Edibles

Lailaty-Food to relish!

Promiti Prova Chowdhury

Photos: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo

A plate full of smoke emitting khichuri (hotchpotch) with a piece of mutton and one table spoon of mango pickles can be the most desirable alliance of food for anyone with a good sense of taste in this chilling winter. This is the most popular item sold at Lailaty-the trendy restaurant situated at road 3/A at Satmasjid Road of Dhanmondi.

Adiba Raisa Hossain, a student of English and Humanities at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh has been coming to this eatery for over a year now. She loves the pungent flavour of mustard in the khichuri. She says, “Khichuri is my favourite item here as it is not very dry and the flavour of mustard has made it delightful and unique compared to other places. I also come here because it is at a walking distance from my university.”

But complaining about the falling quality of food and increasing rate she says that the food is not that easily affordable nowadays as it was before. “I don't like the colour that they sometimes put in the Chinese items. The size of the piece of mutton given with the khichuri is getting smaller day by day”. She suggests that instead of raising the price, if they add a new item as 'half plate khichuri' at a lower rate then it might be a boost up for their business. Because she finds the khichuri too filling for one person (especially if it is a girl!) to finish at once.

Regarding the price, Sunjurul Alam Bhuiyan, the manager of Lailaty said that they do not increase the price more than once a year no matter how much price hike is prevailing in the country. Raising the price by TK 10 a year, the khichuri is now sold at TK 100 which used to be TK 60 a few years ago.

The restaurant started in 2004. “From the very beginning, it has been drawing a good number of customers, majority of them being students of different universities situated nearby”, says, the Manager. Reasonable price, quick service and good environment are the factors that has kept the restaurant going in such flow, believes Sayma, a student of Hajaribag Girls School. She came here a year ago inspired by the appraisal from her friends. Now she is a regular customer.

The special set menus of Chinese items are the most popular in the menu. Excluding VAT these set menus range from TK 90 to TK 150. Along with fried rice the items are mixed vegetable, sweet and sour prawn balls, beef onion, fried chicken, prawn curry, chicken masala, beef masala that make up the different sets. These set menus are available during lunch hour when the students start pouring in. “With time the business has grown so much that nowadays we have difficulty in providing each and every customer seats during lunch hour and the khichuri is finished by 2 pm most of the days”, states the Manager with contempt.

Mishu, a student in her fourth year studying Pharmacy at University of Asia Pacific, says, “It is right beside our university and these kinds of set meals are not available in the university canteen. So when we have to stay the whole day for classes, we can drop by for a filling lunch”.

Fresh seasonal fruit juices, lassi, faluda and laban make up the dessert and drinks line which is also very popular among students. The restaurant remains open from 11:30 in the morning to 11:00 at night. Don't forget to pay a visit this winter!