Laziza House

 

I dare say many Canberrans have never visited the Melba shops. Tucked up in north Belco, it’s probably not the first place most people think of spending their Saturday night. I had heard about Laziza House and so, GPS in hand, we navigated our way up there for a quiet weekend dinner. The moment we walked through the door of the restaurant, an amazing aroma of rich, spicy curry struck me. 

The restaurant had a very low-key, relaxed feel that I really liked. The décor is fairly dated and some music would have added some ambience but it did feel cosy and there were lots of families eating together. Although it was Saturday night, there were plenty of tables to choose from, which may explain why the waitress had seemed so perplexed when I had called to reserve a table earlier that day.

Laziza House is run by chef, Muhammed Ikram, and has been feeding Melba-ns since 2004. The cuisine is Pakistani-Afghan but also has lots of typical Indian dishes on the menu, so there’s lots of variety. We ordered from the Pakistani/Afghan side of the menu but the table next to us was having a banquet that included butter chicken, rogan josh and other ubiquitous Indian dishes. Everything Ikram cooks is completely halal.  

We were allowed to BYO and were only charged $2 corkage.  At around $4, they also make rose, banana, mango or salted lassis which all sounded fantastic. The prices here are very reasonable; most mains are around $15 and breads from their tandoor oven are between $3 and $4.

The floor was run by two teenage girls who were delightfully bogan and completely endearing. They were very polite and attentive and did a great job. When I asked one for her opinion on a dish, she shrugged her shoulders and gracefully replied ‘wouldn’t have a clue’. Hilarious.

 

For entrée we ordered the Laziza Plate which contained Muthi Kebab (beef mince kebab), Bengali fish, lamb cutlets and chicken tikka pieces. These were all cooked in the charcoal oven and were served with a raita and a tamarind sauce. The kebabs were a mixture of beef, chilli, garlic, ginger, spices and lemon juice. They were delicious but falling apart and difficult to eat. The lamb cutlet and chicken were both fantastic as well, with a wonderful charcoal flavour, although the lamb was slightly overcooked.

Our main courses arrived in cute little claypots. We ordered Chicken Shalimar which I had heard was one of the kitchen’s specialties. The chicken came in a spiced creamy sauce with yoghurt, lemon juice and ginger, topped with fresh green chilli, fried onions and cashews. The chicken was nice and the curry was thick, nutty and creamy.

We also had Laziza Nihari, a slow cooked beef curry -a traditional Pakistani dish.  This curry was much thinner, filled with tender, slow cooked beef and garnished with fried onions and fresh green chilli. I really enjoyed it but it was incredibly spicy. Much to my amusement it nearly destroyed M, who, it must be said, fancies himself quite spice-proof.

The rice had been doused in butter which hardly seemed necessary since the curries were quite oily but I must admit, it was delicious. It also had also been cooked with caraway seeds, cloves and some saffron so it looked and smelt amazing.

I was also really impressed with the naan. They were warm and chewy and had obviously been whisked from the tandoor only seconds before being placed on our table!

Full and pleasantly over-spiced, a futile discussion ensued about whether it would be too awkward to ask the waitress if we could take the rest of the curry home. She thoughtfully suggested she wrap it up for us before we could even broach the topic. Our entire meal came to less than $60, which seemed very reasonable.

I loved the food, loved the service and thought this was a great place for a low key night out. With a cheerful ‘thank youse’ from our waitress, we set off, admittedly, in the wrong direction for the first 5 km (classic Belconnen geography overconfidence.) Melba, we’ll be back. 

Laziza House

12 Chinner Crescent, Melba ACT 2615

Ph: (02) 6259 8033