New restaurant to open in Heaton village this weekend

Bala Hissar, on Highgate, is due to open its doors on Saturday to serve authentic Shinwari cuisine using the most traditional Pakistani cooking methods, as well as offering a range of continental dishes.

Owners Shirjeel Malik, his brother, Aneel Malik, and close friend Saeed Khan are the brains behind the business and have even sourced two chefs from five-star restaurants in Pakistan to run the kitchen.

Mr Malik outside Bala Hissar

Mr Malik said: “We’re so excited to open this restaurant in Bradford. I love food, I love trying food and I love making food, and we have put so much into this.

“We decided to open a restaurant because this particular cuisine, you can find here and there, but I don’t feel like it’s presented in the way that it should be.

“So we wanted to open a nice restaurant of our own and source very good, highly trained chefs from Pakistan so we can see the difference in the quality.”

The restaurant will serve a range of dishes including barbecued meats and steaks cooked on a traditional josper grill, mandi rice dishes and traditional starters such as samosas.

Seating area inside the restaurant

“This is a cuisine that uses very little spices if any. We mainly use four basic spices which are salt, tomato, garlic and ginger. The quality of the meat is very important,” Mr Malik added.

Bala Hissar has created a unique culinary experience as some chairs are in the style of swings which are traditionally found in Pakistani homes, and a traditional Peshawar instrument called a rubab has been specially made for diners to try out.

The restaurant has been expertly decorated with flower arches, and commissioned images captured by award-winning Pakistani photographer, Asmar Hussain surround the walls.

Swing seat inside the restaurant

 There will also be ambient, instrumental music playing in the background to create a relaxed atmosphere.

The entire restaurant is named after a historic fortress in the city of Peshawar, close to where the owners grew up.

Mr Malik said he wants to give diners a chance to see the beauty that the city holds.

The rubab that diners can have a go at playing

An events space upstairs will also be available for hire in the future.

The restaurant will be open from 4 pm – 11 pm from Saturday, July 23, with the vision to start opening for breakfast and lunches going forwards.