The food in Abbottabad is the standard Pakhtun-Hazara repertoire: chapli kebab (minced beef or mutton cakes), seekh kebabs, charsi tikka (lamb tikka the Charsadda way), the rich slow-cooked karahi with tomatoes and chillies, and chai served in shallow pots. The Karakoram Highway through-traffic means most restaurants are open late.
Jan's on the Mansehra Road has been an institution since the 1980s — chapli kebab, freshly fried, plus tikka and karahi. Loud, busy, cheap, and good. Usmania in the centre is the upmarket alternative for a sit-down dinner, with private booths and a fuller menu. Cafe Maya in the cantonment does decent biryani and tikka in a quieter atmosphere. For breakfast, the Ilyasi Mosque area is famous for its pakora shops — deep-fried gram-flour fritters served with sweet tea.
The local sweet to look for is plain barfi from the small mithai shops in the bazaar — fudge-like and sold by weight.