Mix it up: The Patio

If your motivation for dining on 26th street is to avoid Zamzama traffic, The Patio is no alternative to Flo.

26th street in Karachi’s Clifton area seems to be the new place to open fancy restaurants promising ‘fine dining’ experiences. The ‘fine dining’ pitch usually fills me with trepidation and dread; I loathe having to eat under-flavoured, overpriced meals which have gone from the freezer straight into the microwave, all the while pretending that some gastronomic miracle has taken place in the kitchen. The Patio has judiciously avoided the fine dining label, preferring to equivocate with ‘a unique dining experience’ and the decor is carefully synchronised with that sentiment. The cane-backed chairs and wooden tables give the place a casual, clean and simple feel, simultaneously desi and cosmopolitan.

From Laksa soup to Mongolian beef, surf and turf to tagliatelle, there is such a wide array of cuisines on offer that it is difficult to decide what to have. This is compounded by the generic identity of this eating establishment. Some rave about the thaali; others have fumed about the bamboo shoots (“If I were a panda, I’d have a thing for expensive bamboo shoots!”). The owner does help you decide what to order, guiding you through their specialities and modifying the dishes to suit your tastes.

We ended up ordering a simple green salad with chicken, penne pasta, and surf and turf. The stale, hard breads in the bread basket did not bode well for us but the salad, when it came, was fresh and crisp with a light drizzle of dressing. We had ordered pasta in white sauce with mushroom and chicken but instead of penne, we got tagliatelle. The reason for the mix up wasn’t really clear, since we were the only diners in the place at that time! The surf and turf with succulent chunks of beef and prawns was the high point of the meal. But the frugality with which the portion had been doled out was completely at odds with the self-indulgent, hedonistic nature of the dish. At least when eating surf and turf, one should be able to escape reminders of the downsizing economy.

The naughty toffee is apparently the place’s signature dessert but since I did not relish the idea of having toffee stick tenaciously to the roof of my mouth, we ordered the strawberry crepe, which was nice, if far from creative.

SpongeBob Squarepants praises the Krusty Krab by calling it “The finest eating establishment ever established for eating”. At The Patio, there is a distinct lack of excitement about the food and the meal, while pleasant, was in no way memorable. If your prime motivation for dining on 26th street is to avoid the Zamzama
traffic, remember that The Patio is no alternative to Flo.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, March 13^th, 2011.