Written by: Hurmat Majid
Posted on: August 11, 2022 | 
| 中文
Our whole order included Cornstar, Waffle Sandwich, Mouthful (Mac and Cheese) and Cheese Please
If you are what you eat, then this weekend I had a mix of food that had the potential to be great, but just missed the spot by a couple of notches. Over this weekend, we had the opportunity to visit Snacc, a modern fast-food establishment that promised to offer us the taste of Korean street food and hipster-style grub, but did it deliver?
The restaurant first opened its doors in September 2020 as a takeaway hole-in-the-wall, but as dine-in returned to Karachi, Snacc started seating its patrons at their eccentric retro little café, which comprised of four tables and a mix of high and low stools that were both equally uncomfortable for sitting on for long periods of time.
Our first impression of walking into the restaurant nearly two years from its opening was that the place needed a thorough cleaning and maybe a new coat of paint. The retro vibe was marred by lightly peeling paint on the door and oil marks on the walls. Nothing major, but it did dampen our spirits quite a bit to see that the establishment wasn’t as well kept as we had expected.
Waffle Sandwich
Per our usual drill, we asked our server if anything on the menu was not available, and were given a long list that included: the hotdog selection, any of the beef items and the nachos. The fries, we were told, were being prepped but the ingredients for the other dishes were not available due to the rains and because it was the 8th of Muharram; the suppliers had to contend with roadblocks put in place for the security of the processions.
Slightly disappointed about the fries and nachos, we placed the order for a waffle-based sandwich, a bowl of Mac n Cheese, a corndog and some cheeseballs to share. The establishment only had soda or water as drink options, so we ordered water to go with our meal.
Mouthful, a rendition of Mac and Cheese
After a nearly 20-minute wait, all of our food arrived at the table and we were pleasantly surprised to see that all the dishes were piping hot. The cheese balls, called Cheese Please, had a filling of really stringy mozzarella cheese but no seasoning. The coating was crispy and golden brown, but we wish they had used just a bit of salt and pepper in the dish. That said, our toddler loved it and absolutely gobbled up the whole dish.
Cheese Please
The corndog, Cornstar, was well made and did have some mustard, ketchup and Cheeto dust drizzled over the top, but the best surprise was the cheese that was hidden inside the coating. It was delicious and we could have had three of these without hesitation. This was easily the best dish from our selection.
Cornstar
Next up, we had a Korean fried chicken and waffle sandwich, a popular street food in Korea and also our main reason to visit Snacc. The sandwich looked quite substantial but the waffle looked quite pale, and it wasn’t as crunchy as it is supposed to be. It might be due to customer feedback, but we felt that they had left the waffle slightly underdone. The chicken inside was crispy fried and then coated in a Korean hot sticky sauce. We loved this chicken, for it was juicy on the outside and crispy on the inside and almost made up for the floppy waffle. Other than the chicken, the sandwich only had a couple of sad-looking pieces of iceberg lettuce that did absolutely nothing to add to the dish. Overall, had the waffle been crispier and golden brown and the lettuce, a big pile of crunchy goodness, then the sandwich would have been absolutely perfect.
Korean Fried Chicken
Moving on to the last dish, the Mac’n’Cheese called Mouthful, this was a blend of three cheese sauces, Korean spices and had the same crispy fried chicken on top with the sticky sauce. The chicken had already won us over by this time, and the pasta, which was topped with sesame seeds, looked extremely promising. However, here too, the balance of the sauce was off, we could barely taste the cheese and the dominant flavour was mustard, which, although it was nice was not what was promised to us. The sauce to pasta ratio was also off, with too much sauce made the dish off balance. Had there been just a little more care in the way the dish was prepared, this could easily have been the star of the show for us. The things they did absolutely right, included the absolutely delicious chicken, the cooking of the pasta and the coating of the sauce over the pasta.
Mouthful
We feel that over time the establishment has gotten a little complacent, and it is leading to a decline in the fare it has on offer. The total damage to the pocket came down to Rs 2200 including tax, which is quite reasonable for three dishes in the current economic climate and their serving sizes was also generous.
What the restaurant is doing right is their branding and the way their initial social media campaign was run. It is a good concept that could become popular, if they improve the quality of their dishes and improve the upkeep of the restaurant’s interior.
On to the final and most pertinent question: would we visit again? Maybe for the Detroit-style pizza that we have been wanting to have, and if they started offering a drinks menu to go with the greasy street food dishes.
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