Khan Baba Pakistani Restaurant

A basement restaurant inside a Changning District shopping mall is an unusual setting for a Pakistani kitchen with roots stretching back to 2007, but Khan Baba has built a presence across several cities, including Beijing, Qingdao, Islamabad, and Peshawar, with its Shanghai branch tucked into the lower level of Jinhongqiao International Plaza on Maotai Road.

The menu runs through chicken tikka and mixed kebabs as the more familiar grilled offerings, while chana daal, a slow-cooked chickpea curry, gives the kitchen a vegetarian option alongside its meat-heavy core. Biryani anchors the rice dishes, and a cheese naan pulled fresh from the kitchen accompanies most of the mains. A grilled fish option extends the menu beyond the standard Pakistani grill repertoire, and the restaurant also runs a buffet format at lunch and dinner, letting diners sample a wider spread than an à la carte order would typically allow.

Zabihah's independent listing shows a certificate on file for the restaurant, the strongest tier of documented evidence, and states explicitly that no alcohol is permitted anywhere on the premises, a policy consistent with a kitchen built specifically around Muslim diners' needs rather than adapting to demand after the fact. That combination, a documented certificate paired with an unambiguous no-alcohol policy, distinguishes Khan Baba from several other Shanghai restaurants that carry halal certification for the kitchen while still running a licensed bar elsewhere on the premises.

Changning District's mix of office towers and shopping centers around Maotai Road gives the restaurant a mall-based clientele of shoppers and office workers rather than a destination crowd travelling specifically for Pakistani food, though the chain's presence across five cities in two countries suggests a business model built for consistency across locations rather than a single flagship restaurant's reputation. For diners in western Shanghai specifically seeking documented halal certification without any alcohol ambiguity, Khan Baba offers a clearer answer than several of the area's other South Asian options.