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When we were invited to visit K Pav to try out some of the new offerings ahead of their official restaurant launch, there was no way we could say no. We’ve been big fans of K Pav since they were a delivery-only setup, operating out of the chef’s friend’s house, so why would we turn down the opportunity to check out their new restaurant and their extended menu?

For the unversed, K Pav is a restaurant started by Arun Perwani. The food is a mix of Indian street food and nostalgic food his late mother used to make and it’s something you couldn’t really get anywhere else in the city. They’ve now opened a new restaurant in Karachi’s Bukhari Commercial where they hope to dazzle people looking for something different. And ‘different’, we believe, is their calling card.

If we were to describe the food at K Pav, we would use words like different, unique or out of the ordinary. Because the food is all that and more. There are a lot of vegetarian options — but also chicken and prawn for the people who can’t live without protein — and lots of flavours new to the Pakistani palate.

A step back in time

The food might not be native to the city, but the decor of the restaurant sure is. Done in the style of an old Iranian cafe in Saddar, K Pav’s restaurant is a throwback to an era long gone. The marble tabletops resting on wooden legs, the quintessential mosaic tiles, green walls and doors, a gramophone on one shelf, vintage photos on the other, stepping in to the restaurant is like stepping in to a time machine.

It’s also large enough to seat about 40 people, so you won’t be brushing elbows with other patrons and can eat your meal comfortably, which isn’t something we can say for every dining establishment in the city.

The food

We are firm believers that this is a place to come and have a bit of everything. Take a look at the rather extensive menu and order an assortment of items — especially from their snack section — to share with your friends or family.

Some of the most interesting things on the K Pav menu fall in their snack section. But don’t let the name fool you — some of the quantities of these items are far from small.

Take the Jungly Chicken, for example. A single piece of Jungly Chicken was very filling — think of a piece of chicken covered in onion, coated in batter and deep fried. Yes, it’s as filling as it sounds and just as delicious.

If you’re deciding between snacks, do yourself a favour and get the Corn Bhajia Chaat. Deep fried corn fritters, topped with onions, coriander, chutney and sev — what’s not to love? It’s a delicious bite — and we do recommend you have it in a single bite — that was flavourful, hearty and, above all, unique.

On the menu are also momos, an Indian street food staple. You can choose between corn and cheese, paneer and chicken filling, all of which were great, but for us the paneer was the clear winner. There was something so fun about the presentation of the momos in different colour wrappers that made eating them even better.

Now the Veg Manchurian was a slightly controversial dish — half of the table liked it a lot, while the other half said it wasn’t their favourite thing they’d had that night. Perhaps this is one dish that you have to be a veggie lover to enjoy. It was made up of golden fried mixed vegetable balls tossed in a chilli-soy sauce. It’s rich, it’s decadent and — in our half of our opinions — delicious.

But while there were some disagreements over the food, there was one thing everyone could agree on — the dosa was one of the 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 other restaurants selling dosas in the city). This was a milder sambar than what our Pakistani palates were used to, but we were assured it was indeed authentic.

However, when you pair that milder sambar with a Medu Vada, as the chef was so kind as to do for us, it was perfect. It was both authentic and comforting and exactly like what you get at an Indian restaurant abroad.

Then came the Loose Prawns — deep-fried prawns tossed with onion, garlic, green chilli and bold desi masalas. This was a drier starter served with a chunky soy coriander sauce. The prawns were really good and spicy, tossed in dry spices that created a crunchy chatpatta flavour that was an instant hit.

By the time we got to the Scallion Straws, we were stuffed and couldn’t do them justice. They also weren’t as interesting to us as the other items.

After giving us a few moments to take a couple of deep breaths (and walk around to make some room in our bellies), they then brought out the mains — Butter Chicken, which thankfully wasn’t as sweet as one would expect, paired with a lachha paratha, and the Daal Makhani, which came with a delightful assortment of chutneys and achaars as well as papar and potato cutlets. The daal was creamy and quite heavy, but thankfully there were four of us there to eat it.

A pro tip would be to definitely have the daal with the achaars because they give it a wonderful tangy kick.

What we didn’t have during this visit were our steady favourites — the Thread Chicken, Chicken 65 and Crispy Pepper Paneer — because we wanted to try out something new and boy, were we glad we did. There’s little more we love than trying out places with interesting food, and if you’re like us, you won’t regret checking out K Pav’s exciting new menu.