Food Trail Pakistan: Karachi

If you are a Karachiite food enthusiast, you will be a member of at least one food-related group on Facebook. After you’ve been around these for a while, certain trends become visible, especially when it comes to new restaurants. It is seldom that a place opens to near-universal acclaim; generally, there is a rush of great reviews, followed by a burst of pretty bad ones, before things settle down. Also, you will find a few active members in each group whose tastes appear to match yours closely, and therefore when they review a place, you tend to follow those with considerable interest.  Pomo was the latest restaurant to fall in this template. A casual dining place in the spirit of a Neapolitan pizzeria, with a solid team behind it, it opened to pretty poor reviews, including those from some notable influencers. By the time I visited (end July 2018), things appeared somewhat settled. However, the initial burst of ‘teething issues’ had meant we approached the place with lo...

So you know how you aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover? When it comes to restaurants, that saying often stands in abeyance. After all, in a restaurant market where the premium segment, despite being under served, has plenty of viable options that vie for the diner’s affections, you have to really put together a compelling proposition to stand out, and entice customers through your door. Into this very same premium segment, strides an intriguing new entrant, An Argentinian Grill by the name of El Rancho. Meaning “The Ranch” in Spanish, the name evokes images of gauchos striding about the pampas, with copious amounts of high-quality beef on the menu. The restaurant also has a first-mover advantage, opening its doors ahead of other competitors in the ‘South American Grill’ segment – restaurants in Karachi tend to be like London buses, opening in waves; as the ‘Pan Asian’ wave appears to have crested, the newest cluster appears to be South America. So, a unique customer...

It's official. The Posh Popsicle Wars are here.  In the last few months, two serious contenders have 'popped' up in the city, both of them offering premium lollies, promising lots of pure fruit and few unhealthy additions. This post will be a standalone overview of the second mover, with a follow up side by side flavour comparison coming towards the end of this post.  Ice Pop Co popped up on my Facebook feed (as these things tend to do). It's a takeaway only place, with delivery in 2 hours. As one does, we ordered one of each flavour they had available to try the offering. Naturally, having been to Lush Crush earlier, whether we liked it or not we were comparing the offering to that. As a result, you will see me benchmark to Lush Crush throughout this post.  Delivery came through as promised, in two hours. The first thing I noticed was the packaging, nice and colourful - the paper bags were really robust and overall gave a really 'professional' v...

A few weeks ago I posted on Facebook about a series of poor experiences with Foodpanda orders. In response to my post on social media, I got a call from a member of the Foodpanda management. As part of the conversation, I made a commitment to the gentleman to place 3-5 orders on FP over the next ten days – My logic was simple. If all of the orders were delivered on time, the overall score for Foodpanda would be 5 delayed deliveries in 10 orders, which would be a passing score (50% orders delivered on time), and hence something to work on, going forward. Here is my review of the data (please note this assessment is purely on efficient and timely delivery, not on food quality): Sept 14 – OMG – Dinner: Stated delivery time of 45 mins, food was delivered in 30 mins in good order Sept 17 – Soi – Dinner: Stated delivery time of 45 mins, food arrived after 60 mins. Food was a little cold by the time it reached. Sept 19 – OPTP – Lunch: Stated delivery time of 45 mins, order arriv...

This review was commissioned by the lifestyle magazine, 'Edition' - the published version, which was edited for length (unsurprisingly) and has some minor structural amendments, can be seen here . The restaurant scene in Karachi has recently seen new entrants come in waves. There were the seafront restaurants serving barbecue and desi delicacies. Then came a slew of burger joints offering gourmet goodness. The latest wave, it seems, belongs to "Pan Asian" cooking. Many of the new entrants (and a few of the established ones) evoke a casual dining vibe, while others aim to give a more refined experience, and the menus too are just as varied. Bonsai is one such new entrant. Tucked away in a quiet corner of DHA Phase VII, it's one of a few Pan Asian restaurants to have recently opened their doors. However, speaking to the owners, you soon realise that this isn't a convenient bandwagon on which they have jumped. The restaurant was conceived by a group of fo...