Food is one of the strongest reasons to come to Pakistan, and it is also where visitors
are most likely to be looked after, fed too much, and refused permission to pay. A little
preparation makes both halves of that better.
What to eat
The dishes worth seeking out
- Biryani. Layered rice with meat and spice, and the usual introduction
to Pakistani cooking. Karachi’s version is the most famous. - Nihari. A slow-cooked beef stew, traditionally a breakfast dish, and
one of the country’s defining meals. - Karahi. Meat cooked hard and fast in a wok-shaped pan with tomato and
green chilli. Ordered by weight, shared from the pan. - Chapli kebab. A flat, spiced patty of minced beef or mutton, crisp
outside, associated with Peshawar
and the northwest. - Sajji. Salt-marinated chicken or lamb roasted whole over an open fire,
a Balochi dish and a reason on its own to eat in
Quetta. - Haleem and chicken handi for milder, slower cooking, the handi rich
with yoghurt and cream.
Breakfast and street food
Halwa puri is the classic weekend breakfast: fried bread with chickpea curry, spiced
potato and a sweet semolina halwa, eaten together. Samosas, pakoras and chaat, the last a
cold assembly of yoghurt, chickpeas, potato, tamarind and mint, fill the space between
meals. Naan and roti arrive with almost everything.
Sweet things and tea
Kheer, a cardamom-scented rice pudding, and falooda, a layered dessert of vermicelli,
jelly and milk, are the ones to try first. Pakistani sweets are sweeter than most visitors
expect. Tea is constant: strong, milky and sugared by default, and in the north the salted
pink chai of Gilgit-Baltistan is a genuinely different drink.
Regional differences
The food changes with the geography.
Punjab is rich, wheat-based and
dairy-heavy. Sindh, and Karachi above
all, is spicier and carries the strongest Mughal and migrant influence.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is meat and
bread, grilled simply and seasoned lightly.
Balochistan is slow fire
roasting. The northern valleys, including
Hunza, are the outlier: apricot, walnut,
buckwheat and dairy, far less spice, and closer to Central Asia than to the plains.
Table etiquette
- Use your right hand to eat, pass and accept. Eating with the hand is
normal and cutlery is always available if you prefer it. - Wait for elders to sit and begin.
- Expect insistence. A host will press more food on you. Refusing is
allowed, but the expectation is that you accept a little, and accepting graciously is often
easier than declining three times. - Take a small gift to a home: sweets, chocolate or fruit. Offer and
receive gifts with the right hand or with both. - Remove your shoes at the entrance to a home, and always at a mosque or
shrine. - Let them pay. Arguing over the bill is a national sport and as a guest
you will usually lose it.
Dress and general courtesy
Pakistan is socially conservative, and dressing modestly is the single easiest way to be
treated well. For men that means long trousers. For women it means loose clothing covering
the arms and legs, and a scarf carried for mosques, shrines and smaller towns. Standards are
more relaxed in Islamabad and parts of
Lahore and stricter in rural areas.
A few other things. Greet people with salaam, which goes a very long way. Ask before
photographing anyone, and particularly before photographing women. Public affection between
couples is not done. During Ramadan, eating, drinking and smoking in public during daylight
is avoided, restaurants may close until sunset, and hours shift.
Eating safely
Drink bottled or filtered water, including for brushing teeth. Busy places with high
turnover are a better bet than quiet ones. Freshly cooked and hot food is safer than food
that has been standing. Beyond that, most visitors eat street food happily and without
incident, and avoiding it entirely means missing much of the point.
Eating as a vegetarian
Pakistani cooking is meat-centred, and vegetarianism is not a widely understood concept
outside the big cities, so it needs a little management rather than a lot. The good news is
that the vegetarian foundations of the cuisine are excellent: daal in many forms, chana,
aloo dishes, palak paneer, sabzi, and the entire bread repertoire.
Two things help. Say that you do not eat meat rather than naming a diet, because the
category will be clearer than the label. And ask specifically whether a dish is cooked in
meat stock or ghee if that matters to you, since it often will be. Vegans will find dairy
genuinely difficult to avoid, as yoghurt, ghee and milk run through almost everything.
Being a guest in someone’s home
This will probably happen, quite possibly on the first or second day, and often on very
short acquaintance. It is one of the best things about travelling in Pakistan and it catches
visitors off guard.
A few expectations. You will be fed considerably more than you want. You will be served
first and pressed to take more, and a polite second refusal is usually overruled. In more
traditional households men and women may eat separately, and a male visitor may not meet the
women of the family at all, which is not a slight. Complimenting the cooking directly to
whoever prepared it, where that is possible, matters more than any other courtesy. Take
sweets, fruit or something for the children rather than arriving empty handed.
Drinking, and what to expect
Alcohol is legally restricted and not part of ordinary social life. Some international
hotels serve non-Muslim foreign guests under a permit system, but the practical position for
most visitors is that a trip to Pakistan is a dry one. Do not offer alcohol as a gift and do
not expect to find it in restaurants.
What replaces it is tea, in enormous quantity. Accepting tea is the basic unit of social
exchange, and refusing every cup reads as coldness in a way that refusing food does not.
Common questions
What food is Pakistan famous for?
Biryani, nihari, karahi, chapli kebab and sajji are the dishes most associated with the country, alongside a large bread repertoire and a strong grilled meat tradition. Regional differences are significant: the northwest grills, Balochistan roasts, Sindh spices heavily and the northern valleys use apricot, walnut and dairy.
Is Pakistani food very spicy?
Often, but not uniformly. Sindhi and Punjabi cooking can be genuinely hot, while the northern valleys are mild and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s grilled meats are seasoned lightly. Asking for less chilli is understood everywhere.
Is street food safe to eat in Pakistan?
Generally yes, and avoiding it means missing much of the point. Choose busy stalls with high turnover, eat food that is freshly cooked and served hot, and stick to bottled or filtered water. Most visitors eat street food without difficulty.
How should visitors dress in Pakistan?
Modestly. Long trousers for men; loose clothing covering arms and legs for women, with a scarf carried for mosques, shrines and smaller towns. Islamabad and parts of Lahore are more relaxed, rural areas noticeably less so.
Can you drink alcohol in Pakistan?
Not in ordinary circumstances. Alcohol is legally restricted, absent from normal social life, and available only to non-Muslim foreign visitors through a permit system in some international hotels. Plan on a dry trip.
Last thoughts on Pakistani food and etiquette
The two subjects belong together because in Pakistan they are the same subject.
Hospitality is expressed through feeding people, and being a good guest mostly means eating
what is offered, using the right hand, dressing with a little care and accepting that you
are not going to be allowed to pay. Do that and the food will be the part of the trip you
talk about afterwards. The rest of the practical detail is in our
guide to planning a trip to Pakistan.
