Written by: Shaharyar Ahmed
Posted on: March 11, 2019 | 
| 中文
The sitting area
After the success of Islamabad Eat and Coke Fest 2019, another food festival was organized in Islamabad, by the name of “Islamabad Taste,” from 8th March, 2019 to 10th March, 2019, at the Jinnah Convention Centre. Unlike Islamabad Eat and Coke Fest, Islamabad Taste wasn’t marketed properly; hence people of the twin-cities were unaware about the event. It wasn’t entirely clear who was hosting the event, and we were told by a stall manager that it was “Eleven Productions,” a media production company. Furthermore, the event was quite disorganized, as a stall manager told us that they had setup their stall at 12:00 PM in the afternoon, as suggested by the organizers; however the event didn’t begin until after 4:00 PM. It’s unfortunate that companies with no prior experience or management skills are jumping the bandwagon of food festivals, just to make some quick money. Mismanaged events such as these, leave clients and customers very frustrated.
After buying tickets for PKR 300 each, we entered the venue. Like any other food festival, this one had a series of stalls by various restaurants and food start-ups from across Pakistan. We started off with the crispy and scrumptious Chicken Fillets from Raima’s Kitchen, a home based food start up from Lahore. The meat was perfectly cooked, and with a little bit of spice, the flavours dissolved ideally in the mouth. With a price of mere PKR 250, the fillets were totally worth the money.
Moving on, our next stop was another home-based start-up, known as Downtown Dhaba. The start-up is run by a husband and wife, who are planning to set up their own restaurant space in Islamabad soon. The best part of their serving was the traditional pakoray, served with a delicious chutney. Although the food was pretty simple, the pakoras were perfectly deep fried, and staying true to Pakistani cuisine they reminded us of the traditional Iftar items during the Holy month of Ramadan.
The winner of Islamabad Taste was the Bundoo Khan Restaurant, with their delicious servings of Chicken Tikka, Beef and Reshmi Kabab, Beef Qeema and Malai Boti, served with scrumptious Puris (deep fried bread). The members of their stall were very welcoming, and offered us a taste of each food item. All of them lived up to our expectations. For dessert, they served a traditional Suji Halwa, which we enjoyed so much that we ordered two servings instead of just one.
The Pearl Continental (PC) Hotel was represented by their famous restaurant “Bukhara.” Although PC is one of the most sought after hotels in Pakistan, the Malai Boti and Seekh Kebab served by the restaurant were quite dry and this made them extremely hard to chew. Considering PC is a big name in Pakistan, their cuisine was below par.
For fast food items, we made our way to Marco’s Pizza. Judging by the looks of the pizza they were serving, we thought it was worth a try. We ordered the Chicken Fajita Pizza, which turned out to be extremely disappointing. The crust was very dry, making it hard to chew and swallow, and we hardly tasted the Fajita in the pizza. However, the owners of the restaurant were kind enough to take our feedback, and promised to incorporate the changes we had requested.
Our day ended with the famous “Tandoori Chaaye,” served in a traditional matka (pot). We tried their flagship “Karak Chaaye,” which did not disappoint at all. The taste of the chaaye went well with the food items, and the colour, the aroma and flavour of the chaaye was perfect, leaving us refreshed after a tiring day.
Islamabad Taste was a true example of mismanagement, disorganization and lack of planning. The placement of the stalls at the event wasn’t well thought out, making a few of them inaccessible at times. Furthermore, there was no arrangement for the entertainment of children, making it hard for the families to enjoy the event to the fullest. The musical performances by Jal the Band, Khumariyaan and the Bakhshi brothers, were face-savers; otherwise it would have been a total disaster. Had the event been better marketed and better organized, it could have given tough competition to Coke Fest and Islamabad Eat. However, the organizers will hopefully learn from the feedback, which could help them organize better events in the future.
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