Moving on, let me come to the topic of this post. It is Karachi Bar. B. Q.’s Malai Tikka and Cheese Naan. Karachi Bar. B. Q. is mainly a takeout – though there is seating arrangement, I suppose – of the many in DHA H-Block Market. As far as I know, it is the most highly demanded of the lot, though I’ve seen some Hot-N-Spicy advocates too.

Well, now about the food. This meal… is a purely delicious one. In fact, I’m salivating right now just writing about it. It has become one of those foods I can never grow tired of, in addition to KFC’s Zinger Xtreme. In other words, it has been my go-to meal for some past weeks. You know, you can have all the Italian and Chinese you want, but this reminds me that when it comes to actual food, little, if anything, surpasses good ol’ Pakistani BBQ.

Now when the guys over at Karachi BBQ say Malai Tikka, they mean Malai Tikka. It’s not the one you’ve had at countless other restaurants, which tastes like dry Chicken Tikka and looks white. You can literally feel the gooey malai sticking to your fingers when you take a morsel of the cheese-oozing naan and wrap it around it. And it is not dry from the inside; it is tender… and chewy. The cheese naan is just pure genius, if you ask me. It’s your regular naan, but with melted cheese inside, which is enough to make it extraordinarily irregular… oh, and delicious too. Add to it their complimentary tamarind chutney and I think that’s enough for it to qualify as ambrosia.

This is one of those meals where the main course is the dessert. Sure, it’s not sugary or syrupy, but with all that cheese and malai, you know it’s a guilty plea

sure, yet you enjoy every bite to the max. And anyways, aren’t Pakistani desserts all about malai and such dairy ingredients? And, of course, it’s incredibly filling.

So now, if you’re reading this and haven’t had this, you’re missing some good stuff in life. Go ahead right now and eat this; you’re in for a treat. They deliver, too, which is not as recommended because the food gets a little cold but that’s still an option. Oh, and also a note… one serving of Malai Tikka with two Cheese Naans is more than enough for two.

Food: 9/10

Service: 7/10 (They take a tad too long to prepare your order)

Price: Malai Tikka Rs. 310, Cheese Naan Rs. 130

What am I getting at? StumbleUpon! This, my friends, is an extremely handy web utility that just does that: makes interesting stuff magically appear on your computer screen. Well, not really magically because you have to press a button, but still, pretty close, no?

You can use StumbleUpon right from its website, or, much more conveniently, through its Firefox extension like I do. To get started, you need to sign up with it and select a few areas of interest. There are 526 topics available to choose from as of now from categories as diverse as commerce, sci/tech, society, and sports. After selection of interests, you are set! However much time you may have, you can kill it, and that too mercilessly ! All you have to do is click the “Stumble” button and it will take you to a webpage that will strike your fancy according to your chosen interests. The webpage can be anything: a blog, the homepage of a huge website, an article, an image, or even a video! Stumble again, and it will take you to another webpage, again, and again, and again. Repeat until you realize you’ve successfully killed the time at hand!

What’s more, you can choose to Stumble through all of your interests randomly or one specific interest. You can also choose one specific kind of media you want to Stumble, like images, videos, and even news. Then there is also the option to StumbleThru a website. This option is available for only a handful of websites which have vastly growing content, like Youtube and also WordPress! I personally am in love with the results it brings up for Youtube… it makes browsing Youtube such a breeze: no searching, no search results, none of that inconvenience… just interesting Youtube videos!

Apart from this, there are many additional tools. You can “thumb up” or “like” a particular stumble or even any other webpage that you want to remember and it will show up in your StumbleUpon favorites. You can also view popular Stumbled webpages which have gotten the most hits and even narrow those popular pages down to only those which fall into your selected areas of interest.

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Well, all that’s left to say now is that you should go to stumbleupon.com right now and sign up for an account. You won’t regret it, promise!

As it happens, the song of Ra.One that was very much in the limelight some months ago and even is today, which was sung by Akon for Ra.One has leaked online today. It’s called “Chammak Challo”.

And though I feel bad for SRK as he must’ve had big plans for the release of this much-highlighted song, I am also a bit happy because I could not have waited longer and anyway, no good music has been releasing since forever. T-series is constantly taking off videos from Youtube containing the song, but we all know, once it’s leaked online, there is no way to stop it. You take down one video, ten more pop up.

The song is not a typical Bollywood item number, but I still like it a lot. It is sure to be the next big thing. And you’ve got to listen to Akon singing in Hindi… that’s a masterstroke if you ask me!

This time, I went with a larger group so I got to know more about the food. Also, since it was the weekend, their was more on-duty staff to handle the heavier inflow of customers. The day I visited before, the manager was not there, but this time, he was.

Luciano’s takes its white theme quite seriously; the manager was dressed in a white suit and the waiters also wear white with a tie of the same orange-and-white pattern that appears on their menu card and the two big flashy pillars inside the restaurant. I got pretty much the same vibes this time too, and the people with me agreed too. The glass facade gives the restaurant a bright look and an energetic vibe in daytime. I have described Luciano’s interior in detail in my first review and it was the same, obviously, this time too, so I am going to talk about the food now.

First of all, they served us, a group of four, with two complimentary watermelon drinks. Why two? Well, because they had this deal going on “for the ladies.” Now, I have never in my experience come across a gender-specific restaurant deal and, frankly, I would not like to either! This was very strange of Luciano’s, to say the least.

We had ordered the Chilli Prawn Tempuras for starters, which everyone agreed were no-good and went to waste. Instead of proper tempuras, in which the batter is applied to the ingredients which are then deep-fried, these tempuras had an outer skin which was stuffed with the fillings and so they felt empty, in addition to their uninspiring effect on the palate. What we liked better was the complimentary appetizer, which, this time, were miniature bread rolls served with two dippings: olive oil and sour cream.

The entrees we ordered were Beef Pepperoni Pizza, Spaghetti with Meatballs, Luciano’s Special Pasta, and Stuffed Cannelloni.

Luciano's Special Pasta

The Special Pasta I’ve already talked about in my previous review, so check that out (link given above).

Beef Pepperoni Pizza

The Pizza was thin crust, as was expected from an Italian restaurant, and was reportedly very good. And, anyway, it’s an Italian place… can’t really go wrong with pizza now, can it? Well, maybe it can, but Luciano’s, thankfully, did not!

Stuffed Cannelloni

The Canneloni… well, it looked… unappetizing, to put it mildly. Presentation of food definitely plays a huge role in how we perceive it, and it is the first impression of your dish that you get. If that is not right, it is pretty much a fail. The cannelloni was literally drowned in the very runny sauce. Frankly, it looked more like a soup served in a plate. And the fact that it was green, thanks to its spinach stuffing, did not help much either. My friend was pretty reluctant to even try it, and we even talked to the management. They were gracious enough to offer to change the order, but insisted that my friend at least try it. And, well, she liked it after trying, so I guess it was all good. After all, all is well that ends well, right?

Spaghetti with Meatballs

Now coming to my order, the Spaghetti with Meatballs. It was served with two pieces of garlic bread, and the presentation was outstanding. It was made in tomato sauce, which gave the pasta an appetizing orange tinge. The meatballs were tender and done just right, and so was the spaghetti. It was not too tender, nor too stiff, just right! Overall, it was a very nice meal, or, more appropriately put, it can make for a very nice meal, because I did not have but six or seven morsels. Why? Because I found the taste to be too tomato-ey. The sauce was very overpowering. Now, I may very well be biased here, because of a thing I may have developed against tomato sauce after my experience with it in a steak from another restaurant, but that is a different story in itself and deserves its own blogpost. But let’s just say… that because of that little “incident,” I may have begun psychologically associating tomato sauce with something that if any food ever gets associated to, you will never think of having it again. At least those without a very rare and specific philia would not! Needless to say, I have not gone within a two-feet radius of any steak since that incident too (How sad is that!). I would prefer tomato sauce over white sauce in pasta any day, but I guess that has changed now, since I had not had tomato sauce ever after that incident till yesterday. So, I really do not know how to give a verdict on the spaghetti, but let’s just say, if you love tomato sauce, go for it, because it did have everything going its way if you take out the sauce!

So, this was it for this time at Luciano’s! And now it is time for my revised ratings. I was planning to take 1 from food, but since I may be biased, I have taken 0.5, because, agreed, everyone was happy with their entrees except me but the starter was unanimously shunned, remember? Service was going to get an increase of 1, but because of their sexist special deals, I have taken 0.5 off too.

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being lowest and 10 highest:-

Food: 7.5/10

Ambiance: 7/10

Service: 7.5/10

Overall: 7/10

Must Try, Worth a Try, Don’t Try? Worth a Try!

The facade of the restaurant is all glass. On entering, what surprised me, and that too pleasantly, was how alight the place was, owing to the white interior. It is commendable how Luciano’s dares to be different when every other restaurant uses dim lighting. The setting is a tasteful blend of casual and formal, with proper dining tables in the middle of the restaurant and tables with couches on the sides. Flowing white curtains border the setting of each table, which lends an air of privacy and romance to the restaurant. A nice little touch is that the tables are already set with orange napkins, which serve as accents to the white interior. The glass facade offers a nice view from inside the restaurant and provides it with all the light it needs in the daytime.

On the flipside, however, is the fact that a white interior is extremely hard to maintain, and that is where the management fails. Cleanliness should be a given for any restaurant, but that is not the case with Luciano’s. The curtains are visibly stained, the white couches are unpleasantly dirty, and so is the glass facade. In the daytime especially, the sunshine makes the stained glass glaringly obvious. The white interior could have worked wonderfully, but it seems the management had not anticipated the difficulties that it would have to encounter to maintain a pristine interior with white.

Well, I was hungry so I dug straight into the entrees. The order was Luciano’s Special Pasta and Chicken Tenderloin Steak. As is the trend, we were served with a complimentary appetizer, which was garlic bread, or, more appropriately, an insult of garlic bread. Instead of using a proper baguette, they had used ordinary white bread, which came off as unprofessional. Now I have heard that the appetizer differs according to the meal you are dining for, but in my case, I would be more impressed had they not served it at all. The quality was not my only qualm by the way, it was the measly quantity too.

After the “complimentary appetizer,” our entrees arrived. The pasta was fettuccine with chicken strips and olives in white sauce. I liked my entree. It was not bland, not spicy, but just right, as it should be. The chicken strips were done nicely and all the ingredients complemented each other to make up for a good and filling meal. My friend liked his steak too, which was served with three different, and reportedly very delicious, sauces, though he did feel it was a wee bit overcooked. For dessert, we ordered the Chocolate Lava Molten Cake, which was delectable and appealingly presented. However, the quantity of ice-cream was a little less to match the quantity of cake and I felt it was overpriced.

So, overall, it was a mixed experience with Luciano’s. It is different, the food is delicious, but the management is not paying attention the little things that count. Only if that is taken care of, Luciano’s can turn into a very pleasant and appealing experience for Lahore’s foodies. As of now, I’d say it is worth a try if you want to go somewhere new, but definitely not a must try!

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being lowest and 10 highest:-

Food: 8/10

Ambiance: 7/10

Service: 7/10

Overall: 7/10

Verdict: Worth a try if you want to go someplace new.