Country dossier
Restaurants, hotels, bars and wineries across Pakistan in the En Primeur Club guide.
Accolades in Pakistan
Islamabad holds 9 venues in our guide, the largest concentration in Pakistan. The capital combines two hotels with neighbourhood restaurants in distinct formats, including a garden BBQ buffet, mezze, and hot pot.
Baradari in G-5 is a seasonal al fresco Pakistani BBQ buffet inside the Islamabad Serena Hotel gardens. It sits in the capital’s civic dining circuit, where occasion-led meals shape the room and the format centres on grilled dishes, tandoor breads, and live traditional music.
Al Maghreb in G-5/1 is a Middle Eastern restaurant at the Serena Hotel, with decorated interiors and dishes that include mezze, grilled specialties, and Moroccan and Mediterranean cooking. It stands opposite the Convention Centre on Islamabad’s formal dining circuit. Service is a la carte, and the drinks are zero-proof.
Islamabad Serena Hotel in G-5 is the capital’s reference hotel in our guide, with Leading Hotels of the World Member status for 2025. Its setting opposite the Convention Centre places it at the centre of Islamabad’s hotel-led dining scene and formal hospitality circuit.
The Townhouse in F-7 is a boutique hotel in Islamabad and a 2025 member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Contemporary design and personalised service shape the stay, with a Bali stone dipping pool and a Nordic sauna on the property.
Lahore’s venues in our guide span the Walled City of Lahore, Lakshmi Chowk, and Johar Town. They cover specialty naan, rooftop Pakistani cooking, karahi, and a Western and Pan-Asian room with a hi-tea buffet.
Khalifa Naan Shop Since 1869 in the Walled City of Lahore is a historic naan shop known for large specialty naans, including a chicken cheese naan. The shop claims roots since 1869, and the bread is served a la carte.
Haveli in the Walled City of Lahore is a rooftop restaurant serving authentic Pakistani food. Its place on Food Street opposite Badshahi Mosque makes it part of the city’s old-city dining circuit, where setting and historic surroundings shape the meal.
Butt Karahi in Lakshmi Chowk is a karahi house known for spice-rich dishes sold by the kilogram. Meat, tomatoes, and spice are cooked to order in a wood-fire or gas-fired wok. The room is part of Lahore’s street-food tradition, and service is a la carte.
Buqayvia Restaurant in Johar Town serves Western and Pan-Asian fusion. The room offers an a la carte menu and a hi-tea buffet of snacks, desserts, and beverages. The wine programme is standard, and the restaurant is in Johar Town in Lahore.
Outside the big-city centres, the guide shifts toward regional food, road corridors, and high-altitude dining. These places show how local cooking styles shape the table across Pakistan.
Rafsal in Chogomatamsara Khor is a terrace restaurant in Skardu serving Pakistani local cuisine with mountain views. Biryani is a signature dish at the terrace restaurant. Skardu is a high-altitude town, and the menu there is served a la carte.
Sapna Shinwari Restaurant in Mera Muzaffar serves traditional Pakistani Shinwari cooking, including lamb karahi and other traditional Pakistani dishes. The cooking reflects Khyber Pakhtunkhwa heritage. Communal eating and a slow wood-fired technique sit at the centre of the style in Abbottabad.
Butt Karahi by Usman Tahir in Gujar Khan sits on the GT Road corridor and follows the roadside karahi format that highway dining depends on. Its menu centres on karahi, tikka, and grilled meats cooked fast over high heat for travellers and locals.
Three Islamabad venues in our guide cover hand-pulled beef noodle soup, hot pot, and Pan-Asian cooking. The formats are noodle soup, shared broths, and an a la carte Pan-Asian menu.
Lanzhou Beef Noodles I-8 Markaz serves authentic hand-pulled beef noodle soup from Gansu province in China, cooked in the Lanzhou style. The restaurant occupies a basement room in Islamabad, the capital, and the menu is served a la carte in that basement.
China Hot Pot in F-7 is an interactive hot pot restaurant built around shared broths and table-side cooking. Guests choose broths and ingredients at the table. The wine programme is minimal, and the formats include a la carte, family style, and buffet.
Sesame And Soy in Islamabad is a newly opened Pan-Asian restaurant in the capital. It serves sesame-forward flavours of East and South Asian cooking, with oils, pastes, and fermented condiments. The wine programme is standard. The menu is served a la carte.
Islamabad has the strongest concentration in our guide, with 9 venues. That count includes 7 restaurants and 2 hotels, the widest hotel and restaurant spread of any city in Pakistan. The capital’s dining in our guide is this cluster of hotels and neighbourhood restaurants.
Sesame And Soy in Islamabad and Buqayvia Restaurant in Johar Town keep a standard wine programme, and China Hot Pot in F-7 and The Smokey Cauldron in F-6 keep a minimal wine programme. These four are the venues in our Pakistan guide with a standard or minimal wine programme.
Islamabad is the clearest city for hotel-led dining in our guide. The capital holds the guide’s 2 hotels: Islamabad Serena Hotel, opposite the Convention Centre in G-5, and The Townhouse in F-7. Baradari serves a BBQ buffet in the Serena gardens, and Al Maghreb is the Serena Hotel’s Middle Eastern restaurant.
Lahore, Skardu, Abbottabad, and Gujar Khan carry the clearest regional food identities in our guide. Lahore leans into naan and karahi, Skardu into high-altitude local cuisine, Abbottabad into Shinwari cooking, and Gujar Khan into roadside karahi and tikka on the GT Road corridor.
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
Pakistan
Selected entries from the current guide for Pakistan.
Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan
Stiller holds both a Michelin star (retained from 2024 into 2025) and a Black Pearl 1 Diamond, placing it among Guangzhou's most decorated European kitchens. Under Chef Airis Zapa, the restaurant operates at the ¥¥¥ price tier, where serious European technique meets a city better known for Cantonese tradition.
Islamabad, Pakistan
Al Maghreb sits in Islamabad’s government-quarter orbit, opposite the Convention Centre, where dining is shaped as much by access and occasion as by cuisine. With few public details on menu format or pricing, the useful read is contextual: treat it as part of the capital’s formal dining circuit, then compare it with better-documented Islamabad rooms before deciding where it fits your evening.
Islamabad, Pakistan
Baradari belongs to Islamabad’s more civic, occasion-led dining circuit, close to the capital’s government and conference district rather than the market lanes that shape much of the city’s casual eating. The draw is less about chef mythology than setting: a formal room in a city where regional Pakistani produce, rice, pulses, grilled meats, dairy and spice traditions carry the conversation.
Lahore, Pakistan
Buqayvia Restaurant sits on Main Canal Road in Johar Town, Lahore, placing it inside one of the city's more active mid-city dining corridors.
Gujar Khan, Pakistan
On the GT Road corridor between Rawalpindi and Gujar Khan, Butt Karahi by Usman Tahir represents the kind of roadside karahi institution that Pakistan's highway dining culture has long depended on. The format is direct: meat cooked hard and fast in a wok over high heat, served to travellers and locals who know the difference between a karahi built on fresh ingredients and one that is not.
Islamabad, Pakistan
Capital View Restaurant occupies a basement address in Islamabad's Blue Area commercial district, placing it among a cluster of everyday dining options near the Savour Foods corridor. Cuisine type and menu detail are limited in the public record, but the location puts it squarely in the city's accessible, neighbourhood-serving dining tier rather than its formal restaurant circuit.
Karimabad, Pakistan
Where the Karakoram Sets the Table Arrive in Karimabad by mid-morning and the valley already feels like a separate country from the Pakistan you passed through on the Karakoram Highway. The air is thinner, cooler, carrying the smell of apricot...
Bulchi Das, Pakistan
Mountain Pizzeria occupies a specific position in Bulchi Das's emerging casual dining scene, bringing a pizza-forward menu to a part of Pakistan where wheat-based traditions run deep. The kitchen sits at the intersection of local ingredient availability and an imported format, making it one of the more practical places to eat in the area for a cross-generational table.
Skardu, Pakistan
Rafsal sits on the first floor above JS Bank on Skardu's main road, placing it in the heart of one of Pakistan's most remote high-altitude towns. Dining here means eating against the backdrop of a region where supply chains are seasonal, ingredients arrive overland through mountain passes, and the kitchen operates within constraints that shape every dish on the table.
Abbottabad, Pakistan
Sapna Shinwari Restaurant sits in the Mera Muzaffar quarter of Abbottabad, serving the kind of Shinwari-tradition cooking that traces its roots to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa frontier. The format is built around communal eating and the slow, wood-fired techniques that define the style across northern Pakistan. For visitors coming from the Karakoram Highway corridor, it represents a grounded stop in a city that sits at the threshold between the plains and the mountains.
Pakistan
Selected entries from the current guide for Pakistan.
Islamabad, Pakistan
Islamabad Serena Hotel occupies a commanding position opposite the Convention Centre in G-5, placing it at the centre of the capital's diplomatic and political geography. For travelers arriving in Islamabad on substantive business, it remains the reference address.
Islamabad, Pakistan
A boutique property in Islamabad's F-7 Markaz district, The Townhouse positions itself as a residential-scale alternative to the capital's larger hotels. Contemporary design and personalised service define the stay, with amenity touches, complimentary electric buggy transfers, a dipping pool, that signal deliberate attention to guest comfort over volume.
Pakistan
Selected entries from the current guide for Pakistan.
No venues found.
Pakistan
Selected entries from the current guide for Pakistan.
No venues found.
