ISLAMABAD: Waiters weave through the busy restaurant floor, hurriedly taking orders from famished customers and making room for plenty of others who amble into the busy Xander’s gourmet café in Islamabad. It has been a little over three months since the restaurant opened for business in Pakistan’s capital. The steady stream of customers suggests it’s here to stay.

This is the story of several restaurants from Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi that have opened their outlets in Islamabad in recent years and found success in the capital. These include Xander’s, Hot N Spicy, Red Apple, Caffe Praha, Student Biryani and others.

These people bring much-needed diversity to the city’s culinary landscape. The southern port city is home to the Memon, Bohra, Punjabi, Pashtun, Baloch, Bengali, Malbari, Sindhi and a large community of MuHajjirs--people who migrated from India at the time of partition. Each group has contributed distinct flavors to Karachi’s ever-evolving palate with their own signature dishes.

But while Karachi has always been famous for its mouthwatering biryani, slow-cooked beef stew popularly known as nihari and the haleem, a thick, savory porridge of meat, lentils, and wheat, Islamabad’s residents did not find the same delight in the capital city’s version of these dishes.

Hence it comes as no surprise that Karachi’s prominent eateries that tried their hand in Islamabad have gotten impressive results so far. Take for instance Red Apple, a Karachi-based restaurant food chain popular for its paratha rolls and barbecue items, that started in Karachi in 1996 and now has 25 branches in total in the city.  

“Three years ago, we launched in Islamabad and Lahore and within that period, have opened seven branches across Islamabad and Rawalpindi,” Hamza Channa, the general manager of Red Apple’s F-6 branch in Islamabad, told Arab News.

“There was no good roll paratha here. So Red Apple brought a good roll paratha and barbeque,” he said, adding the restaurant chain has the potential to open 20 outlets in the capital city.

Xander’s, another Karachi-based eatery, describes itself as a modern gourmet café that serves simple and flavorful meals to customers. The cafe has been operating in Karachi for the past 14 years and found success with three outlets there before it expanded into Islamabad three months earlier.

Khasham Zaman, a businessman who has savored meals at both Xander’s outlets in Karachi and Islamabad, said the arrival of Karachi-based restaurants in the city is narrowing the gap in fine-dining experience in the capital.

“There is still room for improvement in the quality of the food, but I think they are doing exceptionally well,” Zaman told Arab News.

“I have tried Xander’s both in Karachi and after that in Islamabad. It’s a new addition and it’s fantastic.”

Another Karachi-based eatery that has gained popularity in Islamabad is Caffe Praha. After operating in the southern city since 2019, Praha, which offers its customers the experience of relishing coffee and cakes at its outlets that it says are styled after Prague’s street cafés, opened for business in Islamabad on June 26.

For popular food vlogger “Guy Knows Food,” the popularity of new food chains opening in Islamabad has less to do with taste and more with “aesthetic appeal.”

“It is really easy for Karachi’s restaurants to enter Islamabad’s food market because consumers here have really low expectations when it comes to restaurants,” the vlogger told Arab News.

“They usually just focus on the aesthetic and/or location of the restaurant and are not concerned about actual fundamentals, like food or service or choice of ingredients, or its sourcing even.”

He described Karachi’s range of food options as “absolutely amazing,” saying that restaurants based in the city are proof of that.

“Even Karachi’s restaurants don’t maintain the same quality of food and service here as they know that Islamabadi consumers won’t be too concerned,” he said.

“They can get away with it.”

Mahira Khan, however, absolutely relishes both the taste and experience that Praha offers. 

“As they are advertising from Prague to Islamabad, I was expecting the same kind of touch, [that is] European food,” she said, sipping her Peach Mojito.

“And yes, the food was exactly what I was expecting.”