Ben-T Cafe — Restaurant in Lahore Cantonment Tehsil

My Experience at Ben T Café – A Harsh Reality Behind the Hype

I recently visited Ben T Café after watching countless food vloggers promoting it as a must-visit spot. As expected, those seemed like paid and exaggerated promotions—because my experience turned out to be the exact opposite.

Due to the so-called “high demand” and “full house” (as claimed over the phone), I was only offered a 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM slot. I immediately booked it to avoid missing out—thanks to the fabricated urgency created by social media hype.

However, when I reached at 6:00 PM sharp, the reality hit me. The entire parking lot was empty, except for one car—belonging to the owner. No crowd, no buzz—just silence. That alone raised red flags.

Inside, there were just two guests and a couple more waiting. At 6:10 PM, I asked the waiter about the buffet status—he said "5 minutes" and disappeared. I asked for water, and he passed it on to someone else—who never showed up. Result: not even a glass of water was served until 6:22 PM when we were quietly told the buffet had started. No announcement, no communication. The other family next to us was just as confused.

And then came the real disappointment—the food.

Food Quality: Absolutely pathetic. Chicken kebabs had a terrible smell, the karahi had tiny bony chunks with hardly any meat, and the koftas looked and tasted like leftover street snacks. Worst of all—the same tasteless gravy was used across kofta, palak, and karhi.

Biryani: Made with low-grade sella rice, boiled and mixed with qasoori methi to mask the smell.

Drinks: Artificially flavored lemon and orange juices that were clearly of the lowest quality.

By 6:45 PM, I politely asked them to cancel my order—I couldn’t risk feeding that food to my family.

To be fair, the ambiance was unique with its Panda-themed décor, and the furniture was decent. But even that couldn’t save the overall disaster. Basic hygiene was missing too—cutlery placed openly on tables without covers or tissues.

I won’t even comment on the staff, manager, or owner behavior—it was all just a massive letdown.

To sum it up: Ben T Café is a fake, overhyped, and disappointing place. A complete failure in terms of food quality and service. Shame on the food vloggers who sold this place to Lahore just for the sake of paid promotions. Smell cannot be disguised by...

The hype around BENT Café was so huge that we finally decided to give it a try and honestly, that’s where our disappointment began. First off, the ambiance was okay-ish. The panda-themed aesthetic was cute, sure, but that was pretty much the only positive thing about the whole experience. From there, it all went downhill. They didn’t even have most of the main courses available because the place was apparently “under renovation.” No chicken cordon bleu, no pizza, not even desserts. A café without dessert? That’s a red flag already. Now, coming to the main part the food. The quality was the worst, and I’m honestly not exaggerating. We ordered chicken drumsticks for appetizers, and for the main course: chicken chilli dry, chicken cashew nut, egg fried rice, chowmein, and a Moroccan steak. Here’s how it went: The chicken drumsticks were completely tasteless just plain chicken with a random kick of spice at the end. It literally tasted like those frozen drumsticks you get from the store. The chicken cashew nut was a disaster the chicken was chewy, almost raw, and impossible to bite or cut through. The egg fried rice was dry and had that unpleasant “eggy” smell, like the egg wasn’t properly cooked. The chilli dry was disappointing too nothing about it stood out. The chowmein tasted like plain noodles with zero flavor. Even the staff agreed it wasn’t good and took it away (thankfully, they didn’t bill us for that one). The Moroccan steak was just plain boiled chicken no flavor, no seasoning, nothing. And the staff? Extremely non-cooperative. They served us beef chilli dry instead of chicken and were adamant that we ordered beef. After a long argument, they finally agreed to replace it. To make things worse, they charged us for the wrong dish and overbilled by ₨400 the chicken version was ₨1290, and the beef one was ₨1690. When we pointed it out, they refused to refund us at first and only returned the money after another long argument. Overall, it was one of the worst dining experiences ever. The service was frustrating, the food was inedible, and the hype?...

I had such a great experience here! Highlight was the original boba tea! Went there for iftar and we had such a great time. The cafe is decked out in adorable pandas, from the paintings, wall art, balloons and stuffed toys decorated throughout. There's also beautiful Chinese decorations and a tea ceremony table with fish in it. You can definitely see the Chinese influence in the place. We were given a delicious complimentary iftar platter along with a mint margarita. Next we ordered our mains and I ordered the merry me stuffed chicken. The flavour was really good and it was a pretty good portion. It had a really subtle herby taste and the chicken was really well stuffed with cheese and spinach. I really enjoyed it. The owner is so sweet, he also gave us Chinese tea which was really nicely brewed and next time I'll ask what type of tea it was. The main highlight for me was the original boba tea, I had been looking good a good milk tea with brown sugar tapioca pearls in Lahore for so long, but couldn't find anything close to the ones I had abroad from Chinese boba tea cafes. The milk tea was so milky and delicious. The tapioca pearls in it were perfectly sweet and well cooked. This was my favourite. At the end we got complimentary pastries which were good. The cafe is so bright and colourful. The staff were so friendly as well. The owner is Chinese and he was so nice, he gave everyone cute panda headbands and even played games with the customers! They also have a cute play room for young children. Make sure you book your table in advance to avoid any disappointment. Overall I had a great time and I will definitely be returning here and I recommend you try...