Karachi Bakery — Restaurant in Hyderabad

Being affordable makes it all the more satiating. A kilo (which weighs about 900 grams in this part of town) of "Fruit Biscuits" costs Rs. 110. Fruit Biscuits - crunchy, with a liberal dose of small chewey thingalings embedded - are probably Karachi Bakery's masterpiece on the wall, its fame and its fortune.

Yes, it's not so much the pastries or its cakes (Rs. 140 to Rs. 300 per kg), which also are good, nor is it so much the French items like the brioche or the foccasia (which to my mind are better left to the French), but the biscuit, that defines Karachi Bakery. Remove the fruit biscuit or the kaju biscuit, and Karachi Bakery loses its edge. It loses its core competence, its raison d' etre.

The store in its wabbly-footed Hyderabadian attempt to become more modern, has tried its hand at change. Now change may be good, change may be bad and change may be inevitable. But change just for the sake of change is never a good thing. Imagine a VW Beetle which ends up looking like a sleek sports car. Imagine a hand-rolled Cuban cigar, which ends up trying its hands at new international flavours. Or, even closer home, imagine a Famous Ice Cream, which ends up tasting...

This review is for Karachi Cafe in the first floor of this outlet. The food at this kitchen used to be tasty and enjoyable before shifting to this mall. They renamed the kitchen to Karachi Cafe and changed the menu completely in terms of items and also the price.

That should be alright as long as the taste and quality is good, but that is not the case. You order the same item four times and you will get different taste, flavour and spice level each time. There is no consistency as to how a particular dish is prepared. You go in the weekend evening and the staff body language is like they are overloaded with work and they cook something and throw on your face. Definitely something is wrong with how this kitchen is run and we could never enjoy the food we ordered. This was the repeated experience quite a few times after which we decided to avoid this place.

Coming to the pastries/cakes and cookies etc sold in the ground floor, they are very good and live up to the reputation of...

Product sold without label, did not exchange.

Just after billing, we saw that product was without label. As we were still inside the store, we asked for refund or exchange. They bluntly refused saying that you can keep product here but you will not get your money back. After arguing for 10 minutes, I gave up and paid for another pack. What I understood that it is a policy not to exchange or refund even when you have genuine issue.

This is the summary of my experience at this branch for last 3-4 visits.

Staff behaviour: 2/5 Staff is always in a hurry to get you billed. While I was still entering my card credentials, the billing guy was shouting "next!"

Product availability/fresh stock: 2/5 Even bestsellers like Osmania is not in stock. And when asked they couldn't assure when it'll be stocked again.

Store ambience: 3/5 While items are arranged in order, there is little place to move. Especially waiting at billing queue is one of the worst experience...