Shafi Tandoori Grill & Bakery

My husband and I visit this place to eat uncle’s Nihari and Chicken Karai. Recently they started offering East African menu and it’s really delicious. This place is very authentic and all I can say is the food and the service is great. In addition, there is a Paan guy who makes the best Paan. Nothing compares to having a Paan after a delicious meal. So yes yes highly recommend this place:))

This place is no frills – the décor is simple, and the furnishings quite basic like a cafeteria. But, behind the kitchen doors is a great surprise where authentic East African Indian good is made with tremendous care. The food is authentic. And unlike chain Indian restaurants in Edmonton, each dish has a unique flavour. Authentic saag. Caring service. Chapali is a spicy surprise. Munch on plantain chips. Have tender tandoori chicken. The chili fish was very savoury. The food takes a while yo come out. But expect to have your patience rewarded with fresh ingredients in this mom and pop restaurant. Order off the menu. Don’t do a buffet.

The way I see it. You come here if there is absolutely NO option left in Edmonton. The food is stale, there is a severe lack of options, there buffet is so tiny it shouldn’t even be CALLED a buffet. I have given it a few chances and it astounds me how he keeps the place running, he has extremely few customers, the place is almost always empty. Go to Shan E Punjab, or New Asian Village or Dawaat or the many other better options in town. Shafi Bakery is a disgrace.

This was certainly an unexpected find. During a conversation with an Indian couple about the difficulty of finding restaurants from our home country that satisfies (I’ve never really found a Filipino restaurant to match my dad’s cooking) they mentioned this was one of the very few places in town that reminded them of a «home cooked meal.»
You have to drive past the the imposing New Asian Village and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sign off the side of a small complex, to find Shafi. It’s a small place, and like some of its bigger and more commercial cousins, offers a buffet. But, the Indian couple quickly dis missed it in favour of ordering ala carte, which is what my husband I ended up doing.
We were also warned of wait times (as it was truly home cooked), so we quickly ordered vegetable samosas to start off with while we pondered what to order for dinner.
I’m not an Indian cuisine connoisseur, but I can easily say they were the best samosas I’ve ever had. The chutney sauce with the chickpeas were paired very well with the pastry and veggie filling. I’m glad we ordered enough for two.
For dinner, we ended up ordering lamb chops (for me) and tandoori chicken half (for him) and we were asked if we would like to have it as spicy as they normally had it or milder. Of couse, we said as they normally have it!
In short: the meal was very satisfying and it did feel like we were eating at someone’s home. Very tasty, though I wish the lamb chops were a bit more substantial, as they were thin. But, the sweet and spicy sauce it was grilled with made sense. My husband attacked his tandoori chicken with relish. No complaints from him, either.
It’s a small space, and the service by the only (?) person in the place was quite affable and jokey. You may also end up being the only couple besides another, so don’t go for the ambiance. I will go again to try more from their ala carte menu. Just remember to avoid the buffet.