The opening of Raj Rasoi in Karachi, a purely vegetarian restaurant, where they serve their fare on thali (a large rounded metallic plate, with small rounded katoris or bowls to carry daal, kari and different bhujyas, took me back to the late 50s when Pioneer Coffee House, on what was Victoria Road, introduced the thali. Those were the days when restaurants couldn’t serve meat on meatless days and the word of law was followed in letter and spirit.

Pioneer Coffee House was founded by an Ismaili gentleman, Sharif Merchant. Sharif sahib, as he was called by one and all, had started his career with the India Coffee Board in the late 30s as a coffee-taster. However, when communal riots became a common feature in Mumbai, which was otherwise a peaceful city, no Hindu was prepared to work as manager in the Mohammed Ali Road branch of the India Coffee House. The big bosses of the board asked Sharif sahib if he would take charge of the branch which was in a Muslim dominated area. He agreed.

Came Partition and he was appointed the manager of the Karachi branch of the India Coffee House. It was on the first floor of a building at the corner of Victoria Road and Preedy Street. It later became Zelin’s Coffee House, but before Zelin’s changed hands, Sharif started a restaurant, which though named Pioneer Coffee House, did not survive on serving coffee alone. It gained fame for its wide variety of delicious dishes, which attracted gourmets in droves.

Thali was a regular feature on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, while the Parsi delicacy dhansak was served during the weekend. Biryani, the like of which you didn’t get anywhere else, was served on all but meatless days. Bombay khichra, a city cousin of haleem, was another attraction on a weekday, I can’t recall which.

Later, Sharif’s half brother, a cherubic-faced short younger man, deserted his benefactor and opened Alpha Coffee House. He introduced thali there also, but couldn’t match the quality of the Pioneer thali. Alpha is still there in Saddar though the junior Merchant left it long ago.

Pioneer was located at what later became the Sadder electronic market and where car parking became a nightmare. Sharif sahib thought of migrating to North America where his children had settled down but didn’t want to be a burden on them so he gave up the idea. The management of the newly opened Aga Khan Hospital asked him to run the canteen, which he did with his characteristic efficiency and all the dishes, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, that were popular in Pioneer were to be found on the menu of the hospital’s canteen.

A couple of years later, Sharif sahib and the hospital management parted ways. God knows why. He rented a small place near the Liaquat National Library and made the last ditch effort to revive Pioneer. His old clientele returned, but due to his old age and with no reliable person to help him Sharif sahib could not continue. He flew to Canada.

A year or so ago, the popular Indian news magazine, Outlook carried an article on vegetarian restaurants in Pakistan (read Karachi). It was written by a Pakistani, based in Islamabad. She had no knowledge about Pioneer, which is why she wrote that Ponderosa was the first restaurant to serve vegetarian food. Ponderosa appeared on the screen in the 70s and its thali was, by the way, not much to write home about. Also the writer made no mention of three modest vegetable eateries, two of which are still on the premises of the Swamy Narayan Mandir on M A Jinnah Road, and one close to Boulton Market. Their food is delicious but the places are shacks. You can’t take ladies with you. There is a lot of rush on working days, though I am reasonably sure that the eateries must be wearing a deserted look on Sundays.

Patio in Clifton, situated next to Canvas Art Gallery, serves thali too, but the food is Pakistanised, according to Suneeta Acharya. For instance, the kari served with thali in India is thin and without pakoray but she insists that her clients would not accept it. When I tell her that the Patio poori is made of maida and not whole wheat, she insists that it’s a mixture of both. Until I taste it again I will have to take her word for it.

The one truly vegetarian restaurant in Karachi is the newly opened Raj Rasoi, where the fare is either Rajasthani or Gujarati. Like the thali restaurants in India the waiters gladly fill up an empty katori and bring extra pooris and papads. You are made to feel that you are guests and not clients. The menu changes daily and one can see the day’s menu on the restaurant’s website. I went there twice, once for lunch and then three days later for dinner. If you happen to be a senior citizen you get 15 per cent discount and on working days at lunch time, you pay 50 per cent for every guest that you take.

The chach (diluted form of saltish lassi) was delicious, but the masaley wali chai which is served at the end of the meal was hot on the first day and pretty cold on the next occasion. A bigger disappointment second time was the Rajasthani paratha which was served in place of puri. But the main fare was uniformly delicious on both occasions. What is no less important is that both the meals were, if one may use the expression, light on the stomach, a quality Raj Rasoi’s thali shares with Pioneer’s thali.