By Kamran Hashim
‘Paramount Fine Foods Pakistan’ celebrated their first anniversary in Pakistan on 27th December 2017. ‘Paramount Fine Foods Pakistan’ is a franchise of world’s leading Middle Eastern cuisine ‘Paramount Fine Foods’ based in Canada and with presence in USA and Middle East also.
The word paramount loosely means ‘best among all’ and with keeping this meaning in mind, when we reached the venue we are greeted in a very paramount way at a very paramount place and were served with most paramount Lebanese food in Karachi.
We are greeted by Mr. Saad Saleem, Chief Executive Officer Paramount Fine Foods Pakistan, Mr. Atif Khan Partner Paramount Fine Foods Pakistan and Mr. Aman Virji, Director Operations, Paramount Fine Foods.
Ambiance felt perfect and atmosphere was very lively too as ‘Paramount Foods’ wasn’t closed for regular customers to celebrate its first birthday and regular customers present created a very lively atmosphere.
Mr. Saad Saleem was courteous enough to take us to our seats and once settled, we were briefed about Paramount Fine Foods and its businesses in North America, Middle East and in Pakistan and from brief introduction we moved on to their menu. We were told by Mr. Saad Saleem that; “this is going to best and most authentic Lebanese food that you will experience in Karachi and reason behind it is that we control all aspects of our supply chain so that we can assure that we are only serving the best meats, spices, drinks, desserts and confectionary items to our distinguished guests”.
For starters / appetizer we were served with traditional Lebanese starters ‘Spicy Hummus’ (chick-pea paste), ‘Labneh Za’ater’ (strained yoghurt) and these starters were served with ‘Manakeesh’ (normal bread), ‘Manakeesh with Zaatar’ and ‘Manakeesh with Cheese on Zaatar’.
After first round consisting of starters, we were ready for second round which was to consist of main courses and on recommendations of Saad Saleem we ordered a ‘family platter’ which is still not on the menu and was specially arranged for us. Aroma of ‘family platter’ was heavenly and platter itself had a splendid taste to it. ‘Family platter’ had Lamb Chops, Shish Tawouk, BBQ Shrimps and BBQ Beef Kebabs. ‘Lamb Chops’ was the best item on the platter and twice we were forced to order more ‘Lamb Chops‘.
Along with family platter, on the softer side we ordered ‘Chicken Shawarma’ and ‘Butter Chicken Pizza’ along with very healthy looking Lebanese specialities on salad section known as ‘Fattoush Salad’ and ‘Tabbouleh Salad’. These excellent tasting salads like cherry on the cake and made our Lebanese experience even more special and memorable. During the main course, supply of mouth-watering ‘Cocktail Juice’ didn’t stop at all and this drink is must try and is highly recommended by us.
After a long second round we had to come back to earth to take some rest and during this resting period Mr. Aman Virji stepped in for feed-back on ambiance, services, food (taste, quality & quantity) and was pleased to see all thumbs up from our side. He was also kind enough to invite us for a complete tour of the one of the finest lebananes restaurant in Karachi and showed us around. Kitchen was very neat, clean and had an excellent Arabic type aroma all around. Dessert Bar had ‘Baklawa’ and ‘Kunafa’ and when asked about absence of ‘Bas Bosa’, Aman Virji said; “it will on menu soon”. Hot beverages section was also neat, tidy and aromatic.
Final round started with the arrival of desserts like ‘Baklawa’ which had too much sugary taste to it and ‘Lebanese Kunafa’ for which I would use the word terrific. With the last bite of ‘Lebanese Kunafa’ our Lebanese came to a pleasant end.
Overall it was a worth mentioning Lebanese experience with excellent ambiance, very decent diners, top level food (taste, quality & quantity) and spot on services. I would rate it at 08/10 and will highly recommend to friends and famliies.
