---
type: Video
title: "Islamabad Cheese Paratha Hunt🇵🇰"
description: A first night in Islamabad — an $80 Airbnb Harry thinks he overpaid for, a 24-hour paratha restaurant, and the best cheesecake of the trip for six dollars.
tags: [pakistan, islamabad, street-food, accommodation, desserts, nightlife]
timestamp: 2026-08-06T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOleJ-vLSRI
video_id: lOleJ-vLSRI
upload_date: 2021-12-22
duration: 1001
---

# Islamabad Cheese Paratha Hunt🇵🇰

The first evening in [Islamabad](/places/islamabad.md) with
[Mac](/people/mac.md): checking into an Airbnb, then walking out into a
restaurant district and eating two things worth recording.

The city reads differently from the start — more modern infrastructure on the
drive in, and noticeably colder than anywhere they have been in
[Pakistan](/countries/pakistan.md) so far. Kids playing cricket on two separate
patches of ground on one 20-minute journey, which he notes is the one thing that
does not change between cities.

*Obs: this page is based on auto-generated subtitles; amounts the transcript
leaves ambiguous are marked unverified.*

## Key moments

- [03:06] **The Airbnb: about $80 a night**, and Harry says plainly it is
  expensive for Pakistan, that they are overpaying, that the location isn't good,
  and that they may move. What sold it was that there was very little else they
  wanted.
- [04:06] **Cold.** Not freezing, but a real drop after three weeks of warm
  cities, and he wasn't packed for it.
- [04:36] A shop called **Poundland with a pound sign over the door** — and the
  exchange rate that makes it work: **£1 is about 200 rupees**. A dollar store
  next to it.
- [06:06] The district itself: snooker halls, an Irish café, a great many coffee
  places, busy because **Friday is the day off** — which he keeps having to
  re-learn.
- [07:07] **A 24-hour paratha restaurant.** The cheese paratha here is
  **mozzarella, cheddar and cream cheese together**, thin and crisp, served with
  a garlic dip — the restaurant version against the street version he had been
  eating, and he can taste the difference between the cheeses.
- [10:57] Locals at the next table invite them out for drinks; they are too tired
  and decline, and get a dessert recommendation instead.
- [12:36] **Burning Brownie**, the recommendation: a cheesecake he rates the best
  thing he has eaten in weeks despite not liking cheesecake, plus cookie ice
  cream and a cupcake.
- [15:11] **Just over 1,000 rupees, about $6**, for all three desserts — less
  than he expected in a smart place with wifi.

## Extracted pages

- [Islamabad](/places/islamabad.md)
- [Pakistan](/countries/pakistan.md)
- [Mac](/people/mac.md)