China Kitchen: A fine dining experience

Don't dismiss it as just another Chinese restaurant in town - China Kitchen offers an great oriental food experience.

It is hard to believe that China Kitchen opened less then 10 days ago - it is already the talk of the town.

Don't dismiss it as just another Chinese restaurant in town; China Kitchen is truly for an oriental fine dining experience. The new eatery with a seating capacity of over 45 is almost full most nights of the week.

Located in the elite neighbourhood of Clifton Block-4, I was thrilled to enter a typically Chinese courtyard complete with life size Chinese murals on the walls, along with statues, artifacts and lovely dark solid wood tables. The seating area is tastefully decorated with oriental style pottery and Chinese artwork adorning the walls.



The real treat to Asian food lovers is their menu, which has been created by one of the four partners that own the place. Their food brings a different and authentic range of oriental flavours to the Chinese food scene in Karachi. All my fond memories of Asian cuisine gathered during my travels to various cities are right there at China Kitchen.

As I snapped photographs in the beautiful courtyard of the restaurant, an array of artistic creations kept coming from the kitchen. The Wasabi Prawn appetiser was out of this world; delicately crispy yet succulent prawns coated with a smooth velvety sauce garnished with dried chilies. The Cantonese style Stuffed Crab Claws were a crispy fried delicacy coated in a light paste of crabmeat and shrimps.

I am not a beef lover, but I literally stopped shooting for a while to sink my teeth into the delightful Black Pepper Beef Steak with ginger and spring onions. These are stir-fried succulent chunks of beef tenderloin marinated in crushed black pepper and topped with an oyster pepper glaze.

The other entrée that I tried was the Crispy Shredded Beef, which was a plate of equally scrumptious marinated beef strips served on a crispy nest of noodles. My favourite entrée was the lobster served over noodles cooked in blackbean sauce. The Sweet Chili Chicken, their signature specialty dish, was wok fried, strips of tender chicken in a China Chicken Special sauce.

Homemade sauces are the secret of these unique tastes, since the chefs do not use any commercial sauces when preparing dishes. All preparations are also free of Ketchup, MSG or artificial food thickeners.

It is no wonder that these flavours have been brought to the table. Ghazala, one of the restaurant owners and the brain behind this concept, has lived for more than six is years in China and has first hand experience of Chinese cuisine. Another partner has attended chef school in Malaysia.

The restaurant can be easily categorised as elite fine dining, and is thus more on the pricey side with artistically presented smaller portions. Currently, it offers set menus for dinners which change weekly. Depending on the number of items on the menu that is selected, the per head cost ranges from Rs1,100 - Rs3,000 with a minimum eight items on the menu.

If you decide to give it a shot, don't forget to make a reservation before you visit. Bon appetit!

This post was originally published here.