Shahrzad Restaurant — Restaurant in California

I rarely write reviews, and almost never for restaurants but this was one of the worst dining experiences of my life.

First the good: Atmosphere is 10/10, really nice ambience, that my wife and I talked about when we first arrived.

Food: Persian food is my favorite type of cuisine, I typically get Koobideh with salad and my wife always orders lamb shank. We have tried koobideh and lamb shank at Persian restaurants all over the state of California. The koobideh was good, the salad was very fresh and the dressing was amazing. My wife’s lamb shank was literally 90% bone - I was shocked the waiter even brought it out, looked absolutely nothing like the pictures of other reviewers and I even asked our waiter why it was so small - he said because they come in a package and some are smaller than others. Ok - but there should be standard for what you serve guests, this should have been a free shift meal for a staff, not something a guest paid $30 for. My wife is a small lady, and she always orders lamb shank when we go to an Iranian restaurant and can never finish it - this is the first time I’ve heard her say “I’m still hungry”.

Service: We arrived at the restaurant on a Saturday at 4:20 and ordered at 4:25. I have time stamps because we took pictures of our daughter when we sat down. After our first waiter took our order he must have left for the day. At 5:05 I finally informed another waiter that we had been waiting for over 40 minutes and if he could update us on our order. During our 40 minute wait the restaurant was empty and there were about 6-7 staff hanging around - not a single person came to check on us or refill our water. Meanwhile my toddler was going nuts from hunger and boredom. The main reason we went here was because it was the closest restaurant when we decided to stop and eat on our trip.

Other families showed up at 5pm, 5:10pm and started filling the other tables for dinner - they all got their food before us.

It’s one thing to wait almost an hour for your meal, have multiple servers walk by your table and ignore you, and another for a total rip off with an almost non-existent lamb shank. I was really disappointed because the ambience was so impressive I would have liked to come back again next time Im in the area - instead this will be regarded as one of the worst dining experiences of my life.

In another poor review a guest suggested that if you’re not Iranian you may receive different treatment. The waiter asked about our background and he was informed my wife is Iraqi. 🤔

Response to owner response: I appreciate your AI generated message but you seemed to have miss some things. You wrote “We would have been more than happy to replace the lamb shank with a satisfactory one free of charge, but we understand your decision.” - what decision? I pointed it out to the waiter and he basically said “too bad” and shrugged his shoulders. There was no offer to replace it. Also, my 2 year old was literally begging for food and I had to keep telling her we already ordered and it would be here soon. You know how shitty that makes a father feel? So there was no “decision”, we were forced to accept it so my kid could eat.

You wrote “It is important to note that Persian cuisine, known for its meticulous preparation and cooking techniques, may take slightly longer to be served compared to fast food establishments.” - you think I don’t know the difference between your restaurant and Taco Bell? I’ve eaten at many Persian restaurants between Sacramento and LA, hundreds of times over the past few years - I know how long it takes to make koobideh. You guys simply forgot or chose to ignore us in a empty restaurant. We ordered at 4:25, and tables that showed up at 5:00pm got their food before us. We would have walked out if I wasn’t with my daughter but my only concern was getting her fed as soon...

Update: 2025 Visiting shahrzad for the second time (after 3 years), I had totally forgotten that I had already reviewed this place and I came to the same conclusion. The atmosphere, service (people and environment) are perfect. The kabob was amazing. But I wasn’t impressed about Tahdig and rice one bit. The Tahdig wasn’t crunchy and crisp.

We ordered shahrzad dinner for 2 and I loved that they brought salad right away and it was really good. The kabobs were all juicy and delicious (barg, koobideh and tigh jooj) ————- Visit 1: 2022 Kebabs: 5 / 5 Rice: 2 / 5 People(Service): 5 / 5 Atmosphere: 5 / 5 Music: 4 / 5 Value: 3.5 / 5 Dessert: 3 / 5 Appetizers: 5 / 5 Overall: 4.1 / 5

We had a great time at this restaurant, we ordered 2 combination appetizer platters, 4 lamb Soltaanis, 1 koobide, and 1 beef shish kebab and few more main dishes that I don't remember. The Entrees in general were relatively good, the kebab itself which is the main part of the Entree was juicy, tender and delicious, but the rice that came with it was very bad (to be fair, most restaurants get the Persian rice wrong, so in comparison theirs wasn't the worse). The beef shish kebab particularly was awesome, but too bad it was only 1 skewer. It was too little and I wish there was a 2 skewer option for it.

The atmosphere, the service, people were great and especially the wall paintings and art were the highlights of the restaurant and made everything come together. The music though was a mixed baggage of very good and very bad ones (this is subjective so don't read into it that much). Given the portion and the quality of rice and the average quality of the desserts, They were relatively overpriced, not too much but just a little pricier than it deserves. Overall an average value for your time and money. Overall a 4.1 / 5 for me.

Conclusion / Suggestion: If they either reduce their price by around 5 to 10% and/or improve the quality of their rice (and better if also the dessert), then they deserve 5 / 5 flat,...

I was disappointed by the racisit behaviors of waiters on January 2nd night at Shahzad restaurant. I called around 12:00 noon and reserved a table for 14 people whom were my gusts and my family for new year holiday. When I showed up, 1st my table was not ready and they start putting chairs while I was there and the restaurant was not that busy. There was so many empty tables. When my guest all got together I asked the waiter that we are ready to gave our orders, instead of coming to get our orders he started a phone call. After 10 minutes for the second time I went and asked the waiter that all guest are ready for their orders, he again ignored us and continued with the phone calls. After 15 minutes I went for the third time to the waiter and asked him to come and get our orders. He started bahaving so rude and unprofessional with accusing me for shouting while I never shout and he started aguing with me in front of my guest. The camera of the restaurant is a proof of my claim. I suggest the owner to check it. When I was paying my bill the waiter brother, who was also a waiter instead of apologizing for inconvenience started arguing again and blaming me. In his conversation he told me , I know you are from Afghanistan, so this is how we are runing our business here with you people. I am a US citizen but because I am originally from Afghanistan I was shocked hearing that from the waiter. I spent my money and was trying to have a good dinner with my family and friends but the way the waiter racially behaved with me ruined my time. I recommend the business owner talk to the two waitres and If the waiters don’t like to serve Afghans or other community people, may be that is not the right job for them. Restaurant is a place where people from different backgrounds come to have good quality time...