Images

Shehryar Restaurant — a taste of Rajasthan along the G.T. Road

Shehryar Restaurant — a taste of Rajasthan along the G.T. Road

In a sea of mediocre roadside eateries, this restaurant has customers coming back for tikkas and ice cream
11 Jan, 2016

CHAKWAL: Most people who travel the Lahore-Islamabad route, either on the M2 Motorway or along the G.T. Road, constantly complain of the costly and subpar food offered at various outlets located along the two main roads connecting the federal capital with central Punjab.

But those who have discovered Shehryar Restaurant, located by Talagang Road just a few yards from Balkassar Interchange, don’t complain about this as much.

The restaurant’s building and the parking area look like they were built from the same local clay used to erect mud houses in its rural surroundings. The spacious and flowery gardens add to the eatery’s ambiance, where customers come from far and wide to sample their two trademark dishes: Rajasthani tikka and Shehryar’s famous ice cream.

The Rajasthani tikka, once a favourite of the rajas of Rajasthan, is inevitably part of every customer’s order at the restaurant.


In a sea of mediocre roadside eateries, one restaurant has customers coming back for more


Aftab Ahmed, the man behind the grill with 12 years of experience as a barbeque chef, said the masala for the tikkas contains various items, including “black and white pepper, green chillies, ginger and garlic paste, mustard sauce, cream, eggs, Maggi flavouring and salt”.

Chaudhry Husnain, one of the restaurant’s owners, explained that Rajasthani tikka cannot be made from an entire chicken, because only two tikkas are made from one fowl.

“The Rajasthani tikka only uses chicken drumsticks, and one thigh-cum-leg piece makes one tikka,” he said.

Once the marinade is ready, it is applied to the chicken, which is then marinated for six hours before being threaded onto skewers and grilled over coal with lashings of cooking oil. It takes about half an hour to cook a tikka and the chef ensures their tenderness.

The smoky tikkas are then served with tamarind sauce, to complement its barbeque flavour. The tikkas are also accompanied by tandoori bread, made from pure wheat flour using the traditional chakki method of grinding wheat, rather than the fine flour made by machines at flour mills.

Although the restaurant offers a variety of delicious dishes, from fried meat and vegetables and lentils, only Shehryar’s special ice cream can match the demand for Rajasthani tikkas. The ice cream offered here is not available anywhere else in the country and is made from buffalo milk. Buffalo are in plentiful supply in the villages surrounding the restaurant and the milk is usually obtained fresh.

“First, the milk is boiled. Then ice cream powder is added and the mixture is allowed to cool. Almonds and pistachios are added, and voila,” Nasir Khan, who is responsible for making Shehryar ice cream, told Dawn.

The ice cream is available in three flavours: kulfa, mango and chocolate, with kulfa being the most sought-after of the three.

“The demand for kulfa ice cream is so high in the summer that we run short within two hours and customers have to return dejected,” Chaudhry Shafqat Ali, also one of the owners, said.

“The secret behind our success is that we have not only focused on the serene environment and on the quality of food, but our rates are also easily affordable,” Chaudhry Husnain said.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2016

Comments

analyses Jan 11, 2016 09:44am
There are 100s of restaurant between Lahore and Islamabad on GT road. And due to high speed those vanish in a second. Would have been better if you've provided a bit more detail on the restaurant's location (near which city, on which side towards Islamabad or Lahore? etc). Without knowing the exact location, it's blink and miss for most people.
Recommend
Khurram Shahzad Jan 11, 2016 10:09am
I am a regular visitor of Islamabad from Faisalabad and I already discovered this place almost two years ago and I always eat food there. the food and environment is also very good. Always enjoyed specially in summer evenings. Great effort.
Recommend
jay Jan 11, 2016 10:35am
Mouth watering. I hope one day I can visit Pakistan and enjoy the great food there
Recommend
Umar Jan 11, 2016 11:45am
@analyses If you are coming from pindi take right after exiting the toll plaza. There will be a V and you keep on the right of the that. On the right you would find that restaurant. Old name was madina hotel. There dal is amazing too and the tea they serve in mud pottery
Recommend
somethingfishy Jan 11, 2016 11:48am
Good job guys.
Recommend
Madhusudan Jan 11, 2016 12:05pm
Check google map for exact direction, just enter restaurant name and city, its so simple these days.
Recommend
Usman Anwar Jan 11, 2016 01:04pm
Leave Motorway on Balksaer Interchange. The restaurant is hardly 500 meters away from interchange when you travel towards TalaGung.
Recommend
Tariq Amir Jan 11, 2016 02:25pm
Your headline is misleading. This restaurant as you too have mentioned, is beside M2. Not GT road.
Recommend