New York City / Pakistani
Best Pakistani
Restaurants in NYC
Nihari from $11.99 to $28.99, a 4am close on Lexington, and one timed deal in the whole cuisine.
One venue in this cuisine publishes a timed deal — Kabab King’s breakfast menu, 7am to 1:45pm daily.
- 18 verified rooms
- 1 timed deal, citywide
- nihari $11.99–$28.99
- latest close: 4am
The best Pakistani restaurants in NYC right now are Lahori Chilli on Coney Island Avenue (the best-reviewed nihari in the city, in Little Pakistan), BK Jani in Williamsburg (8.6 from The Infatuation, the highest-rated Pakistani room in New York, and the dish is a $20.86 burger), Haandi on Lexington ($14.99 nihari with bone marrow, until 1am, the only one in Manhattan with a published price), Kabab King in Jackson Heights (the only timed deal in the cuisine — breakfast from $10.50, 7am to 1:45pm daily) and Roti Boti in Astoria (sajji, the Balochi whole-roast, until 2am — but closed all day Friday). Nihari runs $11.99 to $28.99 in this city, and the difference is rent, not cooking. This is also the latest-running cuisine in New York: Lahori Kabab publishes a 4am close seven days a week, and three separate 24-hour claims sit within a few blocks of each other on Coney Island Avenue.
The short version
- Cheapest nihariPakiza — $11.99. But it is a weekend special, not an everyday dish.
- Cheapest plateHadi’s chicken biryani is $7.99. The same dish is $22.83 at BK Jani.
- The only dealKabab King’s breakfast, 7am–1:45pm daily, from $10.50, with $1.99 chai, naan and roti.
- Latest kitchenLahori Kabab on Lexington: 10am–4am, seven days, published first-party.
- Know before you goRoti Boti is closed all day Friday · nihari is weekend-only at Pakiza.
At a glance
What nihari costs by neighborhood, which dishes are weekend-only, and which kitchen is dark on Fridays.
| Restaurant | Order this | When | Neighborhood | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pakiza Restaurant | $11.99 nihari (weekends) | 24 hours | Midwood | $$$ |
| Lahori Chilli | Smoky beef nihari | Reported 24 hours | Midwood | $$$ |
| Mashallah Sweets & Restaurant | $21.99 charsi karahi | Daily 11am–12:30am | Kensington | $$$ |
| Hadi Restaurant | $7.99 chicken biryani | Daily 10am–10pm | Kensington | $$$ |
| Sweetness USA | Haleem and nihari | Listed 24 hours (unverified) | Midwood | $$$ |
| Kabab King | Breakfast from $10.50 | Daily 7am–1:45pm | Jackson Heights | $$$ |
| Dera | $13 halwa puri | Daily from 10am | Jackson Heights | $$$ |
| Kababish | $5 kebab roll | Hours disputed — call | Jackson Heights | $$$ |
| Roti Boti | Sajji · whole goat roast | CLOSED FRIDAYS | Astoria | $$$ |
| Lahori Kabab | Open to 4am | Daily 10am–4am | Curry Hill | $$$ |
| Haandi | $14.99 nihari | Daily 10am–1am | Curry Hill | $$$ |
| Kolachi | $7.50 paratha roll | Daily 11am–11:45pm | East Village | $$$ |
| Lasani Grill | 3:30am close Fri–Sat | Daily from 9am | Hell’s Kitchen | $$$ |
| Curry King | Nihari $18.99–$28.99 | Lunch times unpublished | Manhattan Valley | $$$ |
| BK Jani | $20.86 The Jani burger | Closed Mon, to 9:30pm | Williamsburg | $$$ |
| Halal Chandni Chowk | $14.64 nihari (daily) | Daily 10am–10pm | Wakefield | $$$ |
| Chaman Restaurant | $11.99 halwa puri (Sat–Sun) | Mon–Thu 11am–11pm | Allerton | $$$ |
| Alhumza | Goat biryani · nihari | Daily 11am–9pm | Dongan Hills | $$$ |
Map: where these 18 spots are
Three corridors carry this: Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn, Broadway in Jackson Heights, and Lexington around 27th.
Pins are numbered to match the table above – tap any pin for the detail and directions.
Little Pakistan: the Coney Island Avenue corridor
Five kitchens, three 24-hour claims, and the cheapest prices in the cuisine. See best late-night food in NYC.
Pakiza Restaurant
Nihari, haleem, beef paya and goat paya are all $11.99 here, which is the cheapest published nihari in New York — and all four are printed on the menu as Weekend Specials. That restriction is the single most useful fact on this card and almost nobody prints it. Roll in at 2am on a Tuesday expecting nihari and you are eating biryani. Which is fine, because chicken biryani is $8.99, lamb biryani $10.99, karahi gosht $11.99, chapli kabab $3.99 and halwa puri $6.99. Their own site claims open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays. It sits six doors from Lahori Chilli at 1026 — two round-the-clock Pakistani kitchens on the same block, which does not happen anywhere else in the five boroughs. Phone (718) 434-5596.
Lahori Chilli
The Infatuation rates it 7.8 and names the smoky beef nihari and the spicy karahi chicken; GimmeHalal calls the nihari proper — served with shaved ginger and lemon — and puts kabab-and-naan combos under $5. That is the best-reviewed nihari on a street that has three of them. It is a 24-hour operation according to Restaurantji, which also gives it 3.9 across 325 reviews, and their own site pushes direct ordering over the delivery apps. Six doors from Pakiza. Phone (718) 859-1400. Two honest caveats. Nobody publishes their prices, including them — every under-five-dollars claim you will read comes from reviewers, not a menu. And the 24-hour claim sits on a third-party listing rather than a first-party one, so make the call before a 4am trip.
lahorichilliny.com · See our Brooklyn happy hours
Mashallah Sweets & Restaurant
Charsi karahi with naan, $21.99, feeding two — one of the only Peshawari charsi karahis published on a New York menu. The distinction matters: charsi karahi is cooked in fat and salt rather than a masala base, which is a completely different dish from the karahi most people in this city have eaten. Beef paya with naan $13.99, haleem with naan $8.99, chicken biryani $8.99, beef chapli kabab platter $11.99, lamb chops platter $18.99. The Infatuation rates it 7.7 and names the lamb chops and the homemade mango kulfi. Open 11am to 12:30am every day — no closed day, no Friday break. The honest caveat: there is no nihari on the printed menu. If nihari is the mission, walk five blocks south to Lahori Chilli.
mashallahsweetsrestaurant.netwaiter.com · See our best halal restaurants in NYC
Hadi Restaurant
Chicken biryani at $7.99 is the lowest published price for it anywhere in this guide, and the spread is worth sitting with: the same dish is $22.83 at BK Jani in Williamsburg. Nearly three times, inside one cuisine, inside one borough. Goat paya, described as a soup curry, is $11.99; chicken karahi $8.99; karahi ghosht $9.99; chapli kabab $3.49. Listed 10am–10pm daily, (347) 240-1175. It also trades as Hadi Catering & Party Hall, which is why it shows up under two addresses. Two honest caveats. The internet cannot agree whether it is 681 or 683 Coney Island Ave — the banquet room is probably the 681. And the prices live on third-party menus, not one the restaurant maintains, so treat them as a floor. Confirm the nihari by phone.
menupages.com · See our best cheap eats in NYC
Sweetness USA
Three separate 24-hour claims sit within a few blocks of each other on Coney Island Avenue — Lahori Chilli at 1026, Pakiza at 1032, and this one at 1150. There is no comparable density of round-the-clock South Asian cooking anywhere in New York. The listing names haleem, nihari, chicken kebabs, butter naan and mixed grill platters, with a bakery section of pastries and sweets attached to the kitchen — the standard Coney Island Avenue format. Dine-in, takeout, delivery and kerbside pickup, with wheelchair-accessible seating. The honest caveat, and we are going to be blunt: this is the thinnest-sourced venue on the page. No website, no published prices, and the listing itself flags that the owner has not verified it. Everything here — the hours, the nihari, the prices — comes from listings rather than the restaurant.
See our best late-night food in NYC
Jackson Heights and Astoria
The only timed deal in the cuisine, and the only Friday closure. Pair with Jackson Heights happy hours.
Kabab King On now
A daily breakfast menu from $10.50, with chai, naan and roti at $1.99 each, served 7am to 1:45pm. That is the entire happy-hour story of Pakistani New York, and it is a breakfast. Every other timed price break in this cuisine is either unpublished or apocryphal. It also has the strongest halal documentation of the Jackson Heights group — a halal certificate on file and a HalalRank of 88 on Zabihah — and takes cash plus Visa, MasterCard, Discover and AMEX, which quietly dismantles the cash-only folklore about this cuisine. One block off the Roosevelt Ave / 74th St hub. The honest caveat: their own site calls it an unpretentious 24/7 eatery and no listing we checked supports that. Treat it as very late rather than always. If you need food at 4am, Lahori Kabab on Lexington publishes a 4am close and this place does not.
kababking.com · See our Jackson Heights happy hours
Dera
Halwa puri at $13 from 10am every day, which makes this an actual breakfast rather than a brunch — and a full one runs under $20 with paratha at $3.50 or aloo paratha at $4.50. The Infatuation and GimmeHalal both single out the nihari, which here is stewed beef shank in a heavy gravy rather than the usual stew meat. Their own site describes the kitchen as Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi and Nepali, which is the honest description of most of Jackson Heights and rarer than it should be. Open 10am–midnight Mon–Thu and to 1am Fri–Sun. The honest caveat, and it is a strange one: their own /menu page is currently serving somebody else’s dessert list — Basque cheesecake, tiramisu, a $29 cheese platter. The only prices you can trust from them are the breakfast ones on the homepage.
deraeats.com · See our Jackson Heights happy hours
Kababish
The chicken kebab roll is $5 — a tender chunk of kebab, lettuce and onions folded into naan, per The Infatuation, which rates the room 8.0 — and it is the cheapest way into this cuisine in Jackson Heights. The beef kabab roll is $6.50. More importantly for anyone chasing the real dishes: beef nihari and beef or goat paya are both $14.25 on the regular menu with no weekend restriction, which is the opposite of the Coney Island Avenue arrangement. Beef haleem $12, deshi murgh haleem $5.99, chicken biryani $12.50. The honest caveat: the hours are published three different ways across three sources — 9am–5pm, 9am–5am, and 24 hours. Nobody agrees when it closes, including, apparently, them. Call before a late run.
kababish.netwaiter.com · See our Jackson Heights happy hours
Roti Boti
Closed all day Friday. That is the single most useful hours fact on this page, and no other venue in this guide has a closed day at all. The other six days it runs 11am to 2am, which makes it one of the latest kitchens in Queens. What you come for is on almost no other New York menu: sajji — the Balochi whole-roast, chicken or goat — plus a whole goat and lamb roast, and a beef chapli kebab. That is Balochi and Pashtun cooking, and publishing it at all is unusual. Takeout and delivery, no reservations, (718) 278-7888. The honest caveat is just the Friday: turn up then and you are standing outside a locked door with a 2am kitchen behind it.
rotibotius.com · See our Astoria happy hours
Manhattan: Curry Hill, the East Village and beyond
The 4am kitchen, the published nihari, and the priciest plates. See best Indian restaurants in NYC.
Lahori Kabab
10am to 4am, Monday through Sunday, published on their own ordering site — the latest verified close of any Pakistani kitchen in New York. If the question is where you eat properly at three in the morning, this is the answer, and it is two doors from Haandi at 113 Lexington on the Curry Hill strip. Their site names chicken curry, garlic naan and samosas as the popular orders; seekh kababs, chicken biryani and parathas are what it is known for. Free delivery over $30 within two miles. Yelp files it as Pakistani rather than Indian, which on this stretch of Lexington is unusually accurate. The honest caveat: nobody publishes their prices — every unbelievably-cheap claim you will read about this place is a reviewer’s word, not a menu’s. Phone (646) 971-9923.
getsauce.com · See our Kips Bay happy hours
Haandi
Nihari, $14.99, with bone marrow, served until 1am every night — and it is the only nihari in Manhattan with a price published on the restaurant’s own menu rather than a reviewer’s notebook. Paya (bone broth) is also $14.99, described on their menu as a Punjabi specialty. Haleem comes two ways: shahi beef $14.99, Hyderabadi chicken $15.99. Karahi chicken $13.99, mutton karahi $14.99, chapli kabab $3.99, chicken seekh kabab $2.99, chicken biryani $17.99. The Infatuation rates it 7.7 and reports an $11 mixed-meat combination platter. Open 10am to 1am seven days, no closed day and no Friday break. The honest caveat: this is Curry Hill prices without Curry Hill polish — a counter-forward room, not a date. Go for the nihari, not the atmosphere.
Kolachi
Chicken roll, spicy chicken roll and chicken garlic mayo roll are all $7.50; the beef roll is $8; the plant-based chicken roll is $9. That is essentially the whole menu, and it is the right call. This is Karachi street food narrowed to one format and executed. The other thing to order is diesel fries at $4.50 — the Karachi loaded-fries thing, and the reason to bring a second person. Open 11am to 11:45pm daily on their live Toast page; opened on First Avenue in November 2023. The honest caveat, and it will save someone a trip: it is a roll counter, not a restaurant. There is no curry section at all. If you came for nihari or karahi you are in the wrong room, and the right one is twenty blocks north on Lexington.
kolachirolls.com · See our East Village happy hours
Lasani Grill
Mon–Thu 9am–1:30am, Friday 9am–3:30am, Saturday 10am–3:30am, Sunday 10am–12:30am — published identically by two independent listings, which is more corroboration than most of this category gets. Four blocks from Port Authority, it is the late-night halal plate that the Times Square carts are pretending to be: cafeteria-style service across Pakistani, Indian and Middle Eastern dishes. It also opens at 9am on weekdays, one of very few Pakistani kitchens in Manhattan running an actual breakfast service. Zabihah lists it as halal, though no certificate is documented. The honest caveat: nothing about this place is first-party except an Instagram account. The hours are well corroborated. The food is not documented anywhere you can check.
instagram.com · See our Hell’s Kitchen happy hours
Curry King
Four different nihari on one menu — beef $18.99, beef special $27.99, lamb shank $19.99, lamb shank special $28.99, all with basmati — which is the deepest nihari list in Manhattan, on the Upper West Side of all places. Beef paya $17.99, goat paya $16.99, beef or chicken haleem $17.99. Chicken karahi with rice $27.99, karahi gosht $22.99, goat biryani special $31.99 — the top of the band for this cuisine in the city. The honest caveat, and it is the whole point: this is nearly double the Coney Island Avenue price for the same dish. Pakiza does nihari at $11.99. You are paying Columbus Avenue rent. There are lunch specials at $10.99 chicken curry and $12.99 tikka masala, but the days and the window are published nowhere, so we are not calling it a deal.
Williamsburg, the Bronx and Staten Island
The highest-rated room in the cuisine, and two Bronx kitchens that publish everything. More in best halal restaurants.
BK Jani
The Infatuation rates BK Jani 8.6 — higher than any other Pakistani restaurant in their New York guide — and the dish that earns it is a burger. The Jani is half a pound of custom-blend beef cooked medium rare, with mint chutney under the patty, grilled tomato and a touch of raita, at $20.86. Two lamb chops $18.55, four for $37.46, both with salad and mint chutney; chicken biryani $22.83. NYC Tourism notes they grill pasture-raised, hormone-free halal meat, which is the pitch separating them from every counter on this page. Two honest caveats. It is the most expensive room in this guide by a wide margin — that $22.83 biryani is $7.99 at Hadi. And it is closed Mondays and shuts at 9:30pm: a dinner plan, not a late-night one. They do not serve tap water, only bottled.
bkjani.com · See our Williamsburg happy hours
Halal Chandni Chowk
Nihari and haleem are both $14.64 on the everyday menu with no weekend restriction, and the Lahori chargha — the whole marinated bird — is $20.94, a dish almost nobody in New York publishes at all. Chicken karahi $13.60, goat karahi $19.89, chicken biryani $13.60, baby goat curry $16.75. Open 10am to 10pm seven days, (718) 325-5859. Yelp files it under Indian, which is simply wrong — the menu is Lahori through and through, and the dishes that mark that line (nihari, haleem, paya, chapli, chargha) barely appear on a North Indian menu. The honest caveat: their own website will not load — the TLS certificate is misconfigured — so everything verifiable here comes from the ordering page instead.
halalchandnichowkbny.com · See our Bronx happy hours
Chaman Restaurant
One of only two restaurants in this whole guide that publishes a complete priced menu on its own domain — and it states its weekend-only items in plain language, which almost nobody does: halwa puri with chanay $11.99 and goat pulao $16.99, Saturday and Sunday only. That kind of clarity is rarer than good nihari. Chicken tikka biryani $11.99, chicken karahi $18–21, mutton karahi $28–31, haleem $10–20, chapli kabab $6–10. Hours: Mon–Thu 11am–11pm, Fri–Sat 11am–midnight, Sun noon–10pm — the only day that differs. On the 2/5 in the north Bronx, (917) 733-3188. The honest caveat: no nihari on the menu. If that is the trip, the Bronx answer is Halal Chandni Chowk on Bronxwood, not here.
chamanrestaurant.com · See our Bronx happy hours
Alhumza
Staten Island lost Taste of Pakistan, and this is what is left — a halal meat and grocery counter with a kitchen attached, which is a format the other four boroughs mostly gave up. GimmeHalal names the goat biryani, the beef nihari and the chapli kabab as the orders. Zabihah lists it as verified halal with a HalalRank of 78. Open 11am to 9pm seven days, (718) 727-6050. Take-out only with limited seating — and roughly ten parking spaces, which is a genuinely unusual amenity for anything in this guide. The honest caveat: no prices are published anywhere and the aggregate rating is soft (3.3 on Restaurantji). It earns its place on this page by being the real thing on an island that lost its other one, not by out-cooking Coney Island Avenue.
See our Staten Island happy hours
NYC Pakistani food: FAQ
How much does nihari cost in NYC?
Between $11.99 and $28.99, and the difference is rent rather than cooking. The floor is Pakiza on Coney Island Avenue at $11.99, though that is a weekend special rather than an everyday dish. The everyday middle sits at $14 to $15: Kababish in Jackson Heights $14.25, Halal Chandni Chowk in the Bronx $14.64, Haandi on Lexington Avenue $14.99. The ceiling is Curry King on Columbus Avenue, which publishes four versions – beef $18.99, lamb shank $19.99, beef special $27.99 and lamb shank special $28.99. That is nearly double the Brooklyn price for the same dish.
Which Pakistani restaurants in NYC have a deal or happy hour?
Exactly one venue publishes a timed deal with both the days and the window: Kabab King at 73-01 37th Road in Jackson Heights runs a breakfast menu from 7am to 1:45pm daily, starting at $10.50, with chai, naan and roti at $1.99 each. That is the whole happy-hour story of Pakistani New York. Curry King on Columbus Avenue publishes lunch specials at $10.99 for chicken curry and $12.99 for tikka masala, but names no days and no window, so we do not count it. What this cuisine offers instead of happy hour is cheap food at 3am.
What Pakistani restaurants in NYC are open late?
This category runs later than almost anything else in the city. Lahori Kabab at 106 Lexington Avenue publishes 10am to 4am, seven days, on its own ordering site – the latest verified close in the guide. Lasani Grill on 9th Avenue runs to 3:30am on Friday and Saturday, four blocks from Port Authority. Roti Boti in Astoria goes to 2am six nights a week but is closed all day Friday. Haandi on Lexington runs to 1am daily and Kolachi in the East Village to 11:45pm. Three venues on Coney Island Avenue – Lahori Chilli, Pakiza and Sweetness USA – claim 24 hours, though only Pakiza states it first-party.
Is nihari served every day in NYC?
Not everywhere, and this is the restriction most guides never mention. Nihari is on the everyday published menu at Haandi on Lexington Avenue ($14.99), Kababish in Jackson Heights ($14.25), Halal Chandni Chowk in the Bronx ($14.64) and Curry King on Columbus Avenue, which lists four versions. It is explicitly weekend-only at Pakiza on Coney Island Avenue, where nihari, haleem, beef paya and goat paya are all printed under Weekend Specials at $11.99. And two rooms that people assume have it do not: Mashallah on Coney Island Avenue and Chaman in the Bronx have no nihari on the menu at all.
Are Pakistani restaurants in NYC cash only?
Mostly not any more – the cash-only reputation of Pakistani New York is largely folklore at this point. Not one venue in this guide publishes a cash-only policy first-hand. Kabab King in Jackson Heights takes cash plus Visa, MasterCard, Discover and AMEX. Kababish states it accepts credit cards. Kolachi in the East Village runs on Toast. Carry some cash for the smaller Coney Island Avenue counters, which publish nothing at all about payment, but do not plan your evening around an ATM.
Last updated: August 2026. Prices and hours change – confirm with the venue before you go. Spot something out of date? Let us know.
