When we had been invited to go to K pav to check out among the new choices forward of their official restaurant launch, there was no approach let’s imagine no. We’ve been big fans of Ok Pav since they had been a delivery-only setup, working out of the chef’s buddy’s home, so why would we flip down the chance to take a look at their new restaurant and their prolonged menu?
For the unversed, Ok Pav is a restaurant began by Arun Perwani. The meals is a mixture of Indian road meals and nostalgic meals his late mom used to make and it’s one thing you couldn’t actually get wherever else within the metropolis. They’ve now opened a brand new restaurant in Karachi’s Bukhari Commercial the place they hope to dazzle folks on the lookout for one thing totally different. And ‘different’, we imagine, is their calling card.
If we had been to explain the meals at Ok Pav, we might use phrases like totally different, distinctive or out of the odd. Because the meals is all that and extra. There are a number of vegetarian choices — but in addition rooster and prawn for the individuals who can’t stay with out protein — and plenty of flavours new to the Pakistani palate.
A step again in time
The meals may not be native to the town, however the decor of the restaurant positive is. Done within the type of an outdated Iranian cafe in Saddar, Ok Pav’s restaurant is a throwback to an period lengthy gone. The marble tabletops resting on wood legs, the quintessential mosaic tiles, inexperienced partitions and doorways, a gramophone on one shelf, classic images on the opposite, stepping in to the restaurant is like stepping in to a time machine.
It’s additionally massive sufficient to seat about 40 folks, so that you gained’t be brushing elbows with different patrons and might eat your meal comfortably, which isn’t one thing we will say for each eating institution within the metropolis.
The meals
We are agency believers that it is a place to come back and have a little bit of the whole lot. Take a take a look at the moderately intensive menu and order an assortment of things — particularly from their snack part — to share with your pals or household.
Some of essentially the most fascinating issues on the Ok Pav menu fall of their snack part. But don’t let the identify idiot you — among the portions of these things are removed from small.
Take the Jungly Chicken, for instance. A single piece of Jungly Chicken was very filling — consider a chunk of rooster coated in onion, coated in batter and deep fried. Yes, it’s as filling because it sounds and simply as scrumptious.
If you’re deciding between snacks, do your self a favour and get the Corn Bhajia Chaat. Deep fried corn fritters, topped with onions, coriander, chutney and sev — what’s to not love? It’s a scrumptious chunk — and we do advocate you have got it in a single chunk — that was flavourful, hearty and, above all, distinctive.
On the menu are additionally momos, an Indian road meals staple. You can select between corn and cheese, paneer and rooster filling, all of which had been nice, however for us the paneer was the clear winner. There was one thing so enjoyable concerning the presentation of the momos in several color wrappers that made consuming them even higher.
Now the Veg Manchurian was a barely controversial dish — half of the desk favored it quite a bit, whereas the opposite half mentioned it wasn’t their favorite factor they’d had that evening. Perhaps that is one dish that it’s a must to be a veggie lover to get pleasure from. It was made up of golden fried combined vegetable balls tossed in a chilli-soy sauce. It’s wealthyit’s decadent and — in our half of our opinions — scrumptious.
But whereas there have been some disagreements over the meals, there was one factor everybody may agree on — the dosa was one of many crispiest and freshest we’e had in Pakistan. It was crispy and paired with a sambar that was eons away from what we’re used to (ie the spicier fare at different eating places promoting dosas within the metropolis). This was a milder sambar than what our Pakistani palates had been used to, however we had been assured it was certainly genuine.
However, once you pair that milder sambar with a Medu Vada, because the chef was so variety as to do for us, it was excellent. It was each genuine and comforting and precisely like what you get at an Indian restaurant overseas.
Then got here the Loose Prawns — deep-fried prawns tossed with onion, garlic, inexperienced chilli and daring desi masalas. This was a drier starter served with a chunky soy coriander sauce. The prawns had been actually good and spicy, tossed in dry spices that created a crunchy chatpatta flavour that was an on the spot hit.
By the time we obtained to the Scallion Straws, we had been stuffed and couldn’t do them justice. They additionally weren’t as fascinating to us as the opposite objects.
After giving us just a few moments to take a few deep breaths (and stroll round to make some room in our bellies), they then introduced out the mains — Butter Chicken, which fortunately wasn’t as candy as one would count on, paired with a lachha paratha, and the Daal Makhani, which got here with a pleasant assortment of chutneys and achaars in addition to mentioned and potato cutlets. The daal was creamy and fairly heavy, however fortunately there have been 4 of us there to eat it.
A professional tip could be to undoubtedly have the daal with the achaars as a result of they offer it an exquisite tangy kick.
What we didn’t have throughout this go to had been our regular favourites — the Thread Chicken, Chicken 65 and Crispy Pepper Paneer — as a result of we needed to check out one thing new and boy, had been we glad we did. There’s little extra we love than attempting out locations with fascinating meals, and in the event you’re like us, you gained’t remorse testing Ok Pav’s thrilling new menu.
