In recent years Lahore’s food scene has veered towards a different direction, particularly with social media transforming the way businesses reach out to customers. There has been a sudden profusion of eateries with no physical locations but a made to order menu that ranges from desserts to full scale catering services. Several such small scale ventures that operated out of domestic kitchens soon garnered a reputation for the quality of their products and became immensely popular, some cashing in on the success and eventually expanding. One such name that has been around for a while and has finally capitalised on its potential is Rina’s Kitchenette.

Starting out as a made to order, home-based business that offered a sumptuous array of desserts and cakes as well as party menus, Rina’s Kitchenette has been one of the most popular food businesses in Lahore. Around for over a decade, acquiring a name and popularity due to the maintenance of quality, Rina’s food has raced ahead of even established bakeries and retained its loyal clientele even after a second wave of social media instigated food boom took over. Most new restaurants offered fancy decorated desserts but nothing much in terms of taste. With so much to their credit already, this family-run operation decided to go professional and treat this city to some delicious cooking.

Instep was invited to try the menu at the recently opened bistro, which was chock full of people, even mid afternoon on a week day. Ammar Mohsin, the chef Batool Mohsin’s brother, was managing the floor and helped point out the best loved items on the menu while throwing in his personal favourite recommendations as well.  The menu itself is cohesive and concise, offering appetizers, salads, cold sandwiches and a small gourmet section that includes cheese burgers and chicken pot pie. There was of course a long list of mouth watering desserts on offer as well.

We started with the grilled chicken and mango salad as well as a serving of their tomato and feta salad.  It would be pertinent to mention here that bread and cheeses used by Rina’s Kitchenette are made fresh for the restaurant in their own kitchen. From the breads for the sandwiches to the mozzarella in the mozzarella sticks, it’s all made in-house. The mango salad was summer fresh and perfectly balanced savoury chicken with the saccharine sweetness of mangoes. The feta salad, with a generous sprinkling of candied walnuts, had a different kick to it than usual versions that can be found across the city. We’ll credit it to their fresh produce and the homemade cheese.

We moved on to mozzarella sticks that were served with a dip and melted in our mouths. Unlike the store bought mozzarella that turns stringy when heated, this cheese had a slightly different texture that didn’t leave it coating your fingers with grease. And then fresh Strawberry Smoothies found their way to our table, refreshingly cold and well seasoned - not too sweet or too bland. Our entrees arrived and we happily tucked into our cheese burger (bun made fresh that morning) and Aglio e Olio pasta with prawns. The first thing we checked was how well the prawns were cooked and you guessed it, the crustaceans were turning opaque, served al dente. The burger patty was succulent and the only thing that let it down was the fries, which we hoped would’ve been piping hot and crunchy, but were somewhat lacklustre.

It was time for dessert and even though we were already slipping into a satiated food coma, the chocolate and bread pudding arrived and we attacked it with gusto. Let’s just say that the proof is in the pudding and no number of words can do its chocolaty goodness justice. To wrap up, the conclusion is rather obvious: this should be where you out next, whenever that may be.