Kibbeh Lounge - The Lebanese treat!

- by Bipasha

Kibbeh Lounge (‘Kibbeh’ is a Levantine dish!) in Begumpet, Hyderabad is enviably co-located with other restaurants in the same ‘building’ (Mainland China, Oh Calcutta, and Sigree). Beating the monsoon blues, I wanted to try a specialty cuisine and mind you, not the regular Chinese, Thai and Italian. So, my immediate choice was Kibbeh Lounge and glad am I that I went there.

Located on the topmost floor of the ‘building’, KL has an exotic decor. When you enter, there are the regular table arrangements with maroon decor and hosiery. The walls are creamy white and instantly, you can feel the esoteric Middle Eastern touch. The bar is also rightly ensconced on the side. But believe me, the best was yet to come. Since we were two, the waiter ushered us into another section of the restaurant - I would like to call it the ‘walled city’.

On the other side of a very aesthetically done up section-divide, are four private cabins. Now the decor of the cabins (done in maroon) was what did justice to the latter part of the restaurant’s name - Lounge. There was a generous dosage of large velvet cushions, bolsters on the adequately spaced sofas in each cabin. There was a huge side mirror dotted with glass lamps all over - effortlessly adding that subtle mysticism.

Coming to the menu, there were cocktails (the regular stuff including daiquiris, caipirojca etc), irish whiskeys, scotch, vodka, gins and imported wines etc. Coming to the Mezze, the variety was splendid and authentically middle eastern - a welcome change from the mundane pastas etc. From lamb Kibbe, Meat Sambousek,Lamb Blazin to Cheese Sambousek, my taste buds really got triggered looking at the food descriptions. So, I picked a Veg Mezze Platter since I wanted to have the best of everything (remember, I am a pure vegetarian) comprising portions of hummus, baba ganouj,tabbouleh ,falafel,cheese sambousek all served with Pita bread. 

Mezze platter and grilled cottage cheese with tangine

For the main course, I ordered a

Grilled Cottage Cheese with tangine again served with Pita Bread. For the non vegetarians, you can choose from the eclectic spreads of Moroccon Spice Charmura, Chicken Shawarma Roll,Tom Sauid (grilled prawns with mustard marination) etc. Service was good, decor was fabulous and food even more rejoicing (of course, if you are ready to experiment with different cuisines, this is the place to begin with!) My verdict - absolute go, go, go!