The chai dhaba trend started ages ago and the topic is pretty much done and dusted, but no one has really appreciated nor brought to light the unique names each chai dhaba has tried to come up with to differentiate itself. In Karachi specifically, there are hundreds of modern chai dhabas that have come about besides the traditional ones like Cafe Clifton that have been around for years.

Here is our little attempt at visiting as many dhabas as we could. Let us know your favourite ones and if we missed out any:

It all started with the strip of dhabas on Chota Bokhari in Defence

Chai Walla

Chai Shai

Chai Studio

Oops. Guess we caught them at a bad time… looks like they’re renovating.

Dhabay Ji

But word has it that it was actually Chai Master that started the whole trend tbh…

Chai Master

And then there was Bara Bokhari that needed to be tapped into… hence came about not another ‘Chai wala‘ but

Chotu Chai Wala

Lollywood Cafe

Then there’s this cute little dhaba called

Tea 4 You

We also came across a fancy shmancy one called

Tea De Lis

Islamabad may have the famous Chai Khana, but Karachi has it’s very own little Chai Khana too

We have a Thela Wala too

Then dhabas started expanding to offering chais from a different origin, like;

Arabian Shai

Chai Square

Chai Shack

Chainak

Then somewhere near Seaview we came across:

Chacha Chai Cafe

AND FINALLY… Feminists brace yourselves… WE HAVE A

CHAI WALI!!!!

We found a dhaba being a little creative with the world of chai and named their dhaba

Kaitlee

We tried searching for a few modern chai dhabas in other parts of Karachi too, like in Mohammad Ali Society and we caught a glimpse of

Chai Pani Food Point

And

Desi Chai Baithak

BUT THEN SUDDENLY… WE Came across this random modern chai dhaba with an electro feel to it in the middle of phase 8 in DHA

ENIGMA

And this brought our hunt for modern chai dhabas to an end. Which one of these have you visited? Which one’s your favorite? And which ones have we missed?! Do let us know.