Haveli Restaurant — Restaurant in Lahore City Tehsil

Haveli Restaurant, nestled in Lahore's vibrant Food Street, offers a dining experience that transcends the culinary. Its location amidst the breathtaking Badshahi Mosque, Minar-e-Pakistan, Sahi Fort, Ranjit Singh shrine and other historical landmarks immediately elevates it beyond a simple eatery. The restaurant itself is adhered to the surrounding, a beautifully restored haveli boasting medieval inspired decor, intricate mosaic tiles and captivating artwork that transports diners back in time. The journey to the rooftop dining area is an experience in itself. Ascending via lift to the fourth floor and then further via stairs to the fifth or sixth, reveals increasingly stunning panoramic views of the city's iconic monuments especially the majestic Badshahi Mosque, brilliantly illuminated at night. The ambiance is undeniably magical, blurring the line between a meal and a cultural immersion. The strategic lighting highlighting the mosque and Minar-e-Pakistan is particularly effective, creating a truly enchanting atmosphere. While the surrounding Shia neighborhood, indicated by black flags, adds a layer of local cultural context. Service is impeccable, with traditionally dressed staff providing attentive and courteous assistance from the moment you arrive. The rooftop seating, complete with cozy umbrella heaters, offers a romantic and comfortable setting, enhanced by the spectacular views. While the restaurant's stunning ambiance is its strongest asset, the food, while good, plays a supporting role. The chicken karahi received high marks for its flavour, but the mutton handi was deemed merely satisfactory. The accompanying pratha and garlic naan, however, were praised. The tea also received positive feedback. The menu leans towards barbeque and continental options. The restaurant caters to a diverse clientele, attracting both locals and tourists, a testament to its broad appeal. Pricing is significantly more affordable than comparable high end restaurants in the city, offering excellent value for money, especially when considering discounts. In summary, Haveli Restaurant provides an unforgettable dining experience. Its exceptional ambiance, unparalleled views and attentive service are its defining features. While the food is tasty, albeit not exceptional, the overall experience, coupled with its reasonable pricing makes it a highly recommended destination for those seeking a unique and memorable Lahore adventure. The restaurant excels in creating a captivating atmosphere that is, arguably, its greatest...

Giving 4 stars for the love of its historic surroundings. Otherwise, the management is utterly disappointing, and the food alone isn’t worth coming for.

2018/2019: Location is great. Rooftop restaurant near Badshahi Masjid and Lahore Fort.

2025: Now they have a high influx of customers (due to the incompetency of adjacent restaurants), their reservation handling and table management have gone bad.

The receptionist doesn't allow you to get seated or even visit the rooftop unless all of your group guests have arrived. This happened when the seating capacity was only about 30% occupied, as it wasn't a weekend and the time was early evening. After some pushback and questioning their unreasonable behavior, they reluctantly agreed to let us sit but asked us to order food very quickly. The staff managing reservations and tables need to learn some basic hospitality manners and should find better ways of capacity management.

After we finished eating, they asked us to leave due to a supposed booking—despite many tables still empty and no one following up afterward. Just another example of their poor management and bad hospitality.

Apart from that, the food servers were well-behaved and cooperative, though they lacked the refinement and customer handling seen in similar restaurants.

Food is good enough, though some items are just average. The main attraction of this place is being a rooftop at a historical location.

RESPONSE to any upcoming reply from business here:

They have responded to some other reviews with the claims that the empty tables were reserved, but it doesn’t hold up. All of above happened when there wasn't any rush or high influx of customers. They were operating at less than 50% of the capacity. The same empty tables were left unused while we waited, and they were still empty when we were seated (including ours). Those multiple tables were clean and ready and had required seating capacity. So technically, we could’ve been seated much earlier without blocking anyone else. If they can't manage their reservations properly, the whole ‘reserved’ excuse gets invalid.

RESPONSE after reply from business:

I have updated my previous response to further clarify the case. Added some details of the tables. With that, all of their reasoning (the 3 points in response) gets invalid. And the "high influx of customers" is not applicable here as described in the review. All of this happened in off-peak hours. So, they are incorrectly basing their response on high influx. Even the waiting...

Iconic restaurant that has become an integral part of travel experience to Lahore, and dinner on the rooftop is essential while visiting this area. This is by far the most popular and busiest restaurant of the fort food street, hence a minimum wait time of approximately 20 ~ 30 minutes should be anticipated on any evening of the week. Although they have vast indoor dining space on the 4th Floor, yet the experience is best on the open air rooftop on 5th and 6th Floor. Elevator access is available till 4th floor, but you will have to walk up steep stairs to make it to level 5 and level 6. Hence the outdoor seating is not accessible for wheelchairs. Reservations are highly recommended, though you can always show up, note down your name, and wait for table to be available.

Food: The food is average, nothing special, rather a bit over spiced to create flavor. Prices are relatively decent keeping in view the overall dining experience provided by the restaurant. A wide variety of food is available, though they often are out of a few menu items. Plenty of vegetarian food options available on the menu.

Ambiance: Although you dine with a beautiful backdrop of Badshahi Mosque, yet there is minimum lighting in the dining area. Very hard to even see the food.

Service: The place is extremely crowded so service is slightly slow. Cleanliness of the table and cutlery was not up to the mark during last visit. Payments in both cash and card form are accepted at the restaurant.

Staff: The staff are really nice and helpful. They are always very polite, patient, and accommodating. Both the reservation staff and serving staff deserve kudos for efficiently managing an extremely busy restaurant.

Noise Level: The restaurant is super busy, and also has live music with a singer. This all combines to make the place extremely loud, and often difficult to hear people on the other end of the table. Children should always be kept in site due to the busy and crowded situation of the restaurant.

Restrooms: There are separate restrooms for male and female guests on the 4th Floor. Staff is present and ensures that the bathrooms are kept in decent shape.

Parking: Paid street parking is available outside the premises of food street, and is challenging to find a secure spot.

The ground floor entrance has been very well decorated with yesteryear themes, while a small museum has also been set up on the ground floor that is free to access for visitors.

Highly Recommend this restaurant for the...