So the Friends Café opened in Johar town, Lahore and as being a fan of the Friends TV Series, I wanted to go there and I was really excited. But I was really disappointed. You don’t make a Central Perk simply by playing friends TV series all the time and putting some sofas.
Place and Environment:
First of all when you enter the café, it’s some sort of restaurant which gives a mini heart attack. The café is upstairs actually. Let me tell about the similarities first actually.
They have orange couches just as in the Central Perk. And yes the tiles are kind of similar but not too similar. And it actually looks nothing like the Central Perk besides that.
The seating is totally different. I mean they should have placed the similar chairs and tables like in the series but no, they didn’t consider that important I guess. The bar is different and is used for nothing actually. They just play the season on a projector all the time but that’s okay. They have a lot of pictures of friends TV series which is nice. You can play the foosball which is the only thing I enjoyed actually. But man I was extremely disappointed because I was looking for something like I’m in the Central Perk but NO, that didn’t happen actually.
And yes they seriously need to clean the rugs.
Service:
They have the most pathetic service. The waiters just stand in the corner and are busy talking and don’t care about the customers. We got our first 2 items after 20 minutes. The other half was served after 20 minutes. And yes I forgot about the drink which was served 10-15 minutes after the order. Plus the coffee was served without sugar which would have been fine had they given us sugar with it which they didn't. This was perhaps the worst service I have experienced at a restaurant.
Food:
let’s talk about their food. We ordered Chicken Tikka Pizza, their famous Friends Chicken Cheese Burger, Molten Lava Cake, Cappuccino and a 7up.
Chicken Tikka Pizza:
Who doesn’t like to eat coriander beautifully decorated on the top of pizza? I mean forget the pizza and let’s just eat coriander instead. No? Okay Sorry but the pizza's taste was just okay. Less than okay actually. The crust was so hard. About the cheese, it was like you can just get a slice easily. The cheese should have some stretching to it but there wasn’t any. It was like some sort of bakery pizza. But yes at least the tikka chunks had bbq smell in it.
Chicken Cheese Burger:
So this is actually their most famous burger according to them. They patty is really small and similar to McDonald’s Happy Meal burger patty. And man they are obsessed with the green stuff. Who eats burger with the coriander and it doesn’t even look nice. The burger patty was under cooked. The Buns were okay and cheese was fine. I've made 100 times better burgers in my home actually and this burger was definitely not worth Rs. 479.
Fries:
Even fries you get from food stalls on the streets are a lot better than their fries. They were not even a bit crispy. One of the worst fries I have ever eaten.
Molten Lava Cake:
Yes this is their molten lava cake. The chocolate actually got a little shy and didn’t want to come out of it when I cut it. Actually I think there was invisible chocolate which came of it that’s why I didn’t get to see it.
Basically it was the worst molten lava cake. The chocolate was way too bitter and there was actually invisible chocolate inside. Ice cream was fine.
Cappuccino:
Well the cappuccino was just okay as well. I don’t want to write anything bad everything but seriously nothing was good so what can I say. It was just ordinary cappuccino. And yes please ask the waiters to give you the sugar with it because they forget.
7up:
You might be wondering why am I writing about the 7up. I mean what can actually be wrong in it? Well it had literally had zero gas in it. It was just like I was drinking sweet water. Yes but they did replace it when I asked them to taste it.
Conclusion:
I know you guys still just want to visit just because of Friends TV Series but remember not to order anything. Some drink would be fine I guess but the food is not good at all. And don’t forget to play the foosball and you can invite me to play with you because that was the only thing that I enjoyed and I felt like Chandler and Joey :D
Place(Compared to the TV Series): 5/10
Place: 7/10
Food: 4/10
Service: 4/10