15+ Best Pakistani Foods For dinner,Lunch and Breakfast

 15+ Best Pakistani Foods For dinner,Lunch and Breakfast - Pakistani food is rich, packed full of spice, generous with ghee, and unbelievably tasty for dinner,lunch and breakfast.

“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.”

― George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

In this article i will share 16 dishes to eat in Pakistan, I’m going to share with you the best dishes which you can try during your trip to Pakistan.

Get ready for some serious Pakistani flavor and regional specialties. Enough introductions, lets get to all the dishes.

 1. Nihari

I have a confession to make: I’m a huge fan of almost all the mouth-watering treats Lahore is known for, and could go on and on about them at dizzying length.

This dish is truly a game-changer when it comes to Pakistani cuisine. I would easily consider this among the best breakfasts I have ever had anywhere in the world.

Nihari begins as a heap of dry spices frying in vegetable oil and animal fat. The meat ingredients follow (most commonly beef shank), and a very healthy portion of Desi Ghee (home-made local clarified butter). The slow-cooking stew is then stirred altogether in a glorious cauldron of a pot.

Eaten from communal plate-trays, you garnish the Nihari from a side-plate of fragrant sliced ginger, spicy green chilies, and a squeeze from a fresh lime or two.

Someof the location in Lahore are as below:

1.      Waris Nihari

2.     Muhammadi Nehari House

3.     Muhammadi Nihari

4.     Haji Nehari

5.     Shahid Nihari and biryani house

6.     Waris Nihari House - Moon Market

7.     Muhammadi Nihari

8.     And In Karachi, I would highly recommend Javed Nihari.

2. Kabuli Pulao

Most Recommanded LUNCH  TO SHARE A FEW HEAPING PLATES OF RICE PULAO.

Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, lies just a few hours from the KP Province (North-Western border) of Pakistan. Imagine Silk Road traders creating the first dishes of Kabuli Pulao right here in Western Pakistan.

Pulao can be made with any size grain of rice, which the chef always fries in oil while stirring in large amounts of dry spices. Usually, there will be a chunk of mutton or beef meat, sometimes an entire leg, at the heart of each massive batch.

Saffron gives the rice taste and color, but typically the spices are milder than biryani. Whole cloves of cardamom and golden sultana raisins give off a beautifully sweet aroma, and at larger restaurants it may include peanuts and even pistachios as a garnish.

You can recognize pulao on the street in its absolutely huge stainless steel cooking vessel, a unique, bell-like shape, often resting at a curious 45-degree angle.

Kabuli Pulao smells gorgeous, looks beautiful, and of course tastes incredible as well. A perfect dish for lunch, walking around the lively street atmosphere of any of Pakistan’s large, bustling cities, especially common in and around Peshawar.

Few Recommanded locations for pakistan foods are as below:

1.     Shaheen Shinwari

2.     Namak family Restaurant

3.     Khyber Charsi Tikka Shop

4.     Khyber Village

5.     Noshakh

6.     Shaheen Shinwari

7.     Qabail

8.     Best Pulao And Biryani Liberty

3. Karahi

MOUTH WATERING AND SPICY  MUTTON KARAHI IN LAHORE

Karahi is one of thebest of all Pakistani food, and is dear to the hearts of all Pakistanis. You can find Karahis cooking in the smallest roadside shop, or in the Palatial kitchen of a local Rajah.

Most Pakistani karahi recipes start with tomatoes, onions, and some type of animal fat. It’s that tomato broth that gives each Karahi its ultra-umami magic, so full of smokiness, tender chunks of meat, and a whole lot of fat – from the meat, the ghee, and the occasional dollop of cream.

The dish takes its name from the black, iron, scoop-shape pan. Usually a karahi curry is made with goat, but also commonly with chicken or even shrimp. The metal dish can then be its own serving bowl, sizzling hot coming straight to the center of your table..

The tools of choice for cooking this dish are a massive pair of pliers to grip the pan, and a metal spatula to move meat around. Every pan is cooked over flaming high heat, and the chef’s motion follows a steady working rhythm – add oil, meat, count to three, stir. More oil, grip the pan to rapidly add spices, move the entire dish to a serving tray, then breathe (chef wipes a dripping brow).

This is an iconic dish of Pakistan, and can be found throughout the country.

In Lahore, Butt Karahi is mandatory, and we had an insanely good Shrimp Karahi at the Dua Restaurantin Karachi, lounging outdoors in a seating area the size of a playing field.

 Best Karahi in Lahore for pakistan foods 

1. Butt Karahi Tikka

Best Karahi in Karachi for pakistan foods:

1.     Sastaticket.pk Karachi North Nazimabad
2.    Anwar Baloch Restaurant & Fast Food
3.   Kolachi Restaurant

Best Karahi in Rawalpindi for pakistan foods:

1.          Kala Khan Nehari House
2.          Kentuchy Chicken Karahi
3.          Bala Tikka House
4.          Aseel Shinwari Restaurant
5.          Iqbal Tikka House

4. Haleem

Haleem is an incredibly hearty dish made with a combination of barley, local wheat varieties, and chana (chickpeas). This dish shows the influence on Pakistan that comes from the Middle East, and people have been enjoying Haleem here for centuries.

Onions (fried separately), mint leaves, both green and dry chilies, and then some masala spices go into the mother-pot, and a final garnish comes from generous squeezes of lemon juice at the end.

Slow-cooking, for up to an entire day, on very low heat is a technique used to give haleem its warm, home-cooked flavor.

This is a great food to have in the morning, or for an early lunch. Its very rich, full of calories to keep one’s  energy up throughout the day. The flavor in a good bowl of haleem can be so rich that simply eating it with roti, and then sipping on a few cups of milk or green tea, can leave you perfect and content.

Enjoy a wonderful meal of Haleem in the Old City area of Lahore, you can watch the video here. I was blown away and surprised how good it was!

5- Sajji

Sajji can include many types of meat, but usually it’s made with chicken. The artful tactics used in display do a great job in advertising for the grill-master. If you’re like me, you may find yourself being drawn over in a trance, floating from across the street.

Just walking into any shop that serves sajji should already be getting you excited. Your meat dish displayed proudly like a trophy, speared through and held aloft, dripping juices falling and sizzling on a huge bed of hot coals.

Very little seasoning is used as its all about two things – the charcoal heat, and quality of the meat. As with most Pakistani food restaurants, sajji is served with a stack of piping hot roti bread, straight from the tandoor oven.

We had this wonderful dish a few times, my favorite was in Lahore eating sajji with biriyani sitting street-side, enjoying the food with owner of Khalifa Balochi Sajji himself.

Best Sajji in Lahore for pakistan foods:

      1.      Sabir Sajji House
2.      Khalifa Balochi Sajji
3.      Best Sajji
4.      Dogar Sajji House
5.      Najji ki sajji

Best Sajji in Peshawar for pakistan foods:

1.      Special Balochi Sajji
2.      Sheen Tika Restaurant
3.      Nisar charsi tikka shish mahel
4.      Jalil Kabab House
5.      Road Side Peshawar Food

Best Sajji in Karachi for pakistan foods:

1.       Mehran Sajji
2.       Balochistan Sajji
3.       Bolan Sajji House
4.       Balochi Sajji & Koyla Karahi
5.     Balochistan Sajji Jauhar Decor

Best Sajji in Balochistan for pakistan foods:

1.   Lehri Sajji House, Balochi Cuisine.
2.  Hazarajat Restaurant
3. Balochistan Sajji
4. Gulshan Karahi گلشن کڑاہی
5. Barbeque Kabab Center Haji Ali Zai Special Sajji Kabab

6. Mutton qorma

For a classic meal of Punjab cuisine it would be mandatory to include at least one dish with mutton – and its likely to be a korma curry – just as beautiful as the one you see here.

Mutton korma is hearty and rich, including incredibly tender chunks of sheep or goat meat, and a dark red blend of spices.

From the top of Pakistan’s Himalayas to the bottom of the Indian Sub-Continent, a large portion of planet earth’s population is probably dreaming of their mother’s mutton curry right this minute. We had some amazing mutton curries in Pakistan, one specifically if you’re in Lahore, don’t miss the mutton korma at Khan Baba restaurant.

7. Saag

Another dish commonly found throughout the Punjab Province of Pakistan is Saag. The dishes name simply means ‘mustard greens,’ and there can be any number of other ingredients cooked along with it.

The mustard greens are slow-cooked until its leaves are so soft they’re literally breaking apart, it almost resembles a stew its so gooey. Seasoning includes mint, coriander, and chili flakes, and usually includes generous amounts of glorious desi ghee.

(You may know the more internationally-famous version, saag paneer, made with soft cheese. In Pakistan though, you can come across many with more brave additions. In the Northern town of Skardu, enjoy an incredible version made with huge chunks of mutton meat, and the saag dish from the Peshawari Grandfather in the photo above was even sour (maybe made with mustard greens?), very health-ful feeling and using minimal seasonings, and he serves it cold! Refreshing.)

 FRESHLY CHURNED BUFFALO BUTTER, FEW THINGS ARE MORE CREAMY THAN HAND-MADE LASSI.

8. Lassi

After all the gloriously heavy meat meals in Pakistan, you will love the cool and refreshing tradition of enjoying lassi after breakfast, lunch, or really any time possible.

The style most Pakistani lassi makers use involves making the drink from scratch. Very cool to watch each cup of milk transform, versions including cream or even butter even allow you to even watch the chef churn it all by hand.

Lassi is simply the name of the beverage, so many of the variations in English will simply be written as ‘salt lassi,’ or ‘sweet lassi,’ or a fruit variation with mango.

Some can be extremely simple, made with nothing but yoghurt, some sugar, and ice water, or others (like the version pictures above) include layer upon layer of ingenious flavor and texture combinations.

For the richest lassi I’ve ever had in my life, head to Chacha Feeka Lassi peray wali – it’s hard to believe how rich, creamy, and incredibly satisfying their lassis are.

9. Tikka Kebab

Few dishes could possibly have the people of Central Asia welcoming you to eat and enjoy more than Pakistani tikkas.

Tikka is a special type of ‘kebab,’ the main thing being that tikka uses larger chunks of marinated meat (kebab meat is usually minced and then seasoned, and formed onto the skewer by hand)

Since back when it was a daily meal of nomadic herders, or one using an ancient Kings’ fatty lambs, all the way to the present day mega-city road-side BBQs – this truly is an Ultimate food of all Humankind.

A fore-most food on the mind of anyone traveling in (or native to) this entire part of the world, the time-less and ever-simple practice eating skewers of chunks of meat cooking over open flame has never, and will never cease to satisfy.

I have been lucky enough to enjoy meat like this in many countries, and Pakistan instantly joins the ranks of the Greats.

Middle-Eastern style kebab in Dubai, in Israel, in Turkey, modern variations served as far East as my own home in Thailand, and then of course most recently in the wonderful city of Samarkand, 

Uzbekistan; these are all wonderful food memories.

10. Chapshurro (or Chapshoro)

Moving on now to more unique, local cuisines, from Pakistan’s northern people groups (GilgitBaltistan), the first thing you absolutely have to try is Chapshurro known as local pizza.

‘Chap,’ just means meat, shoro means  Roti wrapped with marinated ingredients,and these wonderful hot plate cakes often contain yak meat. These cook on a large convex steel/iron plate.

Seasoning them simply with onions and pepper, a sweet carrot, or maybe a small locally grown tomato, these will be the only vegetable ingredients. Using local species of wheat, the specific dough recipe, feeling, and consistency can vary widely from town to town.

This was one dish always highly recommended by locals throughout the Gilgit Baltistan region. I thought it was a perfect example of the diversity there is to discover among the food from all the various parts of Pakistan.

Most Recommended Chapshoro / Chapshoro / Chapshurro are as below:

1. Goro Juglot Gilgit KKH
2. Food Street Thole Nala KKH

11. Dowdo

Locals are importantly referring this dish specially when there is some cold or raining. This dish is most commonly known between elders who crossed 60.

Another one of the best Pakistani foods from Gilgit Baltistan is called dowdo, which is a great dish for warming oneself after an outing in the cool mountain air. A thick creamy soup full of wheat noodles and mustard greens, the noodles can be anywhere from spaghetti-thin to entire-pastry-size width.

Sometimes including shreds of carrot or thin slices of potato, coming in from the cold to find a table full of steamy bowls of Dowdo is just a wonderful comfort food.

This is a traditional dish of the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Province.Bordering the high plateaus of the Pamir Mountains, this is an area full of craggy glaciers, unique cultures, and of course food ideal for both warming and energizing the hardy people who call it home.

In a small town near Sost, after a chilly visit to the Khunjerab National Park, I now think of this as one of the best ever cold-weather meals!

12. Gyal (or Go-Lee)

The plural of Gyal is Gyaling, and this is how it will probably be written on a menu.

Another traditional dish from Gilgit specially Nagar Valley and Hunza Valley.

This is commonly known between elders and particularly serving to the guests in persue of traditional dish.

More of a savory dish than the sweet pancake it appears to be, Gyal is another hearty dish of the Gilgit-Baltistan Province.

Using fine flour of a locally growing species of red or brown buckwheat, the cakes fry on a black iron flat plate in nothing but the most incredibly fragrant apricot seed oil.

From the apricot oil to yak butter, from walnuts to thick almond paste, each family and village seem to have their own lovely recipes for filling these gyal. One thing they share though, is that gyal are always organic – ingredients for each recipe come from produce in and around each family’s home village.

 13. Paya (or Paaya)

In the Urdu language, Paya simply means ‘legs,’ and this happens to be one of the greatest of all Pakistani foods.

The recipe is basic, but quite complex to prepare. The incredible flavor in it comes from the fact that it slow cooks for hours – usually since the night before the restaurant serves it.

The basic ingredients include onions, red oil with curry spices, and absolutely giant bowl-fulls of bone-in goat legs and feet. Stewing for hours causes the tendons and cartilage surrounding the joint to become juicy and easily chewable, and the red curry broth elevates the entire flavor to incredible levels.

This meal is always eaten with a pile of fresh, hot roti bread. It’s an oily, meaty, deliciouslyslimy experience, something in Pakistan you just won’t want to miss.

Paya are very famous in both Lahore and Peshawer. So upto you and decide where to experience . I believe you would love both.

14. Biriyani

Biryani name always attached with only Karachi and most delicious and tasty dish which attracts the whole world.

Biriyani can often look like a dish of Pulao, but from the start the two are actually quite different. Pulao has all of its ingredients fried together in oil (mixing all the flavors in each bite), whereas each spoonful of steamed biriyani can be unique (ingredients are separate).

With each layer added individually, there is no stirring or mixing of ingredients until the rice is on your plate. You’re basically served a cross-section of the entire cooking pot, and you can see and enjoy each flavor of the dish.

As this dish can be a bit dry, it is usually accompanied by a side dish of raita (light yoghurt). A plate of biriyani is just perfect for a mid-day snack walking around the streets of a bustling city in Pakistan.

Pre-steamed rice is layered into a massive cooking vessel, each time sifted over with dry spice combinations of cumin, nutmeg, cardamom, and of course turmeric. It is then sprinkled with a final layer of toppings, usually carrots or peanuts, before being served with a few strips of meat.

When you’re in Karachi, you don’t want to miss the bone marrow biryani, probably the best biryani I’ve ever had, and one of the ultimate travel meal experiences of the year.

Best Recommended Pakistani Biryani in Karachi:

1.      The White Biryani
2.      Madni Biryani
3.      Biryani Centre
4.      Biryani Of The Seas
5.      Amna Biryani

Best Pakistani Biryani in Lahore:

      1.      Best Biryani
2.      Biryani Express
3.      Biryani Hut
4.      Karachi Biryani
5.      Waqas Biryani

Best Pakistani Biryani in Rawapindi:

      1.      Kala Khan Nehari House
2.      Pak Ghazi Best Biryani
3.      Biryani Master
4.      BBC Best Biryani Corner
5.      Heritage Sindhi Biryani

15. Chapli Kebab

Chapli kebab is not only best of all Pakistani food, but it’s one of the world’s greatest foods.

Sometimes known as “Peshawari Kebab” this is a dish that is literally pilgrimage worthy. I can’t speak of it any more highly – its on my list of “foods worth buying a plane ticket just to eat.”

There is so much flavor in this hand-formed deep-fat-fried patty, it just boggles the mind.

Often made with buffalo meat, the mince is kneaded through with dry spices and often a few fresh ingredients, like white onions and cilantro. Some versions add tomato, but wherever we had them I could always taste cumin seeds, wonderfully strong black pepper, and often hints of cardamom.

Popular in street-food stalls throughout Pakistan, you’ll probably find the best chapli kebabs at Taru Jabba, outside the town of Peshawar (Western province of Khyber-Pahtunkwa).

I have no shame in admitting to a full-on chapli addiction, this dish is simply incredible, and I will never look at a hamburger patty the same way again.

Best chapli kabab in Peshawar:

      1.      Kala Khan Nehari House
2.      Peshawari Chapli Kabab
3.      KABABIYAAN - The Ultimate Kebab Lounge
4.      Chapli kabab Namak Mandi
5.      Haleem Ghar

Best chapli kabab in Lahore:

      1.      Khan Chappal Kabab
2.      Khyber Village
3.      Chappal Kebab Restaurant
4.      Thothal Rajpoot Plaza

16. Halwa Puri

If there’s one special Pakistani food breakfast that loved by all, it would have to be halwa puri.

Known for causing feelings of extreme satisfaction, even to the point of laziness, for the remainder of the day. Halwa Puri is one of the most common breakfasts you’ll have in Pakistan.

The puris are thinly rolled dough, forming endlessly ultra-crispy layers, the folding style of which causes it to puff up immediately when submerging in boiling oil or desi ghee.

Halwa is then a sweet pudding like dish made from semolina which is served along with the puris. However, along with halwa and puri, you also typically get some chickpea curry.

Grab a crunchy handful of hot puri, and scoop up as much of whichever side dish is in reach. Lick your fingers, smile, and repeat. You can alternate bites of sweet halwa and spicy chickpeas.

Like most meals in Pakistan, this combo is perfected by finishing with at least one cup of dud pathi (milk-only tea, no water).

Best Halwa puri in Lahore for pakistan foods:

1.      Zafar Halwa Puri Shop

2.      Sadiq Halwa Puri Restaurant

3.      Sadiq Halwa Puri PIA Road

4.      Sadiq Halwa Puri Faisal Town

5.      Lahori Dahi Bhalley and Lahori Nashta

Best Halwa puri in Rawalpindi for pakistan foods:

1.      Kala Khan Nehari House

2.      Siddique Halwa Puri shop

3.      Refreshment Center

4.      Saleem Halwa Puri House

5.      Baba Tikka House

Best Halwa puri in Karachi for pakistan foods:

1.      Mashallah Halwa Puri

2.      Dhamthal Sweets, Bakers and Nimco

3.      Halwa Puri (Sweet Shop) | KarachiFoods

4.      Gosha-e-Shreen Halwa Puri

5.      Tooso

I hope you have enjoyed reading about these dishes as much as I enjoyed discovering, and then devouring, each and every one of them.

Even more though, I hope that this list inspires you to travel yourself, go to Pakistan, and discover the very long list of foods that I didn’t have time to include in the short but delicious list above.

Until next time, have a wonderful day, and happy eating!