Now I know that Pakistani restaurants generally share this reputation of un-hygienic and overly spiced food but I as a foodie confirm that the food you eat at a hawker stand is far better than the one you get at fine dining 5 star luxury restaurants. Des Pardes is a small cafeteria kind of place in Oud Mehta and they serve Karachiite cuisine that means coal smoked karhayi with layers of oil on top and crisp naan straight from tandoor.
The staff was so friendly, I had to pinch myself to realize that I am not in Pakistan just yet. We ordered Chicken peshawri karhayi that’s a north frontier delicacy in Pakistan. It is specially delicious because the amount of spices in here are quite low, the meat gives its original flavor in combination with tomatoes.
We also had the galawati kebab curry which was outstanding. The chefs nailed this one as it was packed with bags of flavors and a variety of spices. The kebabs itself were tender.
The chicken biryani wasn’t as good as I was expecting. Perhaps it needed more moisture, the masala was a tad bit dry but even then it tastes pretty decent.
The showstopper for me was the lassi. I have been extremely disappointed of the lassi standards here in Middle East because yogurt blended with sugar is considered as lassi at most of the restaurants. But I grew up having the perfectly proportioned milk and yogurt lassi and I am so glad that I found it at Des Pardes.
The best bit is that these guys are open 24 hours. I highly recommend you enjoy movie night on weekends and hit it to Des Pardes for mouth watering karhayi and grilled kebabs.
I am so impressed with the food here that I am trying to find a perfect blend of words to compile this blog post. Barbecue Delights is a buffet based on staple Pakistani dishes along with some Indian meals too. Their ambiance is soulful and filled with different colors and wall art that basically represents Pakistani truck art. Their service is extremely amazing and this is one buffet where you don’t care “how many” dishes are there, simply because each and every dish is genuinely packed with bags of flavor and stands out. Also, the food is super quality wise, its always steaming hot no matter which dish you look into.
Starters: (Chaat)
Speaking of Pakistani buffets, one may never start their meal skipping the chaat and I am basically referring to myself here because chaat works like an insight into how good the others meals would be.
So, I got the basic pani puri which was served with sweet and sour chatni. The sweet chutney was intense and lusciously thick while the sour one was diluted to perfection and their blend in the pani puri tasted absolutely amazing.
Paani puri
Salad selection:
There were numerous salads along with the famous Baingan ki burhani that’s actually spiced yoghurt where egg plants are cooked in tamarind chutney floating on top. This area included fresh hummus, beetroot salad with sesame seeds, coleslaw with sweet corn, Tabbouleh and freshly sliced cucumbers/lemon wedges.
Mains:
I will start with the bbq items and then gradually walk you through the rest of main courses available. The bbq items that caught my attention first were the fried fish and fried prawns that looked so beautiful because of their color, they had a lovely golden coating and you won’t believe me when I tell you that they tasted even better than they looked.
The fish was marinated in just the right amount of spices, it was not tossed in extreme flavors which helps give you the usual flavor of fish along with the subtle spices. The prawns were super too.
Fried Prawns
Fried Fish
Then I lifted the mutton and chicken reshmi kebab dish and the smoke that came out of there was aromatic and tempting. I had unlimited kebabs, so much that I didn’t even kept a count. They were tender, juicy and full of flavors.
Mutton seekh kebab
Then I jumped on the opportunity to gobble up some delicious beef haleem and mutton karhayi. Haleem was so amazing, usually in most buffets they over spice the haleem and it looses its original taste but here it was just perfect. Mutton Karhayi was state of the art. The blend of spices in it were spot on!
Haleem and mutton Karhayi
Coming from Karachi,Pakistan; one has awfully high standards of chicken biryani. It just breaks my heart when I order biryani and see coriander leaves or curry leaves on top of it. If you wanna know what a Pakistani biryani looks like, look no further but below.
chicken biryani
kabuli pulao
The kabuli pulao was comforting and light. Perfectly seasoned.
Beef nihari and Butter chicken
A Pakistani buffet without nihari simply does not exist. We eat nihari for breakfast, lunch and dinner all year long. Their nihari was so amusing for the tastebuds and the meat was so tender that one can not resist.
Lahori soda
Obviously, you are going to need a tangy drink to settle all these spicy delicacies. I chose the lahori soda and I’m so glad I opted for this one (as recommended by our serving guy) it was exactly like a spicy candy I grew up having called “Churan Chatni”. Despite of its strong flavor, it also aids in digestion.
Desserts:
With respect to the occasion of Diwali, there were fresh mithai with my favorite moti chur laddoo and besan k laddoo.
Also, there were hot jalebi and gulab jamun (please excuse me while I drool a little)
If you’re thinking this is it, then nope! there are more desserts like shahi tukray, fruit custard, egg pudding, badami kheer (this one was my favorite) and jelly for kids.
We ended our meal with a cup of karak chai that blew us away with how lovely it tasted. Thank you so much for having us over Team Barbecue Delights, we loved every bit of our dining experience here and we promise to keep coming back for all of these extraordinary dishes.
To all my readers,
Barbecue Delights cater large events and parties, it is highly recommended to you from me.
Captain Lychee 