If you’re looking for places to pay mega bucks for some stacked pancakes, sugar-loaded waffles and ‘eggs your way’ then Balanda isn’t the place for you. It’s a local field to fork restaurant concept, taking ingredients from their dairy and meat farm to their tables – there’s at least 3 restaurants now – offering traditional dishes served in a light open contemporary restaurant.
We visited their Pearl branch, and I was impressed by the look and feel.
Hani had already visited 3 times in 1 week, so he approached it like a nonchalant regular.
It’s natural finishes, traditional seating and décor, tree and free flowing laban tap pay homage to their roots. And they’ve done it well. So well that the restaurant was packed, not to the weird wait-in-line for half and hour capacity of ihop or Sugar and Spice, but every table was filled and it was good to see it didn’t affect service.
The breakfast menu isn’t that extensive which suits an indecisive person like me – think lots of cheese, laban, labnah, manakeesh, sajj, soujouks and eggs – perfect breakfast fodder. We went for the staples, something carby, something cheesy and some spicy soujouk (sausages)
Zaatar Manakeesh/Fatayr Is there a difference?
Although I tend to love my dough thin and crispy, these manakeesh were a little thicker than I’d like, yet it didn’t seem to affect my love for them. The dough felt fresh and light, the zaatar was generous and erring on the right side of sour, so we’ll definitely be back for more.
Fried Halloumi
Our Halloumi turned into Houdini and escaped from its serving bowl extremely fast. These salty bite-size cubes of fried cheese were the perfect for filling our pitta. Simple and satisfying.
Soujouk pot
Another simple dish that held its own on the table. Nice and tender with a spicy flavor, with the nice addition of accompanying pine nuts (admittedly not many) made it a great partner to the halloumi. They didn’t hang around for too long either.
What we liked
That things were kept simple. Everything from the décor, to the service and presentation was subtle and understated rather than garish and OTT. Although it was busy, the open space and high ceiling gave it a calm collected feel, which is how you should start every day, eh?
L&M rating: 4/5
The Damage: 3 dishes and one large bottle of water was QAR 101.