On Monday, my friend Breanna took me out for a belated birthday lunch because she wasn’t able to attend my actual birthday celebrations (#lindorkfest)!
Whenever we make lunch plans, I always ask if she has anywhere in mind, and she always says she trusts me. (Thanks Breanna!)
As I’ve been itching to try some more culturally diverse restaurants in the city, for our lunch I chose one that I drive by often: Afghan Chopan Kebab on 10756 101 Street. Their website says they are the first Afghani restaurant in our city, serving up the healthiest, freshest and most authentic Afghani cuisine.
Afghan Chopan Kebab has a really nice interior. It’s pretty spacious and tidy, with slick floors. There’s a TV screen in the back that plays Afghanistan TV shows which makes for a nice authentic addition to the room.
We were the only ones in for lunch, so it was quiet (except for the Afghanistan TV show), and we had the full attention of Mohammed, the owner! He’s a very friendly man, who immediately recommended we share the Kebab Platter. He said because it was Eid, if we ordered the platter, he would throw in a large Qabeli Pallaw for free.
The Kebab Platter is $39.95 and includes a mixed variety of big skewers of chicken, beef and seekh kebabs, two chapel kebab patties, three pieces of chicken legs marinated with herbs and special spices served with challaw. There’s also fries on top. The Qabeli Pallaw is basically just seasoned basmati rice topped with carrots and raisins and normally costs $19.95 for the large size.
I wish we had taken a photo where we had something to compare the platter with, just to really show it to scale, because this platter was gigantic and this photo doesn’t do it justice. Breanna and kept eating and eating but felt like we weren’t making a dent in the platter at all! They are very generous with their portion sizes here.
The food was very good! I don’t have any experience with Afghanistan food so I really have nothing to compare to in that sense (and probably french fries aren’t all that Afghanistan-y lol, so maybe at least in that respect it’s not totally authentic) but I think in general, the “Afghan” part of the food has to do with the spices and seasoning and everything we ate (minus fries lol) was packed full of unique flavour.
Mohammed says the restaurant has been open just over a year, so I wish them lots of luck! It’s always a bit worrying to see restaurants empty during the lunch hour but he also told us that all of their tables were fully reserved for that evening’s Eid celebrations. Hooray!
Mohammed also offered us some tea on the house too, which was a perfect complement to the meal.
Some perks to Afghan Chopan Kebab: Free parking, friendly server is also the owner (family restaurant), great value for your dollar (i.e. huge portions!) and tasty food with great seasoning and spices. They also have a lunch buffet typically, but that day they didn’t because of Eid.
Plus, it’s the only place of its kind in town!
The only downside I would say, and this is really just because we ordered the gigantic platter, is that because it was so large, our food did get cold pretty quick because it was taking us so long to eat.
If you’re looking to be a bit more diverse in your restaurant outings in Edmonton, you must give Afghan Chopan Kebab a try!
Hopefully this is the first in a series of reviews on different restaurants in Edmonton :)
So have you been to Afghan Chopan Kebab? How did you like it?!
Linda
3 Comments
Is that french fries with the kabob?? Oh its bad food there, tried 3 times to be sure. Try Sabzy, it Persian their food n language is close. For best Afgani Nan Shaheen has no equal in Edmonton.
Following Linda’s review, a few of us went to the Afghan Chopan Kebab recently for Sunday dinner. We had an experience similar to Linda – fast and polite servers, and generous and tasty food. Three of us shared a Kabab Platter and could not finish it. We plan on returning.
We ordered Kebab Plater and the Badenjan Challaw ( a delicious eggplant stew cooked with tomato onions and spices top with yogurt and mint and the Afghan bread. It was a reasonable price. We even got a complimentary dish from Afghan Chopan restaurant. My family enjoyed all the menu. We hope to order again. Thank you so much. Regards