holy moly, thank you. Can you please tell us how to reach there by rickshaw? I mean any famous land mark or road name or anything which we can tell the rickshaw driver? Also there is gulberg 1, 2 & 3. Which one is this?
prototype, thank you so much for all the lists. Been to some of those eating places but other links, especially ince cream joints are new information. And yes, you're right about the Expresso not being on hussein chawk. Please read below.
Elegence dear, you misunderstood. I was trying to confirm that you had given the right directions to 'Expresso' to reach there by rickshaw as I have been using rickshaw for a while now to go places & I know that at many occasion they dont know how to reach even at a well known place. Below, I am going to write my experience of reaching 'Expresso' by rickshaw as per your given directions. Please read below.
We took a rickshaw & asked him, "Do you know hussein chawk?" He said, "Yes." So we told him that we wanted to go to 'Expresso' near that. He said MM Alam road is near hussein chawk & there are all such places. It wont be difficult to find it once there. We decided to go.
Then he reached hussein chawk & told us he was there. I said, "Ok, now find us 'Expresso' please. So, he kept going round & round checking out even stopping at times to check with people standing on the side road but nobody knew. It was 1.30pm & the heat was so unbearable that we decided to order fresh juices instead of tea / coffees upon reaching 'Expresso'. After wasting quite alot of time, he finally stopped (again) close to Freddy's. We were slightly hungry too but not as much as blowing Rs.800+ per head or so on Freddy's buffet. Some sandwich or snacks would have been fine at 'Expresso'. We were also desperately looking outside & we spotted a board that said, "Buffet lunch & Hi Tea Rs. 275+tax per head." We quickly made up our mind as it was impossible to continue looking for 'Expresso' in that heat. We decided to try that lunch buffet & hi tea. This was right next to Freddy's. It was called something like 'Memoire' if Im not mistaken. Our heads were too heated up to concentrate on anything else.
So we enter this place. The cleanliness was not bad. The seating tables were placed much 'closer' than we would like but at that time, we were relieved that we were finally in the air conditioned envorinment. I asked the waiter if they served open meals (not buffets). He said that they only had buffet. So we decided to take that anyway. The food included Chinese & Pakistani cuisine. We had some pasta from the salad bar & 'gol guppays'. There were also fruit salad, coleslaw, plain salad, fresh lettuce, chana chart & much more I cant recall. There were two kinds of chinese soups & quite a variety of food & snacks including heavy meals in the main course like egg friend rice, chicken shashlik, chicken tampura, some other chinese chicken, nihari, biryani, palak gosht, mutton kababs, chicken qorma, roghni & garlic nans & much more we could not keep a count of. We did attempt to taste kababs & chicken qorma without the nans. Not bad at all but since we were not too hungry, did not enjoy it.
We also tried 'Firni' & milk 'sewwiiyaan' from the sweet dishes. Both were nice. Little pieces of plain chocolate cake & chocolate cake with nuts topping, we could have passed. There were also fruit custard, jelly, biscuits & many more sweet dishes I cant remember right now.
They served green tea without milk which was a disappointment. It was cold too. We had 4 trips. First for pasta & gol gappy from salad bar, second for kababs & chicken qorma from main course, third for sweets & fourth for the tea. The service was exceptionally fast & good. The bad part for the waiter(s) serving us was that there was no concept of 1 waiter for a table. So a new face who brought us only the bill took away the tip too which I guess was unfair to the ones who served us but whatever, maybe that's how they work.
There was also a little bar at the side (which was not opened that time). I wanted to ask the waiter if that included alcoholic drinks (Just for the sake of knowledge) but I did not. Also, there were mixed crowds of people. All kind of people were there. Majority males though so we were not completely okay as we would have preferred a family / ladies only kind of environment. Although, we did see an all female group (maybe students) & some small & large families visiting too (but they were less in number).
Forgot to add that the amount per head came upto Rs. 320 including tax.
Phew!!
Till next time.