Sean O’Neill, a London based journalist, writes for the Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel Magazine. In his quest to write an online story on intriguing fast food restaurants on  BudgetTravel.com – a 600,000 US paying subscribers magazine- he discovers ALBAIK. The article lists fast food outlets with pictures of their meals, outside the United States of America that are worth tasting based on their offering and popularity highlighting that the best way to soak up local culture is by sampling the fare residents grab on the go.

The article was republished on MSNBC.com  and picked up by CNN.com where it was featured in their “travel news” section.

The article described 8 locally renowned restaurants per name, specialty and price.
And so, it presents  in Brazil- Giraffas, in China- Mr. Lee, in Germany- Nordsee, in India- Kaati Zone, in Russia- Teremok, in Singapore- Toast Box and in South Africa- Steers. And among those restaurants, ALBAIK was mentioned from the Arabic world representing Saudi Arabia. To Sean O’neil, fast food outside the USA is different  because “the quality of the food you'll find passing as "fast" is all the better for it”.

And so, “The four-piece chicken meal (mild or spicy) with garlic sauce, French fries, and bread (12 riyal, or about $3.25)” is designated ALBAIK’s signature dish.  He went on adding: “The enterprise has 47 permanent locations, which might sound like small potatoes, but when you consider how sparsely populated the Kingdom is, that's a huge accomplishment. The chain is so popular that the company operates a pop-up restaurant once a year in Mina (Makkah), which caters to hundreds of thousands of prayerful Muslims a day while they attend Hajj, a five-day religious pilgrimage.”


In his eyes, ALBAIK “quickly became one of the most beloved fast-food chains in the Middle East” with “the business-class travelers on Emirates and Qatar Airways totting containers of ALBAIK along with their duty-free shopping “. The articled created the buzz through social media with more than 5000 Facebook members recommending to read it. As for ALBAIK, its twitter fans did not hesitate to massively spread the link.

The article can be found at:
http://www.budgettravel.com/feature/8-foreign-fast-food-chains-you-need-to-know,7674/?src=artrc