Once upon a Thyme

Bread Pudding with Toffee Sauce

I happen to visit this little cute restaurant tucked away at Zamzama. This reputable and established restaurant run my non other then Haider Ghulam Hussain, a well known restauranteur from Karachi. This tiny family run place stores a wealth of flavours and tastes in the wide range of dishes they serve here for lunch and dinner.  Haider with his over twenty two years of experience in hotel and restaurant business in Pakistan, and middle east have been creating genuine Continental and Mediterranean cuisines. The Mediterranean creations carry a hint of Italian and French culinary traditions as well.

The menu contains an impressive selection of Meat, Seafood and Pasta dishes. The selections keep changing frequently with Chefs Special appearing weekly.

  As a food photographer my eyes usually goes first to the way food is plated in any restaurant. One cannot undermine importance of plating food, it is the first impressions, and the way the meal is presented can determine whether it's considered mere grub or totally gourmet. The plating of food at Thyme are  fascinating and  glamorous, extraordinarily pleasing to eyes with clean, controlled distribution and artistic final presentation. I started my lunch with the first course of a plate of beautiful salad; a colorful, fresh and delightful bouquet. Fresh greens including rocket and iceberg, chunks of bell peppers tossed with fetta cheese and olives drizzled with simple lemon, pepper vinegrette. Delicious, healthy and a great perlude to the main course. The salad selection on the menu is exhaustive, however, they dont have much to choose from in soups, offering only 3-4 soups.

Sesame Crusted Fish With Spicy Sesame Oil

The main course includes the sesame coated red snapper served with steamed rice. This is a big fillet of fresh red snapper coated on one side with sesame seed and pan seared covered in a spicy cillie lemon grass sauce. A sheer bliss biting the nutty, crispy coating with teeth sinking straight through the superbly marinated, palatable fillet of snapper.

Tuscan Steak With Blue Cheese Sauce

The pièce de résistance on the table turned out to be non other then their signature Tuscany Roast Fillet of Beef with Blue Cheese Sauce, served with buttery risotto topped with shaved parmesan!!!  

Tuscan style herb marinated slow oven roasted medium rare undercut of beef, crusty from outside, tender and juicy from inside. Carries a unique taste unlike most steaks around. I am a big time fan of blue cheese and very few restaurant do steaks sauces with them. This one is definitely a great creation with creamy rich and strong flavoured sauce carrying the assertive blue cheese flavour paired perfectly with the subtle and delicately marinated beef, delicious every bit. To make the culinary experience all the more adventurous, the side includes superbly prepared rissoto, herb, cheese and butter flavoured, rice "al dente”, just the way I love it. 

Crabmeat Stuffed Baked Chicken

Stuffed Chicken with Crab meat was another delicious and palatable entree. A succulent marinated chicken breast was filled with herbed crabmeat, baked and topped with a luscious sauce made with mustard basil, and thyme cream. It was styled over a bed of crispy hasbrowns.

For the desert we had bread pudding, my all time favourite served by almost all restaurants that I frequent. This one stood out in taste and texture by its toffee caramel sauce making it  a delightful selection to close an overall great meal. The restaurant appear to be overall very selective in their menu ingredients which are all high quality, prime and best available. I found the drinks selection a bit on the weaker side with no fresh juices, all they had are sodas and mocktails.

Thyme has been around for quiet a few years, well known, trusted and have done a great job of maintaining the standard, and quality of food. Since it is a family run place, they don’t rely on hired chef, Haider and his brother rule the kitchen, recipes, and cooking. The quality does not fluctuate with changing chefs or cooking staff. The place is small 20-25 person sitting capacity, but very elegant, quiet and classy ambience. Great for lunchtime business meetings or cosy intimate family dinners. 

The staff give personalized service, they are willing to listen to customers, ready to recommend and adjust taste and flavours as per request. Interesting to note that they make a serious effort to even create a dish if not on their menu specially with families who come with children. 

The prices on the menu are all inclusive and amazingly affordable for this kind of full course menu, one can think about frequenting the place. 

The restaurant also provides a classy catering service for small home based parties to elaborate banquettes and massive dinner events, their rates and menu are extremely competitive and service is professional.

Thyme is completely qualified to provide a very well prepared, artistically plated, professionally served 5-7 course meal, and we would leave spontaneously saying 'that was really good'.



Blog write up: Farah Kamal
Photography: Farah Kamal and Shahrukh Mughal
 Thyme Restaurant