Khusray ke Kabab

Eid Mubarak to all the readers. We are cross-posting another piece that explores the myriad culinary delights of Lahore.

by Aqeel Ahmad

I was as baffled to know the name of this place as you are after reading the title. For those who aren’t familiar with the word ‘Khusra’, it means a transexual. We’ll talk about the food in a bit. Let me first share my discomfort for not being able to understand the reason for having such a crude name. I’ll have to resort to guesses since nobody could tell me the real reason. Here is one: There was a chap in the waiters forum in his mid-forties (i think), he was wearing a dopatta and walking ‘that’ walk. He graced us by waiting on our table too. Perhaps it is not them (the management of this dhaba), it is the public that has named the place like this.

Khusray ke kabab dhaba is located at the obscurest possible place in Lahore. At the junction of Mall road and Tufail road in the cantt area, hidden behind a sort-of-skyscraper hotel building. The dhaba is actually a movable cart parked in an open-air parking lot and customer tables on the other side. There is no sign of any sort on the road indicating its presence which means they don’t have walk-in customers. It is a living example of the word of mouth marketing.

They make really good chicken boti – boneless chicken meat cubes on skewers and barbequed (see the picture). Although the real popular item is beef kababs but I think I’ve had better kababs than theirs. Try Bhayya’s kababs if you haven’t done that already. The next best item is called chicken piece which is around a quarter of a chicken also barbequed on a flat skewer. Raita and Salad are the typical accompaniments. I wouldn’t recommend their Raita though.

Price range: Rs. 75-150
Cleanliness: Below average