Kandahar Kabab — Restaurant in Pickering

Do not waste your time and money by going here.

On Mother’s Day, we went to this restaurant to celebrate. We have gone here many times before, but today was the first time we were treated with such behaviour.

My wife, who we were celebrating Mother’s Day for, ordered a Boldac kabab. First inconvenience: we asked for Kabli rice, and they were out of stock. How can you be out of stock of carrots and raisins, on top of that, on a busy holiday? Should a restaurant not be prepared? Nonetheless, we didn’t complain, just accepted it. With the rest of our food, they said it would take 15-20 minutes. It took 40 minutes for them to call our order. We didn’t complain, after all, food can take time, especially on such a busy day. But when we went up to retrieve our food (dine-in), we were told they did not have the lamb chops for the Kabli rice. This is where the situation quickly devolved: my daughters, who had paid for the meal as their Mother’s Day gift, wanted a refund to their credit card, cancelling the entire order. They refused, only offering cash. It was incomprehensible, with my daughters unable to get straight answers or anything of the sort. In the end, the answer to the lack of refund to the original payment method was: “we don’t know how to do that”. My daughter rightfully told them, “You know how to take people’s money, but not return it when you fail to deliver the service?”

The two biggest things to note: one of the workers told my daughters about how busy they were, how they no longer had the lamp chops, and my daughter told her, “When you took our order and took our money, you are supposed to reserve those lamb chops for us. Instead, you gave it away, and then tell us 40 minutes later that you don’t have them. That’s not okay.” My daughter was right. That’s not okay. Secondly, throughout all of this, a randomly lady chose to intervene. I understand people can think they are doing the “right thing” but she had no idea what the whole story was, and was telling my daughters to just take the cash and go, when they were in the middle of asking questions, which they are absolutely allowed to do. Money is not easy to earn, especially not in this economy. It’s insulting to mismanage someone’s money. On top of all of this, my poor wife just wanted a relaxing Mother’s Day.

We are no heathens, either. Since they just could not do the credit card refund, my daughters took the cash, and even told the current cashier: “I know this is not your fault, I am sorry we had to get upset at you. I hope you have a good day, this is not your fault.” We are not unreasonable people. We only direct our frustration to those who have earned it.

Lastly, we took the cash and went over to Bamiyan Kabob, which is right near this Kandahar Kabab. They served us in 15 minutes. Something to note was their service: fast service with all their orders, accommodating, and most importantly, they were ready for Mother’s Day. They had all their trays lined up, ready for orders. They didn’t give any paying customer’s food away to someone else. And, they had Kabli rice! Suffice to say, my wife...

I love the flavours of all the Afghan food I've had in the past so I was looking forward to the opening of Kandahar Kabab in Pickering, close to home.

They have a fairly big menu to choose from, including chicken, beef, veal, lamb, fish, and vegetarian dishes. I decided on the Chaplie Kabab, which was two ground beef patties, rice, salad, and naan. At only $12.50, it was a great deal for the generous portion size. It was spicier than I had anticipated but the flavour was good. This was a good meal.

Unfortunately, the rest of my experience at Kandahar Kabab left a lot to be desired.

Upon walking in, one of the first things I noticed was trays and litter on a lot of the tables. They hadn't been cleared. I later saw a young girl clearing and sanitizing tables while frequently checking her phone.

Their order/pickup counter is located across the back of the restaurant, with the menu displayed on a cluster of six TVs. It looked attractive until I tried to read it. The fonts were so small, I was squinting. To make things worse, the screens kept changing content. The people behind me had the same problem. Luckily, I spotted a page taped to the counter which had a QR Code that I scanned to access the menu on my phone.

I placed and paid for my order and joined the other people waiting around at the counter. Apparently, some of them were getting frustrated with the wait time. It was easy to see in their expressions. The wait turned out to be 25 minutes for me. Yes, they were busy, but they also didn't seem to know what they were doing. Some of the staff seemed to be standing around waiting for instructions.

The noise level was fairly high, with a lot of echoes, due mainly to the hard wall and ceiling surfaces. This could easily be fixed with sound absorbing panels. The counter staff shouting out pickup numbers didn't help.

I finally got my food and found a clean table near the entrance. While eating, I noticed a man and woman kinda wandering around the restaurant, occasionally puttering around with taping up signs and then sitting and eating. I assume they were managers. She was nicely dressed while he was very casual in sweatpants, running shoes, and baseball cap. Neither was wearing a mask.

Am I being too harsh? Were these issues the result of new inexperienced staff? Maybe some of it, but with the experience of their other locations, they could/should have been better prepared. I liked the food and I'll be back at a later date. Hopefully, they will have corrected most of...

DESERVES ZERO STARS! THEY'RE SERVING INEDIBLE FOOD

This restaurant is horrible. I bought three orders of the Sultani Kababs from them today and when I brought the food home and had a taste I instantly felt sick to my stomach. The food was disgusting. It tasted cold and stale and there was no seasoning or salt at all. I've never experienced this at this restaurant or any other Afghan restaurants. I don't know if they changed their cook or what is going on but

I was given such a hard time and the manager Zahra is extremely unprofessional and has terrible communication skills. Shortly after trying the inedible food, I called Kandahar Kabab's Pickering location and made a complaint and asked to speak with the manager. She finally contacted me TWO HOURS later and told me I could either get my order remade or get a full refund as long as I brought back all three dishes I had ordered along with the receipt. Mind you, I drove all the way from Oshawa to Pickering once again to bring back the food. When I came back to the store to give the girl working behind the cash register

The manager was not even there at the store. The employee took her time to take pictures of the food and send them to the manager I had spoken to earlier. She finally spoke to the manager on the phone and later told me that I cannot get my refund since they believe that the food seemed touched and eaten. But like I had explained earlier to the manager, how can the food be untouched? The food must be partially eaten in order to realize something was wrong and food was clearly inedible and so I threw it away.

So after all that calling, driving back and forth, and then complaining at the store, they refused to grant my refund and not only wasted my precious time and gas, but also made me upset and completely ruined my day. If they weren't going to give me refund why did they insist on telling me to come back into the store. Who will take responsibility for this store's...