During summer 2017, journalist and chef Pervaiz Shallwani, alongside his spouse Laena McCarthy, organized a hot dog cook-off for a friend’s birthday. Their dish featured a frankfurter garnished with bhel puri, a well-known South Asian street food comprising crunchy puffed rice, chopped red onions, and tomatoes, along with a blend of spicy and sour chutneys. This fusion—representing a Chicago hot dog meeting Karachi street food—was an unintended success that marked the beginning of what would become a much bigger endeavor.
In 1971, Shallwani’s dad moved from Karachi to America, joining a growing influx of Pakistanis who started arriving in larger numbers during the 1970s. These newcomers primarily established themselves in big cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and subsequently in Washington, D.C., and Houston.
During the 1980s, only a handful of Pakistani eateries opened in these immigrant neighborhoods, often disguising themselves as “Indo-Pak” or “Indian”, a term already popular thanks to dishes like butter chicken and chana masala-style items, or they served solely the Pakistani residents living in enclaves such as Houston’s Hillcroft, Coney Island’s Little Pakistan, and Chicago’s Devon Avenue.
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A few Pakistani venues, most notably Houston’s hugely successful Aga’s, which was recently recorded as Uber Eats’ top-performing single-store location, and Palo Alto’s acclaimed, James Beard Award-nominated Zareen’s Kitchen, have managed to attract a broader audience beyond Pakistani diners, yet they remain outliers. Historically, the Pakistani population has been eclipsed by the much larger Indian American community, the nation’s second-largest immigrant group. Nonetheless, as the diaspora has swelled from 32,600 individuals in 1980 to almost 680,000 today, Pakistani eateries are beginning to capture more attention.
Fast-Casual Pakistani Cuisine Takes Off
The pandemic accelerated this change. In the last four years, new Pakistani eateries have tended not toward upscale, fine-dining concepts modeled after trends such as West African gastronomy or the 2010s Filipino surge; instead, they lean into a scrappier, fast-casual model that delivers robust Pakistani tastes via unmistakably American service styles.
Spicy, tangy chaat-topped hot dogs have become a regular offering, alongside New York-style chopped cheese paired with chapli kebab, and crisp buttermilk-marinated hot chicken flavored with a blend of South Asian spices. Welcome to the Pakistani-American kitchen.
Fusion Innovations in Modern Eateries
In Fort Worth, pitmaster Zain Shafi found his path through barbecue. Growing up in Texas, Shafi had never eaten barbecue because halal options were scarce, but when he finally did, “it blew my mind,” he recalls. While also supporting his family’s furniture business, Shafi immersed himself in barbecue culture, starting at the acclaimed Goldee’s before launching Sabar, a food truck active from 2023 to 2025. Sabar offered halal Pakistani-inspired barbecue creations, including a sausage seasoned with seekh kebab spices and a smoked tandoori turkey, served with classic sides like raita, lentils, and naan. “In the midst of Islamophobia in Texas, food was a good stepping stone to introduce Pakistani food to people,” Shafi says. “It broke the ice.”
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Reimagining well-known dishes has driven the spread of Pakistani-American cuisine. Usman Chaudhry, originally an accountant, arrived in the United States from Pakistan in the early 2000s alongside his family. After a venue became available in Chatham, New Jersey, in the autumn of 2020, he and his spouse Amena opened Namkeen together with his brother. Their mission was simple: deliver premium halal hot chicken to the Tri-State region, packed with bold flavors in a relaxed environment.
The concise menu centers on Nashville-style hot chicken twists, including the flagship Clucking Waffle Sandwich, crispy fried chicken sandwiched between jalapeño-cheddar Belgian waffles, the Tikkaville Sandwich, which layers fried chicken with tikka sauce, coleslaw, pickled onions and mint chutney on a brioche bun, and a Chicken Tikka Mac & Cheese that upgrades classic mac and cheese with fried chicken and a savory tikka sauce.
Bakhrani’s journey to Nishaan was circuitous. After being laid off from an IT product management role in 2024, he began creating food content and experimenting with mashups like mango lassi pie. Securing a booth at Smorgasburg led to a spot on Season 18 of Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race in 2025. “It was a fun bootcamp,” Bakhrani says. “Half of the items I sell now, I made over there.” The competition provided Bakhrani the proof of concept needed to lease his first brick-and-mortar location.