Pakistani Street Food - Nisar Charsi Tikka And Karhai

Nisar Khan Charsi Tikka is one of the best meat restaurants in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Cooking without oil, and using fat from the meat instead, every dish on the menu promises incredible depths of local flavor.
If you are visiting the ancient and incredible city of Peshawar then this is one restaurant you absolutely have to visit.
In the Namak Mandi Market area of Peshawar, street life is vibrant, exciting, and of course incredibly delicious.
Just being on these streets should and will make you hungry, and there are few better places to go than Nisar Khan Charsi Tikka Shish Mahel for an ultimate meat experience.
The name is a little long, but thats ok, because most will know it as simply “Charsi Tikka.”
Although Tikka is a common food throughout Pakistan and India (‘Tikka’ just means ‘small pieces of meat’), there are few restaurants that do it better than Nisar Khan.
Note: “Charsi,” by the way, refers to ‘someone who smokes,’ and I guess in this case I approve of smoking skills, from cigarettes or other things, when they’re focused instead into skilled preparation of meat.
The menu is not extensive, you can order a karahi – in this case lamb simmered in its own fat and cooked into a curry in a rounded metal pan, tikka – grilled meat, or sajji chicken – the giant chicken formation at the front of the restaurant.
When you walk up to Nisar Khan Charsi Tikka you’ll see a number of lambs hanging at the front, their very own butchery. You actually choose your own cut of meat for the dishes you want to order, and they chop it right then and there, so you know it’s ultra fresh.
Along with grilled lamb chops, their prize-winning item is dumba karahi, lamb karahi, which is a must-order.
In Pakistan, Peshawar ranks as one of the top meat eating cities, right up with Gujranwala, Lahore, and Karachi.
Since nothing is pre-cooked, it takes at least an hour for your meat to be cooked.
The good new is, just a 3 minute walk down the road is Kaptaan Chappal, where you can shop for local Peshawari sandals, known as chappals, while you wait. I was very excited to get some new local footwear.
Kaptaan Chappal is not an ordinary chappal sandal store, it’s the exact shop where the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Imran Khan, buys his from – and he’s known to wear them daily. You’ll find chappals all over Peshawar, but Kaptaan Chappal makes a special chappal with extra thick soles, requested by Mr. Imran Khan himself.
rices range from 2500-4500PKR (US$20-35) a pair.