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'Gawalmandi' is here!

If you are a foodie, Gawalmandi is a must-visit place to experience a touch of the Land of the Pure Gawalmandi, the famous food street in Lakshmi Chowk, Lahore, is a brand and name in itself. Sermed had all the articulation and the foodie vision to remake the theme in the UAE.

Gawalmandi is the name for tempting and finger-licking food in Lahore. That very same concept has been reinvented and eulogised in Ajman. Sermed Altaf is its proprietor and owner. He also humbly calls himself the chef adviser, accountant, supplier, grocery purchaser, as well as an attendant to entertain his valued customers. He could be seen from one corner of the restaurant to the other, hobnobbing from tables to the kitchen and from the fine dining area to the ringing register. He is articulate and smart. With a permanent smile and twinkle in his eye, he is a many-role-fit-for-one person at Gawalmandi!
Sermed comes from a corporate background, and has done his best there. But at the zenith of his career, Sermed felt that it was time to live and work for his passion: food. He calls himself a foodie and wants to create a semblance of perfection in the food market. It goes without saying that he has a special love for Pakistani delicacies, especially Karahi, BBQ and Takka-tak. His passion made him abandon his more than two decades of career in the corporate sector, and carve out a new niche.
This passion drove him to become a self-styled gourmet lover, and open a Pakistani restaurant, Gawalmandi. He hails from Islamabad where he studied business and commerce, and went on to leave a mark in finance and administration. His wife is from Lahore and they have two teenage children, and are settled in Dubai.
Though Gawalmandi, the famous food street in Lakshmi Chowk, Lahore, is a brand and name in itself, Sermed had all the articulation and the foodie vision to remake the theme in the UAE, which is home to a million Pakistanis. Moreover, Pakistani dishes are quite popular across the continent and loved by Arab and Western dwellers. This is why Sermed asked himself, why not a 'gawalmandi' here. His idea clicked and he is in for roaring business.
Gawalmandi is located in the Jurf vicinity of Ajman, and is a great place to drive down from Dubai and Sharjah. It is just opposite the Ajman immigration offices and behind Nesto Supermarket. Sermed says, though his restaurant is hardly few months old, he has managed to make valued customers from as far as Abu Dhabi. He says his idea is to make it a very family-oriented place, where all could be at ease as they cherish sumptuous food.
Sermed is very choosy when it comes to taste, and his views clearly reflect such a thought. He says he loves to shop for groceries for his restaurant, and picks the best ingredients. Meat and chicken served are fresh on a daily basis, and no frozen stuff is used. Likewise, he makes it a point to say that he imports spices and other ingredients from Pakistan to make a passionate melting pot at the end of the day! Sermed is also very particular about his chefs and other cooking staff, and have flown 10 of them from Lahore, each a specialist in their respective culinary skills.
He is never lost on beverages either. The lahori lassi, fully presented in a silver-crystal chilled glass is awesome and vows to make your dining experience perfect. So is the weekend special menu, with phaja ka pay and lahori chana, as well as a composite of sweet dishes, especially what he calls his own refined rabri-cum-kheer.
Last but not the least is the restaurant's ambience. In a small but cosy place, Sermed has tried to create a proper homely environment - what he calls a 'home away from home'. Catchphrases such as Lahore, Lahore ay (Lahore is unmatched) as well as kites and paintings depict a perfect aura of the Punjab's metropolitan. A wall painted with Anjum Rana's TribalTruckArt theme depicting peacocks, and fanfare with slogans that are prominently inscribed on private buses and trucks embolden the aura of the restaurant, and make it culturally apt. He has also spared a thought for a couple of literary books to be put on a wall-shelf, perhaps for a book-lover waiting restlessly for the delicious food. Kashful Majoob of Syed Ali bin Usman Hajveri, a Sufi treasure read, and a couple of travelogues depict the man and his intellectual pick from Lahore.  
Gawalmandi is a must-visit place, if you are a foodie and want to experience a touch of the Land of Pure. It can easily house 50 people in the air-conditioned premises and the fine dining area outside, which has also been tastefully decorated with select green plants, comfortable furniture and open air chillers. Sermed has plans to expand and move on to other emirates, but is unrelenting on taste! This is why it is called 'gawalmandi'.
- mehkri@khaleejtimes.com