Sohaila's Kitchen

Sohaila’s Kitchen is a Pakistani food stall inside the Lenexa Public Market, run by chef-owner Sohaila Humayon and her daughters. Widely billed as the only Pakistani spot in Johnson County, it grew from a 2018 pop-up into a permanent market installation serving butter chicken, biryani, and samosa chaat from scratch.¹²³

Description

Sohaila’s Kitchen serves fresh, made-from-scratch Pakistani cuisine from a stall inside the Lenexa Public Market, with a handful of North Indian dishes alongside.¹² Chef-owner Sohaila Humayon is a self-taught cook who prepares her specialties from scratch using fresh ingredients and homemade spices; her daughters help run the restaurant and catering side of the business.² Customers most often single out the butter chicken and the chicken biryani, with vegetarian options including samosa chaat and chickpea dishes.¹³ The stall is widely described as the only Pakistani restaurant in Johnson County, and the family has said they “brought Pakistani food to a city that didn’t know Pakistani food before.”³

Ownership and history

Sohaila Humayon immigrated from Pakistan to the San Francisco Bay Area with her family in the 1970s, later relocating to Lenexa, Kansas.³ A self-taught cook who began catering for family and friends in California, she holds a master’s degree in English; she has said cooking became therapeutic during her battle with breast cancer.²³ Her daughter Amna launched the business to honor her mother’s resilience and lifelong dream of running her own restaurant.³

Sohaila’s Kitchen started as a pop-up at the Lenexa Public Market in spring 2018 and became a permanent installation the following year, celebrating its first anniversary in July 2019.³⁴ Sohaila prepares the food behind the scenes while Amna serves as the public face of the business.³

Links

• Official site: https://www.sohailaskitchen.com/
• Lenexa Public Market listing: https://www.lenexapublicmarket.com/Food-Drink/Sohailas-Kitchen
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sohailaskitchenlenexa/

Sources

Disputes

None known.

Footnotes

1. Sohaila’s Kitchen — official site. https://www.sohailaskitchen.com/ — asserts: Pakistani cuisine, location at Lenexa Public Market (8750 Penrose Ln), hours, signature dishes, made-from-scratch. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Yelp — Sohaila’s Kitchen, Lenexa (Updated October 2025, 44 photos, 78 reviews). https://www.yelp.com/biz/sohailas-kitchen-lenexa — asserts: address 8750 Penrose Ln, Lenexa, KS; self-taught cook with master’s in English; daughters help run restaurant/catering; signature dishes; active listing Oct 2025. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Johnson County Post — “Shawnee Mission Faces: Amna Humayon, first-generation Pakistani American and proud daughter of Sohaila’s Kitchen chef” (Aug. 23, 2019). https://johnsoncountypost.com/2019/08/23/shawnee-mission-faces-amna-humayon-first-generation-pakistani-american-and-proud-daughter-of-sohailas-kitchen-chef-82042/ — asserts: immigrated from Pakistan to San Francisco in the 1970s, later Lenexa; pop-up spring 2018, permanent July 2019; breast-cancer story; “brought Pakistani food to a city that didn’t know Pakistani food before”; daughter Amna as public face. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

4. Feast Magazine — “Sohaila’s Kitchen to Soft Open at Lenexa Public Market This Weekend” (2018). https://www.feastmagazine.com/the-feed/kansas_city_news/article_5477953e-919e-11e8-8539-871662eb7ff1.html — asserts: 2018 soft open at Lenexa Public Market; Pakistani cuisine. (page returned 429; cited from search summary, pending direct confirmation) ↩