Pickl: The UAE’s Home-grown Burger Chain Making Waves Internationally

A Home-grown Success Story Pickl is a burger joint in Dubai, launched early April 2019, with an aim to shake up the fast-food industry by focusing on fresh, quality ingredients. Somehow, the first such branch in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) became a hit for its mouth-watering cheeseburgers, crispy chicken sandwiches, that is, actually, called “s andos,” and plant-based burger options. The promise of “fresh fast food” was really appealing to a city’s sophisticated foodies. Pickl’s serves burgers using only high-quality ingredients, not containing hormones, antibiotics, and preservatives, and thus establishes the brand as a healthier option of taste for a more conventional fast-food chain.

About six months later, Esquire Middle East is calling Pickl “one of the city’s top burger joints,” an accolade that will fuel the brand’s rapid growth. By the end of its first year, Pickl had opened new outlets in Dubai’s Motor City and Al Safa as well as its third outlet in Madinat Badr. A brand’s so swift ascendance to fame points out to a growing demand for high-quality fast food that does not compromise flavour or ethics.

Being among the finest home-grown brands that Dubai has in its arms is quite a commendable feat accomplished by Pickl during April 2021, and that automatically inducted the restaurant into the highly reputed Time Out Market. This means that it ranked with some of the top-of-the-class eating places in Dubai, such as Reif Kushiyaki, Mattar, Masti, and BB Social Dining.  Pickl’s success in Dubai led it to expand throughout the UAE quickly. It has launched in Abu Dhabi, and the first opening is on Soul Beach in Mamsha, at the end of 2021. By the beginning of 2022, a second outlet had been added to the Abu Dhabi World Trade Centre. Sustained demand further helped Pickl continue to expand its footprint across the emirates; by the end of 2022, the locations were spread across Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah. It was indeed the badge of their appeal as a brand across emirates: universal appeal and consistent quality.

Pickl did not end its journey across the UAE boundaries. Early in 2023, the brand entered the international market with its first franchised outlet in Bahrain in a partnership with Zayani Foods. The first store was followed by another store in Juffair Square later in the same year. Such releases meant that Pickl was finally out of the UAE and its fresh fast food into a new audience in the region.

A year later, in 2024, Pickl opened its first location outside Australia in Doha, Qatar. It did so through a franchise partnership with Golondrina Hospitality. To continue the global expansion plan, the company also recently ventured into the Egyptian market as it opened three restaurants at the same time in the North Coast in 2024 with Sky Restaurants. International locations of this nature prove that the brand remains committed to showcasing its premium fast-food brand to an even larger customer base.

Pickl’s expansion into the international market only begins now. Characterizing the brand are ambitious plans to open 30 restaurants across Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Kuwait, over the coming years, in partnership with Sky Restaurants, reports Caterer Middle East. These expansions will bring Pickl from being a household name within the UAE to one throughout the Middle East.