This made-in-Miami Persian restaurant opened four new spots in five months

In 2006, when his mother Zohreh Edhebiimi started cooking Persian dishes in her kitchen to support the Ershad Center Mosque in South Miami, Miami-born entrepreneur Amin Ebrahimi took note of the enthusiastic response.

The halal meals she made were popular. Incredibly popular. So in 2018, Ebrahimi, along with Iranian-born chef Mohammad Ali Asgari, teamed up to open the first Shahs of Kabob restaurant in an unassuming South Miami strip mall.

The brand went on to open a location at Shoma Bazaar food hall in Doral in 2022. And now, in a mad flurry of openings, the brand has opened four new restaurants in 2024, stretching from a warehouse in Kendall to the newest spot just east of the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale. There are also new locations in Wynwood and Coral Gables.

Opening four restaurants over the course of five months may seem ambitious, but Ebrahimi, who attended Coral Gables High and Florida International University, knew early on that Shahs of Kabob was destined to expand. The South Miami restaurant, which received little media attention (though the Miami Herald reviewed it in 2019), had one of the best problems a mom-and-pop restaurant can have: Though it was only 600 square feet, the space was constantly packed.

“We had too many customers for that space,” he says.

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The second opening in 2022 at Shoma Bazaar, Ebrahami hoped, would ease the South Miami traffic — but it didn’t.

“When it opened in Doral, we got all this publicity, so the business doubled,” he says. “Both locations were insane! South Miami kept being overcrowded. We had to open another one to take down the traffic.”

Next stop: Coral Gables, where Ebrahimi lives, then onward to Wynwood, which “evened out” the crowds a bit, he says, laughing.

All of the restaurants serve more or less the same affordable, fast-casual menu, featuring grilled kabobs — filet mignon, chicken, lamb and ground beef, shrimp — as well as salads, stews and wraps and a sumac sauce that is positively addictive. The restaurants also offer catering services and employ a large number of Ebrahimi’s family members, adding to the friendly atmosphere.

But each restaurant is a little bit different, tailored to its neighborhood. While the original South Miami spot is what Ebrahimi calls “a hole in the wall,” the Coral Gables restaurant is slightly more upscale. At the Doral location, customers can order their Persian platters and head over to the beer garden for a brew or to the bar for a cocktail.

In Wynwood, which has outdoor seating because it’s Wynwood, Shahs has partnered with Sweet Manifesto to make desserts, including a baklava cheesecake (a slice “is the size of your head,” Ebrahimi says). You can also order beer and wine at the Wynwood restaurant as well as a hookah set up.

The Kendall location in a warehouse district, where Ebrahimi’s mother cooks, is more of a ghost kitchen for making bread, but you can order from the Shahs of Kabob menu there, too. Get takeout or grab one of the five or six seats for a quick, laidback lunch.

In the coming year, the brand plans to open restaurants near Florida International University and Aventura as well as Davie and Pembroke Pines in Broward and Boca Raton in Palm Beach.

But the most important thing, Ebrahimi says, is keeping the food affordable at a time when restaurant prices are soaring. Kabob platters, which come with rice or salad (or a mix of both), run between $17 and $32 (filet mignon is more expensive than chicken or shrimp).

“We won’t jeopardize our quality, but we’ll sell as cheaply as we can,” he says. “Everything we do is geared around community.”

Shahs of Kabob

South Miami: 5975 Sunset Drive

Shoma Bazaar in Doral: 9420 NW 41st St.

Kendall: 12451 SW 124th St., Miami

Coral Gables: 2624 Ponce de Leon Blvd.

Wynwood: 195 NW 36th St., Miami

Fort Lauderdale: 2703 East Commercial Blvd.

For more information on any location: www.shahsofkabob.com

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