In the summer of 2017, journalist and chef Pervaiz Shallwani and his wife, Laena McCarthy, hosted a backyard hot dog cook-off for a friend’s birthday. Their culinary contribution to the gathering was unexpected yet inspired: a classic American hot dog crowned with bhel puri, a popular South Asian street food snack composed of crispy puffed rice, diced red onions, tomatoes, and a vibrant mix of tangy and spicy chutneys. The resulting combination—where Chicago hot dog tradition met Karachi street food sensibilities—was a happy accident. More than that, however, it served as the quiet genesis of something much larger, capturing a rising cross-cultural current that is now reshaping the landscape of American dining.
The roots of this culinary movement stretch back decades. Shallwani’s father migrated from Karachi to the United States in 1971, arriving as part of a growing wave of Pakistani immigrants who began establishing communities in the country during the 1970s. These new arrivals predominantly settled around major urban centers, anchoring themselves in cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and later expanding into hubs such as Washington, D.C., and Houston.
During the 1980s, the small number of Pakistani restaurants that emerged in these immigrant enclaves faced distinct market pressures. To survive and attract a broader clientele, many chose to operate behind the generalized labels of "Indo-Pak" or "Indian"—categories that had already gained mainstream consumer acceptance through takeout staples like butter chicken and chana masala. Alternatively, these early establishments catered almost exclusively to concentrated pockets of Pakistani immigrants living in neighborhoods like Hillcroft in Houston, Little Pakistan in Coney Island, and Devon Avenue in Chicago.
For years, Pakistani cuisine largely remained in the shadow of the much larger Indian American community, which grew to become the second-largest immigrant group in the United States. While exceptional eateries managed to break through—such as Aga’s in Houston, recently documented as the busiest single-location restaurant on Uber Eats, and the beloved James Beard Award-nominated Zareen’s Kitchen in Palo Alto—these successes remained the exception rather than the rule. However, as the Pakistani diaspora expanded dramatically from roughly 32,600 people in 1980 to nearly 680,000 today, Pakistani restaurants and food concepts are increasingly stepping into the culinary spotlight.
Much of this broader shift has accelerated in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. The new wave of Pakistani-American dining concepts emerging across the country differs distinctly from the traditional fine-dining movements that characterized the West African food renaissance or the Filipino food boom of the 2010s. Instead, this contemporary wave is scrappy, fast-casual, and relentlessly inventive, introducing bold Pakistani flavors through universally recognizable American formats. Think of hot dogs topped with spicy, tangy chaat; New York-style chopped cheese sandwiches made with savory chapli kebabs; and crispy, buttermilk-brined hot chicken seasoned with complex medleys of South Asian spices. Welcome to the era of the Pakistani-American kitchen.
In Fort Worth, Texas, pitmaster Zain Shafi found his entry point through barbecue. Growing up in Texas, Shafi had rarely eaten traditional local barbecue because finding halal options was exceedingly difficult. When he finally tasted authentic Texas barbecue later in life, it completely transformed his perspective. While balancing work in his family’s furniture business, Shafi dove deep into the craft of barbecue, eventually training at the acclaimed Goldee’s. He then launched his own mobile venture, a food truck named Sabar, which operated from 2023 to 2025.
At Sabar, Shafi served halal, Pakistani-inspired barbecue creations that challenged convention, including smoked sausages seasoned like seekh kebabs and smoked tandoori turkey, served alongside traditional accompaniments like tangy raita, lentils, and fresh naan. Operating in Texas gave Shafi a unique perspective on the power of food as a bridge. In an environment where he occasionally encountered Islamophobia, food served as a disarming and effective stepping stone to introduce his culture to new audiences, acting as a natural icebreaker.
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Remixing familiar comfort foods has proven central to how Pakistani-American chefs and entrepreneurs are opening doors. Usman Chaudhry, an accountant by training, moved to the United States from Pakistan in the early 2000s alongside his parents and siblings. When a commercial space became available in Chatham, New Jersey, in the fall of 2020, Chaudhry and his wife, Amena, seized the opportunity alongside his brother to launch Namkeen. Their mission was simple yet ambitious: bring high-quality, halal hot chicken featuring bold flavors to the Tri-State area within a casual dining environment.
Namkeen’s tight, focused menu centered on imaginative variations of Nashville-style hot chicken. Offerings included their signature Clucking Waffle Sandwich, which paired hot fried chicken with jalapeño-and-cheddar Belgian waffles; the Tikkaville Sandwich, featuring fried chicken layered with a rich tikka sauce, coleslaw, pickled onions, and mint chutney on a brioche bun; and Chicken Tikka Mac & Cheese, combining classic macaroni and cheese with fried chicken and savory tikka sauce.
Opening a restaurant at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic might have seemed like a perilous business decision, but Namkeen immediately drew long, masked lines of eager customers out the door. While its takeout- and delivery-friendly model suited the pandemic era, its streamlined and replicable menu also translated effortlessly into a franchising framework. In the years since, Namkeen has expanded to 10 locations across three states and into Canada, while the Chaudhry brothers have also launched a second concept, Ori’s Cheesesteaks, in Chatham, serving premium halal ribeye cheesesteaks.
While Shafi utilized Texas barbecue and Chaudhry leaned into hot chicken, entrepreneurs in New York City have turned to local neighborhood institutions for inspiration. At Nishaan in the East Village, founder Zeeshan Bakhrani reinterpreted the iconic New York City bodega staple: the chopped cheese sandwich. Located in a tiny 600-square-foot storefront at 160 First Avenue, Nishaan quickly established itself as one of the most talked-about new food spots in Manhattan.
Nishaan’s signature creation is the Pakistani chopped cheese, substituting traditional beef patties with heavily seasoned chapli kebab meat, chopped directly on the griddle alongside peppers and onions, and finished with a bright lime-cilantro sauce and tamarind chutney. The menu also features inventive items like bihari barbacoa tacos, Pakola soft-serve ice cream—a playful nod to the iconic bright green soda beloved throughout Pakistan—and elote chaat, which draws inspiration from the Mexican flavors Bakhrani encountered during his childhood in Chicago.
Bakhrani’s journey to opening Nishaan was winding. After being laid off from his job in IT product management in 2024, he began creating food content and experimenting with unexpected flavor mashups, such as mango lassi pie and elote chaat. He secured a booth at Smorgasburg and subsequently earned a spot on Season 18 of the Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race in 2025. Describing the television experience as a rigorous bootcamp, Bakhrani noted that half of the items he currently sells on his menu were conceptualized during the show.
The Nishaan team ultimately won the competition’s $50,000 grand prize, making history as the first all-halal food truck to win the show. That victory provided Bakhrani with the operational proof of concept needed to sign a lease for his first permanent brick-and-mortar location. Since then, he has emerged as an energetic and visible champion of Pakistani cuisine in New York City, actively building community through frequent culinary collaborations, Pakistan Day block parties, and a rotating menu rooted in nostalgia and innovation. When asked during the television competition whether leading with an explicitly Pakistani identity might hinder his success, his answer was straightforward: "It won’t hurt me either."
Embracing the label "Pakistani" with pride represents a distinct departure from the cautious approach of previous generations. Saud Khan, founder of Kaafi, a Pakistani chai café in Harlem, grew up immersed in the restaurant industry. Born in Peshawar, Khan moved to the United States when he was five years old and spent his youth helping out in his father’s restaurant in upstate New York. Though he initially had no intention of following his family into the hospitality business, a contemplative moment in a coffee shop led him to wonder why there wasn’t a dedicated Pakistani café centered around chai and contemporary South Asian snacks.
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That single question inspired him to open two cafes in upstate New York before ultimately relocating to New York City, where the metropolitan market felt primed for the concept. Kaafi opened its doors in Harlem in 2024 to immediate success. Khan believes the current climate in New York City offers unprecedented opportunities for South Asian restaurateurs, noting a vibrant wave of culinary energy across the five boroughs.
Long before the openings of Kaafi, Nishaan, and Namkeen, however, there was BK Jani, which translates roughly to Brooklyn Sweetheart. Founded by Sibte Hassan in 2015, the restaurant served as an early indicator that New York City was poised to become the beating heart of this movement. Joined now by an entire generation of new restaurants, BK Jani continues the work it began over a decade ago.
Hassan originally came from a creative arts background with no intention of entering the restaurant industry. However, after moving from Lahore—one of Pakistan’s premier culinary capitals—he found himself deeply underwhelmed by the existing Pakistani dining scene in New York. At the time, most Pakistani restaurants were designed primarily to feed the city’s taxi drivers filling meals for under $10, focusing on utility rather than sourcing premium ingredients.
After hosting backyard grilling nights that won over his friends, Hassan discovered a former pizza parlor space in Bushwick. Through trial and error, he learned the operational realities of running a kitchen from scratch, eventually developing BK Jani’s menu around premium halal burgers infused with authentic Lahori flavors.
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Initial customer reception was modest. Two months after opening, Hassan would routinely open his doors at noon and close at 10 p.m. without seeing a single customer, coming perilously close to accepting a business buyout offer. Everything changed when a review by critic Ligaya Mishan was published in The New York Times, dubbing Hassan the "Midas of Meat." He has remained consistently busy ever since. Like the founders of Namkeen and Nishaan, Hassan deliberately chose a fast-casual format for its operational simplicity, keeping the core focus squarely where it belonged: on the food and the quality of its halal ingredients.
As for the casual backyard experiment that started it all, Pervaiz Shallwani’s bhel puri hot dog from 2017 continues to resonate. That spontaneous dish laid the groundwork for Chaat Dog, the hot dog pop-up Shallwani launched in 2022, which blends his upbringing in the suburbs of Chicago—the self-proclaimed hot dog capital of the country—with his Pakistani heritage. Though he initially wondered how other South Asians would react to chaat served on a hot dog, the overwhelmingly positive reception highlighted a deeper cultural hunger. "They felt seen," he notes. Chaat Dog has since established its first permanent brick-and-mortar presence inside Time Out Market in Brooklyn while continuing to host pop-ups throughout the city.
Reflecting on the broader phenomenon, Shallwani views the rise of Pakistani-American cuisine less as a rigid culinary fusion and more as the continuation of a deeply rooted American tradition. "You know what you know, you take what you can find, and you adapt it over time," he says. "Every immigrant group that comes here makes American food their own. That’s what defines American food." Today, the bold, vibrant flavors of Pakistan are firmly and permanently part of that evolving story.
