Where to Eat in Gilgit: Local Food and Cafés

The best places for where to eat in Gilgit are in three parts of the city. River View Road, beside the Gilgit river, has the restaurants for karahi, barbecue, trout and chapshuro, several with terraces over the water. Jutial, along the main road, has the city's cafés, burgers and pizza. And the Gilgit Serena's restaurants are open to non-residents for a buffet or tea in the garden. For a first evening, eat by the river.

This guide covers what to order, the areas and places that locals and visitors rate, and the practical side: when to eat in the summer heat, cash, Ramadan and Muharram.

What to eat in Gilgit

Most eating out in Gilgit is familiar Pakistani food: karahi, handi, pulao, daal, barbecue and naan. What makes a meal here different is a handful of mountain dishes, the trout and the fruit.

• Chapshuro. Minced meat with onion and green chilli, sealed between thin rounds of dough and cooked until crisp. It comes from Hunza and is now made all over Gilgit.
• Mamtu. Steamed dumplings of minced meat and onion, often listed as mantu or momos.
• Dawdo. A noodle soup made with meat or vegetables, good on a cold evening.
• Trout. Fried or grilled. Gilgit-Baltistan now has hundreds of trout farms as well as its rivers, so the fish on your plate may well be farmed.
• Chapli kebabs and barbecue, a big part of eating out in the city.
• Fruit and nuts from the valleys around the city: cherries and apricots in early summer, apples in autumn, and walnuts and almonds all year.

Harissa, the slow-cooked winter dish of wheat and meat, is made for weddings and gatherings, so you are more likely to be offered it in a home than to find it on a menu. Our guide to Gilgit-Baltistan traditional food explains the dishes region by region.

River View Road: trout, barbecue and the river

River View Road follows the Gilgit river near Chinar Bagh, and it is where much of the city goes to eat out in the evening. Places well reviewed by locals and visitors include:

• Dawat Restaurant at Indus Lodges. A rooftop restaurant with views of the river and mountains, known for barbecue, kabuli pulao, mutton, family platters and grilled trout. It is popular with groups, so book ahead for a family dinner.
• Paradise Hotel & Restaurant, in Sonikot. One of the most reviewed restaurants in the city, cooking local dishes such as chapshuro and dumplings alongside karahi and barbecue. Reviews of the other dishes are mixed, so order the local food it is known for.
• Gilgit Food Yard, opposite the ETI office. Trout, chapli kebabs, pulao, mantu and laghman, in generous portions, beside the river.
• Gilgit Hujra Restaurant, near the city hospital. Barbecue, karahi, kebabs and mutton handi, with family cabins.

Evenings are the time to come. In summer the terraces fill after sunset, when the heat has gone out of the day and the river is loud with meltwater. Trout is sometimes priced by weight, so ask the price before it is cooked.

Where to find chapshuro and home cooking

Chapshuro is the dish most visitors want to try. In Gilgit you will find it at restaurants such as Paradise and at small bakeries and snack shops in the bazaars. It is made to order and eaten hot, cut into wedges, so allow a little time.

The most traditional food is still cooked at home. If you are staying in a guesthouse, ask your host a day ahead: dishes such as diram phitti, the sprouted-wheat bread eaten with apricot oil, or molida, flatbread cooked with dried cheese, take hours or need ingredients prepared in advance.

If Hunza's own dishes are your main interest, Karimabad has more family restaurants that cook them every day. Gilgit's strengths are barbecue, karahi and trout, which is worth knowing if you are deciding where to spend your nights; our guide on whether to stay in Gilgit or Hunza weighs that up.

Jutial: cafés, burgers and pizza

Jutial, the newer side of Gilgit along Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam, is where the city's cafés and fast-food places cluster, around FCNA Market and Ghazi Market. They are busy with students and young families, and useful when children want familiar food after a long day in the car.

• The CherryTree Café, in Ghazi Market. A cosy, carefully decorated café with burgers, steaks and a wide menu.
• FCNA Market. Pizza King GB, one of the city's most popular pizza and burger places, and The Food Corridor, with Pakistani dishes, burgers and pasta under one roof.
• Happy Hour, on the main road in Jutial. A well-reviewed coffee café.

Most of Gilgit's upmarket hotels are in Jutial too, so this is the easiest part of town to eat in if you are staying there.

The Gilgit Serena: buffets and tea in the garden

The Gilgit Serena, on Sherullah Baig Road in Jutial, has been the city's best-known hotel since 1985, and its restaurants take non-residents; book a table. At the time of writing:

• Dumani, the main restaurant, serves buffets at breakfast (6:30 to 10:30), lunch (12 to 3) and dinner (7 to 10:30): Pakistani, Chinese and continental food, with some regional dishes.
• Baradari, the garden restaurant, has a dinner buffet with live cooking stations.
• Rakaposhi, the lobby café, serves cakes, pastries and coffee from 7:30 in the morning to 9:30 at night, with an afternoon high tea on Saturdays and Sundays.

Expect hotel prices. In return you get the calmest lunch in Gilgit and a garden that is a relief on a hot afternoon. Timings change, so check the Serena's Gilgit dining page before you go.

The bazaar: fruit, dried fruit and snacks

The bazaars in the city centre are worth a walk for food as much as for shopping. In early summer the fruit stalls fill with cherries and then apricots from the valleys, and all year the dried-fruit shops around the NLI market area sell dried apricots, mulberries, walnuts and almonds. Buy a bag for the drive north. Our guide to what to buy in Gilgit-Baltistan covers what travels well, and our list of places to visit in Gilgit covers the bazaar with the rest of the city.

Practical tips for eating out in Gilgit

• Eat around the heat. From June to August, afternoons in Gilgit average 34°C to 36°C. Have a late breakfast and a late lunch indoors, and save the terraces for the evening.
• Carry cash. Small restaurants, bakeries and fruit stalls rarely take cards.
• Look for the family section. Many sit-down restaurants have family halls or cabins.
• Drink bottled or filtered water, and in summer go easy on salads and cut fruit that has been sitting out in the heat.
• Ramadan. Restaurants in the bazaar mostly stay shut until iftar and open in the evening. Ask your hotel what it serves during the day.
• Muharram. On 9 and 10 Muharram, processions close parts of the city, and in 2025 the tourism department advised visitors not to travel on those days. Plan to eat at your hotel.

Is Gilgit a good place to eat?

For a night or two, yes. Gilgit is a working city rather than a café town like Karimabad, but it feeds you well: good barbecue and karahi, trout by the river, decent coffee in Jutial, and a proper buffet at the Serena when you want a quiet afternoon.

With one evening, go to a River View Road rooftop around sunset, order trout for the table and a plate of chapshuro to share. With two, add lunch or tea at the Serena, or a Jutial café. If traditional Hunza dishes are the point of your trip, keep your appetite for Karimabad. For more on the region beyond the city, see our Gilgit and Hunza page.

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