A new cookie spot just opened up in Islamabad. Being an unapologetic cookie lover, of course I had to go. Apart from that, Islamabad does not really have a spoilt-for-choice variety of dessert cafes. Indeed, some great food outlets have opened in the city during the last few years, but the only place that comes to mind to satisfy the sweet tooth craving, is Burning brownie.
Therefore, when a red sign with white letters reading ‘Karamel’ followed by ‘For the love of cookies’ outside a shop in Beverly Center caught my eye, I was immediately keen to visit this new addition to Islamabad’s dessert cafes. A brightly-lit little shop, Karamel has the appeal of a neighborhood hangout and is a franchise of the same cookie spot in Karachi. The menu offers about 10 different flavours of cookies which include milk chocolate, triple chocolate, nutella filled, white chocolate, chunky blend, dark chocolate, oatmeal dark chocolate, chocolate chunk, three chocolate and New York chunky. The price ranges from 170 to 220 rupees per cookie, without tax. Now that my friends and I have tried about 7 different flavours, I think the consensus opinion is that we wanted to like Karamel cookies more than we did. The recipe for most of the flavors doesn’t quite live up to the expectations. The milk cookies taste rather bland and make one feel as if they are chewing on plain cookie dough. One would expect the triple chocolate cookies to be loaded with chocolate but unfortunatelythey have a less-than-generous amount of chocolate. The subway triple chocolate, costing less definitely tastes better. Oatmeal cookies, since they are meant to be a healthy alternative, are understandably not very sweet. For nutella-lovers, nutella-filled cookies might be a feast. However, I’m not such a fan.
Each cookie has an inconsistent flavour and tastes a lot like plain dough around the edges.
Only when you bite onto the chocolate chips, you feel you are eating a cookie. By far, the only appetizing flavor, we all agreed, is ‘New York Chunky’. It is also the only truly chunky cookie. When served warm with a scoop of ice-cream on top, it is a treat for the taste-buds. However, again for the price of 420, tax-inclusive, the ice-cream served is such poor quality that it turns to foam the minute it melts.
Karamel has definitely gained popularity among the capital’s residents for both its interior and cookies. However, the baked good it specializes in has certainly missed the mark.
I would give it two out of four.