OPTP - Malir Cantt — Restaurant in Karachi Division

At first glance, it's a perfectly good fast food establishment, especially considering the mini food street it resides on between giants like McDonald's, Subway and Baskin Robbins... At first glance it's a lot of things.

If you want my basic rating, scroll to the end.

If you want the full review, read on.

But when you really get into it, it leaves... a lot to be desired. I know you must be thinking, 'why is he putting so much thought into this? It's just a fast food restaurant' and usually I'd agree with you but when a place like this tries so hard to be international standard, you gotta see if it measures up to it and OPTP - Malir Cantt. does not.

When the food is good, which it is most of the time, it's gooood. But when it's bad, which happens more than you'd like at a place like this, it can be really bad. They could stand to work at the quality of their food. The taste though, when the food is good, is impeccable. Some sauces don't work but that's just my personal preference, not a reflection of the place itself.

The pricing is something though it has got going for itself... Compared to some other establishments that this place tries to aspire to, the pricing is much more affordable for the average consumer.

The service is great and they are very accommodating.

The environment and atmosphere is where this place gets into trouble. In a place like McDonald's, aside from the occasional mop, you would never know if McDonald's ever had maintenance, not that McDonald's is bad in that sense, no, quite the opposite. McDonald's is impeccably maintained and they do it out of your view, always. You never know if something is being worked on. That's a good thing. OPTP on the other hand embarrasses itself by working on stuff like repairs, fixes and stuff like that in plain view. That's just unappetizing and off-putting, especially when someone is loudly hammering away at some nail or metal piece and it's hitting your ear and driving you crazy. (I'm not kidding, I literally had this experience an hour before I wrote this review). The place is spacious and the seats are comfy but there's no... pizzazz to the place, if you will. It's just boring grey walls and boring grey seats with some generic lamps and plant pots here and there. It feels... bland. A place like McDonald's with it's decorations, ambience, design and wall-art, it feels... alive!

Overall, the only reason this place doesn't have below 3 stars is the food is more often good than not and the service is quite decent, otherwise I'd be giving this place at most 2 stars.

Summary:

Food Quality: 3 stars Food Taste (When good): 4.5 stars Pricing: 4 stars Service: 4.5 stars Environment/Atmosphere: 2 stars.

Also, the lighting in this place drives me crazy with...

007 is probably the best thing I ever tasted from optp. From juicy chunky 7oz beef patty to tickling jalapenos to the perfectly complementing sauce, everything was on point. 9/10 I will go as far as to say this was the second best beef burger after Aussie's Old School Beef Burger.

Their Loaded Bomber Fries, which are basically fries topped with chicken chunks, jalapenos, garlic mayo and cheese. 8/10

Their own drink called SPUD supposed to be coke-flavored but tbh it isn't good enough 3/10

Now to the real point of appreciation:

Look at the 2nd picture and see how beautifully they served food. The ketchup's placement, the perfectly lined up tissues, and the fork on top 🤌 It felt like i was fine-dining and totally unexpected from a fast food restaurant. I was actually shocked how much attention to detail was being given by their servers. 10/10 for that.

Was the food worth it? Absolutely Is the price justified? Probably, if you compare it with Aussie's and Mr. Burger, then yes it is on par and justified Will i go there...

If I could give zero stars, I would. I went to OPTP. Downtown (Near Malir Branch) thinking I’d try something different and ordered their Nashville Hot Burger. Big mistake. Within hours of eating it, I started feeling incredibly sick. Nausea, stomach cramps, and fatigue hit me and it didn’t stop. I’ve been bedridden for three days now, and I’m convinced it was from that meal.

Don't know, it was old meat, bad oil, or just outright carelessness, I honestly don’t know but the end result was the worst food poisoning I’ve ever had.

It’s outrageous that a food chain operating on this scale can get away with serving food that literally makes people sick. This isn’t just bad service or a cold burger this is a health hazard. OPTP needs to seriously check their hygiene, storage practices, and quality control because this was completely unacceptable.

Safe to say, I will never be going back. And if you care about your health, you might want to stay far,...