Pranzo-An Epicurean Surprise

I don’t like surprises but this one time pleasantly surprised and loved it to bits when I at random picked this new restaurant ‘Pranzo’ last evening and had truly a dinner night to remember forever. As I was looking for a place to take my daughter for a graduation treat, someone forwarded a Phegency promotional video of this place. I just picked phone and made reservation hardly ever thinking about it, considering it is easy to please kids, lets experiment with the new place.

 Wow it turned out an out of the world experience, the baroque style decor, the dreamy romantic chandeliers, the comfortable table settings,  the huge premises, high ceilings, and various levels and sections of seating including outdoors and indoors, all culminating into a beautiful overall uplifiting ambience that would linger on in our minds long after. Perfect setting for celebrations, unwinding or to just chilling out after a long day with friends and family.

Something I admired about the setting of Pranzo is that guests can have privacy and quiet dining experience even if the restaurant is full. The service is impeccable and the food is of course ravishing. Very few restaurants have such an extensive menu of  mutton dishes, and here we were digging our forks into tender juicy Lamb Shank, a huge rack of BBQ ribs drenched in awesome BBQ sauce, and creamy spinach shrimp pasta that is loaded with lots of medium sized shrimps that are just cooked to right tenderness and not rubbery as often the shrimp  dishes turn up.

Pasta Fettucinni in Spinach Sauce with Shrimps

Beside what we ordered the menu is extensive contained a range of meat dishes including seafood,  chicken, beef, mutton. A delicious selection of pasta and vegetarian entree is seen too. There were some great steaks on the menu too, will try them the next time.

BBQ Lamb Rack

I totally appreciate the generous servings unlike many fine dinning that has a morsel of food sitting at the centre of a huge plate. Yes we Pakistanis like our fine dining plates full, and Pranzo presented us  big plates laden with good sized servings right from salads, appetizers to main courses. All of this luxuries perfectly set amongst great music, looks like they had some international radio channel live streaming playing beautiful jazz that was aired all around on simply fantastic speakers giving the feel  as if there are live music playing somewhere.

The prices are moderate and justified, a three course dinner complete with fresh juices, we paid  5900/= for a dinner for three,  this includes the taxes and service fee/tip as well.

I had been limping with a hurting ankle for a week now, and finally got to unwind laugh and relax at this place. Yes Pranzo fit in my idea of fine dining in every way.

I have no clue when it is opened who conceptualized the idea or are the owners. But whoever it belongs to they  gave a great gift to us Karachiites.

‘Pranzo’! I see myself dining here many more times in the days to come. You are a KEEPER.

Note: These iPhone pictures all clicked in dark definitly did not do justice to the presentation and food we were served. 

Pranzo on Facebook

Location: Clifton-Karachi

A Treat from the Renaissence ; Bella Vita

 Life  can be certainly beautiful with 

Bella Vita

Deserts do make life good and sweet, and that is exactly was my feeling as soon as I entered the Bella Vita. Totally thrilled to see all that is offered at this classical, cool and trendy Italian style gelataria and dessert bar. Its formal launch is suppose to be on 19^th May, but well it became a talk of the town much before that and people are sharing their experiences and images of their orders with complete delight. 

 

Serving a variety of gelatos, shakes, sorbets, coffee  and a range of unique Italian deserts makes this place strictly for the ones with a sweet tooth. Offering Wi-Fi and providing a relaxed atmosphere in a highly elegant lounge-like setting. The comfortable, high backed, cushioned chairs embossed with Bella Vita logo, wooden finished table, wood panelling on walls with country music at the background makes it an ideal spot for unwinding while enjoying a sweet life. Great choice for  after parties, or when we just want to try out a very delicately prepared and presented satisfying dessert.  

Bella Vita can also be a great socializing place when you don’t want to eat a lot or just hang out with friends and engage in a cool conversation over a cup of latte or 

mocktail. 

Omer and Hassan, two young business graduates after the success of Del Frio, came up with this new venture which is beyond any normal, bare-bones ice creamery.

 

Originated in 16^th Century in Sicily, gelato meaning ‘frozen’ in Italian language, is the Italian answer to icecream. They are churned slower then icecreams giving it a denser texture and intense flavour as less air gets  whipped into it. Gelato freezes less solidly than ice cream and are served about 10 to 15 degrees warmer than ice cream so it melts in your mouth faster. Bella Vita brought Italian chefs and got four of their local chefs trained so they are all experts in churning some prime quality gelato and creating Italian deserts. 

The gelatos contain 4-8% butter fat and does not use cream base, making it comparatively leaner. They have imported and installed all modern high end machinery, claimed the owners.  Bella Vita's core ingredients, milk and sugar are however, Pakistani. The rest are  imported which include the flavors, toppings and even the fruits. The strawberry and other berries that were used in different desserts we ate were very big and sweet. Nevertheless, Pakistan is blessed with a lot of other very good quality fruits, the chefs must try to use some of these seasonal fruits like peaches, mangoes, bananas and oranges. 

  As I tasted different flavors of the gelato from the ones on display, the Pistachio, Strawberry, Chocolate won me right away. These flavors had that intense typical gelato flavor but others like Cappuccino and Biscottino tasted like regular ice creams. Besides these they offer Vanilla,Tiramisu, Straciatella, Lemon Sorbet, Orange Chocolate, Ferraro Rocher, Wild Berry Yogurt, After Eight, Hazelnut, Caramel, Cappucinno, Chocolate, and Strawberry Cheesecake. 

Gelato in general has more sugar content but the good news is that Bella Vita offers two sugar free flavours Vanilla and Chocolate. Authentic gelato are prepared in the premises and due to less fat percentage can only be stored for few days. Not sure how much is the sale of Bela Vita, hope we get fresh supply everytime we order.

 The menu contains an extensive treat of desserts created using a combination of some of these gelati, topped with fresh creams, sauces, fresh fruits, nuts, cookies or freshly baked wafers. I tried their Coppa Solo, a celestial experience in that cup, containing one scoop of pistachio gelato which was the highlight of the evening and a must try for anyone going there, this was topped with pistachio nuts, butterscotch sauce, served with cigar biscuits and whipped cream. The Strawberry Tart, Chocolate Lava and Bread Pudding were all  baked fresh, plated extraordinary beautifully and tasted divine.

Keeping in mind the high end ambience, service and the size of their desert, the prices are very affordable. Most of gelato single servings are from Rs.140-180/=

The Bella Vita Gelati specials are huge cups or big glasses of multiple scoops of gelatos and toppings , from Rs.220/=-375/=

Overall a very fine addition in eating out, and worth giving a try one of the evenings real soon. 
Life definitely can be beautiful with Bella Vita.

Blog write up: Farah S. Kamal
Photography: Farah Kamal and Shahrukh Mughal
Bella Vita: 9th Zamzama Lane- Phase,6. DHA

The blog at Express Tribune