Nestled in one of Zamzama’s streets is Okra, considered by Karachi residents as one of the best fine dining restaurants in the city. The now legendary restaurant opened its doors to the public in the 1990s.
Owner Ayaz Khan spoke to Geo.tv about the reason behind opening Okra.
"I started this business in 1999 after working for several hotels for 20 years. After working for so many years I realized that you are not really able to express yourself."
The decision to open Okra came at a time when several restaurants had failed to create a niche in Karachi.
"My biggest scare at that time was how do I make it better and how am I going to be different."
Describing the initial years as a learning experience, Khan stressed that he did not get deterred despite financial limitations.
"Starting your restaurant means building confidence and dealing with things as they come. As you do things better you get more confidence."
Okra's story is one of struggle, commitment, and hard work.
"It wasn't easy, opening a restaurant with a very low budget. But I think that's the only way to go. The idea is to keep your costs low and reinvest as you go."
Khan said the loan didn’t come through for the restaurant and he used whatever limited money he had saved up from working abroad.
"Three years into the business, I had less than Rs250,000 left."
Okra’s staff was hired from the ground up, then groomed and trained from scratch.
"[In the beginning,] I was the only one taking orders as we had to hire totally unskilled people. It was literally like feeling the pulse, picking up staff from the road and people who came to the interviews. So these people were groomed and trained from scratch. They had no previous experience," he said.
"This went on for a year and a half more before I could finally see some money in the bank."
Khan said he wanted Okra’s culture to be centred on providing fresh produce and good service because failure to do this would land the restaurant in the same categories as others.
"The culture of how we want things done is the key. We want quality food and service. Keeping the prices low really helped us, nobody does that."
Today, Okra caters to a packed house every day, maintaining the same high level of standards that Khan had set when he first began about two decades ago.
