Albaik, the Saudi fast-food brand known for its spice-injected broasted chicken and nuggets, has never been to Karachi. Yet people talk about it as if they have been parched for it for years, sometimes imploring their cousins or friends coming from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan to bring back the coveted chicken nuggets.

Some also fall victim to deceptive online pages, claiming to be “bringing Albaik to Karachi”, which later turn out to be resellers selling days-old chicken nuggets.

Karachi is not short of its own fried chicken options. There are local brands such as Kababjees, which has branches dedicated to just their fried chicken menu. This is despite Kababjees having a broader menu that includes chicken paratha rolls, pizzas, burgers and more. Then there is OPTP, which initially started off as a brand selling just French fries but now has a dedicated menu for fried chicken options, including nuggets and broasts.

When it comes to nuggets, one would be remiss to not mention international franchises — both McDonald’s and KFC — that have a strong customer base in Karachi. They have cultivated this base over the years, sometimes by localising their menu and often by announcing “deals”, which smaller local brands struggle to match.

Karachiites have never eaten at the famed Saudi outlet in their city — but that doesn’t stop them from craving its spice-infused chicken nuggets

Yet none of this local competition has dulled the demand for Albaik-style injected chicken nuggets and broasts.

“It’s a Pakistani family thing that whoever goes for Umrah or Haj, they will bring back Albaik nuggets or broasts,” says Sharym Kalia, owner of Fuse, a new Karachi restaurant specialising in Saudi-style fried chicken and nuggets. “It’s a mandatory thing,” he tells Eos.

Summaiya Asif, who grew up in Saudi Arabia, says she would always be excited when people from Pakistan would visit her but she knew it also meant they would ask for Albaik products. “Now that I am in Pakistan for my higher studies, I bring them with me at the end of every vacation,” she says. “It has become a little tradition.”

A closer look at how Albaik prepares its nuggets shows that they use actual pieces of chicken fillets, which are then injected with spice. Locally available options, by contrast, primarily use minced chicken without an infusion of spice.

“I find the other nuggets so dry now, comparatively,” says Areesh Imran, a 26-year-old food blogger. “Saudi-style nuggets have spice injected into them, which makes them so much juicier.”

Kalia also thinks using chicken fillet makes the nuggets more appealing to adults. “In Pakistan, people used to think nuggets are for children,” he says. “But in Saudi, everyone’s usual order at Albaik is for nuggets.”

It seems that fried chicken places in Karachi have caught on to a demand that otherwise goes largely unfulfilled. Recently, OPTP added an ‘Al Arabi Burger’ to their menu and a newer restaurant in Karachi, Smash360, added ‘Nuggets Al-Lahib.’

Kalia says the Arabic sounding names are important to help people make the connection.

“We used a non-Arabic name (Fuse) for our restaurant,” says Kalia, “but had to convey that we are also making the spice-infused style of fried chicken via our marketing.”

Now that there are a host of places trying to bring spice-infused style of making fried chicken to Karachi, such as Karachi Broast, Al Adeeb and OPTP, it is inevitable that people who grew up eating Albaik will want to draw comparisons.

Mahira Vahidy, who has spent her entire life in Saudi Arabia, thinks Karachi restaurants are injecting excessive spice into the fried chicken in an attempt to suit local taste buds.

“At Albaik, the batter of the broast is thinner and, while it does have spice, the Karachi versions are way spicier,” says Vahidy. She adds that she still sometimes likes what Karachi Broast makes locally.

Sonia Ashraf, a 35-year-old fried chicken enthusiast from Karachi, thinks people in the city also overlook the garlic sauce that accompanies their fried chicken at Albaik. “People here use a lot of mayo,” says Ashraf. “I want toum.”

Toum is a sharp-tasting emulsion of garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and salt, which can be diluted — and sometimes sweetened — with the addition of mayonnaise.

Albaik’s popularity in Karachi first showed itself in frantic pleas across online travel groups for a box of nuggets and fries. Whether the craving will finally be satisfied by the new wave of Saudi-inspired menus at local fried chicken places remains to be seen.

The reviewer is a food writer and a digital content creator. Instagram: @GirlGottaEat

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 16th, 2026