The Rise of the Pakistani-American Kitchen: A New Wave of Culinary Identity

In the summer of 2017, journalist and chef Pervaiz Shallwani and his wife, Laena McCarthy, found themselves hosting a hot dog cook-off for a friend’s birthday. It was a casual affair, yet it served as the accidental launchpad for a significant cultural shift. The couple’s contribution was a bold, unexpected creation: a hot dog topped with bhel puri. This popular South Asian street food snack—composed of crispy puffed rice, diced red onions, fresh tomatoes, and a complex interplay of tangy and spicy chutneys—offered a vibrant counterpoint to the standard relish and mustard. The dish, a marriage of a Chicago-style hot dog and the frantic energy of Karachi street food, was more than just a happy accident. It was the beginning of a broader movement that is currently reshaping the landscape of American dining.

The story of Pakistani food in the United States is one of gradual evolution. Pervaiz Shallwani’s father migrated from Karachi to the U.S. in 1971, part of a steady wave of Pakistani immigrants who began arriving in increasing numbers throughout the 1970s. As these families settled into major urban hubs—New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and eventually Houston and Washington, D.C.—they brought their culinary traditions with them. However, for decades, the visibility of these traditions remained largely confined to immigrant enclaves. During the 1980s, the few Pakistani restaurants that emerged often operated under the broader, more recognizable labels of "Indo-Pak" or simply "Indian." These categories had already achieved mainstream acceptance, largely driven by the popularity of accessible takeout staples like butter chicken and chana masala. For those looking for more authentic regional flavors, the options were usually tucked away in neighborhoods like Hillcroft in Houston, Little Pakistan in Coney Island, or Devon Avenue in Chicago, catering almost exclusively to the Pakistani diaspora.

For a long time, the Pakistani community lived in the shadow of the far larger Indian American community, which remains the second-largest immigrant group in the United States. While there have been notable exceptions—such as Aga’s in Houston, which was recently cited as the busiest single-location restaurant on Uber Eats, and the James Beard Award-nominated Zareen’s Kitchen in Palo Alto—these establishments have historically been the outliers. Yet, the demographic shift has been undeniable. From a population of approximately 32,600 in 1980, the Pakistani diaspora in the U.S. has swelled to nearly 680,000 today. As this community grows and becomes more settled, its culinary footprint is expanding, and for the first time, Pakistani restaurants are beginning to feel the glow of a broader, more mainstream spotlight.

Much of this momentum has gathered speed in the years following the pandemic. The new generation of Pakistani restaurants emerging today marks a distinct departure from the past. Unlike the formal, fine-dining contemporary movements that defined West African or Filipino cuisine’s rise in recent years, this new wave is characterized by a scrappier, more adventurous spirit. It is a fast-casual evolution that introduces bold, unapologetic Pakistani flavors through distinctly American formats. It is a menu that includes hot dogs topped with spicy chaat, New York-style chopped cheese sandwiches reinvented with chapli kebab, and crispy, buttermilk-brined hot chicken seasoned with a complex medley of South Asian spices. This is the emergence of the true Pakistani-American kitchen.

In Fort Worth, Texas, pitmaster Zain Shafi found his entry point through the unlikely medium of barbecue. Growing up in Texas, Shafi had rarely encountered barbecue, largely because of the scarcity of halal options. When he finally tasted it, he was struck by the potential for a cross-cultural dialogue. "It blew my mind," Shafi recalls. While balancing his responsibilities at his family’s furniture business, Shafi dove deep into the craft of smoking meat, eventually securing a position at the acclaimed Goldee’s. This experience led him to launch his own venture, a food truck called Sabar. From 2023 to 2025, Sabar served halal, Pakistani-inspired barbecue creations, including sausages seasoned with seekh kebab spices and smoked tandoori turkey, all served with classic sides like raita, lentils, and fresh naan. For Shafi, the food served a higher purpose. "In the midst of Islamophobia in Texas, food was a good stepping stone to introduce Pakistani food to people," he says. "It broke the ice."

The strategy of remixing familiar favorites has become a cornerstone of this movement. Usman Chaudhry, an accountant who moved to the U.S. from Pakistan in the early 2000s, saw this potential when he and his wife, Amena, decided to open a restaurant in Chatham, New Jersey, in the fall of 2020. Alongside his brother, they launched Namkeen, with a mission to bring high-quality halal hot chicken to the Tri-State area. Their menu is a study in fusion: the "Clucking Waffle Sandwich" features hot fried chicken between jalapeño-and-cheddar Belgian waffles, while the "Tikkaville Sandwich" layers fried chicken with a rich tikka sauce, coleslaw, pickled onions, and mint chutney on a brioche bun.

Despite launching during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Namkeen saw immediate success, with lines forming around the block. Its takeout-friendly model was perfectly suited to the era, but its tight, replicable menu also allowed for rapid expansion. Today, Namkeen operates 10 locations across three states and Canada, and the Chaudhry brothers have since launched a second concept, Ori’s Cheesesteaks, which serves premium halal ribeye cheesesteaks.

In New York City’s East Village, Zeeshan Bakhrani is taking a different approach with Nishaan, a 600-square-foot counter that has become one of the city’s most discussed openings. Nishaan’s signature is the Pakistani chopped cheese: heavily seasoned chapli kebab, chopped on a griddle with peppers and onions, and finished with a lime-cilantro sauce and tamarind chutney. The menu also reflects the eclectic influences of Bakhrani’s life, featuring bihari barbacoa tacos and Pakola soft-serve, a nod to the iconic green soda beloved across Pakistan.

Bakhrani’s journey was non-traditional. After being laid off from his IT product management job in 2024, he began experimenting with food content and mashups, eventually securing a spot on the Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race in 2025. His team won the $50,000 prize, making them the first all-halal food truck to do so. The competition provided the necessary proof of concept to sign a lease for his brick-and-mortar space. Since then, Bakhrani has become a visible, energetic advocate for Pakistani cuisine, using community collaborations and block parties to celebrate the culture. When asked if leading with the "Pakistani" label might be a risk in the competitive New York market, his response was defiant: "It won’t hurt me either."

This newfound pride in the "Pakistani" label marks a significant shift from a generation ago. Saud Khan, the founder of Kaafi, a Pakistani chai café in Harlem, grew up in the restaurant business, helping in his father’s eatery in upstate New York. While he initially had no intention of following that path, he eventually realized the gap in the market for a space centered on chai and Pakistani-inspired snacks. Since opening his Harlem location in 2024, Khan has found that the market is more ready than ever. "We are having a moment right now," Khan says. "We just need to lock in."

This current wave is built on the foundations laid by pioneers like Sibte Hassan, who founded BK Jani in Brooklyn in 2015. Hassan, who moved to the U.S. from Lahore, was initially unimpressed by the limited, low-cost options he found in the city’s existing Pakistani restaurant scene. Through a series of trial-and-error patio grilling sessions, he developed a menu focused on premium halal burgers rooted in Lahori flavors. The initial reception was slow, but a glowing review in the New York Times changed everything, cementing BK Jani as a fixture of the Brooklyn food scene and proving that there was a hungry audience for elevated, intentional Pakistani cooking.

For Pervaiz Shallwani, the creator of the original bhel puri hot dog, the success of his pop-up, Chaat Dog, is a testament to this cultural maturation. Chaat Dog, now a permanent fixture at Brooklyn’s Time Out Market, represents a joyous synthesis of his Chicago upbringing and his Pakistani heritage. When he first debuted the concept, he worried about how his own community would react to such a departure from tradition. Instead, he found that people "felt seen."

Shallwani views this trend not as a form of "fusion" for the sake of novelty, but as the natural progression of an 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." As these chefs continue to experiment and evolve, the flavors of Pakistan are finding their place at the center of that ongoing, shifting definition.