‘LebMex’ Vegetarian Lebanese-Mexican Restaurant, Bangalore and Mumbai

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For more vegan-friendly restaurants in India reviewed in this blog, you can click here.

We had come across an article titled, “LebMex Initiates Meatless Mondays among Bangaloreans” in this link recently. Super excited by it, we had followed up and here we are today, with the story!

“Meatless Mondays” is the name of an international campaign that has roots in World War I. During the time, the U.S. Food Administration had appealed to the people of the nation to stay away from consuming meat one day in the week—with the aim to conserve resources that could be diverted to war-affected areas. (Source). In the year 2003, Meatless Mondays was re-launched by a division of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and several other public health schools; and this time with a larger aim: to help conserve the Planet by saying NO to meat consumption. Here is the official website of the "Meat Free Mondays" international campaign that you can click to learn more.

Not only the Mondays, LebMex is vegetarian all seven days of the week! Explains Mr. Dhaval Udeshi, the Director of LebMex:

“Being an avid food lover, I saw that in India, the choice in the vegetarian palate is limited to local food. We wanted to create a chain of restaurants all over India where people can enjoy fresh, healthy, and extremely tasty food. Lebanese and Mexican cuisines are regarded among the top five cuisines in the world and in our country, options to savor these cuisines are limited. With rising pressures at the work place, it is very important to lead a healthy lifestyle and eat right. Vegetarian food not only makes you live longer but also keeps you fit and helps control lots of diseases.”

Hummus with Whole-wheat Pita Bread

And, what about the vegans, we turn to Corporate Chef, Hiren Kumar for the answer. Mr. Kumar has worked in the U.S. for over a decade and is very familiar with vegan cooking. Says Chef Hiren:

Tangy Vegetable Salad

“Many dishes in the menu are already vegan. The rest can be customized as per requirement. Our store managers are equipped to help you select the vegan dishes or customize them accordingly.”

We found that to be true indeed. The whole-wheat hummus, pita bread, Mexican rice, salad, and fajita that we ordered were naturally occurring vegan dishes in the menu. How were they, you may ask. They say that the proof of the pudding lies in the eating. And, we are definitely going back again for more helpings of the hummus and pita bread!

Mexican Rice

But hey, what is this with Lebanese and Mexican food available under the same roof—when the two countries are separated by the Atlantic with a distance of 10,000 miles between them?! While both are among the top cuisines in the world, according to Chef Hiren, Lebanese and Mexican food are also diametrically opposite to eachother. Lebanese food is low on spices and with lots of vegetables, fruits, and herbs; oftentimes the ingredients are raw. On the other hand, Mexican cuisine is spicy with sharp flavors. Together, they bring varied choices to the table.

However, here’s our opinion on why Lebanese and Mexican food go together: As you may be aware, there has been a constant influx of immigrants into Mexico from many Arabic nations, particularly Lebanon. According to this blogsite, as we speak, there are hundreds of thousands of people in Mexico of Lebanese descent. Therefore, over the course of the second/third generation, the immigrants from the middle-east started identifying Mexico as their home and blending with the local Mexican cultures and customs. It was natural that the immigrants would slowly mix-n-match the locally available ingredients and this food experimentation lend a great taste to the fusion dishes that encompassed the best of Mexican and Mediterranean flavors.

So we are not surprized when we found a good crowd on the day we visited the Koramangala outlet. The atmosphere is vibrant with colorful murals adorning the walls. The interior of the restaurant boldly displays spectacular Mexican themes, a treat for the eyes. The colors are literally bursting all over the place as you can see from the photographs. This is a fast food restaurant with a difference, certainly!

The choice of business is a reflection of where the society is today and where its potential lies to reach in the future. With more and more people graduating towards a “healthy” lifestyle that is beneficial for the self, for the animals, and for the Planet, businesses such as LebMex is a commendable step in the right direction. Outlining the expansion plans, Mr. Udeshi points out:

“We plan to expand the LebMex chain all over India in the coming years as after starting in Bangalore in 2010, we have received an overwhelming response. We are glad to see all kinds of people trying out our food and enjoying it. Today when people are finally realizing the value of eating vegetarian food and living a healthy lifestyle without compromising on food quality, we will be proud if our chain of restaurants serves in spreading awareness about the benefits of eating vegetarian food. Our company, DAI Foods Pvt. Ltd., plans to roll out more brands in the future that will include yet more international cuisine and will be vegetarian at the same time."

Amen to that!

LebMex contact and food order details: LebMex has several outlets in Bangalore and Mumbai. For the contact number, address, and other details of the outlets, you can click this link in the LebMex website.

Cost factor: The best part of the LebMex experience is that the prices in the menu are extremely affordable for these cuisines which are hardly available or only available at five star hotels.

“Human beings are not natural carnivores. When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores” ~Dr. William C. Roberts, M.D., Editor of the ‘American Journal of Cardiology’~