The Soothing Vibes - YOU Magazine, The News International

The Soothing Vibes

With its warm lighting, well-placed paintings and comfortable seating, the interior of Ole creates a warm ambiance

By Waqas Hassan Sharif

Photography by: Naqeeb ur Rehman

DATED: [22-04-2008]

Ole is one of the new breed of high-quality, gourmet restaurants that have recently blossomed at Zamzama. It has a very neutral environment - neither very loud nor very formal.

The very name Ole expresses joy and excitement and upon entering the restaurant one does feel happy to see the interior which is just pretty as punch. The restaurant's eclectic interior is spacious and modern. It has a seating capacity of 40 to 45 people. With its warm lighting, well-placed paintings, and comfortable seating, the interior creates a warm ambiance and manages to communicate a certain slick urbanity. The over all colour scheme revolves around dark brown and green with a tinge of maroon.

"I always had a passion to open up a restaurant but did not have any experience. I finally decided to go for it when I met Mr. Mehboob Khan (who is a renowned chef). He rendered us his consultancy services. The entire menu, setting up the kitchen and staff training is done by him," says Nadia Rizwan, the managing director of the restaurant.

However, for furniture and basic interior designing Nadia has consulted Ifran Chaudary, an interior designer from Lahore. "The rest of the interiors, or you can say trimmings, are done by my husband Rana Rizwan whereas posters and pictures are done by Ali Memon. We tired to create very soothing ambiance through soft lighting, dark brown furniture with colours of green and maroon in interior. We wanted to keep the interior very simple yet stylish," explains Nadia. One is also inspired by the exquisite cutlery and crockery. The cutlery is made to order with the logo carved on it. It's done from Pak Alam Cutlery from Sialkot. Not only that, their especially designed crockery is also made to order from Clayworks with colours that reflect the overall theme of the restaurant. The couple has plans to enhance the interiors. "We will be putting more nice pictures on our brown pillars and walls. We have also planned to enhance our bar. At the moment it's very simple. We have plans to make some shelves to display bar related stuff like bottles, crockery etc," says Nadia.

Ole offers a la carte dining. The intriguing menu items are all artistically presented with the option of assorted desserts. Guests have the opportunity to tickle their taste buds with a variety of meat or fish dishes. "Our basic aim is to provide people with something different and delicious. Our chef Mudassir Siddique has worked 6 years in Dubai's finest restaurants but the credit goes to Mehboob Khan who has set an exotic menu and trained the staff accordingly," informs Nadia. However, the non-traditional desserts are possibly the best thing on the menu. The portions are a little on the slim side, nonetheless the ambiance and friendly service make each of the small bites special. The service is excellent and prices, while they might be a bit higher than elsewhere, are more than justified by the wonderful cooking.

The restaurant caters to all age groups. According to Nadia a lot of stuff is planned for future. "At the moment we are catering from 5 p.m. onwards. In future we plan to open for lunch too. We have also planned to have Jazz nights once a month. Then Website is also in plan; we have thought of a very interactive website where people can make reservations, win free food get all the info about our latest offers etc."

With an outstanding interior, great music, a cosy and welcoming atmosphere, efficient and friendly service, everything about Ole has a feel-good factor. You know when you have a special anniversary and somehow the very significance of it gives you the yips, and you can't think of anywhere to go! This is the right place for you.