The Forest Lounge: A breath of fresh Air in Dhaka's dining scene

In recent times, the city has witnessed a huge upward trend in terms of the dine-outs and eateries. Be it a small or a fine-dining or a casual café - the city landscape is brimming with these. Every week or two, one or the other neighborhood in Dhaka sees a new restaurant making a debut.

Among these, there are only a very few which can and tried to add a touch of nature to their premises. Mostly the greenery is limited to a spread of potted plants, in and around a place, with a bunch or more at the entry. Very few places have an open air or roof top options. Those who are fortunate, they do their best to bring in a large chunk of nature into their premises - be it indoors or outdoors.

The Forest Lounge is one such restaurant in Dhaka. This place in spread over two floors, at floor 12 and the rooftop. There is a large spread of greenery at the roof top. Thus, the name.

The Forest Lounge debuted in 2018, during the pre-covid years. This is a multi-cuisine restaurant, which has Arabian as the core theme. Along with this, there are cuisines from different corners of the world - Chinese, Continental, and Indian.

The menu is a huge spread consisting of around hundred dishes. Its offerings vary from soups-n-salads to grill-n-kebabs, coupled with popular Chinese, Continental, and Indian foods. It is indeed quite difficult to choose favorites from such an insane number of items, but there are a few very popular ones. Adana Kabab, Chicken Al Faham, Samak Harra, Chicken Salona with Barod Beand are a few of those. One can opt for a-la-carte or buffet. The buffet is open every day, both for lunch and dinner. The restaurant has a live kebab station too. An Egyptian chef heads the kitchen team, making sure that the kebabs and grills are done perfection.

This place is quite a favorite when it comes to hosting large events like weddings and corporate meets or any similar functions. Local traditional and cultural elements like Nobo Borsho. Valentines Day, Eid etc are given special importance and hosted with due festivities.

The restaurant is spread over a staggering area of 20,000 sqft, which is massive to say the least. It can thus sit around 800 guests in its two floors (one being the roof top). Each floor is halved into two and each gives a wonderful view of the city skyline. The 12th floor segment has a beautiful dining area which has abundant day light to brighten up the place. As one goes up to the roof top segment - it is like stepping into a beautiful and refreshing haven. All around the place the floras and faunas add to beauty of the place. Apart from the sitting arrangement the roof top is literally a big garden. This is an expand of lush greenery and bright flowers, while a cute little fountain sits amidst Mother Nature bounties. This element of the restaurant makes it a unique place - where one can relish the food amidst nature.

It is open from 12:00 noon until 11:00 pm and very conveniently located at Rd 10/A, Dhanmondi. Complete with a basement parking and a beautiful slice of nature at the roof top - the Forest Lounge is worth a visit.