Wok Hei translated into English means the ‘breath of the wok’ and this was stated by Chef Yasir Binyamin, Culinary Director of The Wok Hei, who was talking exclusively with the team Biz Today International at his establishment The Wok Hei, which is all set to open-up for Karachiites by end of July 2024.
Chef Yasir Binyamin, who also is overseeing The Wok Hei as Head Chef added by saying; A wok (pronounced as wohk) is a deep round-bottomed cooking pan of Chinese origin. It is believed to be derived from the South Asian Karhai. High-quality woks are made of either Carbon-Steel and alternately from Cast-Iron. Carbon steel is best as it is resilient and lightweight, and it heats up and cools down faster than cast-iron”.
What is will make The Wok Hei any different from already present pan-Asian and chinese eateries in Karachi, on which Chef Yasir replied; our establishment The Wok Hei will be the premiere Pan Asian Restaurant in Karachi. We will be offering premium Pan Asian Culinary on A-la-Carte as well as on Buffet. We have noticed as a normal practice for most of the top notch restaurants to ditch their premium offerings from Buffet, which will not be the case here at The Wok Hei, where you will enjoy premium and the finest flavors from the South East and Far East Asia.
Culinary Director of The Wok Hei shared; currently The Wok Hei will be having a seating capacity of 56 diners for indoor-dining experience and additionally we have 60+ seating capacity on rooftop for outdoor-dining experience. Rooftop will be an ideal venue for private-parties, cocktails-parties, screening-events etc”.
What made you opt for Pan Asian? On which Chef Yasir replied; due to immense popularity of Pan Asian culinary/Cuisines in Karachi many eateries have opened up lately, but still we see a huge potential for Pan Asian culinary/Cuisines. Still no restaurant/eatery offering buffet for Pan Asian culinary/Cuisines in Karachi and this is the gap that we intend to fill in. The Wok Hei will be the first to offer premium buffet with all proteins ranging from beef, mutton, chicken & sea food.
What will the most unique selling point (USP) at The Wok Hei, on which Chef Yasir added; quality will be our most important forte and till date we havent compromised on quality, we have selected/imported premium equipments for The Wok Hei. We have imported food graded premium quality wok made out of Carbon Steel with no iron bases and imperial quality cutlery from RAK Porcelain. Most of our spices and sauces are also imported from best suppliers and our proteins are sourced from best suppliers offering freshest produce”.
What will The Wok Hei feel like? chef Yasir replied as; outlook of The Wok Hei is like, on third floor we have a pre-kitchen and on fourth floor we have a live-kitchen within the view of our diners. Once arriving diners are served with soups and starters on their table and then you can move towards the buffet, where our premium proteins will be awaiting to be devoured. Our buffet will be having 40+ culinary items which will surely be an excellent treat for diners. Furthermore I can assure of the fact that our food will feel very light on diners body, no bloating feel at all.
On future plans, Chef Yasir shared that; apart from our core specialty i.e. pan-Asian culinary, we have plans to diversify to add Korean Bar-B-Que stall along-side main buffet area. Asian Brunch and Sushi counters are also under serious consideration. Our management has plans to establish branches in Lahore and Islamabad also. We are also planning to establish bakery-lounge / coffee shop on ground floor.
How soon Karachiites can visit The Wok Hei? Yasir Binyamin added; 90% of our designing and execution is complete, on culinary-side we are aggressively working designing our menu for desserts which we hope will be completed within a week or so. We hope that we can open-up The Wok Hei for our diners by end of July 2024.
At the end of our discussion we were served with the best of the best Pan Asian Culnary that was available at The Wok Hei. to start off with we were served with The Wok Hei Special Soup with crackers served with chefs signature sauce. Soup felt very nutritious, as it had all the proteins along-side a variety of veggies. For starter Chipotle Shrimps felt like an excellent choice as they were extremely flavorful, hearty and delicious. For our main-course we were served with Shanghai Beef Noodles, Stir Fry Fish Green Chilli along-with Garlic Fried Rice.
