In my youth a dirty doner kebab was part of a night out and it is fair to say the quality of said kebabs was generally on the low side. The elephant’s foot food on display in some places back then was probably more toxic than the one in Chernobyl.

Back in my student days, living in a hovel off City Road with 3 other inveterate slobs, certain places that we would not entertain sober would miraculous become magnetically attractive after 10 pints (with our collective spidey senses of self preservation firmly switched off at that stage of those evenings). The addition of hot as hell chilli sauce was mandatory being, no doubt, a subconscious effort to nullify any other tastes and nuke any possible nasties lurking within.

I recall one evening falling asleep in a chair in the lounge with a particularly dirty doner kebab in hand and being woken up the next morning (having not moved) to be told I had developed a white moustache of solidified donar kebab fat! I often wondered, at the time, why my success rate at Uni dating wise was not higher, but in hindsight ….🤷

These days the kebab game in Cardiff is infinitely superior to that of my misspent Uni. days  and there are numerous places I would happily frequent for food without the need for nay a drop (let alone mindnumbing quantities) of booze in my system or chilli sauce in play.

This has, I think, to do with overall quality increasing (I know I moan about the oft nonsensical dictats of the H&E stormtroopers but, whilst thing have perhaps gone too far the other way, in my youth there were numerous dubious food related practices that have thankfully been mostly consigned to the BSE bin of history) and also the regionality of the meat on a stick offering has expanded.

What looked like one such place, according to the ever reliable Gourmet Gorro, was Shiraz Grill on Whitchurch Road (the Shiraz denoting the city in Iran rather than the Southern Hemisphere grape).

Inside it is pretty basic, clearly geared up predominantly for takeaway, with just 3 tables (oddly wrapped in seemingly clingfilm)

with (I would posit) only a small amount of lunchtime trade (judging by what was on the counter).

I think they were a bit surprised I wanted to eat in.

The quite simple meat on a stick, plus carbs (bread and/or rice), main  menu seemed an ideal diversion from work on a Friday lunchtime.

I was a bit undecided on what to kick thing off with but decided to go for starter in the form of panir sabzi (not had it before, but it sounded like a rather delightful mix of feta, herbs and nuts).

What arrived certainly fitted the description

but I must admit that I was expecting a bit more integration of said ingredients. This also came with a flat bread (bit dry, rather than freshly baked).

The respective parts were nice, with fresh herbs (didn’t get any of the advertised tarragon or basil, but did get lots of mint and parsley), crisp radishes, onion, cucumber and juicy tomato slices, as well as a huge hunk of good feta and plenty of  walnuts. The problem for me was a lack of lubrication in the mix. 

A good glug of olive oil or better still an olive oil based dressing with say pomegranate in the mix would have done wonder for this dish. Perhaps this is exactly how it should be (a cursory look on the internet would suggest so) and if so I choose poorly for my tastes. In hindsight, I wish I had been a bit more pedestrian and just gone for the hummus.

For the size, however,  it was well priced at £4 and if you shared it with something with more lubrication (i.e. hummus) I suspect it would work better.

As a follow up, I ordered the momtaz (£13) . This was a mix of chicken and lamb mince kebabs.

Perhaps in these shrinkflationary times my expectations are low in terms of portion sizes, but I was rather shocked at the ginormous size of what arrived.

Hidden under the mountain of rice was a whopping chicken kebab (easily a whole large breast and some) and a good foot long (and some) minced lamb shoulder kebab.

In advance of this lunch I had planned a light dinner (to take into account eating a decent lunch) of left over Thai green curry I had made the night before. This plan was immediately reevaluated to eating zero in the night based on the need to make a dent in the food here.

You may think perhaps the dish was quite shallow, but you would be wrong in that thought

as the wide and long dish also had some depth to it.

The meats had a acceptable char to them, which brought smokiness,

with a nice mild spicing to the juicy chicken (saffron or turmeric by the colour, with a touch of zingy citrus) and juicy, well flavoured, chunks.

The minced lamb shoulder one (kubideh) was even better, with the better char of the two to the exterior bringing a rich smokey  flavour from the grill and more flavour in play from the fattiness of the shoulder meat. It had a nice bit of gentle spice, based on the addition of sumac I would say.

The copious quantity of rice had absorbed the juices from the chicken and lamb, which gave it all a good flavour.

Oddly, a pat of wrapped butter was plonked on top

just to add to the richness. I, course, unwrapped it and mixed it into the rice.

Chargrilled tomatoes x 2 offered more pleasing smokiness

and added a welcome bit of refreshing acidity to the proceedings.

I ate all the meat, but the rice defeated me.

In reality, it is a two person dish even when taking into account my general gluttony.

Drinks wise, they just had soft stuff, with pop and a few Persian drinks

as well as milkshakes.

My eye was caught by the zamzam (an Iranian brand of soft drink – £2).

I randomly pick one which was orange, but I think other flavours included a pomegranate one were in there

The orange one tasted pretty much like fanta orange and I slightly regretted not picking the pomegranate one.

The verdict

This was certainly a big step up from the dodgy kebabs of my youth, with good flavours and bountiful portion size at a very good price point (especially of you share, which I think would be wise).

I paid £19 and what I had could easily have fed two people. As such, I would say it’s pretty good value.

Bring a big appetite or a friend or two (actually both) is my advice.

The details

Address:  200 Whitchurch Road, Cardiff, CF14 3NB

Website: https://shiraz-grill.co.uk/