Is healthy, nutritious, calculated eating the ‘it’ trend in town? Maybe not yet, but there is potential, definitely. People are more than ever conscious of what and how much they eat. Eating habits do take time to evolve and where food is passion, people will want to try out anything new provided it is promoted smartly.
A venture called Grab Your Meal – aptly abbreviated as GYM – opened in the DHA in May. Located a couple of lanes behind the bustling Y block market in a residential neighbourhood, this small eatery is not hard to locate though they need to update their map location on their Facebook page.
As per young proprietor Umair Ijaz, the idea of GYM stemmed from his own need for healthy, grilled food that he could have as fast food that he couldn’t find anywhere in Lahore. He insists the food he serves is not only for the fitness conscious who hit a gym every day, but for anyone who wishes to eat healthy, hygienic, grilled fast food with nutrients because “it’s 2017 and about time people started watching what they were eating”.
Meant to be a take-away fast food joint primarily, GYM does have a handful of bar stools in case you want to dine in. Upon entering the tiny space, you’re welcomed by a spacious live kitchen with a grill and brick oven behind a counter. The Mediterranean-themed menu is limited for now and lets a customer create their own meal – a sandwich or a bowl -- in a step-wise manner.
The first step is to choose a bread baked freshly in their brick oven – in case one wants a sandwich -- from whole wheat honey oats, whole wheat seeded, white garlic and white seeded. Next, you choose your meat from spicy Mediterranean chicken, Middle Eastern chicken, beef meatball, chicken meatball and lamb meatball. The meat is grilled on rock salt. You move on to select the base from hummus, baba ganoush, spicy salsa, plum sauce and guacamole with avocados, and fresh veggies from iceberg lettuce, pickles, carrot, olives, broccoli, cabbage and beetroot. The last step is selecting your sauce(s) – they suggest you choose a maximum of three to avoid losing the flavour – from the hot Portuguese peri peri, Turkish mustard paste and yoghurt, Arabian honey and herbs, Middle Eastern tamarind, Lebanese pickle and olive oil, French tarragon, Italian olive oil and basil leaves, Indian mint, green chilli and pomegranate seeds, American BBQ, garlic and Thousand Island. Almost all the sauces are prepared in-house they say.