Laziz Restaurant, Antipolo City

If there is one cuisine that Tim could eat for the rest of his life, it's probably Middle Eastern cuisine. Over the past few weeks, we've been passing by this quaint restaurant near my mom's Asian restaurant. Last August 24th, we finally decided to try it.

Laziz Restaurant in Antipolo is a family-owned restaurant. Pretty much like my mom's, the matriarch of the family cooks each dish served in Laziz. They boast a wide range of Middle Eastern cuisines with a Filipino touch.

Tim and I both ordered their Chicken Biryani platter, each serving is good for one but can definitely be shared by two, even three and it costs 275php. I also ordered a side dish of Hummus and a 9" pita, which were sold separately the hummus for 50php and the 9" pita for 30php.

They have fruit juices and shakes in their menu which was not available when we went there, so Tim and I each got ourselves a can of Royal and Pineapple Juice, which goes about 50php each or something.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Our judgement?

I'm no food critique nor am I a good cook, but I am exposed to different cuisines from a very early age to give fair judgment when it comes to food. Also, Tim is a chef himself which makes him more credible than I am and it just so happen that we shared the same opinion and sentiments regarding Laziz.

Let's start with the service. The staff was polite and attentive. However, the owner who's also the chef, although accommodating, tend to overstay her welcome especially during the meal and after which makes it a little awkward.

Their food, our order at least, was good. A little too spicy for my taste, but Tim seemed to have enjoyed it a lot. The serving was very generous and they used authentic spices and a mix of long and semi-long grain rice. The chicken tasted familiar, reminds me of rotisserie chicken that you can get from supermarkets or Andok's or something of the sort. It was good but lacked flavor from the meat itself.

Their hummus was good also, it had the right amount of nut, smoke, and spice plus it was portioned generously. The pita, however, tasted store-bought, as opposed to their claim that it was made by the owner but it didn't take away my joy when I dipped it into the hummus and savored every bit of it... forgive me, I'm a sucker for this type of food. lol

We didn't order much, as you know this type of cuisine is usually pricey but although we weren't able to order their Shawarma, the owner gave us a free sample of it which we thought was nice and I know I should be gracing them with so many praises but I surely suck at lying which is why I cannot work in the sales industry. In all honesty, their Shawarma didn't taste good at all, it was between dry and juicy (if that's even possible but I hope you get what I mean).

It has a piece of fry. I know that some variation of Shawarma has fries in them as some sort of an extender but I was hoping that the french fry they put in the sample was at least seasoned. Same with the entire content of what's supposed to be heaven in a wrap for me and Tim. It was a tad bland in my opinion. I'm hoping that it was just a minor inconsistency or some sort of slip up.

Overall, I gave Laziz a full-on four-star rating on Zomato.