#CokeFest 2018: A slightly more improved version of Karachi Eat

Held over a span of three days, the festival offered various types of food and entertainment


Shaheera Anwar March 12, 2018
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KARACHI: The Coca-Cola Food Festival made its way to Karachi this year. Held over a span of three days - March 9, 10 and 11 - at Beach Park, Clifton, the festival offered various types of food and entertainment. Here's our take on the hits and misses of #CokeFest in Karachi.

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The Yums

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Food is a major part of any festival, especially when it's mentioned in the name. A burger joint that goes by the name of 2 Guys 1 Grll was the most popular choice amongst the attendees. Their mouth-watering, juicy beef burgers - donut burgers as they like to call it - were a big hit. 2 Guys 1 Grll were also our first choice of food when we reached the venue.

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We were also informed that a stall was serving lasagna in a bread bowl. After much ado, we finally managed to find Wrappeite and get our hands on the delicious goodness. While the lasagna tasted good, it were the loaded fries that stole the show. Served with toppings of your choice, Wrappeite's fries were delicious, to say the least.

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In order to keep with the soaring temperature, we decided to indulge in some refreshing drinks. Blueberry slushies from Baraf Pani was a treat to our thirsty throats. Even though the crushed ice was quick to melt, the drink did it's job well.

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Dessert, shall we? We found ourselves at a very aesthetically pleasing stall in the crowd - Coco 9 - and couldn't help but eat all of the goodies they had to offer. They were offering cheesecake on a stick and boy, was it good! A perfect serving size and their macaroons were a delight as well.

The Hmms

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Where there is food, there NEEDS to be music. Although the sound check made our ears bleed, #CokeFest was host to the popular pop band Strings, who gave a mesmerising performance on day two. Fuzon and Ali Sethi took the stage on day three, where Sethi managed to wow the crowd with his soulful voice. Needless to say, in terms of music, #CokeFest was the place to be last weekend.

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The Nah-Ah-Uh

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PIZZA! Caught your attention, didn't it? That's exactly how we spotted Sobremesa's famous Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. But it failed to impress us. The sauce on top was too much while the filling was left quite dry.

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Next up were Fry Guys' chicken waffle cone - both savoury and sweet. However, it wasn't served hot which disappointed us. Even the classic waffles topped with Nutella at Waffle Cart were a fail.

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Tao Pan Asian's dynamite prawns were a treat, but they were still not up to that PF Chang's mark. The batter was thick and the prawns were not crunchy enough to make us try some more.

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Kishwar's Crab Shack was the only stall at #CokeFest that offered grilled crabs to its customers. We convinced our taste buds to try some of these but things got messy considering that eating crabs requires a lot of effort. So maybe keep crabs limited to restaurants and not food festivals?

Overall, the ambiance at #CokeFest was very enjoyable with some highs and lows in terms of food. However, this was not the perfect time to hold the festival.

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Being an outdoor event, the fire-breathing sun dehydrated us 10 minutes into the venue. With no sprinklers to keep cool - even though Beach Park was quite literally, next to the beach - the heat took a toll on most of the attendees. The food options were limited as well, which is where #CokeFest was different from Karachi Eat that took place earlier this year. However, the crowd control and accessibility to the venue added to #CokeFest's cap. Just a piece of advice, let's hold it sometime during the winter next year?

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