JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED
By Chris Wadsworth
Brain surgeons are name-dropped in sometimes snarky expressions. For example: “It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to run a restaurant.”
And it’s true – most restaurants are not run by brain surgeons. But the new Saahil Restaurant is. Owner Qaisar Shah is a veritable brain surgeon – specializing in a field called neurointervention.
And the Brambleton resident says he’s using some of the skills he learned in medical school to operate a restaurant that he believes is different from others in our area.
Saahil Restaurant – which specializes in Pakistani cuisine – opened this summer in the Dulles 28 Centre. That’s the big shopping plaza where the Target and Wegmans stores are.
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In a center more known for its fast-food and fast-casual restaurants – think Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, Pei Wei and Potbelly – Saahil stands out for taking a different path. His restaurant is elegant and upscale with an attention to detail that Shah says is an important part of his vision.
“We eat out a lot and my kids would never go out and eat at a Pakistani restaurant,” Shah said. “The food would be good, but the ambiance, the service, the cleanliness – those elements were not there.”
Shah – who hails from Pakistan and moved to the U.S. in 2000 for advanced medical training – admits sometimes when colleagues would ask him for Pakistani restaurant recommendations, he would steer them to other cuisines rather than send them somewhere that he knew might raise their eyebrows.
About two years ago, Shah had had enough. He – along with two brothers and a cousin – decided to open a Pakistani restaurant that they would be proud of – with elevated cuisine, a beautiful dining room, a spic-and-span kitchen and service to rival other fine dining establishments.
“I could continue to complain or I could go and fix it myself,” he said.
Guests at Saahil step into a dining room with warm glass pendant lights overhead, recessed wall niches with tile accents and wooden banquettes coupled with stitched leather-backed chairs.
Delicate aromas waft from the open kitchen, which not only has grills going but also an authentic clay tandoor oven manned by a trained tandoor chef.
“Our food has a lot of spices,” Shah said. “Turmeric is very common. Red chiles are very common. We used cardamon, black pepper, even cinnamon is very common.”
Shah says the chicken biryani is one of the signature dishes at Saahil – the chicken and rice are cooked separately and then blended together with saffron and cooked some more. Another key menu item is nihari – a beef shank dish that is cooked slowly for six to eight hours until it is so tender it falls apart.
To get the menu just right, Shah sought the help of not one, but two executive chefs. One he brought directly from Pakistan – “not a great time for that” he says, referring to visa challenges. The other is a Pakistani chef with Michelin-star restaurant experience who was working in Scotland and came over to help get Saahil up and running.
The restaurant also offers a full lineup of finely crafted “mocktails” designed by Shah’s daughter. The mocktail menu offers guests a libation with their dinner while keeping with the no alcohol tenets of Shah’s Muslim faith.
The road to opening day took more than two years and – like any new restaurant – there were lots of ups and downs. Shah met each challenge with the same measured, analytical approach that he uses in his medical practice. But he admits that finding a solid, engaged staff who would meet his high standards was the toughest part.
“When I am doing brain surgery, I am only dealing with one brain. When I am running a restaurant, I am dealing with 20 brains simultaneously,” he said with a chuckle.
Shah describes opening night – when he looked out on a packed dining room – as giving him “goosebumps.”
“When you hear customers saying, ‘Wow. This is what we were missing,’ you know you have done OK,” he said. “I identified a problem and then came up with a solution, so that was a perfect moment for me.”
IF YOU GO
- What: Saahil Restaurant
- Where: 22000 Dulles Retail Plaza, Unit 102, Sterling
- When: Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Dinner 5 to 10 p.m. Closed on Mondays.
- More Info: saahilrestaurant.com or (571) 523-1506