Pickl

Pickl opened in April 2019 in the One JLT building in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, founded by Steve Flawith and Nabil Al Rantisi. The idea was an American-style burger joint with a short menu: smashed cheeseburgers, fried chicken sandwiches and plant-based Impossible burgers. It caught on immediately, Esquire Middle East calling it one of the city’s top burger joints, and expanded quickly across Dubai.

In 2021 it was picked for the Time Out Market in Dubai as one of the city’s best homegrown brands, and ran a year-long pop-up called An/Other built around “100 years of burgers”, recreating a historic burger every three months, including takes on the Big Mac and In-N-Out’s Double-Double. It then spread across the Emirates and, from 2023, abroad through franchise partners in Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Oman.

The burgers are double patties of grain-fed chuck, smashed thin on the griddle, with cheese on a soft potato bun. The sauces, spice blends and the pickles the chain is named after are made fresh every day, and you can add dill, onion or chilli pickles to anything. “Jeff it up” means adding the house “feel the heat” spice blend, and the chicken comes in heat levels from plain up to Nashville and “the reaper”. As usual in the Gulf, the bacon is beef bacon.

About fifteen restaurants across the UAE, plus franchises in Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Oman.

• Burgerizzr (Saudi Arabia, since 2009). The Riyadh burger chain that grew to 120 branches on chilled, never-frozen beef. Also built on beef, crispy onions, cooked onions and cheese.
• RocoMamas (South Africa). South Africa’s loud smashburger chain, with ribs, wings and a build-your-own menu. Also built on beef, cooked onions, cheese and a double stack.
• Herfy (Saudi Arabia, since 1981). Saudi Arabia’s home-grown burger chain since 1981, with its own bakeries and meat plant. Also built on beef, cheese and a double stack.
• Agadir (Israel, since 1997). An Israeli burger-bar chain grinding its beef fresh in every branch since 1997, open late into the night. Also built on beef, crispy onions and cheese.