Nayaab Haandi - Pakistani Restaurant

Nayaab Haandi is one of Sharjah's most committed Pakistani dining rooms, a high-ceilinged restaurant on Al Khan Street built around large tables, private family rooms, and traditional majlis seating on the floor. The room leans theatrical rather than minimal: naan arrives dangling from a tall brass skewer beside the table, the mixed grill is finished on a small charcoal brazier in front of you, and the chicken haandi is carried over steaming in its heavy copper pot. It is a restaurant designed for groups - extended families, office parties, weekend gatherings - and it fills accordingly on Friday and Saturday evenings. The kitchen's strongest ground is the North West Frontier tradition: chicken and mutton haandi with deep, slow-cooked gravies, chapli kebabs, bihari boti, malai tikka, and lamb chops from the grill. Kabuli pulao and dum pukht biryani are the rice dishes to order, and breads - cheese naan, kandhari, roghni, garlic naan - are a genuine highlight that regulars build their meals around. Haleem, nihari, and paya appear on the buffet when it runs, alongside chaat, fried prawns, and a small Chinese section that is better treated as background than a main course. Portions are generous and pricing sits firmly in the mid range, which is part of the appeal for family bookings. Service is friendly and moves quickly on weekdays but can stretch thin when the room is full, and parking on the street is genuinely difficult, so the valet is worth using. A few readers have flagged inconsistencies on grill temperature and occasional hygiene lapses, and smoke from the live cooking can hang in the air on busy nights. None of this undermines the core proposition: for hearty, authentically spiced Pakistani cooking in a setting built for a long table and a lot of bread, Nayaab Haandi remains one of the more distinctive options in the emirate.