Shezan ★ 4.0
Shezan in Brussels' Ixelles serves Pakistani halal lunch under €16 on Chaussee de Wavre. At Chaussee de Wavre 120. Booking recommended. Reservations advised.
Try: Halal Pakistani biryani
Pakistani cuisine is the food of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Kashmir, and the broader northern subcontinent, distinguished from Indian cuisine by Islamic dietary law (halal, no pork, less dairy-cream than north Indian Hindu cooking) and a heavier emphasis on grilled and roasted meat. It is closely related to north Indian cuisine and shares many dishes (biryani, kebab, naan, korma, nihari), but the regional flavor and cooking style diverge enough that Pakistani restaurants are a recognized category in the diaspora.
The core grammar is meat-led. Pakistanis eat significantly more meat per capita than Indians, with beef, lamb, goat (mutton), and chicken all common. Pork is absent. Cooking methods lean toward direct-fire (the tandoor and the angethi grill), long-simmered stews (nihari, haleem, paya), and dum (sealed slow-cook in a covered pot). Spice blends are bold but more savory and aromatic than Indian counterparts; cardamom, cinnamon, clove, mace, nutmeg, and black pepper carry over from the Mughal tradition, while red chile, cumin, and coriander provide the everyday base.
The Pakistani bread tradition is among the world's deepest. Naan (leavened, tandoor-baked), roti (unleavened wheat), paratha (laminated, ghee-fried), khameeri roti (leavened, soft), kulcha (Punjabi flat-bread, sometimes stuffed with potato or onion). Bread is the daily staple in Punjab and KP; rice dominates in Sindh. The traditional Pakistani meal is bread plus curry or grilled meat, with yogurt-based sides (raita), pickles, and a final round of qahwa (Kashmiri green tea) or chai.
Regional variations
Punjab (Lahore, Sialkot, Multan)
The heart of Pakistani cuisine. Tandoori meats, robust curries (nihari, haleem, paya), butter-led dishes (makhani gravy), and the city of Lahore's reputation as the country's food capital. The Punjabi naan, the seekh kebab, and the chicken karahi are regional flagships.
Sindh (Karachi, Hyderabad)
Rice-led, Persian-influenced. Sindhi biryani (with potato, chile, and sour notes from raw mango), Karachi street food (bun kebab, gola ganda, bhel puri), and a Goan-style fish curry tradition along the Arabian Sea coast. Karachi is the densest food city in Pakistan.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Peshawar, Swat)
Closest to Afghan cuisine. Chapli kebab (a flat ground-meat patty fried in oil), namkeen karahi (a salt-only lamb stir-fry with green chile and tomato), and a Central Asian dumpling and bread repertoire.
Balochistan
Pit-roasted meat traditions. Sajji (whole lamb or chicken impaled on a stake and roasted around an open fire), khaddi kebab (lamb roasted underground in a pit), Balochi pulao. Stronger Persian and Arab influence.
Kashmir (Pakistani-administered)
Wazwan (the multi-course Kashmiri banquet) and the dum-pukht slow-cook tradition. Rogan josh, gushtaba (yogurt meatballs), tabak maaz (twice-cooked ribs), and Kashmiri pink salt tea (noon chai).
Defining pakistani dishes
- Nihari
- Slow-cooked beef or lamb shank stew, cooked overnight with bone marrow, ginger, garlic, dried red chile, and a blend of warming spices. Garnished with fresh ginger, green chile, lemon, and cilantro. The classic Lahore breakfast.
- Biryani
- Layered rice and meat dish. Sindhi biryani is distinguished by potato pieces, more chile, and a sour element (raw mango or yogurt). Lahore-style biryani sits closer to the Hyderabadi original. The national one-pot meal.
- Seekh Kebab
- Spiced minced meat (beef or lamb) molded onto metal skewers and grilled over charcoal. Served with naan, raw onion, and mint-coriander chutney. The Punjabi grill-house staple.
- Chapli Kebab
- Peshawar-style flat ground-beef patty (or sometimes lamb) seasoned with pomegranate seed, coriander seed, cumin, and dried chile, shallow-fried in mustard oil. Eaten with naan.
- Karahi
- A wok-cooked dish (the karahi is the Pakistani wok). Chicken or lamb karahi is cooked with ginger, garlic, tomato, green chile, and minimal water, finished with cream or yogurt. The fast lamb dish of Punjabi restaurants.
- Haleem
- Slow-cooked stew of wheat, barley, lentils, and shredded beef or chicken, simmered for hours until the meat dissolves into the grains. Garnished with fried onion, chile, lemon, mint, and ginger. A Muharram and Ramadan staple.
- Paya
- Trotter soup (lamb, beef, or goat feet) slow-cooked with bone marrow and warming spices until the broth is gelatinous. The Lahore Sunday breakfast.
- Sajji
- Balochistan-style whole lamb or chicken marinated in salt and papaya, impaled on a metal stake, and roasted around an open fire. Carved at the table and served with bread.
- Halwa Puri
- Breakfast plate. Fried leavened bread (puri) with semolina-pumpkin halwa and a side of chana masala (chickpea curry) and aloo bhujia (potato curry). The Lahore-Karachi morning ritual.
- Kheer
- Rice pudding with milk, sugar, cardamom, and almonds or pistachios. The everyday dessert at Pakistani sit-down meals.
How to order
At a Pakistani restaurant, the order pattern is similar to North Indian: a meat curry, a vegetable dish, a dal, a bread (naan or roti), rice or biryani, raita and pickles. Grilled meats (kebab, tikka, sajji at upscale) are starters or shared mains. The standard meat is goat (mutton in Pakistani usage means goat, not lamb), beef, or chicken; lamb is rarer. Specify spice tolerance honestly; Pakistani kitchens cook heavier than Indian counterparts. At a barra (grill) or kebab house, order by the seekh or the half-kilo. Bread is eaten with the right hand, used to pinch meat or sauce. Tap water in upscale restaurants; bottled for short-term visitors. Tipping 10% is standard at sit-down restaurants. The rookie mistakes are confusing mutton with lamb (Pakistani mutton is goat), refusing the raw onion that arrives with kebabs (it is the palate cleanser), and asking for pork (it does not exist in Pakistan).
What to drink with it
Lassi (sweet or salted yogurt drink) is the canonical Pakistani meal pair, especially with biryani and grilled meats. Doodh patti (milk tea brewed with the tea leaves directly in milk, no water) is the everyday afternoon drink. Qahwa (Kashmiri-style green tea with cardamom, cinnamon, saffron, and almonds) is the formal closer. Limewater (sikanjvi or shikanji) with salt and cumin is the summer street-stall drink. Alcohol is officially restricted (Pakistan is dry by national law for Muslims; non-Muslims can drink with a permit), so most Pakistani restaurants do not serve alcohol. Outside Pakistan, beer (light lager) is the standard pair.
Where to eat it
Lahore is the Pakistani food capital. Old Lahore's Anarkali, Gawalmandi, and Food Street neighborhoods hold the densest concentration of nihari, paya, halwa puri, and kebab houses. Karachi for Sindhi biryani, Burns Road street food, and the Saddar grill scene. Peshawar for chapli kebab. Quetta for Balochi cuisine. Outside Pakistan, the Pakistani diaspora has built strong scenes in London (Tayyabs, Lahore Kebab House, Dishoom for the modern spin), Birmingham, Toronto, Houston, New York (Jackson Heights), Dubai, and Riyadh. Pakistani restaurants are often grouped with Indian abroad, but the cuisine has its own identity.
A short history
Pakistani cuisine took its modern shape from the Mughal Empire (1526-1857), which formalized the meat-heavy biryani-kebab-korma repertoire across what is now Pakistan and north India. Partition (1947) created Pakistan as a separate country, and the cuisine diverged from Indian counterparts through Islamic dietary law, regional emphasis on meat, and the absorption of Persian and Central Asian techniques from refugees fleeing the partition. The diaspora to the UK from the 1960s built a strong Pakistani-British culinary identity, especially in Bradford and Birmingham.
Frequently asked
Is Pakistani food different from Indian food?
They share many dishes (biryani, kebab, naan, korma) but the regional cuisines diverge. Pakistani cooking is heavier on meat (no pork; abundant beef, lamb, goat), more grill-focused, and less dairy-cream than Indian-Mughlai cooking. Pakistani vegetarian cuisine exists but is less developed than the Indian Hindu vegetarian tradition.
What is the difference between nihari and haleem?
Both are slow-cooked stews but structurally different. Nihari is meat-and-marrow in a clear-ish spiced gravy with chunks of beef shank. Haleem is meat plus grains (wheat, barley, lentil) cooked together until the meat dissolves into the porridge-like base. Nihari is breakfast; haleem is a Muharram and Ramadan dish.
What is mutton in Pakistani usage?
In Pakistani English, 'mutton' refers to goat meat, not adult sheep. Lamb is called 'lamb'; older sheep is uncommon. This is also the convention in Indian English and confuses visitors from the UK or US where mutton means adult sheep.
Pakistani by city
Pakistani in Brussels
Pakistani in Chicago
Ghareeb Nawaz (late-night biryani) ★ 4.5
Ghareeb Nawaz in Chicago is the West Ridge Pakistani halal counter on Devon, with $7 chicken biryani open until 02:00, the only Devon plate at that hour.
Try: $7 chicken biryani special
Tip: Cash only. Bring a container; the biryani plate feeds two with leftovers for the morning.
Ghareeb Nawaz (budget) ★ 4.5
Ghareeb Nawaz in Chicago is the West Ridge Pakistani halal counter on Devon Avenue, with the $7 chicken biryani that feeds two and runs from 11:00.
Try: $7 chicken biryani special
Tip: Cash only and large portions. Bring a container for leftovers; the biryani plate is at least 2.5 portions for the price.
Pakistani in Copenhagen
Kebabish ★ 4.0
Kebabish on Vesterbrogade in Vesterbro keeps a halal Indian-Pakistani kitchen running well past midnight, with kebabs, biryani and curries served.
Try: Halal kebabs, biryani, curries
Tip: The post-midnight crowd is bar-spillover from Mikkeller. Cash or card.
Kebabish (Vesterbrogade) ★ 4.0
Kebabish on Vesterbrogade in Vesterbro serves halal Indian-Pakistani biryani, kebab and tandoori plates from a counter that runs lunch and late-night.
Try: Chicken biryani plate
Tip: Open until midnight weekdays and 01:00 weekends. Cash or card.
Pakistani in Houston
Himalaya Restaurant ★ 4.8
Himalaya Restaurant in Houston is Kaiser Lashkari's Pakistani-Indian Hillcroft strip-mall kitchen, a James Beard semifinalist room hiding in a freeway.
Order: Lamb biryani slow-cooked dum, hunter's beef.
Why locals love it: A Pakistani strip-mall room on the Southwest Freeway, with chef Kaiser Lashkari running the most precise biryani in Texas since 2004.
Tip: Order the slow-cooked dum lamb biryani and hunter's beef. BYOB; corner liquor store across Hillcroft is the run.
Pakistani in Lisbon
Taste of Pakistan ★ 4.2
Taste of Pakistan on Lisbon's Rua do Benformoso: a halal Pakistani curry house in Little Bangladesh, chicken karahi with rice for 10 euros, generous plate.
Try: Chicken karahi with rice
Pakistani in London
Tayyabs ★ 4.0
The Tayyab family's Punjabi grill on Fieldgate Street in Whitechapel London, opened 1972, runs charcoal-grilled lamb chops, karahi and seekh kebab.
Signature: Lamb chops, Karahi gosht
Order: A starter plate of lamb chops, karahi gosht and tandoori roti to mop up.
Tip: BYOB. Friday and Saturday queues run to 60 minutes; aim for a Tuesday or Wednesday at 19:00.
Pakistani in Manchester
Lal Qila ★ 4.2
Manchester Curry Mile institution open until 01:00 on weekend nights. Lal Qila means Red Fort; everything cooked to order, spice tuned to each diner here.
Try: Made-to-order curry
Akbar's Castlefield ★ 4.0
Bradford-founded Kashmiri chain on Manchester's Liverpool Road in Castlefield. Signature hanging naan suspended from a metal frame over the table at dinner.
Try: Curry and naan
Pakistani in Oslo
Punjab Tandoori ★ 4.2
Punjab Tandoori on Grønland is the family-run halal Pakistani room with a budget thali, naan from the tandoor and the long Grønland queue for take-away.
Try: Halal thali with rice, raitha and curry
Pakistani in Philadelphia
Kabobeesh ★ 4.4
Kabobeesh in Philadelphia is the University City halal Pakistani-Indian counter on Chestnut, the city's best post-midnight kebab and biryani room.
Try: Charcoal kebab plate, biryani
Kabobeesh ★ 4.2
Kabobeesh in Philadelphia is the University City halal Pakistani-Indian counter on Chestnut, with charcoal kebabs and biryani plates for 12 dollars.
Try: Chicken biryani
Kabobeesh ★ 4.0
Kabobeesh is university city halal pakistani-indian counter on chestnut with charcoal-grilled kebabs and biryani serving past midnight every night.
Why locals love it: University City halal Pakistani-Indian counter on Chestnut with charcoal-grilled kebabs and biryani serving past midnight every night.
Tip: Order the lamb chops on the bone and the chicken biryani; the lassi is enough for two.
Pakistani in Pittsburgh
Kabab King ★ 4.2
Kabab King on McKnight Road serves cheap halal Pakistani food near Pittsburgh. A plate of biryani or seekh kebabs feeds you well for little in the North.
Try: Biryani and kebabs
Pakistani in Rotterdam
Zainab Roshni Mahal ★ 4.5
A Pakistani community restaurant near Delfshaven with hefty portions of biryani, nihari, and daal that feed two for under €20. Located in Rotterdam West.
Tip: The mixed biryani for two feeds three adults easily. Bring your own beer from the off-licence next door.
Pakistani in San Francisco
Shalimar ★ 4.3
Shalimar in San Francisco is the Tenderloin's cash-and-card Pakistani counter, with a tandoor at the door turning out solid chicken tikka under fifteen.
Signature: Chicken tikka, Lamb karahi, Garlic naan
Order: Chicken tikka from the tandoor, with garlic naan and dal.
Tip: Eat at the back of the room; the front benches give you a view of the tandoor cook at speed.
Shalimar ★ 4.3
Shalimar in San Francisco is the Tenderloin Pakistani counter where a tandoor-fired chicken tikka, naan and dal lands under thirteen dollars at lunch service.
Try: Chicken tikka with naan and dal
Tip: Eat at the back tables; the front counter has the tandoor view but no chairs.
Pakistani in Toronto
Lahore Tikka House ★ 4.4
Lahore Tikka House on Gerrard East is Little India's reference Pakistani halal kitchen since 1996, tandoor-grilled meats in a Persian-tile dining room.
Signature: Seekh kebab, Butter chicken
Order: A platter of seekh kebab, butter chicken and a fresh naan from the tandoor.
Tip: Halal certified. The summer patio the city's most colourful outdoor strip; bring cash for tips.
Pakistani in Vienna
Der Wiener Deewan ★ 4.7
Der Wiener Deewan on Liechtensteinstrasse in Vienna's Alsergrund runs a pay-what-you-want Pakistani buffet, drinks charged separately, the city's loved.
Try: Pay-what-you-want Pakistani buffet
Tip: Pay what you want for food; drinks are charged. The buffet is replenished through 22:00.
More cities are in research. Want pakistani covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.