The Lahore Fort Road Food Street

Entrance to the Fort Road Food Street

Mention of Lahore or talking of Lahore without its food is the most unjust thing one can ever do. The richness of Lahore's peculiar culture is incomplete unless we talk about the amazing dishes of specific Lahori food. Those who come to Lahore always cherish the memories of its beautiful places, people and mouth watering dishes forever.

Being a Lahorite myself and a foodie too, I have been writing about eateries of Lahore in some of my previous posts. I have talked about the Gawalmandi Food Street, the eateries around the Qaddafi Stadium and also shared an introduction to the food street of the Fort Road. Recently I was in Lahore and made it a point to visit the eateries on the Fort Road - a place just overlooking the famous Badshahi Mosque (the Royal Mosque), built by the Mogul Emperor Aurangzeb in the 17th century AD.

The Fort Road food street, as is evident from its name, is located on the Lahore Fort Road and also adjacent to the Badshahi Mosque, and amidst the Taxali and Roshnai Gates, the Sikh Gurdwara and numerous other historical buildings in the Walled City. Like the Gawalmandi Food Street, the Fort Road food street too is located in the old multi-storied houses with wooden balconies and windows, exotically painted and immensely lit at night. 

 The wooden balconies of the old houses of the Lahore Walled city - now house to the Fort Road food street

 Dinner tables on the footpaths along the road leading to one of the gates of the Lahore Fort

 Food is prepared outside the eateries - the aroma of which fills the environs around

As I said earlier, the Fort Road food street is just adjacent to and behind the famous Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort. While the Fort is barely visible but for its high walls, the Badshahi Mosque can be seen in its true grandeur and majestic might, as can be seen in the photos above and below.

The illuminated wall of the Lahore Fort  

The buildings that are now occupied by the Food Street have been augmented with decoration pieces and by erecting centuries old heavily carved wooden gates and artifacts.

Cooco's Den (above) was the first eatery that was established here, much before the establishment of the food street. The place has a fantastic display of the art and culture of Lahore and that of the Mogul era. I shall cover the details of Cooco's Den in a separate post as mentioning here with lots of photos would lose its charm while talking of its interior and food delicacies.

We selected two eateries at the food street: The Cucoo's Dena and Rewaj, as suggested by a friend. Here in photos above and below, my children, me and my wife can be seen sitting on the roof top of the Rewaj. Much to our dismay, the food of the place was not very tasty as was recommended by my friend. The only specialty was the 'shahi naan (the royal bread) which had been so prepared to have different taste with each morsel we took. 

The view of the Badshahi Mosque from the roof top of the eateries is matchless. One can see the entire mosque beautifully lit - in fact people come to see the mosque from the roof top of the eateries more than eating here. 

The Badshahi Mosque, my wife and I (rhymed with the King and I)

So this is it for the time being., I shall write about Cooco's Den in one of my next posts.

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