Karak Gholam | Galleria Al Wasl

Tea is always welcome in my life, especially when its Karak, and even more so, when it comes with a selection of great food and quick bites on the side. Last week we visited Karak Gholam located inside the Galleria Mall at Al Wasl to experience all their tea goodness with much more. Located within a petite place, this colorful eatery offers a fair amount of seating space with tons of positive vibes. We chose a couch seating at the rear corner of the restaurant, and took a quick look through their tablet menu before discussing the bestsellers and top recommendations with the staff, and then obviously going with a mix of everything.

Having our visit planned on one of the colder evenings meant we had to stay away from the cold beverages. So instead, we loaded up on 4 different hot beverages – all that were quite the bestsellers at Karak Gholam. The most talked about signature charcoal karak was poured into a glass smoked with burnt charcoal, lending a woody flavor to the milk tea. Not very karak in taste though, this one was rather lightweight. Saffron karak, way more stronger than the charcoal variant, was the classic creamy milk tea infused with a strong flavor from the many saffron strands added to the tea. My favorite from the lot was Horlicks karak. Prepared to perfection, this warm and comforting drink brought back tons of childhood nostalgia. And for the sake of variety, we also tried a Cafe Latte which made an ideal choice of brew for the cold evening.

Moving on to food, we started with falafel sliders, potato mango achar smashed sambosa and achari chicken chapati sandwich. The sliders, sandwiching a crushed creamy version of the basic falafels, were quite a good snack to munch on with the hot beverages. The smashed sambosa was such a delight. Filled with pickled potatoes, then crushed and topped with chutneys, chickpeas, sev and chilies, this made for the perfect samosa chaat. Very South Indian in flavor, the chapati sandwich featured chicken marinated in pickled spices, curry leaves and everything that makes your taste buds go wow!

For our next round of dishes, we tried the creamy mushroom hamsa and Mumbai egg hamsa. These were dishes served over or with a side of chapatis. My ultimate favorite, I loved loved loved the creamy mushroom hamsa. Everything in this dish – boiled eggs, cheese and mushrooms – came together beautifully to create a wholesome pie that went nicely along with the chapatis. I would go back in the blink of an eye for this. The other one was a classic thin omelet topped with cheese and herbs and served with tomato and yogurt mint chutneys on the side. It brought memories from back home where eating omelet with chapatis is quite common.

For desserts, we tried 3 different options, starting with the nutella chapati that was loaded with cream, strawberries and tons of nutella – the equivalent of making dreams come true. We then moved on the the fancy looking gulab jamun cheesecake which stole our hearts with its crumbly biscuit base and fluffy lightweight cream cake. The hidden gulab jamuns within this cloud like slice accentuated the beauty and taste of the cake. Don’t miss the rose petal garnish. And finally, to end our visit to this restaurant on a ‘Karak’ note, we tried the karak tea french toast. A must for tea lovers, this toast was doused with a tea infused caramel sauce and paired with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This dessert would taste great paired with a cup of karak.

Karak Gholam

Location: The Galleria, Al Wasl Road, Al Safa, Dubai
Contact: 04 2626704

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