This Saturday, I went to Lahore Eat in anticipation of a food-filled evening, and came back with a full stomach and lots of opinions.
The food festival took place over the weekend and lasted three whole days, but honestly I didn’t even know it was happening until Friday rolled around. Which was strange, because it’s usually not a low-key event, but this time there was next to no promotion. Having attended the last Lahore Eat that happened earlier this year, I decided to drop by with some friends, mostly because we were all craving those Karamel cookies that stole the show last time. Unfortunately the Karachi-based eatery weren’t present this time round- so that was the first setback for me. We got to Jilani Park around 4 pm and the meagre turnout didn’t have the best impression, either. The place did get more crowded as the sun went down but the masses were nowhere near what you might see at CokeFest or 7Up’s Food festival, or even last year’s event. I think the lack of promotion contributed to the smaller crowd, but I’m not one for restricted spaces so it wasn’t too bad. My friends and I decided to go for something smaller as an appetizer, so we had one of those potato curls from Potato Shotato, which were honestly really good.
After that, we made our way to The Brickhouse, a pizza based eatery you can normally find in DHA. There wasn’t a lot of traffic there, but we gave it the benefit of the doubt. After ordering a box of lasagna and half a pizza, we sat down to wait and I got a good look around the area. The concert stage was being occupied by some ghost performers who didn’t do much except say “testing, testing” into the mic and have a go at the drums. According to my friend, they did do an instrumental cover of a Pink Floyd song, but after some time I tuned out so I must’ve missed it. I do wish they had arranged for more consistent performances though, because the event started in the morning and it only makes sense for the performances to start then as well. Apart from that, there was a boxing ring in the middle of the ground- which was strange. But I soon discovered that some wrestling matches were set to take place there later in the evening. There weren’t a lot of decorations to enhance the feel of the event, save for a small area that was covered by a canopy of lights, so it was pretty basic. When the pizza and lasagna finally got to us, I was a little disappointed to find both dishes a little bland. My friends enjoyed it though, so if you’re not heavily critical of your food, maybe you’d like it too!
After that, we did a walk around the place to make room for desserts, and our first stop was at Pink Pistachio- which had the cutest little pink stall, by the way.
Right next to the concert stage, there was a chai place- don’t remember the name- that was serving matka chai and it was probably the best part of the event for me. A little overpriced, but sooo good. It was the perfect hot drink to go with the churro-waffle (is that what it’s called?) that we got from The Knotty Dough before leaving. And that was when we decided to call it a night. Overall, it was a little disappointing compared to previous and other food festivals, but I had a good time.