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Weekend Grub: Does this Islamabad eatery offer the healthiest parathas?

Weekend Grub: Does this Islamabad eatery offer the healthiest parathas?

Chattha's owner Waqar Chattha prides himself on using only the freshest organic ingredients
22 Oct, 2016

It’s been more than a year since Islamabad's eateries were in trouble.

Restaurants operating in private residences were sealed by CDA on the pretext of a non-conformity clause. Reopening was not easy for all those eateries, especially after they had invested so much in the décor of their original space.

Still, in this last one year, the capital's foodies have seen the emergence of a few new eateries — some that had reopened with the same name, some with a brand new identity but the same owners, and many new small vendors trying out their luck on a partnership basis. Chattha's falls in the latter category.

Where to go

Chattha's is located on Street 14, Tariq Market, F-10/2, Islamabad.

When to go

The dhaaba opens at 7.30am and closes at 11pm, 7 days a week.

What to order

Chattha's menu is hardcore desi.

Breakfast hot sellers are chholay, halwa and fluffy puri. For lunch, chicken biryani takes the lion's share, whereas their range of karahis and grilled BBQ rules the roast at dinner time.

The ace up in Chattha's sleeve is nihari with or without nalli and their famous wholewheat tandoori paratha with daal channa made with desi ghee.

Chattha's is famous for their wholewheat tandoori paratha with daal channa
Chattha's is famous for their wholewheat tandoori paratha with daal channa

"We source our own organic desi ghee and fresh pure milk from the farm, and for fruits and vegetables, we hand-pick the best available in the market on a premium," shares Waqar Chattha, a vilayat-returned professor at a local Islamabad university.

"One of the reasons for our good biryani is the top quality rice sourced from own farms. And all the other ingredients are chosen after rigorous quality tests."

"The idea is create a 'farm to table restaurant', the first of its kind in Pakistan," says Waqar, who was previously the co-owner of Cheema & Chattha's.

His new establishment Chattha's is two weeks old and has a seating capacity of about 40 visitors at present.

"We are eventually going to have a three-floor setup, with the rooftop accommodating the most customers, taking the number to 200 plus," Waqar tells us.

Chattha’s special chicken biryani boasted a very special mix of flavours. The succulence of the biryani was such that the first bite let loose the taste of mint, the dried plum and even the lemon zest all at the same time in my mouth. The chicken portion too, justified the price. It was moist, tender and well-steamed, thus capturing all the flavours of the biryani.

The first bite of this chicken biryani let loose the taste of mint, dried plum and lemon zest all at the same time in my mouth
The first bite of this chicken biryani let loose the taste of mint, dried plum and lemon zest all at the same time in my mouth

Moving on to the main course (no, the biryani doesn't count!), we ordered desi ghee mutton karahi, chicken makhani handi, beef kebab and chicken Rajasthani boti.

The mutton karahi came in a tailor-made wok. It was a killer in the first bite. It had the right blend of masalas with black pepper, julienned ginger and green chillis dominating the wok. One could easily feel the difference in taste while comparing it with mutton karahi cooked in regular cooking oil. However, one needs to acquire a taste for desi ghee in order to fall in love with this specialty. The gravy was moderate in quantity and so was the spice level but it was grease-free.

The chicken handi came piping hot in its clay bowl. Cooked in homemade butter, the flavoursome handi was creamy as butter had coated the chicken generously. It was a lot more tender than what we usually eat. The gravy too managed to rightly balance the small chicken cubes in the bowl.

The BBQ menu disappointed
The BBQ menu disappointed

Tandoori roti was a better complement to the handi, although Waqar had suggested an assorted naan basket. The BBQ selection was a little disappointing. The kebabs were a little dry and a notch up the normal spice level whereas Rajastani chicken boti was tender and fairer in colour then the regular chicken boti but not much different from malai boti in taste, so why call it Rajhatani chicken boti?

We rounded off our meal with a glass of sweet lassi and some kheer for dessert
We rounded off our meal with a glass of sweet lassi and some kheer for dessert

Meethi lassi was definitely not the healthiest choice to wash down our high-calorie meal at Chattha's but it was the need of the hour and as they say, "a hungry belly has no ears". If one has to savour mutton karahi, chicken makhani handi, tandoori paratha, then why not a perfectly chilled lassi in a typical stainless steel glass on a bright Sunday afternoon.

Brownies and kheer — separately — were the two highlights of the dessert menu. "The brownie is my own creation. I have used sugarcane instead of crystal sugar to give it a local flavor," informed the chef-in-the-making.

Brownies are made with sugarcane at Chattha's
Brownies are made with sugarcane at Chattha's

Damage on the pocket

Halwa puri is priced at Rs190 for dine-in, while takeaway per puri is Rs30 with channa free of cost.

Beef nihari is Rs590 for a full plate and Rs300 for a half plate. BBQ items range from Rs190 to Rs580 depending on the quantity. The most expensive items are the karahis and handis that can go up to Rs1050 to Rs2100. As Waqar puts it, anyone and everyone can afford to have a wholesome meal at Chattha's, irrespective of the amount of money in his or her pocket.

Comments

Brutal honesty Oct 22, 2016 01:52pm
Chattha Jee I am on my way......
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Rajesh Punjabi Oct 22, 2016 03:12pm
I am pure vegetarian, dawn please suggest some of the restaurants or dabbas where only vegetarian dishes are offered. I do not go to places where meat is offered.
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Umreekan_Sundi Oct 22, 2016 04:54pm
@Rajesh Punjabi
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shami Oct 22, 2016 05:50pm
@Rajesh Punjabi Is there no desi restaurant in your vicinity. Go to Delhi or Amritsar there must be some good vegetarian restaurants.
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Agha Ata Oct 22, 2016 06:45pm
For God's sake. change the public' thinking. Parathas are never, can never, be healthy with so much oil with carbohydrate in it. It gives you fat which increases your weight, it increases your blood sugar, and fat can give you heart attack. No wonder there are so many heart problems in Pakistan. I have gone through it myself with a double bypass heart surgery in the USA.
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Dehlavi Oct 22, 2016 06:53pm
Thanks for the write-up. The pictures took me back more than 50 years to Darya Gunj restaurants in Delhi where the breakfast was puri , chhole and lassi. I can almost taste the pictures.
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sss Oct 22, 2016 07:04pm
Someone please get me out of here....the flight is 20 hours long nonstop but boy o I need those wholewheat tandoori paratha with daal channa made with desi ghee. food here in gora land down under sucks
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Fredy Oct 22, 2016 07:10pm
590 for a full plate of nehari ?
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Prateik Oct 22, 2016 07:52pm
The food looks yummy.
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Muslim Oct 22, 2016 08:45pm
Unfortunately any news about food mostly revolve around Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad/Rawalpindi. As if there is no other place in Pakistan which offers something praiseworthy
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Goga Nalaik Oct 22, 2016 09:24pm
Chatta's should also promote local deserts (and not Brownies for heaven's sake...) How about Mukhadi halwa to replace brownies?
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Syed Oct 22, 2016 10:18pm
@Agha Ata once bypass is done you are good for parathas for many many years so enjoy
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Syed Oct 22, 2016 10:21pm
There are many roadside restaurants where taste and serving is awesome with far lower price. You need a strong stomach to digest and take your own water bottle.
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Tariq, Lahore Oct 22, 2016 11:06pm
Our 'desi' eateries need to mordernise with 'imaginative' packaging and spruce up their outlets to appeal to a wider range of customers and to give the 'Western' junk food trendy outlets run for their money!
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Alhamdulillah Oct 23, 2016 12:03am
Does this cause gas?
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Islamabad Calling Oct 23, 2016 12:09am
Does this Islamabad eatery offer the healthiest parathas? Yes. There is no doubt about it.
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Muhammad Oct 23, 2016 01:50am
@Rajesh Punjabi Unfortunately in pakistan all the restaurants offer atleast one meat based dish as it is a staple food here. However nearly all restaurants offer veg as well. There is however a restaurant called rajdhani delights in Karachi where u can get good veg dishes (but they have non veg as well). Other options could be the kachori walas at different locations in nearly every city of the country. They make fresh dal filled kachoris with achar and alu ki tarkari (I remember one at press club in karachi which was owned by a hindu and he made amazing kachoris at a very good price). I use to have them nearly daily when I was working in lakson.
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lafanga Oct 23, 2016 04:20am
Looks awesome but I am more wiser now in what I put in my body calorie wise. This has got clogged up arteries written all over it but I won't mind a bite or two of the puri, halwa and cholay. Mutton karahi also sounds delicious.
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Sajjad Oct 23, 2016 04:28am
Is this a joke. There is no pure Desi ghee in Pakistan. The milk is adulterated with uria and many other substances. I am not even sure if the younger generation could recognise real ghee. Are they referring to dalda ? The food standard is very poor.
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Muhammad Oct 23, 2016 06:00am
South asian food is among the least healthiest (high carbs, low nutrition) so you should limit its intake to say a cheat day i.e. once a week. Now, if you're having this once a week, I'd rather go to all out desi ghi place that can clog my veins with saturated fats and useless carbs :)
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K.Shah Oct 23, 2016 06:24am
@Rajesh Punjabi Very few places offer vegetarian food. I found it when I visited Karachi. Except daal there was no vegetarian dish on offer at most restaurants. No shortage of dishes prepared with low quality stale meat.
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Rana Oct 23, 2016 08:01am
@Rajesh Punjabi You will hardly find such place. These restaurants make most unhealthiest food of the world. Everything flooded with fat.
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jojo Oct 23, 2016 11:55pm
why no pictures of the shop and the street the restaurant is located, this was the most important part you people always missing it.
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Jayakumar Oct 24, 2016 11:16am
@Muhammad Exactly. Almost all our dishes have nothing to do with health if not some of the spices we use but even these spices after getting fried or burnt in lots of oil probably lose the healing properties.
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saira Oct 24, 2016 01:15pm
i'll be really honest! its not a friendly place for females. The food is good! but some of the items on the menu are expensive and some are cheap... Do not try expensive items as they are not worthy.
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RajThambi Oct 25, 2016 07:55am
I am from the south india and wondered if idli, masala dosa, upma and uthappam have been tasted or offered there. I am sure they be liked.
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