Nothing makes a morning seem longer than the expectations of a great lunch outing with friends. A few of us in office try to plan a lunch outing at least once a month. For the past few times, we have been exploring restaurants in the (comparatively) newly opened DLF Mall of India. So far we have been to Soda Bottle Openerwala, Pirates of the Grill, Mamagoto, and most recently to Zizo.
Many of us are aware of the Zizo in CP and were delighted to know that the same restaurant was opening in DLF Mall of India too. Zizo serves Lebanese, Middle-Eastern, and Arabian food. The Noida restaurant has simple wooden interiors and a staff that is keen to ensure that you have a great experience.
We went there just before Christmas and were in a holiday mood. Nothing would have been better than good food. Since we like pita bread and hummus, we decided to head to Zizo, a joint that bakes its own bread.
We were four people and started by ordering Hummus Ras asfour and Veg Mezze Platter. Hummus Ras asfour is tossed chicken with summac (a Lebanese spice) and pomegranate sauce, served with hummus and pita bread. The pomegranate sauce was to die for. The dish on the whole was a winner. A must-try if you plan to head to Zizo. The pita bread is soft and fresh.
The Veg Mezze Platter consisted of three dips - Labneh Beltoum (yoghurt with spiced with mint), muhammara (a hot pepper dip), hummus, and tabouli (a salad consisting of chopped parsley, cherry tomato, and pomegranate). The Platter too comes with pita bread. The platter too is good, and especially if you are trying Lebanese food for the first time, it is a good introduction to the cuisine.
In the main course, we ordered a Moroccan Lamb Tajine. We were really looking forward to this dish, especially to its presentation. Traditionally, a tajine (Tagine) is a North African earthern cooking pot with a tall canonical lid. The dish is named after this pot and is a slow-cooked stew, usually served with couscous. The lamb in thid dish was cooked to perfection, but we were slightly disappointed because the tajine wasn't served in a tagine, and besides the well-cooked lamb, there was nothing special about it. There were no unique flavours that delighted us.
By this time, we were all almost full, but thought that it would be a sin to leave without trying a Lebanese dessert. So we ordered two - a Warm Cheese Kunafa (a cheesecake dipped in orange blossom syrup) and a Basbousa (Sweet coconut and semolina cake). By this time we were not as hungry as we were when we had walked in, so our reaction to the dessert was lukewarm in comparison. Though out of the two, we preferred the Warm Cheese Kunafa because it was moist and warm, Basbousa too wasn't bad. However, the sugar could have been dialed down a notch.
Though all this food was divided among 4 people, we were all in a food coma by the time we were done with the desserts. Our total bill was ~ Rs 2000/- which is not bad considering the amount of food we had (There was 30% discount on food). However, if you are judicious in ordering and avoid unnecessarily expensive options such as the lamb tagine, you can have a very reasonably prized lunch at Zizo in Noida.
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