Cafe Arabia as the name suggests, is known for it’s Middle Eastern, Lebanese, Arabic and Mediterranean cuisine. With people wanting to try new and different cuisines these days, such places are always welcome. Cafe Arabia has 4 outlets in Pune.
Cafe Arabia Location
What I Had in Cafe Arabia Seasons Mall Pune
Deconstructed Falafel Salad
Crisp bite sized falafels, lettuce, beet, parsley, olives, mixed peppers topped with sesame seeds and a lemon tahini dressing, a dressing made from ground sesame seeds. Falafel is a crispy fried chickpeas patty. This was one of the best falafel I have had.
Fattoush Salad
Pita chips, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, mint, parsley, mix peppers tossed with sumac, a middle eastern spice and herbed vinaigrette dressing.
Zaatar Chicken Salad
Grilled chicken strips, lettuce, red cabbage, olives, carrots, mixed peppers tossed with zaatar herbs and olive oil. Zaatar is a Middle Eastern Spice Blend.
Hummus Platter
Original Hummus, Jalepeno and Harissa Hummus, Mint and Zaatar Hummus, Creamy Pesto Hummus.
Hummus Topped with Seared Mushrooms served with grilled Zaatar Bread
Now, this literally tastes like Middle Eastern Pizza. It is a must try. The bread has a good dash of the Middle Eastern Zaatar spice blend and the mushroom is cooked to perfection.
Falafel Platter
This one is again a must try. The falafel here is simply amazing. Chickpea balls spiced lightly and golden fried served with a portion of hummus, toum ,which is a garlic sauce served with pickles, spiced harissa and pita bread.
Chicken Shawarma Platter
A plateful of thin slices of pit roasted chicken, served on a bed of salad and toum, served with pickles, spiced harissa and pita bread.
Spiced Beetroot Kebabs
Gently spiced minced vegetables and beetroot stuffed shallow fried kebabs. This was on the tasting menu and was on the spicy side and was not really balanced.
Grilled Mushroom
Marinated mushrooms in zaatar oil and garlic, grilled and served with toum on skewers.
Al Fahm
Yellow chilli infused creamy marinated chicken legs served with toum. A nice and rich kebab.
Paneer Shawarma on Herbed Rice
Spiced paneer strips, served on a bed of buttered herbed rice with side salad and hummus. This was full of flavor.
Al Kabsa
Chicken whole leg Arabic styled biryani flavored with orange zest served with eggs.
Baklava
A rich sweet pastry made of layer of filo topped with glazed chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup. This was a bit extra sweet for my liking.
Basbusa
Traditional Middle Eastern sweet cake made from cooked semolina and coconut soaked in honey. For me, the Basbusa was better than the Baklava here.
Overall a good place to have Middle Eastern food. Surprisingly I liked the vegetarian menu more here. Would return to have most of the things here again as the place is VFM.
If you like a Hummus Platter, you might also want to try it at All Rounder Shots in Phoenix. You can check it out here.