Making rolls to order

For the foodies in the City, the name, Hotel Fanoos, is synonymous with non-vegetarian sheek rolls.
    A meat eater’s popular haunt, the place is known for the rolls, with the meat roasted on an old-fashioned grill and perfectly garnished with a generous sprinkling of lemon juice.
     With separate sections for beef, chicken and vegetarian in the take-out centre, the hotel saw its roots in the 70s with the recipes coming from none other than the owner’s grandmother.
“We first started off with kababs for the Iranian students, who used to live here and gradually when more and more people started coming, we shifted on to other items like biryanis and rolls etc,” says Nasir of Fanoos.  
For those who do not like beef, the restaurant also offers similar sheek dishes in mutton and chicken which manage to replicate the same flavour. What’s really interesting is that the rolls come in a variety of sizes like the modest jumbo roll to the largest meat roll called the sambo roll.
“These names were given by my father. Once a very good friend of my dad asked for more than two to three kababs in one roll. Then and there my dad thought that many people would ask for a similar wrap so why not convert the rolls into different sizes and it worked,” explains Nasir.
Another popular item on the menu is the shavarma roll, a flavoured meat wrapped in a roti. Mainly served after six in the evening, the shavarma counter is one of the fast selling items in the place.   
The restaurant also has a service section which sees a good number of people dining comfortably in the afternoon with the biryani being one of the popular items on the menu.
During festivals like Ramzan, the restaurant also offers special dishes for the occasion like haleem, a crushed meat with a creamy base. Though they do have a vegetarian menu, Nasir explains that they are not as popular as the non-vegetarian dishes.  

The hotel is open from 12 noon to 3 pm and from 5 pm to 11 pm. It is located at Johnson Market, Richmond Town.