customers.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13th, 2012.

COMMENTS (2)

prince naruto | 12 years ago | Reply

thats great..but i dont have any girlfrnd..,.

terrorist | 12 years ago | Reply

love for jihad

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