Eating our way through Karachi Eat 2025

Karachi Eat has come a long way in the 11 years since its inception. It’s bigger, it’s better organised but that doesn’t always mean it’s better overall. Over the years, there’s been a distinct lack of innovation — years ago, Karachi Eat meant wacky food, melding together cuisines and innovation.

Today, there are many more stalls, but many of them are set up by established businesses, which takes half the fun out of the experience. Why would you want to pay to enter a food festival to eat Famous Os or 75 Degrees Hot when both are a simple phone call or drive away and have their own restaurants?

We don’t mean to discourage you from visiting the festival if you want to try out some food, but we do wish we saw a little more innovation there. Still, there are some newcomers — either to Karachi or to Karachi’s food scene — that warrant a visit. Here are some of the interesting things we tried and liked at this year’s Karachi Eat.

Arif Chatkhara

Not to be confused with Abid Chatkhara across the park — though that confused us immensely — this Lahori favourite was an Images favourite this year. One thing we will give him absolute props for was that the Arif Chatkhara stall was the only stall set up by 4:50pm on Friday. Mind you, the festival started at 4pm.

That a Lahori was the only one on time was quite amusing, but there was nothing funny about the tawa chicken. It was flavourful with a capital f. It cost Rs900, which was a lot, but it came with two chapatis and was quite good.

We rate it 9/10 because it was tasty, the stall was actually set up on time and they had a copycat right across the park and still managed to pull in the crowds!

Fuse

Please don’t confuse our palates for that of a five-year-old’s just because we instantly gravitated towards the chicken nuggets, but in our defence, they were very, very good. We’re unsure what Fuse’s nuggets were infused with, but it was delicious.

For Rs550 for about five nuggets and a handful of fries to be paired with an Al Baik-inspired sauce, this too was on the steep side, but frankly, nothing was cheap at Karachi Eat this year.

The nuggets had a great flavouring beneath the crispy coating that hit the spot and ensured they were packed with flavour. The only point we had was that all of the nuggets should be equally crispy — we encountered some that were crispier than others.

We rate it an 8/10 with a note to look out for their upcoming restaurant!

Alma on the go

This was a controversial one. We tried the Hot Mulled Spiced Wine (not that kind) and the Panino Pesto Carne, and half of our duo loved it and gave it an eight while the other half gave it a six on 10.

Mulled wine isn’t for everyone, so we can’t fault our team for that one, but this writer highly disagrees with their rating of the Panino, described on the menu as lamb fat toasted bread with slow cooked beef and creamy pesto sauce. Yum

Overall, we’d have to give it an averaged out 7/10. Both items cost a combined Rs900, which wasn’t bad considering the portion size. The sandwich (or burger?) was rich and heavy, so it compensated for its diminutive size with a powerful punch of flavour. In fact, that flavour was so powerful it left you feeling a bit heavy — likely the slow cooked beef.

Cookie House

The Brown Butter Toffee was one of the best cookies we’ve had. Crispy but also gooey, this one place we’d go back to multiple times. It cost Rs600, which is steep for a single cookie, but man was that cookie good. It was also large, filling the entirety of the box, so we suppose that may account for its price.

We don’t have much more to say about this other than it was yummy — 9/10.

Heyday

We were invited to try Heyday’s Pistachio Kunafa Croissant and man was it a lot. We skipped the optional ice cream or cream add on because we weren’t sure if we would even be able to eat the croissant in its basic form and we were right. It was rich and creamy, oozing with chocolate and pistachio cream.

They were charging Rs500 for the treat, but the croissant was smaller than usual. The size was made up for by the abundance of cream heaped on top of it.

Our one complaint, however, is that there should have been more kunafa topping the dessert — 8/10.

Prison Patty

We tried the Innocent Burger at Prison Patty, a stall that immediately caught our eye. Initially, we thought it was a gimmick, with some of the staff dressed in black and white striped outfits vaguely resembling prison uniforms. At first we were aghast — what a weird gimmick! — but when we actually checked them out, the stall had a dual purpose; to sell burgers and to help rehabilitate prisoners.

“At prison patty, we believe in second chances. Our mission is to rehabilitate prisoners by providing them with culinary education and hands-on training. We’re not just serving delicious burgers; we’re serving up opportunities for a fresh start in life,” read a poster at the stall. Another spoke about the importance of legal counsel to juvenile offenders.

The themed foods and outfits didn’t detract from their important message and it didn’t hurt that their burgers were great too — 10/10.

The festival is on for two more days — today and Sunday — at Beach View Park in Clifton.