by Singha
lahore as the pre 1947 center of punjab culture must have had a lot of good food...probably still does.
I traveled to Lahore in 2005 and as per locals ate at the #1 restaurant in Lahore at Lakshmi Chowk (close to Gwalmandi aka where Gwalas live and yes they indeed still have not renamed the Lakshmi chowk and you could see many buildings with OM written on them). The food was very bad and way too oily the Naans were too big and everybody share the naan., my mother could not eat anything as they had 0 vegetarian dishes. So in my humble opinion Lahore food is too Arabicised and is not authentic Punjabi food.
The dal is cooked with beef, chhole are cooked with chicken and/or beef. The karela (bitter gourd) is stuffed with beef/goat/chicken., they have bastardsized all of the punjabi dishes with way too much meat (goat, cow, chicken) of assorted animals.
To experience authentic Punjabi food (sarson ka saag, makke di rot) visit Haweli when you are approaching Jalandhar it is just before Mcdonald's (about 1-2km before mcdonald's ) (right next to Hawali they have a museam of punjabi culture and the restaurant is part of that museam) close to Jalandhar., for about 300 rupees (in april 2017)., all you can eat in Punjabi style (totally vegetarian) they come to you and give you servings of pakora, samosa, parantha, tandoori roti, Maah ki daal, sarson saag, makke di roti, salad, allo gobi, Bhartha, matar paneer, aloo matar, fried karela, etc, Gur Shakkar, desi ghee, gajar halwa, rabdi, kheer, . A very enjoyable experience.