Best Pakistani Restaurants Around the World

The best-scored Pakistani place in each of 12 cities.

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.

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