Melody Food Street in the G-6 Markaz is the original concentrated eating strip of Islamabad, dating from the 1980s. A short pedestrian lane is lined with maybe forty small kitchens — barbeque grills, biryani houses, naan shops, kebab joints, lassi stalls — most of them open until late into the night.
The food is honest, cheap and best on the grill: chapli kebab, beef seekh, chicken tikka, naan straight from the tandoor. The atmosphere on a warm evening, with tables spilling into the street and smoke from the grills, is one of the more characterful experiences in the otherwise carefully zoned capital.