It is hard to meet an Islamabadian today without a set list of restaurants they say are must-visits in Pakistan’s capital. One restaurant in particular has grown to be a local must-have for its rich and deeply authentic take on traditional Pakistani cuisine.
Waqar Chattha opened Chattha’s to create a new dining experience in Pakistan — one where the owner was front and center, hands on in the kitchen, and also one with an inviting space where everyone was welcome.
While working as an investment banker in Scotland, Waqar had to recreate the food from home in his own kitchen — something he had never done while living in Pakistan. This revealed not only a talent behind the stove but also a passion for it, and ultimately led him to return to Pakistan and rework the way restaurants there approached their business.
In the capital, the high-end restaurants never had a hands-on person behind the show, and he was going to change that. Rather than have a place without a face, he opted to be up front and center of his own establishment. If you know Chattha’s, you know Waqar.
“I changed that dynamic when I started. I got involved in every aspect of the restaurant. This was the first time in Islamabad, at least, that the owner was interacting with the customers and taking orders and running around in the kitchen. Since then it has become the ‘new cool’ to have a cafe or restaurant and be known as the owner who gets involved. Now a lot of people are following the same ideology.”
To prepare for his own restaurant, Waqar spared no expense — monetary or physical. He visited working kitchens throughout the city to get an idea of what was working and what was not. He stands behind his kitchen wholeheartedly, having let us interview him while standing among his staff.
“There was a lack of passion from the people behind the existing Pakistani restaurants on the landscape,” says Waqar. “They were treated like any other business but with no or very little involvement from the owners in the kitchen or on the front desk.”
It is Waqar’s commitment to all branches of his restaurant, especially in the kitchen, which has earned Chattha’s and him the respect of diners and faith in its food quality. “Food [that] came out from other kitchens was always with the will of the chefs — their recipes and their ideas.”
He continues: “I’m an active boss in the kitchen for a reason. I enjoy cooking food and even when I’m not cooking, it gives me a sense of satisfaction to see the food being cooked in front of me and going out to customers in time, and piping hot. It helps me with the quality control and also I don’t rely on the cooks at all times.”
The other aim behind Chattha’s, which also makes it markedly different from other Pakistani restaurants, is that it’s made for families. Waqar wanted to create a space where women and children and young mixed groups were just as comfortable sitting down for a desi meal as in the traditional male-dominated dhabbas lining the streets and markets.
Waqar hopes to expand his restaurant, with talk of at least one other location in Islamabad with an upscale twist.
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