Karachi Cuisine

"The excellent mocktail menu at Karachi Cuisine is the first indicator that the Norbury restaurant is somewhere to come for a good time. The spacious dining room, with purple overhead lighting and bright red booths, is primed for locals celebrating any and every special occasion. Although Karachi Cuisine serves dishes found all over Pakistan and North India, its namesake city, Karachi, has a big influence on the menu. Bun kebab is a must-order— the patty, sandwiched with omelette and salad in a bun, is super soft and spiced." - rianne shlebak, sinead cranna, jake missing, daisy meager

"The excellent mocktail menu at Karachi Cuisine is the first indicator that the Norbury restaurant is somewhere to come for a good time. The second is the suited server who won’t bat an eyelid when you go for an electric blue drink. The spacious dining room, with purple overhead lighting and bright red booths, is primed for celebrating any and every special occasion over a round of paani poori. The Pakistani dishes are excellent: the super soft and spiced bun kebab is a must-order, as is the tender maghaz karahi, fried with ginger and chilli. " - rianne shlebak, jake missing, heidi lauth beasley, sinead cranna

"The excellent mocktail menu at Karachi Cuisine is the first indicator that the Norbury restaurant is somewhere to come for a good time. The second is the suited server who won’t bat an eyelid when you go for an electric blue drink. The spacious dining room, with purple overhead lighting and bright red booths, is primed for locals celebrating any and every special occasion over a round of paani poori. Although Karachi Cuisine serves dishes found all over Pakistan and North India, its namesake city, Karachi, has a big influence on the menu. Bun kebab is a must-order— the patty, sandwiched with omelette and salad in a bun, is super soft and spiced. Get maghaz karahi to scoop with kulcha naan too—the tender lamb brain is fried beautifully with ginger and chilli. It’s hard to go wrong whatever you’re in the mood for, especially accompanied with another sweet, blue curaçao-inspired mocktail. photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch" - Daisy Meager

"Karachi Cuisine prides itself in having chefs and staff that all hail from Karachi, Pakistan’s largest metropolis. It comes as no surprise that it is one of the few Pakistani restaurants in London serving two of the city’s specialties: kat a kat and maghaz masala. Both dishes epitomise Pakistan’s nose to tail cooking tradition, which has existed for decades, long before the term entered the mainstream discourse in Europe and North America. Maghaz masala, buttery in consistency, are blanched lamb brains simmered in a wok with tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and ginger. Kat a kat refers to the sound of two sharp blades that hit the griddle as the chef dexterously dices and minces a medley of brain, liver, kidneys, and heart and tosses it with onions, tomatoes and spices including aniseed, mace and cumin. (BYOB.)" - Rida Bilgrami

"If Western breakfasts were any good then nutritionists wouldn’t have to remind people to stop skipping them all the time. Of course there is a place for a fry up, for that rare perfect croissant, but otherwise Asia has Europe bang to rights in the “things people actually want to eat in the morning” stakes. One of the great world breakfasts is halwa poori, a dish that for Desi-tongues has the Proustian force of a thousand madeleines. The key is the interplay of four simple and perfect parts, all of which Karachi Cuisine in Norbury nails: a soothing, spicy chana, a potato curry medicinal with turmeric and fennel seeds, ambrosial semolina halwa, sweet and sandy with ghee and sugar, and pneumatic tissues of poori, slightly crisp and covered in a thin film of oil. One portion, with a spiced omelette or half fried eggs and a cup of Pakistani chai on the side and that’s enough food until dinner. Karachi Cuisine only does halwa puri on weekends until 2pm, but outside of that it’s an offal specialist. Try the kata-kat at dinner, a spicy dish of chopped brain, heart, kidney and testicles that is quite literally nose to tail eating." - Jonathan Nunn