There are so many Iranian restaurants and Chelokababi’s in S. California that you can eat at a different one for lunch and dinner for a month before you have repeat eating at one. I am sort of mixing chelokababi and restaurants for the sake of simplicity and will use these names interchangeably.
Although there are many restaurants, there are only a few which offer good food and good service.
If you ask most Iranian women where they want to eat chelokabab they tell you Darya in Orange County. There are mainly 2 reasons for this; first the decor and atmosphere and second its proximity to South Coast Plaza shopping center with Bloomingdales and Saks and Nordstroms. Plus most women think if you pay a lot for food at a restaurant, the food is good.
Men are different; if you ask 10 different men about their opinion on chelokababis, you’ll probably hear at least 5 or 6 different names. Most connoisseurs of chelokabob however will vote for Rafi’s Place in Glendale, if not for everything, for their kabab barg for sure. Raf’s salad olivieh and loobia are also excellent.
The atmosphere is definitely not female friendly, but its great for informal family gatherings and gatherings of single/divorced men. But the food definitely rates an A or A-.
For koobideh, Javan restaurant in West LA, Shamshiri in West Wood and Caspian in Irvine are tied for the first place. Its tough to select one between these 3.
For khoreshts like ghormeh sabzi and fesenjoon and gheymeh there is a tie situation again; I think Shiraz in the Valley and Caspian, Darya and Bahar in Irvine have the same quality and all taste good.
Overall though, service is always good at most established places. The best fast food kabab I have had was at Cafe Bravo in Glendale. If you are out in N. Glendale, have a couple skewers of koobideh there. You won’t go wrong.
If I were you, I’d stay away from ALL chelokababi’s in San Diego and San Francisco; these places generally (not always) offer mediocre food with poor service. I am already bracing myself for hate mail regarding this statement but what the hell; you gotta tell it like it is.
This is my list. Share yours with me and the rest of the readers.
