Numaish Tandoor — Model Town

Naan before sunrise, since 1958

The tandoor behind the Numaish market gate has been lit before dawn since 1958 — first under Allah Ditta, who came down from Kasur with a donkey cart and a bag of besan, and now under his grandson Nadeem. The naan still goes from the clay wall to the customer's hand in under a minute, and the shop still shuts at half past noon, because the dough is kneaded once, at four in the morning, and when it's finished, it's finished. Through the flour years — when a twenty-kilogram bag crossed two thousand rupees and the chowk's rotis began to be weighed instead of sold — Numaish kept the naan's price and quietly made it a finger smaller.

Allah Ditta lit the first fire in 1958; his son Ghulam Rasool built the bakal counter in the seventies; Nadeem keeps both — the tandoor at dawn, the biscuit shelves at ten. The ledger is still a school copy-book.

Numaish Tandoor — Model Town

Numaish market gate, Model Town, Lahore

Lahore, Punjab 54000

Hours: Daily 05:30–12:30